Above the comical classic “Monty Python” sketch, “The Comfy Chair!”
Today’s article is about the exercise of British Sovereignty – although it may not be immediately apparent! Read on Dear Reader…..
The news that Navinder Singh Sarao faces a possible whole of life sentence for a non violent financial crime should be of great concern to all those who seek a compassionate as well as just criminal justice system.
Mr Saro, a British futures trader has been accused of market manipulation triggering a 1,000 point fall in the Dow Jones on 6th May 2010, wiping almost $1 trillion off the value of the market.
It is claimed that Mr Sarao, nicknamed the ‘Hound of Hounslow’, made around £30 million in five years using an ‘automated trading program’ from a computer in his bedroom to manipulate prices.
Yesterday, at a ruling at Westminster Magistrates Court, the judge approved the extradition of 37-year old Sarao to the US to face 22 counts of fraud and commodity manipulation. If convicted the charges carry a maximum jail term of 380 years.
Herewith the report: http://citywire.co.uk/wealth-manager/news/uk-flash-crash-trader-loses-us-extradition-appeal/a893859?re=39226&ea=403959&utm_source=BulkEmail_WM_Daily_PM&utm_medium=BulkEmail_WM_Daily_PM&utm_campaign=BulkEmail_WM_Daily_PM
British Gazette comment: IF Mr Saro is guilty of what the US authorities accuse him of it is outrageous that such a non violent offender – with no previous convictions – be subjected to a sentence (whole of life without any possibility of release), a sentence handed out to serial killers.
But this is Justice US style. As Mr Madoff experienced to his cost.
The proper way the British government should deal with such cases is of course to terminate the present extradition treaty of which Sr Edward Grey’s description of Austria’s ultimatum to Serbia when he told Karl Max, Prince Lichnowsky, the German Ambassador to Britain that “Any nation that accepted conditions like that would really cease to count as an independent nation” could apply and demand a proper one.
That however appears to be an impossibility.
There is frequent talk in the British media – especially the BBC – about the “Special Relationship” between the UK and the USA. Precious little detail however is given.
What British Gazette readers MUST realise is this: the “Special Relationship” between the UK and the USA is the keystone of ALL British government policy. NB: we do not use the qualifier, “Foreign”.
This is why President Obama is prepared to do something unprecedented for a government leader – go “on the stump” in another country’s internal election campaign!
The ONE reason why the UK is a member of the EU is because the USA demands it.
British Gazette readers will no doubt have dis-pared in the past of capitulations by British government’s to the wishes of the US government – the current one sided extradition treaty being a prime example.
British Gazette readers no doubt will ask a one word question: Why?
The answer can be put in one word: Vanity.
British politicians desire to occupy the status of leaders of a significant world power. They glory in the country’s status as a Permanent Member with Veto power on the UN Security Council. They glory in every opportunity to attend G7/G8 meetings and hob-nob with the US President, China’s President and (when the USA allow it) President Putin.
There is however a price to pay and that price is a heavy price: It is to do what the USA wants it to do. This is why a British government (not just the arch-traitor Heath) ignored Lord Kilmuir’s opinion (http://www.englishconstitutiongroup.org/damning-letter-from-lord-kilmuir-the-lord-chancellor-to-edward-heath-2/) and broke their Privy Council oaths and put HM the Queen in breach of her Coronation Oath and had the UK join the European Community, later European Economic Community, now European Union.
The essence of the UK-US Special Relationship is this: The US will ensure that the status the UK enjoyed in 1945 will be maintained. In return the UK will ensure that US Foreign Policy (and other selected policy areas – such as the aforementioned lop-sided extradition treaty) will receive full UK co-operation.
This of course brings us to the consequences of Brexit. Something not appreciated it seems by such as The Honourable Jacob Rees-Mogg the Member for North East Somerset and Nigel Farage.
Both of these gentleman want Brexit. Both appear to be of the opinion that having secured Brexit, the UK can continue on the international stage much as before.
If they believe this they are sorely mistaken!
President Obama has to his credit already hinted at this. He has said that if Brexit occurs the relationship the UK has with the USA will change. Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nigel Farage should believe this for President Obama means what he says.
A post Brexit UK cannot expect and will not receive the same prominence given to it in international circles. An early casualty will be the UK’s permanent member status on the Security Council. The most likely scenario for this, given the Realpolitik situation (China would veto Japan’s candidacy, Pakistan and Turkey would object to India’s candidacy) would be for France to give her seat to the European Union and for the UK to give her seat to the African Union. An early consequence of this is the UK being forced to treat with Argentina over the status of the Falkland Islands.
