The courts martial system, and I'm sure you know this but it's worth saying, is a disciplinary one and not a justice one per se. While there have been fairly recent changes to model the civilian system, there remain important differences. The proportion of guilty pleas is very high and defendants do not receive trial by a jury of their peers. Pleas are often, in effect, negotiated with the prosecuting authority in a way which takes the defendant's future career (or not) into account. This all serves the operational interest, since it minimises the time a serviceperson is unavailable for duty, but it does involve significant compromises against some of the things which slow down the civilian justice system.
1. My inclination is to support the presenters’ case on appeal but scarcely my field.
2. Lord Anderson, KC, is entirely right. A quick family chronology:
a. Thursday 21.11.74: the IRA Birmingham Pub bombs;
b. Thursday 7.7.2005: London tube and bus bombings;
c. Saturday 30.6.2018: the attempted bombing of the NCRI/Mojahedin-e-Khalid/People’s Mojahedin of Iran rally in Villepinte, Paris.
As to a. above Yvonne and I had been uncomfortably close to one of those three city centre explosions.
As to b. above, a bare minute or two before the detonation on the number 18 bus on Tavistock Square I had walked past there so escaping death or mutilation by a whisker.
Concerning c. above, with a number of Past Presidents and Law Society Council colleagues and with many Westminster Parliamentarians of the British Parliamentary Committee for a Free Iran (BPCFIF) I would have been in the direct firing line but for the vigilance of the security services and police forces of France, Belgium and Austria and for the timely arrest of all would- be perpetrators, who were tried,convicted and sentenced by the Supreme Court in Antwerp. A long story involving the odious Iranian regime but then that goes beyond my current remit. Once aware of what had almost befallen us, we independently and collectively renewed our pledges to pursue with yet more vigour the cause of a free, secular and egalitarian Iran, with all vestiges of misogyny banished. So much for any notion of being scared off!
Now after the Birmingham bombs I regret having to say that to some extent the IRA can be said to have attained their objective because panic, rumour AND anti- Irish sentiments spread through the city and the rumour factory worked overtime. A much more characteristic Brummy togetherness and sense of community then very much returned.
To return to b. above: I proceeded with some difficulty to my meeting in a Parliamentary annexe hosted by the highly respected then leader of the BPCFIF, my friend Robin (by then Lord Corbett of Kingstanding [now sadly lost to us]). Those many of us in attendance were there to debate and resolve how to advance the cause of the Iranian democratic opposition in exile, the National Council for Resistance in Iran (NCRI)- a supreme irony given the distressing and frightening scenes of terrorist- wrought havoc revealed on our screens and outside our building. Afterwards with a solicitor friend also from the Second City- down for an unrelated reason- we did as the authorities advised and stayed put , as it happened in the Red Lion Pub on Whitehall. We then walked to Euston and much later were safely home.
What we encountered all around us in London was an almost uncanny calm, resilience and resolution to carry on. It was moving to see.
But then - it needs to be said- we had had the unfortunate and yet so grounded John Tulloch (mutilated on an attacked tube train) needing to denounce the Sun newspaper who had “front paged” him demanding :”Tell Tony he’s right” (about his- to me- so shocking words:”The rules of the game have changed”[ which they never must do] and his drive towards forty two days detention). Via the Guardian - who had stood firm and right- Tulloch had declared:”Not in my name!”
My point: as Lord Anderson has asserted, such Blairish and Sun- propelled reactions had been amongst the terrorists’ objectives. The rule of law and due process must never become optional
extras to be flaunted in easier and less fraught times: they are what we must live by.
The courts martial system, and I'm sure you know this but it's worth saying, is a disciplinary one and not a justice one per se. While there have been fairly recent changes to model the civilian system, there remain important differences. The proportion of guilty pleas is very high and defendants do not receive trial by a jury of their peers. Pleas are often, in effect, negotiated with the prosecuting authority in a way which takes the defendant's future career (or not) into account. This all serves the operational interest, since it minimises the time a serviceperson is unavailable for duty, but it does involve significant compromises against some of the things which slow down the civilian justice system.
Thank you. I don’t think that was mentioned in the inspectors’ report.
1. My inclination is to support the presenters’ case on appeal but scarcely my field.
2. Lord Anderson, KC, is entirely right. A quick family chronology:
a. Thursday 21.11.74: the IRA Birmingham Pub bombs;
b. Thursday 7.7.2005: London tube and bus bombings;
c. Saturday 30.6.2018: the attempted bombing of the NCRI/Mojahedin-e-Khalid/People’s Mojahedin of Iran rally in Villepinte, Paris.
As to a. above Yvonne and I had been uncomfortably close to one of those three city centre explosions.
As to b. above, a bare minute or two before the detonation on the number 18 bus on Tavistock Square I had walked past there so escaping death or mutilation by a whisker.
Concerning c. above, with a number of Past Presidents and Law Society Council colleagues and with many Westminster Parliamentarians of the British Parliamentary Committee for a Free Iran (BPCFIF) I would have been in the direct firing line but for the vigilance of the security services and police forces of France, Belgium and Austria and for the timely arrest of all would- be perpetrators, who were tried,convicted and sentenced by the Supreme Court in Antwerp. A long story involving the odious Iranian regime but then that goes beyond my current remit. Once aware of what had almost befallen us, we independently and collectively renewed our pledges to pursue with yet more vigour the cause of a free, secular and egalitarian Iran, with all vestiges of misogyny banished. So much for any notion of being scared off!
Now after the Birmingham bombs I regret having to say that to some extent the IRA can be said to have attained their objective because panic, rumour AND anti- Irish sentiments spread through the city and the rumour factory worked overtime. A much more characteristic Brummy togetherness and sense of community then very much returned.
To return to b. above: I proceeded with some difficulty to my meeting in a Parliamentary annexe hosted by the highly respected then leader of the BPCFIF, my friend Robin (by then Lord Corbett of Kingstanding [now sadly lost to us]). Those many of us in attendance were there to debate and resolve how to advance the cause of the Iranian democratic opposition in exile, the National Council for Resistance in Iran (NCRI)- a supreme irony given the distressing and frightening scenes of terrorist- wrought havoc revealed on our screens and outside our building. Afterwards with a solicitor friend also from the Second City- down for an unrelated reason- we did as the authorities advised and stayed put , as it happened in the Red Lion Pub on Whitehall. We then walked to Euston and much later were safely home.
What we encountered all around us in London was an almost uncanny calm, resilience and resolution to carry on. It was moving to see.
But then - it needs to be said- we had had the unfortunate and yet so grounded John Tulloch (mutilated on an attacked tube train) needing to denounce the Sun newspaper who had “front paged” him demanding :”Tell Tony he’s right” (about his- to me- so shocking words:”The rules of the game have changed”[ which they never must do] and his drive towards forty two days detention). Via the Guardian - who had stood firm and right- Tulloch had declared:”Not in my name!”
My point: as Lord Anderson has asserted, such Blairish and Sun- propelled reactions had been amongst the terrorists’ objectives. The rule of law and due process must never become optional
extras to be flaunted in easier and less fraught times: they are what we must live by.