opinion: Justice and morality, British style

Brian Cloughley

There used to be something called British Justice which, although creaky and flawed, actually stood for the principle of innocent until proven guilty. Nowadays when someone is prejudged and gravely slandered but then found to be innocent, the tactic is to defame the victims by any possible means

One thing that Pakistan could have done without was yet another visit by Britain's prime minister, Gordon Brown, whose activities have driven his own country to misery. The thought of him presuming to advise Pakistan about its affairs is mind-boggling.

Britain is in a sad state. Sure, the Taliban are not swarming at the gates of London, nor are areas of the country under threat of sharia law, as in Swat, where it is imposed by vicious bigots whose claims to being human are fragile at best. But the United Kingdom is suffering from a dreadful sickness, economically and ethically.

In what used to be known as the Mother of Parliaments, 646 grubby bumptious politicians revel in a handout regime of unstinted financial generosity, designed and monitored by themselves and funded by the public. Their sordid antics include defrauding the British taxpayer by claiming vast expenses for houses as second homes.

For example, a cabinet minister - the home secretary, no less - claimed a room in her sister's flat as a second residence and scooped up over 100,000 pounds. They employ relatives in various gainful ways, and the home secretary's husband is one of her employees, getting 40,000 pounds a year from the taxpayer and trying to have rented pornographic films paid for with public funds. You couldn't make this up.

The record of morally fraudulent cheating schemes is extensive. They're all at it, and none of them has the slightest sense of guilt.

It is not surprising that a recent poll of Britons found that "less than a quarter believe government ministers are trustworthy [and only] 21 per cent trust politicians in general." As was observed by the main character in the splendid TV series Yes, Prime Minister:

"Being an MP is a vast subsidised ego trip. It's a job that needs no qualifications, that has no compulsory hours of work, no performance standards, and provides a warm room and subsidised meals to a bunch of self-important windbags and busybodies who suddenly find people taking them seriously because they've got the letters MP after their names."

Although politicians are barely affected, being financially cushioned by taxpayers, most British citizens are in the grip of a frightening financial crisis, brought about by slavering greedheads in various gutter-worthy organisations whose craving for money has been exceeded in intensity only by their contempt for the people who they have swindled for so long. They are the people of whom a particularly repulsive member of the governing Labour Party said "we are intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich."

Britain's rich list of 'Lords' and 'Sirs' is long indeed, and many of them bought their titles by the medium of financial donations or generally sucking up to the ruling political party. (There is little difference between machine politicians in Britain's Labour and Conservative parties: they'll do almost anything for cash.)

The civil service has been politicised, and disgusting creatures abound, like the close adviser to the prime minister who was discovered to be plotting to spread disgusting fabricated stories about political opponents. This is new modern Britain.

The British police force, until quite recently being regarded as at least fairly trustworthy, has sunk to astonishing depths of improbity. The agencies of the law are out of control, having been given vast authority by a bunch of cosseted politicians whose loyalty is first to their purses and next to staying in power. The shambles over the arrest of Pakistanis alleged to have been involved in some sort of doomsday conspiracy against Britain would be a wonderful joke were it not evidence of appalling incompetence - and sadly indicative of how low the country has sunk.

Last week, British police released 11 Pakistanis whom they had arrested two weeks before in a counter-terrorism raid. Despite Gordon Brown prejudging the affair as "a very big terrorist plot", the police found no evidence of wrongdoing. No bombs, no bomb-making material, no guns, no plot; nothing. But they are going to be deported, anyway.

After all, an official had told the BBC that the arrests were made because police believed plans for a "very, very, big attack with possible Al Qaeda links" had reached their final stages. But where's the proof?

This bizarre episode resembles another fiasco in March when five people were arrested under the terrorism act and then released after much alarmist rubbish was spread about how dangerous they were. One fatuous statement by the police was that "As the search [of their homes] progressed officers found a number of weapons and suspected imitation weapons as well as material relating to political ideology."

That was a lie. No weapons were found. The British police tried to deceive the public, and none of the five was charged with any terrorist offence, although they were detained for days. And, similarly, the 11 Pakistanis had to be released because they were innocent of any crime.

An official then said the government was "seeking to [deport] these individuals on grounds of national security". So although they can't be charged with an offence, they are still considered guilty of something or other, which of course we can't be told about, but they'll still have to suffer.

There used to be something called British Justice which, although creaky and flawed, actually stood for the principle of innocent until proven guilty. Nowadays when someone is prejudged and gravely slandered but then found to be innocent, thereby showing politicians and police to be pathetically incompetent and stupid, the tactic is to defame the victims by any possible means. The technique of the smear has been cultivated, and the police practice has its roots in the prime minister's office.

Britain has economic problems; but its biggest crisis is a moral one. And there seems to be precious little hope of a recovery.

Brian Cloughley's book about the Pakistan army, War, Coups and Terror, has just been published by Pen & Sword Books (UK) and is distributed in Pakistan by Saeed Book Bank