Derek Thomas MP Investigated for Dereliction of Duty and Failure to Provide Representation to Constituents in West Cornwall and the Scilly Isles

Derelict Derek and the Death of Democracy
Open letter to Derek Thomas, MP for St.Ives and Isles of  Scilly, Cornwall,  8th May, 2017

Dear Derek,
I wish to complain most strongly that since being our MP you have failed to reply to the majority of my letters and messages to you.  An MP's duty is to represent his or her constituents and this requires  responding to them.  You have a staff to help with correspondence.  On 9th July 2016 I interviewed you on youtube and you told me you would investigate the ratification of the UN Convention Against Torture which PM Thatcher signed in 1985 but did not ratify.  Ten months later you have not done so. When I asked you last autumn if there was any progress on this issue you told me you were conducting research... 
This January I sent you a series of emails and phone-messages imploring you to liaise with Foreign Secretary Johnson over the case of Krishna Maharaj, an innocent British citizen who's spent 30 years in Florida's prisons, including ten under death-sentence.  Mr Maharaj has been exonerated but not released.  When he recently contracted flesh-eating bacterial disease the Florida Department of Corrections were not permitting him to have medical treatment, though he risked losing a leg.  The Reprieve organisation was calling for our government to intervene and get this 78 year old into hospital.  I begged you repeatedly to help this man but you failed to respond to my pleas and turned a deaf ear.
I was very disappointed by this.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Schanche 
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An MP who doesn't respond to constituents' letters is no better than a policeman who does not arrest robbers, a doctor who refuses to treat patients or a fireman who will not attend a fire.  Criminal negligence and dereliction of duty - Derelict Derek. 
Anyone with nothing better to do could scroll down through this blogspot and find the tedious history, going back to the very beginning of his tenure, of the failure of Derek Thomas MP to reply to his letters.  There must be literally scores of unanswered emails quoted in this blog, plus numerous emails where I'm specifically asking him to respond to the heap of previous ones.  A fair bit of my correspondence is thus 'chasing-correspondence' which is a secondary problem to deal with and waste time over, if you can be bothered.  I have been more or less bothered and have kept pretty good, but not exhaustive records of Derek's non-communication and dereliction of duty, which I consider a serious offence against our democracy.  These are not just words to me.  I believe Derek Thomas guilty of criminal negligence and I'm happy to bark it into his face, as it were. 

Things came to a head between me and Derek when we had an Ancient Greek style debate on democracy in the street, early last summer.   At the time I angrily accused Derek of non-communication and after a slightly heated exchange - on my part - settled into a more friendly chat, we agreed to do the YouTube interview (there's a whole long back-story of faffing around about arranging the interview too....more wasted time). 
This interview was to be a kathartic meeting of minds, which, to some extent, it was.  At the time, it seemed to compensate a bit for the unanswered letters and I thought it was good of Derek to agree to talk to me on camera, unedited - most politicians are very wary about their public image, and live free-speech debate scares the hell out of most of them.  I enjoyed doing the interview and found Derek's company pleasant and friendly.  We talked for over an hour, we were both very tired but we went for it anyway and I think we both considered it a success.  Derek expressed an interest in repeating the experience in a few months time and I agreed that I'd be happy to do so.
The thing is, in politics, like everything else, you have to judge people by their actions and as soon as the interview was completed Derek went right back to ignoring my communiques.  I let it go for a long time, giving him the 'benefit of the doubt' that he was indeed putting some work into the project we'd discussed - namely the UNCAT ratification.  By the autumn though, I tried to summon Derek's help over a couple of British political prisoners overseas at risk of torture or death - no response. 
In January 2017 I made several desperate attempts to contact Derek over the fate of Krishna Maharaj, the innocent Brit in prison in Florida for 30 years now.  It was just before Kris' 78th birthday when he contracted necrotising fasciitis - flesh-eating bacterial disease - in the ghastly conditions of the Florida Department of Corrections.  I really thought Derek would respond or at least acknowledge my messages, but I never had a single word from him - he was quite happy to leave Kris to quite literally rot in jail, in extreme danger of losing his leg - if not his life.  This I find hard to forgive.  So despite Derek talking about 'being on the right side' and telling us how much he cares about women and children in Pakistan and Syria, and all he does to help the world, from Cornwall to Africa, when it comes to lifting a finger to try to help a British citizen who's life is in danger in a nightmarish gulag, Derek can't quite be bothered.  Perhaps if Krishna Maharaj was called Christopher Marshall and had a white face and went to church Derek would get off his proverbial.

