Legal challenge to bent MP's

‘Misfeasance in Public Office’ is a term frequently used when a public official does his job in a way that is not technically illegal, but nevertheless he is mistaken or wrong.

Parliament intended that statutory powers were exercised in good faith and for the purpose for which they were conferred.

The tort of Misfeasance in Public Office was designed to target ‘the deliberate and dishonest abuse of power’ in the event of a person suffering loss or damage as a result of administrative action known to be unlawful or carried out with reckless disregard or indifference to the consequences.

The offence of ‘Malfeasance’ takes the reckless element a stage further and is when a public official intentionally does something either legally or morally wrong which he had no right to do. It always involves dishonesty, illegality, or knowingly exceeding authority for improper reasons. It is conduct in violation of the law.

The tort of Misfeasance in Public Office is an intentional tort that can be committed only by a public official and the core concept is abuse of power. This in turn involves other concepts, such as dishonesty, bad faith, and improper purpose.

Power is granted to a public official for a public purpose. It is an abuse of that power for him to exercise it for his own private purposes, whether out of spite, malice, revenge, or merely self-advancement.

If an act is done deliberately and with knowledge of its consequences the official cannot argue that he did not intend the consequences of his actions or that they were not aimed at the person who he knew would suffer loss.

In a legal system underpinned by the rule of law, administrative power must be exercised in good faith and not for ulterior or improper purposes. Where it can be shown that a body or official was not acting in good faith, liability in the tort of misfeasance in public office might exist.

The constituent elements of the tort of misfeasance are as follows:

1. That the act or conduct has been committed by a public officer.
2. The act or conduct must have been done by him in the purported exercise of his power as a public officer.
3. That the act or conduct must have been done either:
1. maliciously; or
2. knowing that the impugned act or conduct is invalid/unauthorised and knowing that it will probably injure the claimant.
4. The act or conduct must cause loss or harm to the claimant.

There are two forms of liability for misfeasance. The first form of the tort involves targeted malice by a public officer, or in other words, conduct specifically intended to injure a person. Where a public officer had this intention, it is irrelevant whether the public officer exceeded his powers or acted within the letter of the law.

The second form of liability applies where the public officer acts knowing he has no power to do the act complained of and that the act will probably injure a person or persons. The element of bad faith arises, as the public officer does not have an honest belief that his conduct is lawful. In this scenario, it is not necessary to show that the public officer acted with the purpose or object of inflicting harm on the claimant.

Misfeasance does not require a claimant to identify a legal right that is being infringed or a particular duty owed to him, beyond the right not to be damaged or injured by a deliberate or reckless abuse of power by a public officer.

The tort of Misfeasance in Public Office is concerned with preventing public officials from acting beyond their powers to the injury of the citizen, not with compelling them to exercise the powers they do have, particularly when they have a discretion whether to exercise them or not.

The evidence grows in Fort Hood shooting

clipped from www.telegraph.co.uk Fort Hood shooting: Texas army killer linked to September 11 terrorists Hasan, the sole suspect in the massacre of 13 fellow US soldiers in Texas, attended the controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Virginia, in 2001 at the same time as two of the September 11 terrorists, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. His mother's funeral was held there in May that year. The preacher at the time was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemeni scholar who was banned from addressing a meeting in London by video link in August because he is accused of supporting attacks on British troops and backing terrorist organisations.

I am not one for prosecution by media. But where the evidence leads...

Lt Col Ralph Peter on the Fort Hood Shootings

Ralph Peters sums up the Islamist murder spree at Fort Hood. Sadly he's one of the few who's telling it like it is.

On Thursday afternoon, a radicalized Muslim US Army officer shouting, "Allahu akbar!" ("God is great!") committed the worst act of terror on American soil since 9/11. And no one wants to call it an act of terror or associate it with Islam.

What cowards we are. Political correctness killed those patriotic Americans at Fort Hood as surely as the Islamist gunman did. And the media treat it like a case of nondenominational shoplifting.

This was a terrorist act. When an extremist plans and executes a murderous plot against our unarmed soldiers to protest our efforts to counter Islamist fanatics, it's an act of terror. Period.

