#paulclarke : UKIP to the rescue?
Of course, we don't expect to hear anything from Gordon Brown - this isn't X-factor, after all, for fucks sake.
However, we might reasonably have expected to have heard from MP's closer to the case.
Not a dickie bird from our latest Home Secretary, on this (or indeed, on anything else).
Anne Milton is the local MP, but that Tory lady's website is silent on the Paul Clarke case too. Perhaps she doesn't know that one of her constituents is about to banged up for five years for, in his own words,
"trying to be a good citizen .. I thought it was my duty to hand [the gun] in and get it off the streets"
++UPDATE++ Several people have emailed constantly.furious@gmail.com to point out that Clarke's MP is not actually Anne Milton, but Crispin Blunt. He's a Conservative too, and his website says precisely fuck all about Clarke's case either. Even though his website 'strapline' is "Working for you". Clearly, that's unless 'you' are Paul Clarke.
CF's interest was piqued, however, to see a 'tweet' on Monday evening saying:
"#paulclarke Sentencing pushed back to Reading on 18th Dec. Be there to stop this misscarriage of Justice"
As far as CF (and his many ears 'n' eyes out there) knows, that's the first broadcast of that particular information.
And was this from an MP? Well, not quite, but it was from someone who'd quite like to be one.
It was from Gawain Towler, who describes himself as
"Middle age, middle class, middle brow. UKIP PPC for North Dorset"
Now there's nothing on the main UKIP website about this case, but on Mr Towler's own website he has blogged about the affair, again with the plea to "get down to Guildford High Court on December 11th".
Clearly, as soon as the date changed, Mr Towler felt obliged to inform all of Clarke's supporters, but still, the question is begged: how the fuck does he know that?
Who told Mr Towler about the changed date?
Given that UKIP leader Nigel Farage is Clarke's MEP, did he find out via UKIP?
Why is he campaigning for Mr Clarke? Is he doing this as a private individual, or as a UKIP member and PPC?
In short, have UKIP jumped in to fill the void left by the local MP's neglect?
We'd all love to know...
++UPDATE++ Holly Thompson, the reporter who was in court, has confirmed the change of date. But how did UKIP know before her?
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5 comments:
Much as I'd like to think UKIP would pick it up and run with it, the truth is they just don't do 'individual cases'. Gawain is a top bloke who has room in his heart to protest a lot of injustices, but the Party as a whole is so busy worrying that if they go off-message they might upset someone that they almost never do.
They occasionally stick their heads above the parapet on things like homeschooling where they have roundly condemned the Badman Report, but it's still pretty much 'All EU, all the time'. And sadly as Pearson looks set to win the leadership contest this won't change. Batten gets my vote, he has set out very clear areas such as Criminal Justice where he wants to see UKIP making lots of noise, but I still think Pearson will take it.
Just to let you know. Nigel Farage will be on the steps of Reading Court on the 18th. He has supported me speaking to his constituent Mr Clarke from the start. The first meeting took place at the Merstham Home of our local constituency Chairman for example.
There will be more coverage of this, but I can assure you that Mr Clarke has the support of the entire UKIP leadership, both Batten and Pearson, and others for that matter.
Now that we know the details etc we will be prosecuting this case as loudly as we can. Trust me, this should not be a party political issue, but if the others cannot be bothered then we in UKIP will do all we can.
I owe UKIP an apology. Seems I did them a big injustice on this one. My bad.
Cheers, Gawain. Will spread the word.
"Now that we know the details etc we will be prosecuting this case as loudly as we can"
Probably didn't mean to say that...
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