Email of 18th Jan.2017 to Derek Thomas MP

Urgent Attention:  Derek Thomas MP

Dear Derek,          K R I S   M A H A R A J  /  FLORIDA

Thank you for your message.  I note your statement:  

"It is worth recognising that anyone who is found to be at risk of torture in their country of origin will not be returned."

Should we not apply this same level and principle of justice to securing the release of a sick and elderly man, exonerated of guilt after 30 years in a cell?

I am sure you have seen my last two messages about Kris Maharaj, a British prisoner of Florida.  I am extremely concerned about the welfare of this innocent man, who has already suffered unimaginable horrors in the Florida Department of Corrections, due to the corruption of the Miami-Dade police department and their collusion with the Escobar cocaine company.  

As I mentioned, this issue has been put on Boris Johnson's desk and I would be extremely grateful if you could ascertain from him what action the British Government has taken to secure urgent medical help for Kris. 

My home phone number is PZ xxxxxx and my mobile is xxxxx xxxxxx.  I'd very much appreciate an update.

With thanks and best wishes from Jeremy

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Here you can find information on the case of Krishna Maharaj, an innocent British citizen who has so far spent 30 in the Florida Department of Corrections, including ten years under wrongful sentence of death.

Article about The United Nations Convention Against Torture

The Limpet 160 - Derek Thomas makes UNCAT promise, July 2016...

Here's the actual text of the UNCAT, see Article 22, Paragraph 1

Please check out the unfolding story of Darren Rainey, the black Muslim steamed to death by Florida prison guards on 23rd June, 2012; the cover-up of his killing and the deconstruction and explosion of said cover-up by Harold Hempstead, a.k.a. Miami Harold, a.k.a. The Caged Crusader.  I'm publishing Harold's blog for him - please check it out and join our fight to uphold the value of all lives.  Last year I interviewed the Caged Crusader and asked him about his history, events at Dade prison, Florida and also the Christian philosophy that inspires his activism and his struggle.
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...Queueing for the House of Lords...

Derek!

Don't you let my letter get you down...  The Battle for Britain...
Note:  The Queen offered Bowie a knighthood -nightwarp- but he
didn't need Babylon's gong, he knew who he was.

Down with Derek!

DARREN RAINEY UK DEMO MAY DAY 2017

May Day Report – Penzance, Cornwall, 1^st May, 2017

Well, as planned, I kicked off Europe’s first protest for Darren Rainey today, in a very modest way.  This time last year, I organized a demo outside Penzance Hospital, in support of the National Health Service –  those were days of Momentum, before it played out – the spirit was weak but the flesh was weak.  Luckily this – the fizzling of momentum, left me free to devote myself to helping Harold Hempstead with his work on the Darren Rainey case and other matters relating to the Florida Department of Corrections. 

It was a chilly and windy day, overcast and threatening storm.  The town was nearly deserted – it’s what the English call a ‘Bank Holiday’ which I think all other nations call a public holiday.  We are not ruled by banks in Britain, don’t get me wrong.  Anyway, it’s the kind of day when people go elsewhere.  They go to other places than the centre of Penzance, which is where I was going.  Well, it wasn’t quite empty, truth is, the centre of town has been taken over by a group of street-folk, whom I have nothing against, though they can be a tad noisy at times.  A fella came up to me, his voice subdued, opiated;  his face blenched white, eyes pinned.  He took a leaflet and mumbled something, seemed like a nice fella really, just poppied-out somewhat.  Well I stood there with my three cardboard signs that I’d stayed up most of the night making – they still looked very home-made – each one was double sided – I’d been thinking of doing a ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ number with the shuffling sign-boards.  It was very windy, as I said and the cardboard was flapping a bit.  My plan was to regularly shuffle the signs, I was holding all three so I could simply turn over the one at the front, then the next one, etc..  This was to be my ‘act’, whilst I also held a handful of small flyers, hoping to entice punters with these strategies.  Dumb old me, I’d forgotten what a miserable bunch of shallows the British Punterhood actually is.  As the occasional minute trickle of citizens walked by – many of them obviously avoiding me – I stepped up, offering a flyer and, as I imagined, cordially inviting them to ‘Oppose Torture’ or even go so far as to ‘Stand up for Human Rights.’ 

