Even the Evil Empire Soviet Union admitted that it had wrongly smeared, destroyed and degraded those it had once charged with terrible crimes.
Victims of screaming, one-sided trials were later killed or starved to death. In one horrible case, they were hanged, cremated, and their ashes were used to grit the freezing roads. All of them were eventually exonerated.
Why does Justin Welby (Archbishop of Canterbury) struggle so much to admit that he made a terrible error about the late Bishop George Bell, of Chichester, one the greatest Englishmen in the 20th Century? He didn’t mix him up with his close-related, the revolting mole Peter Ball. You should not either. I have been accused of defending Ball by some very rude letters. I would never dream of doing anything like that.
To put it mildly, Mr Welby was implicated in a shocking kangaroo court in which Bell, a brave opponent of Nazism and ally to the German resistance to Hitler was presumed guilty on a horrible charge of child abuse.
PETER HITCHENS – Why does Justin Welby (Archbishop of Canterbury) struggle so much to admit that he made a terrible error about the late Bishop George Bellof Chichester, one the greatest Englishmen in the 20th Century?
My view has been that the complainant was abused but by someone else. Her evidence against Bell was never made public by Lord Carlile, a respected QC.
But would Mr Welby resign? It’s not a little.
First, he accepted a number of new allegations against George Bell. They were so absurd and feeble even Dame Cressida Dick and her Olympically gullible Met Police Celebrity Squad could not have believed them. He maintained that George Bell’s reputation was under a’significant cloud’ even after these allegations were dropped. Evidently, in his world, you will always be suspect if you are charged with a crime.
But Mr Welby, who is notoriously censorious about the opinions of others, now has his own problems. He was a senior official in Liverpool’s church and banned a worshipper from the Cathedral because he was ‘abusive’ and ‘threatening’.
PETER HITCHENS: Mr Welby was involved in what has since been shown to be a shocking kangaroo trial, in which the long-dead Bell, a courageous opponent of the Nazis and ally of the German resistance to Hitler, was presumed guilty of a terrible charge of child abuse
The worshipper had reasons. He was trying to get Mr Welby’s attention to a priest who he claimed had abused his children. This case (unlike George Bell’s) was compelling enough to be taken seriously.
John Roberts (the priest in question) was already convicted of indecent assault. Later Roberts was jailed for offences against three people – one of them the man Mr Welby had sternly banned from the Cathedral. This remarkable story about England’s foremost clergyman has received very little media attention outside of our sister paper, The Daily Mail.
In fact, I can see Mr Welby’s problem here. As many have done in such cases, he made a poor judgment. Lawyers for Roberts’ victims point out that Welby’s inaction could have delayed police action for years. He is not in a position where he can set himself up to be the Righteous judge of George Bell.
I wrote to the Church of England asking if Mr Welby would remove the words “significant cloud” and act to rehabilitate George Bell.
Like a Soviet show-trial victim’s name, the name of Bishop Bell has been taken from a building that was named after him, from another school named after it, and from a house that was also named after Bell. The fate of the planned statue of him, which should have been unveiled at the Canterbury Cathedral front, is unknown.
I got nothing except flannel. We are here. As long as he does not retract the claim that George Bell is under a’significant cloud,’ then Justin Welby is a hypocrite. Even the Kremlin had more conscience.
Little Amal hides a serious problem
Last week, I finally saw the strange giant puppet Little Amal. It was being paraded around Europe to draw attention to the plight Syrian refugees. The glowering thing arrived in Oxford, my hometown, where it was paired up with a rather polite mega-doll of Alice in Wonderland.
Alice was a good observer of human folly, and she spent a lot time being the wrong size. I don’t know what Alice would have made of this political circus. It is quite strange. It’s amazing that most Syrian refugees aren’t little girls, but young, slender men. I wonder how this huge puppet would be welcomed.
PETER HITCHENS: Last week I finally saw the peculiar giant puppet Little Amal, which has been paraded across Europe, supposedly to draw attention to the plight of refugees from Syria
It is also striking to me that Little Amal, who is actually 11ft 5in tall, doesn’t look like a small girl, but rather like a snappish and cross Left-wing TV host, perhaps on BBC Newsnight. Finally, it struck me that if Left wing people in this country were not so keen on starting a civil war and intervening in Libya, there might not been as many refugees, regardless of whether they were little girls, or grown men.
How many people who show obeisance the Little Amal puppet don’t know about the huge CIA program Timber Sycamore, which cost a billion dollars and enabled the nice West to fuel the war in Syria and even help Al Qaeda-linked groups. What good was this? The Syrian regime was, and still is, a terrible dictatorship. But, how can you make it better? By turning people into corpses and refugees or by supporting fanatics?
I have nothing but praises to give to those who welcome these refugees into their homes. I’m less for those who believe that others should bear the burden. Little Amal might wonder if she was being used if she were a real little girl.
Sainsbury’s falls on the zealots
The infiltration of all parts of the country by zealots, activists is nearing completion. You may be worried about the infiltration of various fanatics into the BBC, universities and nursery of your child’s baby. It’s a valid concern. The PC message is also constantly being broadcast by stately homes, banks, and bus companies.
The supermarkets are the latest great institutions to be destroyed. They have started to tell us to eat more beans and legumes and less meat to save the planet. Last week, I walked into a Sainsbury’s and was greeted by a display of small flags proclaiming that the store was celebrating Black History Month.
Although I don’t drive much, modern petrol pumps seem to be becoming quite bossy. I wonder how long they will continue lecturing customers about their carbon footprints and Black Lives Matter.
It is always one opinion. It is always one opinion.
It’s funny in one way, but it’s not funny in another.