When the terrorist posts anti-American hate speech on the Web; apparently praises suicide bombers and uses his own name; loudly criticizes US policies; argues (as a psychiatrist, no less) with his military patients over the worth of their sacrifices; refuses, in the name of Islam, to be photographed with female colleagues; lists his nationality as "Palestinian" in a Muslim spouse-matching program and parades around central Texas in a fundamentalist playsuit -- well, it only seems fair to call this terrorist an "Islamist terrorist."

But the president won't. Despite his promise to get to all the facts. Because there's no such thing as "Islamist terrorism" in ObamaWorld.

A hard lesson to be learned in the USA. One we never really learned in the British Isles until the British Government sold out the RUC and the Ulster regiments and the thousands of dead and wounded and handed the province over to the IRA. A must watch for everyone in the UK

A letter from a British worker

The Urine test
(This was written by a rig worker in the North Sea - What he says makes a lot of sense!)

I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit. In order to earn that pay cheque, I work on a rig for a drilling contractor. I am required to pass a random urine test for drugs and alcohol, with which I have no problem.
What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don't have to pass a urine test. Shouldn't one have to pass a urine test to get a benefits cheque because I have to pass one to earn it for them?
Please understand that I have no problem with helping people get back on their feet. I do on the other hand have a problem with helping someone sit on their arse drinking beer and smoking dope.
Could you imagine how much money the government would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a benefit cheque?
Please pass this along if you agree or simply delete it if you don't.
Hope you will pass it along though, because something has to change in the UK , and soon!

Gordon and the Moss

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2009-11-04b.263.0#g263.1

This is for the people of Blackpool.
This issue is quickly and rightly becoming a cancer for the local Tories and should be kicked into the long grass now, along with most of the local Councillors. I asked the former political secretary of the Conservatives and he shook his head. "If it has anything to do with local politics," he said, "it was never mentioned or debated in open forum. The only thing they talked about was afternoon tea fund raisers." That quote must be worth £10.000. Perhaps the bells will ring in the fraud squad. Small wonder they can smile when they answer, sorry politicians we are talking about, not annswering questions about donations. Cheshire cats?
Next stop Westminster...

US Amy suspect in mass murder

clipped from www.nytimes.com Suspect Was ‘Mortified’ About Deployment to War Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. WASHINGTON — Born and reared in Virginia, the son of immigrant parents from a small Palestinian town near Jerusalem, he joined the Army right out of high school, against his parents’ wishes. The Army, in turn, put him through college and then medical school, where he trained to be a psychiatrist.

Maybe I am naive but does not the first sentence of the Times report ask more questions of multi-nationalism than the wish to prove it works.
Daydreaming always ends in disater. Now Let's get real.

As a former regular soldier I am sick and tired of listening to the cowering comments of those not prepared to defend their own country. As in Britain, if all these immigrants really want to do something positive for their adopted country, go back to your own country. Enoch Powell warned of this over half a century ago, and was castigated as a prime racist. How right he has been proven. In my country the sons of immigrants have perpetrated mass murder, not Al Qaeda or the Taliban, yet we are threatened with imprisonment if we dare mention this or raise the questions of why we are sucking up to these people who hate my cuntry wit such intensity.

My sincerest best wishes to the American people and all the victims of this heinous crime.

The rotten estates England

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk Shannon 'aunt' jailed for fraud Hyett helped search for Shannon, who she referred to as her niece A neighbour of abducted schoolgirl Shannon Matthews has been jailed for a year after admitting benefit fraud amounting to more than £35,000.

Everything that is bad about the English system is evidence here. These lazy, greedy perpetrators of perpetual socialism have been protected by the liberal correctness regimes put in place by successive governments.
Everything about that statement is wrong, except the facts.
The fact that these people are allowed to raise more generations of worthless flesh is as abhorrent to the hard working Briton as the devious and malicious enterprises of the Bankers and their cohorts, the politicians.
Absolutely no system has the panacea for all societies’ ills, but this system that relies on the influential few to circumvent the wishes of the people by allowing the ill-educated to proliferate whilst Labour imports their supporters from foreign lands is treason.
Get the illiterate masses educated. Once they learn the hard lesson of real education they would have no need to wallow in self pity, smoke their tax free cigarettes and produce off-spring that every tax payer in the land has to subsidise.

Or perhaps she should aim for Westminster?

Today in Parliament

That wonderful sinecure called the Mother of Parliaments has spent several days debating the Constitution. Isn't this a waste of time now the politicians have given it to the parasites in Brussels?

