Poet prejudices proceedings

Here's a curious article by Richard Ingram's in today's Observer. It starts off ridiculing David Blunkett's poetry (yes, he's a poet now). And ends up exposing the court proceedings of the "ricin conspirators."

'Too much I read of that which I have written and if not written wished I had.' I quote from a newly published poem entitled 'Echo' from the pen of the former Education Secretary and Home Secretary, David Blunkett. The editor of Poetry Review, Ms Fiona Sampson, has explained: 'It is obviously written by someone who is visually impaired because it is about the sound of words.' To any readers who may have been puzzling over what exactly Blunkett was trying to say, Ms Sampson's explanation may come as a welcome aid. Others may unkindly conclude that if Blunkett was a disastrous Home Secretary, then he is an even worse poet. We had yet another reminder of Blunkett's blundering methods in the report of the Kamel Bourgass trial last week when it emerged that the judge hearing the case had written to the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, complaining about ministers prejudicing the trial. This followed a public statement by Blunkett claiming that 'al-Qaeda is seen to be and will be demonstrated through our courts to be actually on our doorstep and threatening our lives', a comment which, if it had been made by a newspaper, could well have led to an action for contempt of court, but is apparently permissible in a Home Secretary and amateur poet. As it happens, Blunkett's comment as far as Bourgass is concerned was not only prejudicial but inaccurate, most experts by now being of the opinion that Bourgass was a bit of a loony who posed no real terrorist threat, let alone proving the link between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, as was claimed by the likes of Tony Blair and Colin Powell."

I think that, over this case, seven other men have spent over a year in prison on trumped up charges of some conspiracy or other. The fact that they were found not guilty doesn't seem to have made much of a splash in the newspapers. The fact that the "conspirators" had no ricin hasn't struck anyone in the mainstream media as a bit odd given the trumpeting of the "proof" of an al-Qaida presence in the UK by so many ministers.

The main coverage has focused on the fact that the one man found guilty of anything (murdering a police officer) was a failed asylum seeker. When it hasn't focused on that it has been suggesting that "terror" legislation isn't tight enough. The idea of such legislation is supposed to be to prevent terrorism, not put innocent people away and then on show trial to justify the war in Iraq. There must be more thorough coverage of this case in the serious media but I haven't seen it yet.