Monday 7 June 2010

This Surely Can’t Come As A Surprise..

…from the government who considered 9/11 a ‘good day to bury bad news’, can it?

In the paper, Sir John Gieve, the Home Office permanent secretary, said that upsetting Muslims would be a "potential cost" of ministers agreeing to demands for a full inquiry.

After receiving Sir John's paper, Mr Clarke decided not to order a public inquiry – a decision which infuriated many survivors and relatives of those killed.

Personally, I’ve never been in favour of a public inquiry; they rarely are of any use (the period for sanctions on the chief culprits usually long since passed) and they are often hideously expensive.

There are better ways of getting to the heart of matters, such as use of the FOIA, for indeed, such it was that uncovered this little nugget:

Sir John's note, written four months after the bombings but newly-released under Freedom of Information laws, outlines the determination of senior civil servants to ensure that any inquiries into the atrocity were "low key".

It warned of "potential community tension in the event that any inquiry came to be perceived as an exercise in special pleading by one community, or alternatively if it was believed that it focused negatively on the Muslim community".

So much for ‘Let justice be done, though the heavens fall’.

With the politicised civil service, it seems to always be a case of ‘Don’t mention the war Muslims!’…
Last night the Home Office declined to comment on the content of the released documents.
Clever move. Let the former masters answer for this one….

11 comments:

English Viking said...

Is it possible to see muslims in anything other than a negative light?

It's a novel ideal, but I don't think it will catch on.

Sue said...

I'm livid enough as it is. We are still giving asylum to murderers.

I think the overprotection of muslims will actually cause more resentment and do more harm than good.

It's making the rest of us feel like lepers!

AntiCitizenOne said...

JuliaM

Another rare event.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1284648/Woman-brutal-rape-story-hide-fact-crashed-boyfriends-car.html

Mark Wadsworth said...

Agreed. Not much to add, but I like the flourish about not wanting to "focus negatively on the Muslim community@

marvin said...

One can only hope that the civil service under a Lib-Con government would aim to seek and engage with the truth rather than egnage in counter-productive politically correct twaddle about "offending" "communities". FFS.

Umbongo said...

This is the same John Gieve who was slung out of the Home Office for complete incompetence in the management of its financial affairs but, perversely, was considered to have such financial abnd economic nous that he was appointed a Deputy Governor at the Bank of England. I can understand that the political class might look after its own but why should it look after Moslems? What does the political class expect in return? Or is it so contemptuous of the rest of us that opting (on our behalf) for a quiet life - albeit as part of the Umma - is preferable?

Greencoat said...

Hey, could this be the same Civil Service that recently mocked the Pope?

In reality just a nest of snivelling parasites.

blueknight said...

"I think the overprotection of muslims will actually cause more resentment and do more harm than good."

The demonstrations by the Welsh and the English Defence Leagues are living proof of this....

Laban said...

As I said a while back :

"John Gieve sounds like one of those chaps who would have trundled through less interesting times without trace. Instead he seems to have a CV covered in red ink and blots."

JuliaM said...

"I think the overprotection of muslims will actually cause more resentment and do more harm than good. "

It's really surprising that those in charge can't, isn't it? Or do they just not care?

"Another rare event."

Oh, good grif! And just as iDave made his U-turn on anonymity, too! Nice timing...

"One can only hope that the civil service under a Lib-Con government would aim to seek and engage with the truth rather than egnage in counter-productive politically correct twaddle about "offending" "communities"."

I've friends in the civil service - they tell me it carries on regardless of the government of the day!

"I can understand that the political class might look after its own but why should it look after Moslems? What does the political class expect in return?"

The chance to feel virtuous?

JuliaM said...

"Hey, could this be the same Civil Service that recently mocked the Pope?"

Indeed....

"As I said a while back..."

Good lord, he's really been unlucky, hasn't he?

Although, since we're paying him regardless, perhaps it's us who are the unlucky ones...