Well, let me explain something to those of you who live outside Britain or are not familiar with our national psyche…  We’ve been conditioned over here to believe that it’s alright to be cold and unhelpful, as long as it’s done under a veneer of politeness.  Trouble is, this strategy wears a little thin in some situations and is a poor substitute for human warm, or even direct honesty.  So I’m there going ‘Human Rights in America!’ and trying to give out leaflets and honestly, about nine out of ten of them would walk by and say ‘no thank you’ in a horribly English way.  It would be better if they said nothing at all.  I can’t help it, it brings out the sarcasm in me.  So when I say ‘Human Rights’ and they say ‘No thank you’ in a weirdly plummy, emotionally cold and disconnected way, I can’t help laughing – as if they really do not want any rights.  What they are saying is they do not wish to consider whatever it is that I might be saying.  They’re not saying they want anyone tortured to death – they’re just saying they don’t want to talk to a bloke in the street holding a cardboard sign.  They’ve been conditioned to get their info through shiny channels, not dodgy-looking home-made ones.  I admit, after very little sleep, that their lack of interest was mildly annoying and perplexing, but then there were the other ten per cent who make it worthwhile. 

So despite thin numbers and broody, moody, uncheerful weather, I still managed to get rid of quite a few flyers and then I remembered the Limpets.  I’d done a rare thing and printed out a load of copies, printed on both sides!  That’s up-market stuff to me.  It was issue 170, one that means a lot to me, as it’s Harold Hempstead’s blog entitled ‘A Fight For The Value Of Life’, which I find very moving, and the front cover is my poster of Darren Rainey in the stars, which also means quite a lot to me, as I wanted a positive, spiritual and strong image of him out there.  Quite a few people showed mild interest and a few stayed and talked in a little more depth.  Another thing to bear in mind is that in Britain the right-wing press has for a long time been associating the term ‘Human Rights’ with stories of foreigners exploiting the law and using it to worm around various things.  The dumb tabloids have trained the uncritical to react to the term ‘Human Rights’ with a knee-jerk reaction of scathing suspicion, as if it’s a by-word for fraud.  Rather sad really, when you think that establishing Human Rights in conventions, treaties and international law was how the ‘allies’ defined post-war western civilization – in contradistinction to nazi ‘culture.’  All the great Human Rights Declarations and Conventions of the post-war epoch are exactly that – an attempt to legally define just what it was that made us different from the fascist enemies we were forced to fight and kill – well, our grandparents were, I should say…  so it’s saddening to realize that people, well, some people, are suspicious of ‘human rights’. 

Being out in my local street like that reminded me of just how closed most people are.  But it was also very rewarding to engage with the caring minority of the people.  Those who obviously care.  Those who grasp the subject quickly, not staring blankly with bored eyes, but eyes that show life, interest, comprehension. 

