Ambassador, you’re confusing us!

Next week Sir Vincent Fean, KCVO, is scheduled to give evidence to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee. Sir Vincent was educated at Saint Theodore’s Roman Catholic High School and the University of Sheffield and speaks Arabic. According to the  Oxford Research Group , the retired ambassador is particularly interested in Libya’s future.

On 8 June 2008, he wrote to Tony Blair , re the talks between Libya and the USA, in the following terms:

“HMG is not involved in the talks , although some British Citizens might be affected by them [Lockerbie plus some Northern Irish litigants].

It remains a UK objective to promote the City of London as a safe and profitable place for Libya to invest its Sovereign Wealth Fund through the Libyan Investment Authority, which  we hope will open a London office this year.”

He then went on to extol the virtues of selling some arms to Gadafy, a contract worth £400 million  to the UK .

When Sir Vincent appears I will be interested to hear him respond to the following questions.

  1. Having established that Gadafy funded the IRA and provided the Semtex which killed hundreds in the UK, was it OK to be his friend?
  2. Having known about Gadafy’s human rights abuses, was he satisfied that the money to be invested was not stolen from Gadafy’s subjects?
  3. When is money the proceeds of crime and when is it legitimate, or does that depend on which arms company is twisting the Ambassador’s arm?

Small chocolate, anyone?

Emma Pengelly Part II

Readers will know that for many years I have been involved in the campaign to have the killers of my parents prosecuted and for hundreds of people to be compensated for the use of Semtex  by Martin McGuinness and his fellow terrorists, who are in government with the DUP.

I blogged about Emma Pengelly and she emailed me today to say that she finds my blog “both unfair and upsetting”. Leaving aside the DUP inactivity on either of my campaigns, I’m sure there are many politicians who share her emotions about my blogging about them.

She says that she is not a “blow in” having lived in South Belfast for about a decade. Given the size and geographic spread of the constituency, that could be said by anyone in Sandy Row, the Malone Road or Carryduff. But ask Ruth Patterson for a more intimate view.

Secondly she says that she did not support a cap on self employed barristers “in the context in which it was being discussed”. You decide, Dear Reader.

Thirdly she says that she has “a full mandate”. An extraordinary claim in the circumstances. Nobody has ever voted for her.

Fourthly she says that it is outrageous that I mention her husband’s salary. Well, is not her point to Jim Allister about the payment of money by the state?

Fifthly she objects to the use of the word “comfort”. That word  has been in the public domain for a long time.

Lastly , she suggests that I have attempted “to publicly humiliate her” and added a little note of menace, something the DUP majors in. Ask Jamie Bryson.

When she was appointed I wished her well. I hoped that she might be that ‘breath of fresh air” that we often seek in our politics.

Sadly, by her willingness to get embroiled in a spat with Jim Allister, she displayed all the weaknesses of her boss and of the party in general. Arrogance and willing to spend more time rubbishing unionists than SinnFein/IRA.

I’m disappointed by her and that’s in less than a month.

Anyway, what’s that saying about the heat and the kitchen?

An open letter to Emma Pengelly

I had thought to give you some time to settle into your new role.

Not cognisant with the nuances of DUP South  Belfast, I thought it best to let you bed down and make a fist of it.

Now I read that you want to trade punches with Jim Allister. You, who have  no mandate. You who have until lately, been earning in excess of £90,000. You , who had a completely unaccountable role. Jim Allister has been selected by the people. You have not and might be a little modest regarding that.

You, who together with your [under achieving]  permanent secretary husband , have been trousering over £200,000 per annum.

You want to criticise the Bar for its earnings. Well, they don’t steal the money and they have to be selected , unlike your role as a SpAd.

How do you think the people of South Belfast regard you?

A blow in , because, for whatever reason you were favoured by Peter Robinson, as having , according to the press, been a comfort to him during the Iris crisis.

Worse than a blow in, a well heeled one. How do you justify your combined income, ten times or more the income of a family in South Belfast?

I hope they tip you out at the election.

Invest NI Money before principles

In 2014 Invest NI led a delegation to Libya while that country refused to compensate victims for the harm caused by their supply of Semtex to PIRA.

Of course, it was a delegation approved by the DUP and particularly by Arlene Foster, who should know , more than most , what Gadafy did here.

It raises the question ,posed most remarkably by Jamie Bryson, does this state exist for the aggrandisement of the few at the expense of the many?

What does the DUP really stand for? Corruption, fracking, land grabbing , planning scams, sexual misdemeanours, anti-gay angst, queer sects and more?

Noel Johnston, of Invest NI said “Libya is becoming an important place for our companies.” How interesting for those whose family members are dead, maimed or crippled at their hands.

The past isn’t over

“The reason the past cannot be dealt with is that it isn’t over”. A pithy statement by Eamonn McCann.

Let’s imagine in what civilised country the murders of two pensioners in 1990 by a terrorist organisation would be variously regarded by the Chief Constable as “a legacy issue” or by the pro-GFA press as  ‘the past”.

Just a note of caution here. Every government seeks, by whatever means , to shape events and opinions. History tells us that the British target journalists. See Kim Philby, working for the Observer and the Economist. Frederick Forsyth , also a spook. How many of our ‘respected’ journalists are working for the state, being fed information and shaping stories to suit their masters? How many have skeletons which have been dangled before them by the spooks? Each time you read an article in the local press or on TV , ask yourself, who wrote it and why.

