Morning music
Helen Pitcher and the Criminal Cases Review Commission scandal
“The chair of the Criminal Cases Review Commission has rejected calls from the justice secretary to resign after a report on its handling of the Andrew Malkinson case laid bare “a catalogue of failures”.
The new justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said Pitcher was “unfit to fulfil her duties” and that she was seeking her removal in light of the findings. It is understood that she made her position clear to Pitcher on Thursday morning in the hope that she would resign.
But Pitcher said she was the “best person” for the job and that she had no intention of standing down.
James Burley, who led Appeal’s investigation into Malkinson’s case, said the report was “utterly damning” and detailed “a catalogue of failures by the CCRC”.
He said: “No one can doubt now that the CCRC is a broken safety net which sets the bar unreasonably high for innocent prisoners trying to clear their names. The CCRC must be completely overhauled.”
[The Guardian]
I had never heard of Helen Pitcher, so I looked her up online: https://www.legalwomen.org.uk/helenpitcher.html.
“Helen Pitcher OBE Chair of the Judicial Appointments Commission talked to Bhini Phagura from Raydens solicitors about her career.
Tell us about your career progression which led to your appointment as the Chair of the Judicial Appointments Commission:
“I studied law at QMC London and used this degree as a basis for a career in commerce, where I rapidly progressed up the ranks to become an Executive and Divisional Director in Grand Metropolitan. I retained a footprint in the law in various roles related to Standards, Fairness, Equity and Diversity.“
Well…wouldn’t you just know it?
There’s more:
“The first role I held in parallel to my Commercial career was as a lay representative of the Professional Conduct and Complaints Committee of the Bar Council.” [now split into the Bar Standards Board and the Bar Disciplinary Tribunal].
Yes, there is usually at least one useless woman of this sort sitting (well-paid, too), but doing nothing, when a Bar Disciplinary Tribunal sits. In 5-person tribunal cases (as mine was, in fact wrongly— it should have been a 3-person tribunal, which has no power to disbar) there are usually two such women (they always seem to be women, as on benches of lay magistrates), invariably a pair of unsmiling and stupid “bookends”. Useless box-tickers. See also https://ianrobertmillard.org/2017/07/09/the-slide-of-the-english-bar-and-uk-society-continues-and-accelerates/.
“I also became a lay representative on the Employment Appeal Tribunal and still hold this office.
I then joined the Queens Counsel (as it was then) Selection Panel and rapidly became its chair. Whilst there we improved the Diversity Statistics.“
Again the “diversity statistics“… Why am I not at all surprised?
“I held this role for 9 years. On stepping down, I decided not to apply for another role as I also had a burgeoning Consultancy and Portfolio Career. About 18 months later, however, an advertisement for the role of the Chair of the CCRC (Criminal Cases Review Commission) was brought to my attention.
Last year the role of Chairman at the JAC (Judicial Appointments Commission) became available. A Headhunter contacted me having uncovered my background on LinkedIn. I checked with the MoJ that there was no conflict of interest and submitted my application. On December 31st following a Justice Select Committee earlier in the month, I was appointed and took up the post on January 16th [2023].”
My role as chair involves leading the Board, ensuring appropriate oversight on governance and providing appropriate challenge and support to the executive. I am also involved in some of the most senior appointments.
I have rationalised my portfolio (which was a Commitment I gave to the JSC) in order to ensure I have the appropriate amount of time to devote to this key role.
You are holding this role for 3 years from January 2023, what are your aims/goals?
The strategic aims were already set, however they are due for a refresh as the period they covered draws to a close. These aims, which are developed in conjunction with the Board and executive, are on our website and thus in the public domain.
Our primary purpose set out by statute is to recruit on merit, our secondary (and no less important role) is to assist the rest of the judicial system to increase the diversity pool. It is for this reason that I also chair the Judicial Diversity Forum, which has a clear action plan to achieve its aims.”
So the secondary role is as important as the primary one? How muddled and wrongheaded is the stupid woman?
