NI Executive, Libya and the opportunity

One of the problems with the present talks is lack of additional money. Another is funding “the past”. In May 2011, the National Transitional Council in Libya signed a memorandum of understanding in which they said that it was their “sincere desire to enter discussions to consider an appropriately resourced humanitarian fund to be set up to recognise the pain and suffering of such victims and the wider society in the UK , and in particular Northern Ireland”. This was after it had apologised for the harm caused by the supply of guns and semtex to PIRA, led by Martin McGuinness and others.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office was tasked with examining ways in which this fund might be established and resourced. Three years on , it has made no progress.

It is estimated that 3,500 people, mostly in Northern Ireland, could benefit from this fund. It is an important aspect of dealing with the past.

Billions of pounds of Gadafy’s assets are frozen in the UK , yet no politician, or lawyer,local or national,  appears to have the skill to make this happen.

Kafka is alive and well

Readers of this blog and of the press  may be aware of certain difficulties I have experienced with the Bar Council. These, as they are at pains to point out , are matters that the public can come and hear about. Hence I am making them public to you. I have now been provided with a folder of prints out of my blog. They want me to take these to Dr Paul Miller and ask him to opine as to whether or not in the circumstances , I am really  “cured” and fit to practise as a barrister. This route has apparently been taken because Allison Morris and her employer , the Irish News,  have complained about my response to her article about me in their paper, an article which I believe was Sinn Fein/IRA inspired. The Bar Council then printed out all my blogs.

Included in folder , and flagged up,  is one I wrote about my friend , the late  Jack Kyle, a man whom I admired greatly. Jack wrote to the Irish Times on 26 July 1966 and delivered a stinging criticism of  Paisley and his views. I commented on this:

“Jack expresses views that have been discarded by all sides in a headlong rush for money and power. Maybe I’m just getting old but I regret his passing and the loss of his values”

I have no idea what the Bar Council’s objection is to this blog but no doubt I , and you, should you choose to attend the public hearing, will find out in January  from Frazer Elliott Q.C. who appears for the Bar Council and who will, no doubt produce some evidence from a professional medical person to support his case.

Of course it may just be as simple as my face doesn’t fit in the new dispensation [proceedings against the Lord Chief Justice?]. It has been accepted by Elliott in the last public hearing  that I have had an exemplary thirty year professional career at the Bar. So what’s not to like…….?

Young barristers

The Irish Times reports today that sixty percent of the law library’s members have been in practice less than ten years.

“Many of them have part time jobs as teachers , waiters-even security guards- just to make ends meet”.

Frowned on in Belfast?

Positive approach by David Barniville in Dublin. But then again, his country is well ahead of us where women lawyers are concerned.

“Dealing with the past”

Much is being made of the idea that whilst no progress can be made on flags and marches, agreement has been reached “on the past”.

Of course, it is not the past. It is for thousands of people, their  present and their future. I am lucky. I have no physical scars or injuries. Thousands have. Many of us bear the scars in other ways.

So how can it be the past?

The answer is that it is a useful phrase for the DUP and SinnFein/IRA to deploy. It implies that the matter is not as important as the present or the future. Jobs, health, education, etcetera.

It connotes “get over it”.

Nor will it deal with the prosecution of people such as Martin McGuinness who directed the murder of so many people.

I have no notion of what might be suggested as an agreement on this between these two “warring” but avaricious parties.

It will be another shameful capitulation by the DUP .

Whatever it is , it will not be in the interests of those who are broken and maimed.

Mark my words.

Urban myths

It used to be said that a volunteer, once he had taken the “green book” , could never leave the IRA. I can now reveal that this is nonsense. If the volunteer makes an application to leave and pays a fee of £500, for “administrative expenses”, he will usually be let out, provided that he satisfies the Council that he will keep abreast of developments in bomb making and guns.

Martin McGuinness-invisible man

Readers will know that I have been asking questions of the PSNI and PPS in respect of the murders of my parents. That process is now complete.

Police repeated the following to the PPS, in respect of Ed Maloney’s assertion that McGuinness approved the murder of my parents. They told the PPS Senior Assistant Director:

“there is no evidential basis or intelligence available to link him with the murder of [my] parents”

How can any sane democracy countenance this from the police?

In the coming days I will set out , point by point , person by person, the allegations against him. If the police are correct , then :

[a] they have been incompetent for 25 years, or

[b] a range of people , from senior politicians in the Republic to veteran journalists in Northern Ireland have indulged in a fantasy.

Just to add, I will not be deflected from this campaign despite any Sinn Fein/IRA inspired journalism.

 

NUJ Should Put Morris And Barnes In The Dock

The Broken Elbow's avatarThe Broken Elbow

I have the following statement to make in reference to the NUJ’s decision to suspend Anthony McIntyre from union membership for six months on foot of a complaint lodged by Allison Morris of The Irish News and Ciaran Barnes of The Sunday Life that he had allegedly breached ethics.

The wrong person was brought up in front of the NUJ’s ethics council in relation to this matter. Allison Morris and Ciaran Barnes are the people who have breached the NUJ’s code of conduct and it is they who should be suspended, not Anthony McIntyre.

Anthony McIntyre, the wrong person was accused of NUJ ethics violations Anthony McIntyre, the wrong person was accused of NUJ ethics violations

The following facts in relation to the origins of the PSNI subpoenas issued against the Belfast Project archive at Boston College are, I believe, beyond dispute:

1. When Allison Morris interviewed the late Dolours Price in February 2010, Dolours was undergoing psychiatric care at St…

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Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy

First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organisation. Teachers, lawyers , scientists etc.

Second, there will be those who are dedicated to the organisation itself. Teaching union, Bar Council, etc

The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organisation. It will write the rules and control promotions within the organisation.

Bar Council–how to leave the Bar Library?

Who am I to argue with Pournelle?

“Every profession is a conspiracy on the laity” . Shaw