Reverend Jim Ain't Done Yet...
And he probably isn't going to let this go, just as he's suggested. When you run a branch of the UK Police Service uniquely gifted with the kind of powers witnessed only in a service like Customs & Excise I suppose you might be forgiven a touch of hubris. Mr Gamble, despite becoming a self-parody at times - is a prime example of absolute power at work.
CEOP is now a quango, a branch of the UK Police Service, taxpayer funded to the tune of at least £5million per annum, enjoys large donations of cash and expertise from private corporations (VISA, Microsoft, etc) tailgating his moral crusade and - again, uniquely - enjoys Government connections at the very highest levels, able to influence directly the creation of new law (you can read all this - specifically CEOP's direct contributions - in freely available Parliamentary Reports, such as those released dealing with the recent 'cartoon porn' laws introduced in the UK and reported widely here on The Reg courtesy of Jon Ozimek who has done a sterling job of reporting this most recent travesty of justice). As such, CEOP is one of the most powerful - and deadly - branches of law enforcement in the UK, if not Europe, able to wreak havoc and absolute ruin on anyone unfortunate enough to fall under its baleful gaze.
Reverend Jim's little sojourn to Washington might well have ended in abject failure for his much-vaunted 'panic button' but Jim will find many friends across the pond who share his passion for a particularly rough kind of justice. The USA, indeed, must seem like some kind of paradise compared to Britain when one considers the totally surreal measures currently being meted out to 'sex offenders' there; if you think things are getting even a little out of hand here in the UK, take some time to look up some of the cruelties of the US justice system when applied to anyone even suspected of looking at something 'indecent' on their computer. It really does beggar belief that such an allegedly 'civilized' society as the US could behave in such a wretchedly medieval way towards its own citizens, including it's children.
Here in the UK there might be some hope that Mr Gamble could soon be asked to explain himself (and that would indeed be a first, since successive Home Secretarys have singularly failed to do so). The brave, determined people behind the 'Operation Ore' UK class action (due to reach the Courts very soon) claim to have strong evidence of a very grave miscarriage of justice. If British Law has even one good eye the Reverend (who led Op Ore) and his congregation should be squirming in their pews just about now.
In the end it's reassuring to remember that every empire falls, every jumped-up little Napoleon eventually meets his Waterloo. One of life's little certainties, Jim.