[Legal Women (online-only) magazine]
The interview is rather badly written, unfortunately, with superfluous upper-case here and there; as can be seen, it is the product of an Indian woman.
Well, there we have it. That greedy and plainly incompetent Pitcher woman has made a whole career, and no doubt a very lucrative one, out of “diversity”, tokenism etc. First of all, in her own person, by being a “token woman”, or one token woman, on commercial and quango boards. Secondly, by being a Trojan horse for more “diversity” and “inclusion” (etc) in important public offices.
Helen Pitcher, who seems to me to be a useless “diversity” box-ticker, has, inter alia, sat in the seat of judgment over employment appeal cases, over the cases of supposedly defaulting barristers etc, and has even been (and apparently still is) the head of the body which appoints judges, including those at the highest level.
cf. Paula Vennells [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Vennells] and Dido Harding [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dido_Harding] and many many others.
Helen Pitcher is, at time of writing, doing, and of course getting paid for doing, several different jobs simultaneously. She is probably making between half a million and a million pounds a year. For what? Ruining various bodies? Ticking various “diversity” and “anti-racism” boxes? Shoving our society further into the mire?
Look at how Helen Pitcher is clinging on to her CCRC role, presumably in order to maximize the money she gets before she is forced out. At least, that seems to me to be her motivation. Very telling, if so.
This latest scandal, including Helen Pitcher’s “march through the institutions”, is so typical of the way in which things generally have been allowed to develop in the UK in the past 30+ years.
You can see the way the UK is going, at least partly because of stupid and over-promoted women such as Helen Pitcher (and, yes, also men, not infrequently)— straight down.
God knows what state this country will be in in 2029 or 2034, let alone 2054 (which last I shall not have to witness, thank God, not from the Earth plane anyway).
[Update, 14 January 2025: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2025/jan/14/andrew-malkinson-calls-miscarriage-of-justice-watchdogs-ex-head-shameless.
“Andrew Malkinson calls miscarriage of justice watchdog’s ex-head ‘shameless’
Helen Pitcher resigned from the CCRC saying she had been ‘scapegoated’ over Malkinson’s case
Emily DuganTue 14 Jan 2025 19.51 GMTShare
Andrew Malkinson has called the former head of the miscarriage of justice watchdog “shameless” as she resigned from the job saying she had been “scapegoated for entirely legitimate decisions” taken over his case.
Helen Pitcher handed in her resignation as chair of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) on Tuesday afternoon after learning that an independent panel had concluded by a majority of two to one that she was no longer fit to be chair.
In a letter to the justice secretary she said she felt that she had been chosen as a “scapegoat at an early stage” for the Malkinson case and that “a head had to roll and I was chosen for that role”.
Malkinson said: “Helen Pitcher’s attempt to portray herself as the victim here is shameless.
The Guardian revealed that Pitcher had been in Montenegro promoting her property business in the weeks after Malkinson’s conviction was overturned and the organisation was in crisis after its failure to apologise to him.“
[Guardian]].
“Her property business” (as well as all the rest)?
Helen Pitcher thus managed to blag another 6-7 months’ pay and expenses, and pension contributions, when she should have resigned in mid or early 2024.
“Shameless” indeed, the horrible and avaricious old hag.
Tweets seen
“Summary of the Israeli strike according to what is known so far: – Approximately 25 F-15 and F-35 aircraft, accompanied by refueling planes, flew about 2000 kilometers toward the city of Hodeidah in Yemen.
– The strike was carried out in 8 waves.
-The attack destroyed fuel depots, inflicted damage on the port, and destroyed a power station north of the port.
– The fire is still burning and is expected to continue for several more days.
– There is a power outage across the entire region.
– The message of the strike is clear: this is not a strike on military targets (which has been done by the coalition over the past 9 months) but an attack on the already struggling Yemeni economy, causing significant economic damage.
– The attack on the port is a direct response to the damage Yemenis have caused to the port of Eilat.
– The message to the rest of the Middle East is also clear: the Bandar Abbas port and the Kharg Island, from where most of Iran’s oil is exported, are in Israel’s sights, as well as the port of Beirut.