All the waffle should now cease, send all the horrible members home with their money, give them all a computer and let them watch politics in Europe operate, because it has not worked in Westminster.

A letter to the Mail

13 days is a long time in politics. The rightful debate on immigration and not the BBC's ridiculous shall they shan't they tennis match, has been blown wide open with the accounts of Labour reckless and probably illegal immigration policies since they came to office. Kim Howells conversion to mainstream thinking is laughable, but better late than never.
It is just over thirty years since Sgt Ray Beamish 1st Fld Reg RhA, and others were murdered by terrorists they were 'converting', much against what the mass of voices were screaming silently from within Army itself. It was in 1964 that the police in Aden city turned their guns on the Brits soldiers and were 'put down' by 45 Commando and the Gordons. Yesterday 5 more young men, and probably more, were gunned down by a rogue policeman and Brown still waffles out his venal apologies to the Nation, and his supporters swallow it hook line and sinker. In N. Ireland the situation is as desperate as when I stood the barricades exactly 40 years ago, and everyone tells how much improved it all is.
Get real. The only thing that has happened is that far too many Brits have died, the taxpayer has forked out billions to immoral politicians, both here and abroad, bankers have got richer and politicians haven't the slightest notion of why they have got us into so much doodoo.
The question I want answering is why the BBC thinks it has the right to deny open debate at all.
Oh yes, I served at these places at the precise moments and was involved when so many of my comrades were dying. The body has got old and wrecked, but the memories are still as vivid today as it will be for all the friends and families of the murdered yesterday.
BLESS ALL OUR PEOPLE IN UNIFORM. It is for all their memory I shall be having two minutes silence next Wednesday. That is why I will not be at the cenotaph in Blackpool but amongst comrades who stood side by side then and I think today.
It will be 40 years on the 10th of this month that I was in square behind a detachment of RUC officers on Northumberland Avenue, Belfast, when a prodestant murdered Constable Victor Arbuckle not ten paces ahead. If memory serves me correct, we had rifles but no ammunition.

The economy.

Max Keiser has been right over the economy for several years. He has been calling for the prosecution of Bankers and politicians alike. A single voice in the cess-pit of corruption led by the Bank of England right up Labour's backside.

Exhibition of art

Alan Walker, the Tooloose Le Treck of Blackpool artists, is having an exhibition of his work at the Solarium on South Prom. If you get there early to miss the rush, you may get a cup of Trade Fair coffee and a diet biscuit for none dunking. If you get there late you can always stagger into the Farmers for a cigarette. You will not be able to smoke it, but you can add to the profits of the major drinks companies who laud it over the poor pensioner drinkers with excessive costs.
The three foot two inch Alan was busy slapping oil on his latest model, but hastily raised himself to his feet when he saw the digital camera, covered his latest masterpiece with a nylon handkerchief and dribbled off white thru the gap in his toes.
We look forward to viewing this exhibition - or walking through the exhibits.

Recession to continue?

clipped from www.telegraph.co.uk HSBC chief Michael Geoghegan fears second downturn The comments from Mr Geoghegan, who leads one of the world’s largest banks, helped to push the FTSE 100 down in early trading by six points, or 0.1pc.

Join the deabte. Get your head from up your backsides.

Blackpool Conservatives accused.

clipped from www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk Deputy leader Councillor Ian Fowler, in cash gift probe Coun Ron Bell, who is the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Conservatives in Blackpool South, has been referred to the national Standards Board, along with his Tory colleague Coun Jim Houldsworth.

The sweet smell of hypocrisy wafts round Blackpool like a ruptured effluent pipe out into the Irish Sea. For years the public have ignored the murmurings of ‘irregularity’ in local politics because not a single body appeared to have the stomach or authority to confront dubious activities.

The imagination with which politicians interpret rules to suit themselves is farcical and responsible for the moral cesspit that governs public perception. Where are simple ethics of Right and Wrong? Definitely not in Westminster and the country might say, not in many council offices. It is this perception that prevents perfectly decent people from entering politics and playing an active role in society.

When Steve Flanigan resigned as Treasurer of the Blackpool South Conservatives, there was not a murmur. The fact that a leading councillor had received donations of £250 from the late George Thompson of the Pleasure Beach and had chosen not to immediately declare it to the Treasurer is and was indicative of British politics at all levels. What happened was not illegal, just morally indefensible. If a political figure cannot hold the moral high ground then how can they make the hard decisions which affect the most vulnerable in society without being accused of, in the least, double standards?

