Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today after a hiatus. Fortunately, we have now returned to the place of the almighty truth.
The sermon today shall dwell on racism, rationalisations and resentments and uses Her Majesty’s Government’s duplicity as examples in the field of legality and a resolute steadfastness to undermine the delivery of justice. Our points of reference shall be:-
The Mau Mau case ( i.e. the Compensation claims for torture, rape, wrongful detention and forced labour brought by 40,000 Kenyans who alleged that they were mistreated by British officials).
The Diego Garcia disgraceful conduct ( i.e. the depopulation of the Chagossians from the Chagos Islands to ensure that Her Majesty’s Government received Polaris missiles).
The Matrix Churchill case ( i.e. The Arms-to-Iraq affair concerning the uncovering of the government-endorsed sale of arms by British companies to Iraq after having declared war on that country).
The Skripal incident ( i.e. Prime Minister Theresa May’s support for the bombing of Syria based on the claim that Russia was behind the poisoning of Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter).
The attempted denial of persons of Caribbean heritage to their British pension rights.
Merely five(5) points of reference to illustrate not merely the historical – but also – the contemporary consistency in corrupt practices emanating from the highest levels of government and the judiciary in Britain.
Mau Mau
So HMG finds Her benighted self in Kenya, robbing and looting as is her wont. In this instant of colonial exploitation, the Kenyans are exiled from the highlands which was their homeland for centuries, having coincidentally, the most arable lands in Kenya. The White settlers take control. Not surprisingly, the indigenous people are resentful and rebel. Britain sets up concentration camps and tortures the Kenyans in response ( inclusive of President Barak Obama’s grandfather). Prior to this act of colonial affirmation, it had been Britain in South Africa that for the first time in history had used internment camps for the purpose of complete depopulation. As a further historical fact, the Nazis did give credit to the British as the source from which, years later, they got the idea for concentration camps. It was not just the name, but also the principles and practices which the Nazis copied from the British. Years later, the Kenyan victims filed a class action claiming damages as compensation in the British courts. HMG then hid achieves which would have assisted in providing evidence to prove the case. A Harvard history researcher found the papers and then made the information public. HMG relented ( not necessarily repenting) and the case was settled.
Diego Garcia
HMG wanted from the US Polaris missiles. The US wanted to establish a geopolitically strategic location in the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean. The UK then effected a trade-off deal to obtain a discount on the purchase of Polaris missiles. The US was willing to do the deal if they could get the Chagos islands without inhabitants on them. The only practical problem was that the islands had on them long established inhabitants. The UK solved the “problem” by forcibly evacuating all the islanders and dumping them on the Seychelles and Mauritius mainlands to be forgotten forever, while leasing the largest of the islands, Diego Garcia to the US. The US got its bases; the UK got its missiles; the Chagossians got nothing but expulsion and exile. They sued.
Matrix Churchill case
An MI6 front company with UK government’s approval sold arms to Iraq at a time after the UK had declared war against Iraq. In other words the UK government was knowingly sending her sons and daughters to war and at the same time was selling the armaments to the enemy which would be used to kill UK soldiers. The Government under the strangest of strange circumstances prosecuted the company “Matrix Churchill” only to find at a later stage when the evidence led back to MI6 that the Government under then Prime Minister Tony Blair intervened and stopped the case based on reasons of the continuation of the prosecution not being in the “national interest”. A more sordid piece of corruption at the governmental level could not be dreamt up in the greatest of fictional novels. Truth, however, at times, is stranger than fiction.
The Skipral poisoning case
A Russian spy, Sergei Skipral, worked as a double-agent and is discovered to be a traitor by Russia and is caught and sentenced to thirteen years in prison. The UK for which he worked traded him and he is released for Russian spies in the UK and then lives in the UK with his daughter, Yulia. There is a poisoning incident involving both Skiprals and Prime Minister Theresa May blames the incident on the Russian government and President Vladimir Putin. In consequence, she supports the bombing of Syria, without parliamentary full debate and approval, nor verification by the international body designated to verify such incidents. May claims that she is justified under international law to bomb Syria. Now lunacy meets the ludicrous for the following reasons:-
Professor Dapo Akande, a Professor of Public International Law at Oxford University, gave this opinion for the Labour Party…
” In the opinion I reach the following conclusions:-
- Contrary to the position of the government, neither the UN charter nor customary international law permits military action on the basis of the doctrine of humanitarian intervention. There is very little support by states for such an exception to the prohibition of the use of force. The UK is one of very few states that advocates for such a legal principle but the vast majority of states have explicitly rejected it.
