Secret society
We live in a land where decisions are taken openly and our judicial process is fair. But is a creeping preference for secrecy starting to pervade our public life? Somerset Confidential investigates
SC Special 20
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Secret Society
In June our sister paper, The Leveller® published a letter we received from North Korean apologist Dr Dermot C Hudson. In it he explained at great length about how ordinary working people exercise power at the local level through People’s Assemblies and People’s Committees at district, city, county and provincial level. Moreover Article 69 of the Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea states that Citizens are entitled to submit complaints and petitions.
Society there is so open and open to challenge that two senior North Korean officials were executed in 2016 with an anti-aircraft gun on the orders of Kim Jong-un. Ri Yong Jin, a senior official in the education ministry was arrested for dozing off during a meeting with Kim and charged with corruption before being killed. Former Agriculture Minister Hwang Min was purged over a proposed project seen as a direct challenge to Kim’s leadership.
Fine examples of openness and being open to improvement through constructive criticism.
There is equality before the law and everything in the garden is rosy
Here in Blighty we pride ourselves on our legal processes, indeed most of our processes, being open and open to scrutiny. There is equality before the law and everything in the garden is rosy. That was then and this is now. In the last three weeks having had conversations in two pubs, with two politicians from opposite ends of the political spectrum, I feel it is all very much less rosy.
I should also say up front, that both subjects of this report are friends and to that extent, I declare the potential for bias. I trust the article still makes a clear point, but you should know that before reading on.
Now one other thing before we start. This article is not in any sense trying to equate the two cases that follow. Someone is bound to suggest it, but it is not our intent. This is an article about process, due process, only.
My first conversation was with former Labour Parliamentary candidate Sean Dromgoole. We met over a pint of Otter Bright at the Halfway House in Pitney.
Mr Dromgoole is a natural story teller and bon vivant, to say nothing of the fact that he seems to be on first name terms with half the constituency of Somerton & Frome. On this occasion he was steeped in melancholy. It is not normal to see him so down in the dumps. We still made an evening of it and left in happier mood than we arrived but all was not well.