Thus the fact of the matter is likely this: That the British Realpolitik situation means that the Tory Brexiteers will settle for a compromise. This is why the leader of the Tory Brexiteers, Boris (For it is He!) Johnson will likely conclude what Boris describes as a “British Deal” this will most likely be a halfway house between the Norway Option and the “Deal” contained in the unenforceable and therefore invalid “legally binding agreement” handed to the Chameleon by Frau Doktor Merkel.
What then will Boris’s “British Deal” look like? We hear you ask.
Probably the Norway Option but without EFTA Membership – and thereby meaning in the EU but as an Associate Member and also without restoration of the British Fishing Grounds. In other words, the EU will continue to possess our fish and our fishermen will continue to be robbed of what is rightfully theirs.
This is why Boris has made no mention of the fishing issue to date and will unlikely do so!
The behind the scenes figure in these negotiations will be US Secretary of State Kerry and whoever succeeds him. This is because NO mainstream British politician is prepared to pay the price for Brexit!
This is also why the Chameleon was handed the stalk of the fig leaf and not even a fig leaf at the end of his so called negotiation. The whole charade including this referendum campaign is as the British Gazette has previously stated a massive coup de théâtre!
Please Dear Reader, look at the FACTS: Mr Boris Johnson is an intelligent man. Yet he behaved like a blustering buffoon before the Parliamentary Select Committee! And – and this is the telling point – the opposition (the Remainers) allowed him to get a way with it!
Here is another FACT: both sides are shovelling out bullshit by the Tonne (Remainers) Imperial Ton (Leavers)! They are prattling about negotiating a free trade agreement within months and implementing it after the two years of Article 50 severance – an impossibility. No mention is being made (by either side) of the international consequences of a Brexit.
When one side is making huge unforced errors which are not immediately being picked up and used by the other side and vice-versa one can there can only be one logical conclusion: the whole thing is FIXED!
Here is another FACT: In international diplomacy; REALPOLITIK RULES! OK?
The professional diplomats in the US State Department and the civil servants at the European Commission together with the heads of the EU’s governments realise that if the European Union is to survive it must embrace reform and that this reform cannot include the UK as no British government could obtain the British People’s consent for further integration. This reform process must happen by 2020 or the EU will fall apart!
So how will things look if the Brit’s vote for Brexit?
Expect some compromise on the Free Movement of People the quid pro quo will be contained in the UK’s fishing grounds. The EU will get to keep them and we get some limited concessions of FM in return. The UK will have some more internal autonomy but will still be tied in with the European Arrest Warrant, EU Security and importantly – because the USA demands it – the EU’s Foreign and Defence Policy. This continued surrender of British Sovereignty will ensure the US agrees to continued PM status at the Security Council for the UK and France.
Some attentive readers will note that your Editor has not made any mention of the nuclear deterrent. Your Editor refuses to do so as he does not wish to enjoy the austere comforts of HM Prison Belmarsh – for what would be an extended period!
This neatly returns us to the unfortunate Mr Sarao of Hounslow!
Were (and this has to be hypothetical as Mr Saro must be deemed innocent of any wrongdoing) Mr Saro to receive a sentence of 380 years from a US judge – which would amount to a whole of life sentence – he would be offered to serve his sentence in a British prison.
We have referred to the austere comforts of HM Prison Belmarsh. This is because they are. DO NOT believe the rubbish spewed out from time to time by such as the Daily Mail about supposed “holiday camp” conditions in British Prisons. They are not and never have been “holiday camps”!
However, conditions in US prisons are immeasurably harsher and therefore were Mr Saro to find himself in the deeply unenviable position of facing a lifetime in prison, it is to borrow a phrase from a certain Mr Tim Farron on another subject, a “No Brainer” for him to accept any offer to serve such in a British Prison with extreme alacrity!
Now at this point your Editor craves the indulgence of Mr Saro himself as he hopes Mr Saro will not object if we now hypothesise about a situation based on Mr Saro having done what the US authorities suggest he has done and receives a whole of life sentence for such offences.
The offence is clearly fraud and on a massive scale. Taking the case of the unfortunate Mr Hayes (http://www.british-gazette.co.uk/2015/12/22/tom-hayes-an-inadequate-redress-of-a-grievance/) who now faces 5 years 6 months in custody (half the 11 year sentence he has now received) we would suggest that were he to be found guilty after pleading not guilty to all charges in a US court, 11 years custody would be a tough sentence. Were he to receive a 380 year (whole of life) sentence from a US judge we suggest that were he to be so incarcerated in the British Prison system some special arrangements should be made for the unfortunate Mr Saro after serving say 5 years 6 months of his “whole of life” sentence. He should in fact be given the custodial equivalent of Monty Python’s comfy chair. We would suggest he could serve the remainder of his sentence at one of the open prisons but with a much enhanced privilege status – allowing him for instance periods of “home leave” for supposed “rehabilitation purposes” – this of course for a man destined to die in prison.
Speaking the Truth unto the Nation