- The legal position advanced by the government ignores the structure of the international law rules relating to the use of force, in particular, because a customary international law rule does not prevail over the rule in the United Nations charter prohibiting the use of force. To accept the position advocated by the government would be to undermine the supremacy of the UN charter.
- Even if there was a doctrine of humanitarian intervention in international law, the strikes against Syria would not appear to meet the tests set out by the government. The action taken by the government was not directed at bringing “immediate and urgent relief” with regard to the specific evil it sought to prevent, and was taken before the inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons were able to reach the affected area.
- If the position taken by the government were to be accepted by states globally, it would allow for individual assessments of when force was necessary to achieve humanitarian ends, with the risk of abuse. It is because of the humanitarian suffering that will ensue from such abusive uses of force, that other states and many scholars have been reluctant to endorse the doctrine of humanitarian action.”
Stated at its simplest, the height of lunacy, duplicity, deception and corrupt practices have now been reached by Her Majesty’s Government.
The Caribbean pensions matter
The UK newspaper, the Guardian, of the 16th April, 2018 ran the story headlined, “Amber Rudd ‘sorry’ for appalling treatment of Windrush-era citizens” with the words therein:-
“The British home secretary has delivered an unprecedented apology for the “appalling” actions of her own department towards Windrush-era citizens, acknowledging that the Home Office had “lost sight of individuals” and become “too concerned with policy”.
Racism had motivated HMG to try and avoid pension payments to persons of Caribbean heritage who had migrated to Britain and now were of pensionable age and entitled to receive pensions. Solution? Simply expel them from Britain and not pay their pensions. The Guardian reported:-
“Their accounts have been further supported by the emergence of Border Force guidance, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, that appears to contradict the government’s justification of a decision to destroy an archive of Windrush-era arrival slips.
The Border Force note appears to undermine the Home Office and Downing Street’s rejection of the documents’ significance. Giving details of how landing cards are used currently, the document stated: “Information from a landing card may be used by an entry clearance officer in making a decision on a visa application.”
Article: “Whistleblowers contradict No 10 over destroyed Windrush landing cards” of 18th April, 2018.
Thus, papers that exist to prove entitlements are being denied as existing and/or being of use when policy, existence and practice belie the position of HMG. How absolutely racist and shameful!
Postscript: Resignation followed on the 29th April, 2018 when the Home Secretary said this inn a letter to the Prime Minister, “I feel it is necessary to do so because I inadvertently misled the Home Affairs Select Committee over targets for removal of illegal immigrants,” and “I should have been aware of this, and I take full responsibility for the fact that I was not.”
So, the racism and corruption is past, present – and we can realistically expect – future.
So now, do not expect either natural justice or rational thought to see the light of day anytime soon. Much that is disseminated in the mainstream Western media ( MSM) is a willful avoidance and ignoring of some of the greatest violence and injustices existing before our eyes in the world ( if we care to open them). News as propaganda and distortions then become the order of the day, be this via the BBC or CNN, Fox news – pick your deceptor as you will. Yet, when thinking and questioning minds are left to find meaning for themselves, beyond the news as so reported – the truth might just emerge. Sometimes, truth does actually see the light in MSM, but not necessarily so as a general rule.
The sermon today merely wishes to conclude that a state otherwise known as Perfidious Albion, demonstrably has little principle and is just about as opportunistic and corrupt in its governmental practices and judicial processes as many others on planet earth. The question then is not whether Britain is or is not fundamentally corrupt – but – the degree to which such corruption exists.
My people – forgive them – for they deny what they do.
There I end my sermon for today having spoken this truth to the corrupt powers that be.
AMEN!
Courtenay Barnett is a graduate of London University. His areas of study were economics, political science and international law. He has been a practising lawyer for over thirty years, has been arrested for defending his views, and has argued public interest and human rights cases. He lives and works in the Caribbean.
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