– Israel has decided to take off the gloves; this is not a minor strike like those in Iran.
– The Houthis are threatening to retaliate, but it is unclear what the threat entails, as they have already attacked Israel 200 times.”
[Open Source Intel]
Middle East, Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Far East. All now under threat of major regional wars.
“Ukraine lines are collapsing. After 380 billions of aid pledged to Ukraine since the war begin; 118 billion are direct military aid; many countries literally emptied out entire inventory countless military units to give their weapons to Ukraine. Ukraine is STILL losing grounds everyday. Lost 5 towns in the past 48hrs. The fortress city of Krasnohorivka is falling as we speak; Russia threatens cut the Oskil Frontlines in half with the likely capture of Pishchane. Still not collapsing? This is not collapse of frontlines, then what is?“
More tweets
“Back to the UK tomorrow. I’ve never had such dread about Britain. Coming back to London and knowing how unpleasant it’ll be. The demographic changes and feeling that [the UK] is most against Brits. The lack of functional media. The feeling something big has to happen to restore order.“
[Charlotte Gill]
Plenty of Twitter-twits replying to all that and saying how wonderful London still (?) is, but I lived in (mostly) Central or near-Central London, on and off, for 22 years (1976 to 1998, though spending also many years either elsewhere in the country or overseas), and I should not want to live there today: see https://ianrobertmillard.org/2022/06/30/diary-blog-30-june-2022-including-impressions-of-a-trip-to-dystopian-london/.
I have not been to London since that brief visit in 2022, and am glad of it. I no longer have the Rolex watches I had 25+ years ago (or want them, or need them, or can afford them) but, if I did, I think that they would not stay on my wrist very long in the London of 2024.
Why can people who should know better not accept the truth that is in front of their eyes? In a word, deluded.
One aspect of London that seems to have radically improved in recent years, though, is the public transport network. New lines, new trains, new ways of travelling around the conurbation. Crossrail/Elizabeth Line for one. I do not speak, however, from personal experience of the new lines, just from what I have read online.
Well over 20 years ago, in 2000, I happened to meet and get to know (somewhat), in Bournemouth, a young blonde woman (20 or so) I first encountered in a photography shop, and who was very proud of her father, vice-Chancellor of (if I remember aright) Lancaster University. She talked about him rather a lot, and thus I learned that (again, if I remember aright) his salary was over £200,000 a year, which would be pretty good even today, by most people’s standards. In fact, the Bank of England online calculator shows that you could almost double that in today’s money. So today— maybe £400,000.
The tertiary educational sector in the UK has been a kind of “rotten borough” for a long time. At least 30 years.
Matt Goodwin
I notice that the “alt-Right” (?) academic and commentator, Matt Goodwin, has retweeted a tweet about the UNRWA by the malicious and publicity-seeking Jew-Zionist org, “Campaign Against Antisemitism”. Foolish. The credibility of that malicious cabal is shot; even most pro-Israel Jews are against its activities and behaviour. By retweeting the “CAA”, Goodwin risks his own credibility too.
More tweets
My understanding was that Japan had withdrawn from whale hunting in the Southern Ocean, and would only be whaling in Japan’s own Exclusive Economic Zone [EEZ]. Maybe I was too optimistic: see https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/30/asia/japan-whaling-mothership-kangei-maru-intl-hnk/index.html; and https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/may/02/japan-whale-meat-industry-kangei-maru-mother-ship.
Background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling_in_Japan
I do not trust Japanese intentions.
The Japanese only have one new whaling ship, though…
Many of us are well aware of what will eventually have to be done, but we are “not allowed” to say it, let alone do it…
Late tweets
I agree with that. Michelle Obama? Maybe not so easily defeated. All the blacks would vote for her, for a start.
If anyone other than Trump takes on the U.S. Presidency, the Americans will be staring civil war in the face. The rest of the world (as well as the USA) will be staring at, quite likely, a world war, starting (like the first two “world” wars) in Europe.
An omen.
Late music
Ian Robert Millard 