Sadly, no press turned up, nor any friends with cameras so the event itself went unrecorded (they even turned off the Orwellian street cameras some years back, after the local authorities blew all the town’s money on an erotic adventure to Thailand or something)  I got there before 12, and left soon after one, feeling chilly but satisfied.  Just as I was packing up, I heard my name called and there across the street were two friends of mine, an old activist guy who’s a barricade-rat from decades back and a poet lady who spent years in Egypt and witnessed the blood there.  What a pleasant end to my demo.  They were going to our local left-wing café, where some friends were having a get-together to celebrate the Spring.  We were soon all babbling away, with Pete taking the lead.  He’s a personal friend of Corbyn, going back many years and we debated, or were treated to a debate on Party-Political matters.  After a while, ol’ Pete kindly agreed to do a brief film clip of me, a kind of micro-version of the protest, as it had not been filmed.  We trooped out into the main drag of Penzance and I ranted at the camera for a few moments, with my poet friend egging me on with a couple of questions in a mini-interview type thing.  When we went back into the café I joined a salsa combo on congos for a few tunes, I’d played with some of them years before, ha- before I quit the band to concentrate on campaigning to Save The Holy Headland….. that’s going back a while……  anyway, I jammed with them on guiro, that scratchy-reggae bead-gourd-thing, clave etc.. and then the guitar player approached me.  I’ve known him for years.  Last time I’d seen him he had annoyed me by criticizing my flyers for the Darren Rainey justice petition.  I’d told him then that they were done in a rush and the message was the main thing.   He reopened the topic.  He got out his flash phone and even showed me a mock-up version of a flyer he’d designed himself.  It had that grotesque drawing that looks nothing like Darren Rainey on it with some bland text and no proper link.  I asked him if he had signed the petition.  He had not.  He had done nothing to promote it, but spent considerable time designing a dummy flyer just to show me how it should be done.  He hadn’t even signed the petition.  Then he started criticizing my ‘attitude’ and that’s about when I said a loud and hearty ‘fuck you’ to his face and walked out, trailing ripples of turbulent air.  I laughed to myself as I relaxed soon afterwards.  People think it’s a game.  Perhaps they’re right.  I see it as a titanic struggle – perhaps I’m wrong.  Either way, let each go their own way, the way they think best and to many folks, the crusted layer of cynicism is worn like a helmet-hat to protect the hollow head – I’d rather go hatless and blundering towards what I think to be true.  I just had a lesson in the people’s prevailing – but not total – indifference.  I still believe most people are good if you can get through to them – but it’s such hard work, it would break the nose of a rhinoceros. 

Pretty much the biggest buzz came from knowing that my friend in Georgia was marching on the Courthouse in Gwinnett County, also choosing May Day as the day of action for justice.  Well done, Mori and I hope it went off without any trouble.  When I think of what you go through in your land, the ‘land of the free’ it just inspires me to carry on, in my relatively safe European home, where guns are rare and parole is the norm.  Where prisoners in medical distress get taken to a clinic, dentist or whatever they need.  Where, though the system is ancient and somewhat crusted with archaic rust and corrosion, at least we have some basic rights, children are not tried as adults, people are not kept in solitary confinement for more than three weeks maximum and we no longer kill our killers to prove that killing is wrong, like they are in Arkansas right now. 

P.S.  When I get the film footage – I’ll put it up…..    The signs mentioned Krishna Maharaj and I discussed him with some people.  It’s a shame the local press didn’t show up.  They’re owned by big business, so I think they have a policy of strict control over political news.  It probably would have stopped them from covering or mentioning the holocaust until decades later too.  So I didn’t get a chance to talk to any press about an innocent Brit in the FDC and about how my MP won’t respond to me on it.  A non-conspiracy of apathy, cynicism and silence.  No wonder poor Kris is still literally rotting in jail.  They have flesh-eating bacterial disease in the South Florida Reception Centre, you see, and I tried to tell Derek Thomas MP and ask him to communicate with Foreign Secretary Clown Johnson, but Derek couldn’t deign to reply to me.  That’s why we pay him £68,000 per year. 

My ‘Boycott Florida’ protest was small, low-key and humble, but it’s a start.  The first Rainey Protest outside USA, probably outside Florida!  I wish they would spread to France, Germany, Ukraine…. Portugal, Holland, Norway, all my neighbouring states…  I certainly reached a few people and planted a couple of seeds and it’s always good to get out on the streets, take Democracy back to its original home and birthplace – the Agora.  Be not afraid.

 Fe@r not – fight b@ck.  H@ppy M@y D@y Brothers @nd Sisters. 

When I got home I found this incredible film on youtube, combining some things I dearly love:  Paul Robeson singing Joe Hill to a group of Scottish Miners....... what a deep joy that gave me. I hope you all can feel it like I did.

Joe showing signs of road-fever?  Looks like Tory Crimes on drums - how apt.
Whatever happened to that ol' spiky sound?

The Selecter - Out In The Streets.....

Please see Harold's growing archive of evidence in the Darren Rainey case, thank you.