. . . and lies and misrepresentation and death and being discredited.
From the terrible acts of the IS forces in Iraq to the way that people are conspiring to make smoke so that others will assume there is fire - it's all part of the current trend of attack that is being aimed at Christians as I see it! Fuelled by the aftershocks that are Jimmy Savile, Stuart Hall and Rolf Harris and the desire for revenge ('they need to be made to pay' is an excellent cry until the microscope is turned on us) that puts aside justice and right behaviour and turns 'being famous' into something which legitimises what are in fact wrong acts in themselves!
In Cliff's case it appears that the complaint against him last year and yet it was, in what seems to be a media feast, only now (when the bloke is absent so that they require a warrant) that the 'raid' on his home took place. South Yorkshire and Thames Valley Police 'working with a media outlet' (which at first they denied) booked the media for the raid (not quite in keeping with the guidance that 'searches must be conducted with due consideration for the property and privacy of the occupier and with no more disturbance than necessary') and had a press statement ready and waiting. Sounds like it was better scripted than an episode of 'The Bill' (and hopefully better than South Yorkshire's previous productions: Hillsborough, the miner's strike and Oh No it's Orgreave!). That said I now see the force are complaining that the BBC 'broke its own editorial rules', something the BBC deny (well they would, wouldn't they?). The Police claim that a BBC reporter (who knew of the investigation and was going to publish regarding it effectively forced their hands and say, in a statement, that:
"The force was reluctant to co-operate but felt that to do otherwise would risk losing any potential evidence, so in the interests of the investigation it was agreed that the reporter would be notified of the date of the house search in return for delaying publication of any of the facts. . . and, contrary to media reports, the decision to involve the BBC was not taken in order to maximise publicity, but to preserve any potential evidence".
In organising the raid as they did we are surely looking at something other than justice - if I didn't know better I would have to ask whether this was more about raising smoke and defamation of character - but if that was so then how can we hope to find the rule of law and integrity maintained as the agency whose duty that is are so negligent? Add to this concern the fact that the issue in question happened some twenty-five years hence, would there really be any physical evidence to be found there? Surely any evidence that remains is in the historic whereabouts of the accused and in conversation with them (or did they expect a wall of photographs of the event to take pride of place over the fireplace?).
Stopped in the street by someone yesterday, the conversation began with, "Oooh, what do you think about Cliff then? People always said he was 'funny' and there's no smoke without fire, is there?" Talk about QED :-(
What is sure is that all, and any claims, relating to child sexual abuse need to be investigated in the right way (and this is not trial by media) and I have a feeling this is not what it should look like. If it is true that the BBC have a hand in this, or have influenced the conduct of investigations, then something needs to be done about them corrupting and influencing the due process of law.
regardless - something's not right here, is it?
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