Law should protect the good and not pander to the bad
THE stench of hypocrisy from the liberal elite is overpowering. In recent days, these smug virtue-signallers have welcomed the Appeal Court’s decision to allow jihadi bride Shamima Begum to come back here so she can mount a legal challenge against the removal of her British citizenship by the Home Office.
With loud self-righteousness, they declare that the “rule of law” must be upheld.
But this is the purest cant. These progressive poseurs believe, not in the sanctity of the law, but in the triumph of their Left-wing agenda. They have taken up Begum’s cause because they see it as another way to undermine Britain’s traditions and integrity.
Their stance as the champions of judicial rigour could hardly be more deceitful. They prattle that “the law’s the law”, yet for years they wilfully ignored the systematic abuse of vulnerable white girls by predatory gangs, predominantly Asian, in northern towns such as Rotherham.
Driven by dogma rather than justice, their demands for the enforcement of the law are selective, reflected in their hostility to action against drug users or illegal immigrants or benefit fraudsters or radical agitators.
ONE of the biggest problems in Britain, in fact, is that the rule of law has broken down. In place of order, there is now mounting anarchy.
Knife crime is at a record high, with 126 attacks every day. The authorities have lost their nerve, the courts their credibility, the police their sense of purpose. Left-wing ideologues have played a central role in this. The culture of leniency, with soft sentences, legalistic technicalities and criminals’ rights, is their creation.
Last week, official figures revealed that only seven per cent of offenders are ever made to face justice, a decline from 17 per cent six years ago. Incredibly, of more than five million crimes in England and Wales, only 350,000 suspects were brought before the courts.
These statistics highlight a fundamental decadence at the heart of our society, where officialdom has given up trying to protect the innocent and punish the wrongdoer.
So fastidious over Begum, the liberal judiciary allows 35 per cent of repeat offenders to escape jail, despite recent “two strikes and you’re out” legislation on knife crime.
The same story can be found in the recent surge in peoplesmuggling across the Channel, with a record 2,800 such illegal migrants this year.
Instead of upholding the law, the Border Force seems to act as a quasi-ferry service. Yet not a squeak is ever heard from “the law’s the law” brigade.
The same double standards and contempt for Britain shine through the saga of Shamima Begum. In a sick way, she has become a kind of poster girl of the chattering classes. Through their twisted narrative, she is held up a symbol of British oppression, since she was only a 15-year-old schoolgirl when she left for Syria and was “groomed” into support for Isis on our soil.
But the portrayal of her as a victim is absurd. She left of her own free will, aggressively rejected our country in favour of jihadism and even justified atrocities by Isis such as the Manchester bombing. It was not Britain that radicalised her but a vicious Islamist doctrine.
IF SHE wants to appeal against the loss of citizenship she could easily do so by Zoom online from her camp in Syria. But her judicial supporters are not interested in that. They want her physically to return because they know that once she is back, she will never be deported.
Talk of putting her on trial for terrorism is just hollow sanctimony, since it will be almost impossible to gather evidence from Syria.
Given the record of our courts, she will probably win her appeal, and proceed to a taxpayer-funded life of subsidised housing, police protection and benefits. Already it is estimated that £30,000 has been spent in legal aid on her case.
There is an echo here of the episode in 2000 when a gang of Afghan terrorists hijacked a plane and had it flown at gunpoint to Stansted. After expensive legal proceedings, the hijackers were allowed to stay in this country instead of being deported. Altogether, including massive lawyers’ fees, their case was thought to cost £30million.
Today, it is outrageous that the state is wasting so much time, money and energy on Begum. This callous extremist chose her own fate. There is nothing compassionate or moral about cheering her through the courts, while the law-abiding British public is so badly neglected.
‘Begum has become a poster girl for the chattering classes’