Roger Hayes is the chair of the British Constitution Group, a group which campaigns for lawful rebellion against governmental intrusions like Parliament, magistrates, and council tax, on the basis of our rights under Magna Carta. This morning he was arrested and imprisoned in Liverpool Prison by a magistrate’s court, and my Facebook feed went mad.
His outfit’s website, UK Column, has put up a lengthy article, complete with references to secret trials, gulags, and the Stasi, about how this incident shows the the police state closing in on us. I personally found this rather unlikely given the hundreds and hundreds of groups that are busy looking for exactly that have not seen fit to mention this case.
So, I just called Merseyside Police Press Office, to see what was up. They said that the operation was conducted at the request of Wirral Council, who obtained an arrest warrant from a judge last week. The lady I spoke to wasn’t entirely certain what the arrest was for, but believed that it was for non-payment of Council Tax.
They said that they will be putting a tweet out about it shortly and that they have contacted UKColumn to ask them to take down the post they have put up because it’s totally inaccurate. They have received several phone calls about it already on the basis of that article, but it’s nothing to do with them, because they were just executing a warrant – they suggest that everyone take it up with Wirral Council instead.
I would also like to point out that the “secret trial without a jury” was, in fact, a trip to the magistrate’s court, which doesn’t use juries for anything. Court can fast-track cases as they like, and if the warrant was issued a week ago, setting a court date and then obliging someone to attend it when they refuse to turn up is not “secret”, either.
I’ll maintain an open mind as we learn more about this case, but this does seem a very straght-forward matter of Roger Hayes refusing to pay council tax, being arrested for it and fined, and being jailed after refusing to pay that fine, something which happens to people all over the country who aren’t advocates for our Magna Carta rights – there seems little conspiracy or emerging police state here.
Here’s Wirral Council’s phone number if you want to check it out yourself: (0151) 606 2000
“I personally found this rather unlikely given the hundreds and hundreds of groups that are busy looking for exactly that have not seen fit to mention this case.”
It did just happen yesterday!
I agree, and I wouldn’t expect many reports. But I’d expect *some* kind of deal if someone really had been secretly arrested and jailed – that’s what the entire purpose of Liberty, after all.
Check out the Google Search for Roger Hayes: https://www.google.co.uk/search?sugexp=chrome,mod=19&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=sochshare+game+of+thrones#q=roger+hayes&hl=en&prmd=imvnsuo&source=lnms&tbm=nws&sa=X&ei=5-zyT57PDKbB0gW_1d2vCQ&sqi=2&ved=0CEQQ_AUoBA&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=31cf4130233b935b&biw=1280&bih=909
http://www.ukcolumn.org/article/update-arrest-roger-hayes
That article is actually ridiculous. Magistrates have had the powers that they have, under which Roger Hayes has been jailed, for the last 800 years, this is nothing to do with a bloody police state – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magistrates_of_England_and_Wales#History_of_the_magistracy
And the Data Protection Act means that people can’t just give out information about you without your explicit consent – in any other situation, I imagine the people railing against the Data Protection Act would be furious if, say, information about their child was sent from the school to private companies, or their medical records were published for anyone on request. You *shouldn’t* be able to just call up a prison and be able to get all sorts of information about the people you think are there!
Not as ridiculous as his treatment.
Posted on fb yesterday:-
Roger Hayes was visited in prison this morning by Danny Bamping, who took an affidavit from Roger in which he makes it clear he received no summons or invitation to the hearing which resulted in the arrest warrant being issued.
Roger also makes it clear he was given no opportunity to speak at the unlisted secret court hearing – a hearing which lasted just long enough to the judge to utter the sentence.
Danny and his team will submit an application for Habeas Corpus tomorrow morning, at the High Court in Manchester, which can be found in the new “Civil Justice Centre”.
The application will be heard under “Supreme Court Order 54”.
Yes, this is sounding more and more like a trip to the magistrate’s court for enforcement, you know. “secret unlisted court hearing where you’re not allowed to speak” = “a common and straightforward hearing regarding sentencing, the summons for which Roger Hayes ignored because he doesn’t recognise the authority of the court”.
This statement doesn’t say whether Danny Bamping is in fact a lawyer or not, but I bet he isn’t, and I bet he’s going to get rebuffed by the court, and I bet he’s going to claim it’s evidence that the dark arm of the law has no regard for justice, police state, Magna Carta, blah, blah, blah.