Quite a sizeable proportion of the denizens of the mythic Norneverland don’t really think Human Rights are a thing to aspire to . They feel that to fight for those ordinary rights of the person is somehow , vaguely not quite clean. Some of them feel that it is actually not for them at all. They might even perceive that something like that was almost too left-wing …or dare I say it, anti -British as well.This line of thought has even led to the murder of some lawyers in Norneverland in the very recent past.
This leads me to Amal Clooney , wife of film star and all- round heartthrob , George. Remember me telling you all about George’s pre-wedding hi-jinks in Italy last year.Well, since then ,George’s new wife has become something of a media star in her own right.Obviously more people are going to know about her now.She’s a beautiful woman as well as being a very intelligent lawyer and has featured in some very high-profile cases in the past .This would have gone largely unnoted until she became part of what has become known as a “power couple” to the readers of “Hello” magazine .Readers of the magazine may be more interested in the sleek , chic style of the couple but both are intelligent ,socially-minded people and there is even talk that Mr Clooney has some political ambitions too. It might not be fanciful to imagine him and his beautiful wife as the ultimate celebrity inhabitants of a Democratic White House some time in the future.Well…you never can tell…look at Ronnie Regan ….
George has already assumed the title as one of the world’s sexiest and most handsome men in the minds of most of the world’s females. They may be already very jealous of his beautiful wife for stealing him away but they’ll also have a hankering to emulate her undoubted style. The feminists will bask in the glory of a prominent, beautiful and also intelligent and successful woman.
That might not really go down too well in Norneverland though, because like their delight in low-level homophobia and racism , a fear of feminism, even among some women , is the norm among a quite conservative population and strong women are sometimes viewed with suspicion ; again , as somehow behaving in a vaguely” unclean” or unnatural way .
The fact that Amal Clooney , as part of a legal team , is pitting herself against not only the British Government but also the British Security forces will not go down well with a substantial percentage of the Norneverland population ,in any case. Human rights or not…. She is the face of the legal team which is taking the UK government to the European Court of Human Rights.That alone, is bound to make a media splash.To some , the Government can do no wrong.
All this hoohah is about the “Ten Hooded Men”.This harks back to 1971 when the men were interned and apparently tortured while being held without trial under the orders of the British Government. These men , of course were from a nationalist background , so they would never have been given any support by anyone in the unionist community. Unionists generally thought that this was the proper way for their government to behave anyway.; just as long as they were n’t doing it to Unionists themselves.The consensus was that if it was that other lot, it would have been perfectly alright. After all , they, themselves, were on the British Government’s side .They never saw how their own freedoms and laws were being twisted out of shape and how those same twisted ideas could be used against themselves some time in the future.They never supported the Civil Rights campaign anyway, never mInd anything to do with Human Rights. It was exactly the same position they took with the South African conflict and Nelson Mandela …if they thought about it at all. if Mandela was locked up , that was fine by them too.Norneverland is one weird place and it was even weirder back in 1971.
The men concerned ; fourteen of them,were dragged out of their homes; were hooded, subjected to violence and forced to listen to constant loud static noise. They were gaoled and constricted without any charges ,deprived of sleep, food and water and forced to stand in a stress position while being beaten if they dared to fall down.They were thrown out of helicopters twenty feet above the ground but they believed they were actually being tossed to their deaths.The men are claiming that this behaviour was torture. I suppose you would think that if you were one of those men , but the British Government wants to argue about the semantics of the word “torture”.The European Court of Human Rights has already ruled that the men had been subjected to inhumane and degrading treatment, but not torture.Since then the Irish Government has already joined this latest campaign.
This is the fetid, grubby scenario that this beautiful , talented woman has now found herself wallowing in. She has already defended the Greek Government ; she has worked on the Enron case, so she is no glamourous lightweight.It should be noted, though , that in Norneverland’s relatively recent past , one human rights lawyer has already been murdered in front of his family, in his home and another has beenblown to smithereens when her car was bombed.A section of the public here do not understand the very concept of Human Rights for everyone .The powers that be and their clinging acolytes do not really like this Human Rights business at all. things were much easier in the past when you didn’t have the worry of such fripperies….
So I hope that Amal, her husband and the world’s media and paparazzi who will doubtless follow her every move , are aware that her life may well be in danger, not just from the ladies who believe in their hearts that she has stolen their dreamboat ,George, from them ,but from other more disturbed individuals who have always lived in the shadows here…..
SO ,THE FACTS : Amal Clooney and the Ten Hooded Men…..Amal Clooney is part of a team representing 10 men taking the UK to the European Court of Human Rights.
The men allege they were tortured when they were held without trial in Northern Ireland in August 1971.
Their claim is being backed by the Irish government.
Some were also thrown from helicopters while their heads were covered with hoods.
In 1976, the European Commission on Human Rights upheld a complaint by the Irish government that the men had been tortured, a ruling that was later overturned on appeal.
The European Court ruled that the men had been subjected to inhumane and degrading treatment, but not torture……
paddykool2 