Not that what Mr Thompson did was illegal. In fact it is the individuals’ duty to assist financially whichever party one supports, but within rules. The fact that Labours’ National Treasurer Jack Dromey, Teflon Jack to the media, proved morally corrupt during Labours’ period of revelations can be contrasted with the speed with which the local conservative treasure departed his post. How anyone would want to be associated with that level of deceit emanating from the Labour Party is laughable, but we have all witnessed this in the past with the arrogance of the ever righteous Conservative hierarchy.

The proof of the public’s isolation is obvious for everyone to see. Attending any meeting where a councillor or council official is supposed to listen to the concerns of the public is worse than the inquisition. All that is missing is the crucifix, the wrack and boiling oil; small wonder Joe Public does not complain. The professional malcontent gets all the attention and the silent needy get ignored. Within a few homes in South Shore there is the alcoholic, 50 plus years of age, never worked a day in his life, who has been allowed to turn his flat into a slum and who claims every penny the state allows, just a few yards from the disabled ex serviceman who has recently retired, who gets a few coppers over his entitlement (sic) and is harassed continually by Town Hall, Inland Revenue and all the agencies that are suppose to assist. Not much consolation for over forty five years of work? Yet local councillors ignored the serviceman for years because he worked, even though he is disabled. This is the future of the wounded servicemen flooding out of Afghanistan, fact.

The Tory names banded about in these latest accusations have their detractors rubbing their hands with glee. Much of the chagrin is that the dissenters are probably all natural conservatives, disillusioned hard working people who gave much in time and effort to the welfare of former service personnel. That insidious sinecure, the Ex Service Liaison Committee, appears to have been bequeathed from one sycophant to another; another subsection of Blackpool Conservatives? Senior charity service workers wonder at precisely what the role of the Ex Service’s Committee is as they seem to have no idea of the scale or proportion of need amongst former service men. For example, rumour has it that Audly Court is in difficulty with finances but nothing is said of the potential problem. More, several former soldiers are very visibly in desperate need of help, but rarely is there an arm around their shoulders since Ssafa ceased to be an entity in the region. So what does the Ex Service Liaison Committee do, apart from silencing any former serviceman who dares tell their own perception of fact?

Councillor Fowler was witnessed ignoring a group of kids damaging a public toilet in Highfield Road Park, choosing to telephone rather than act, casting the die. What is galling is that Councillor Sue Fowler is on the Police committee and a stern word was probably all that was needed. Not exactly the reaction you would expect from a senior political figure, but there again obfuscation seems to be the by-word of the day.

Politician, don’t you just love them?

Jack Straw a letter to the Mail on Line.

Question Time on the BNP

There have been many remarks about the capacity of Jack Straw in this debate. In January of this year he was asked to be arbiter in the untimely death of an 80 year old, Andy Miller of Accrington, the heart attack and coma victim who had not paid a speeding fine, who subsequently died whilst in the 'custody' of a bailiff who was illegally enforcing an inflated payment from the dementia suffer.

What you saw on QT was precisely what the Miller family got from the Minister of Justice, obfuscation, avoidance, irrelevance and superiority. “I will not prosecute Mr Griffin…” was as arrogant a remark as any minor solicitor might pronounce and said much of Jack Straw and the selectivity of an audience picked for their bias, irrespective of what the BBC says.

Any working family who thinks that this facade is nothing more than political foreplay should exercise their memory and ask, when did Jack Straw and his party delivered on a single promise to the people of these islands?

All the promises that Labour make to the wounded being repatriated from War Zones are as meaningless as their promises to guarantee the pensions of soldiers’ pre April 5^th 1975. And people vote for them???? Why?

Former US Marine Captain resigns

clipped from www.nytimes.com US Diplomat Resigns to Protest Afghan War WASHINGTON (AP) -- A former Marine who fought in Iraq and became a diplomat in a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan has resigned in a high-profile protest of the Afghan war. Foreign service officer Matthew Hoh is the first U.S. official known to have quit in protest to the war, according to The Washington Post, which reported Hoh's resignation in Tuesday's editions. Hoh said he stepped down only six months into the job because he believed the war is fueling the insurgency. The State Department said it respected his views but did not agree with them.

This story is more significant than on first impression