I digress. Crimes such as the murder of my parents in 1990 would be relentlessly pursued  by the Israelis.

Well, twenty five years and more on the past isn’t over, no matter what the state tells Dr Maguire , the Police Ombudsman.

No matter what the OFMDFM told the Victims’ Commissioner, when they appointed her.

I will be returning to that august body in my next blog.

Tobias Ellwood, a shameful performance

With that insouciance and practised air of effortless ease , Tory Grandee-in-the-making, Tobias Ellwood appeared in front of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee in September.

He was accompanied by an official from the FCO, Mr Dart.

It should be explained that the Committee is about Paddies.

The  subject matter was irksome and somewhat tiresome. Why had every other nationality been compensated for Libyan Semtex murders except  those from the United Kingdom?

Cue Tobias. Ex Royal Greenjacket.

First up. No, he had not read the transcript of the evidence from the previous week. He had “scanned through  it”. [stuff about Paddies is as interesting as diesel carbon emission statistics].

Second , having scanned through it, he had come to the immediate conclusion that evidence given by experienced lawyers was wrong.

Third. The deliciously named Mr Dart dropped him in it by telling the Committee that the decision not to espouse the victims’ claims was a political one.

Fourth, he had no clue about the value of frozen Libyan assets.

Fifth and most astonishingly, Tobias agreed with Mr Dart that the holders of the frozen bank accounts were entitled to be paid the annual interest accruing. He even indulged in a conversation about this with Ian Paisley.

It will come as no surprise to you, Dear Reader, that the Treasury has told me today that Dart and Ellwood  [do I think of sunglasses at this point?] are completely wrong.

The point about this sorry tale is that Tory ministers pay scant attention to Northern Ireland and can’t even be arsed to pretend.

Let’s hope that those relatives of the victims from Tunisia understand where Perfidious Albion’s interests lie.

It is not with the victims of terrorism then or now.

On not doing the wrong thing

An excellent commentary on the recent hearing where HMG, having opted not to protect Claimants in international law, now say they have no rights. This can be changed.

redcataract's avatarFiona O'Cleirigh

A week after hearing from victims of IRA bombs made with Semtex donated by Gaddafi, Parliament’s Northern Ireland Affairs Committee heard on Wednesday from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

This was a scheduled session and a key part of the committee’s inquiry into the government’s support, or otherwise, for the UK victims of those IRA attacks.

There was also a feel, however, of the courtroom in the European tradition, where judges receive submissions in turn from rivalling factions.  Last week, the victims; this week, not the terrorists, but the Foreign Office that those victims believe has failed them.  The very nature of the inquiry – the fact it exists at all – suggests that the NI Affairs committee members believe that something is wrong.

This week’s key witness was Tobias Ellwood, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the FCO.  Ellwood spent six years in the army with the Royal Green Jackets, which included serving in…

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Hiding in plain sight

Aren’t we missing something, Dear Reader?

During the vexed times when Sinn Fein/IRA were negotiating with Blair and matters such as decommissioning, or the lack of it, on-the-runs and Royal Pardons were being discussed there was a class of person for whom there was a difficulty. The murderer  such as Martin McGuinness or Brian Gillen, who had not been convicted. If you had a conviction, a Royal Pardon solved it. If you were outside Northern Ireland you got a letter. What to do with the rest? Given the level of detailed negotiation and subsequent events, there must , at least , have been an understanding about their future.

Try this. Unless the participants  commit a further offence, HMG will ensure that nobody will be prosecuted for a crime committed prior to the GFA. Should the PSNI arrest, charge and/or report someone on the list for an offence pre-GFA , HMG will ensure that , even if there is evidence which passes the test for prosecution, the prosecuting authority will be advised that prosecution is not in the public interest.

The legal basis for this is the Shawcross Doctrine. The executive can overrule the law officers in certain circumstances. Originally , regard had to be given to “the effect which a prosecution successful or unsuccessful as the case may be would have on public morale or order”.

Dominic Grieve also included ” where necessary to safeguard national security”.

Does this explain the paralysis re Gerry Adams, the dropping of a case against McGuinness in the 1980s, the disappearance of the file in Operation Taurus and the remarks of the investigators into the Enniskillen bomb? Does it explain the shock articulated by McGuinness when Adams was arrested and the mention of dark forces. Does it explain Bobby Storey’s guldering on a west Belfast platform? [ the caterpillar, before he was the butterfly]

Prosecutions are going nowhere, unless it is now in the public interest to let them.

Is it?

QUB Human Rights Centre

For as long as I have been a lawyer, QUB lawyers have displayed bias against the unionist and Protestant community.

No surprise then that Brice Dickson and Luke Moffett’s submission to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee urges them not to allow me to have access to the compensation I have sought for twenty five years , without any assistance from them. Read paragraph 14 of their submission.

Is it any wonder that people like Dickson are despised by loyalists?

In thirty years at the Bar I displayed more respect for human rights than Dickson and his sidekick could ever command.

Unsurprisingly , nobody from this taxpayer funded ‘centre’ ever contacted me to discuss the issues.

The Thugs who lived on the Hill

“One day, we built a house on the hilltop high

Bob and I

Storey  and me , a spoof that Sinners could fill

And were had a laugh to be called

The players  who lived on the Hill

Now , we’re subtracting a thing or two

A paramilitary wing or two

So now we’ll no longer be called the thugs who lived on the hill”

My apologies to Hammerstein and Kern, who were never in the IRA, not even Ira Gershwin.