Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

If you haven't yet done so, read O'Neill's update on two of Northern Ireland's quango oligarchs.  Unionist Lite just keeps highlighting absurdities which others miss.  The little bit at the end of his piece, about the NIHRC's dissertation award took my eye.  A Katrina Killen, who won the prize, summarised her effort thus: In this dissertation it was noted that a  dichotomy exists between civil and political rights and socioeconomic issues whereby the latter are often marginalised within the field of transitional justice.   This occlusion of socioeconomic issues has the potential to lead to the reoccurrence of violence. If you speak English, as opposed to insidious gobbledygook, you may wonder what this means.  I'd translate it roughly as follows - "keep the money flowing".  I paraphrase of course.  Still it's good to know that the rights industry is self-perpetuating by encouraging the next generation to speak its absurd language.  ...

In today's Belfast Telegraph , I comment on the latest NIHRC lobbying campaign, as highlighted by O'Neill . One of the leading Northern Irish blogs, ‘A Pint of Unionist Lite’, recently highlighted a fresh bout of lobbying, designed to resuscitate the Commission’s ailing recommendations. Last month McWilliams paid a visit to the House of Commons, meeting Scottish Labour MP Michael Connarty, who subsequently raised the moribund Bill of Rights at Prime Minister’s Questions. Following his discussion with the outgoing Commissioner, Connarty remarked, it was clear that the government intends “to breach the spirit and the letter of the Good Friday Agreement” by failing to implement the NIHRC‘s advice.   That is an assertion borrowed directly from the human rights lobby and it simply doesn‘t stand up to scrutiny. If anything, it was the NIHRC which disregarded the Belfast Agreement, when it concentrated its proposals on rights already secured by existing legislation and socio-econo...

In the print version of this morning's News Letter I make the argument that the human rights industry is attempting a power grab on behalf of judges and 'deliberative democrats'. The article first appeared over at Forth Magazine . Jason Walsh's webzine is always a provocative read and it's a pity that he's thinking about winding it up . Anyway, the conclusion to my argument in the News Letter runs as follows: the NIHRC has long since ceased to be a public body that simply performs the task allotted to it. It has become instead a quasi political pressure group which has devoted itself to making the case for a Bill, ranging far beyond its Good Friday remit. A great deal of money has been spent on advertising, advocacy and ’education’. The Chief Commissioner has blatantly entered into the political arena, on several occasions, to suggest that a Conservative government would “regress” in terms of rights. Monica McWilliams should remember that any tiny electoral m...

After the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (or part of it) delivered its advice on a Bill of Rights for the province, the government has published a consultation paper on the subject. At Slugger O’Toole, Belfast Gonzo observes that the NIO document has dispensed with most of the NIHRC’s work. The Secretary of State previously noted that the body had strayed far beyond its remit. Gonzo asks whether Monica McWilliams, the chief commissioner, should resign her post. She has failed in her brief, she has taken a nakedly political approach to a public position - helping to turn the commission into something resembling a pressure group - and she has been paid £70,000 per annum by the tax payer. This blog has long previously contributed its voice to the campaign for resignation. The Consultation Paper notes that the British government has already discharged all the duties which were required of it, under the Belfast Agreement, in order to safeguard rights in Northern Ireland. ...

Opponents of the NIHRC’s project to implement its recommendations for a Bill of Rights can be assured that its efforts are going nowhere. Secretary of State, Shaun Woodward, has already observed that the commission exceeded its remit and that it produced an untenable report. The Conservative party has put on record its scepticism about the need for legislation exclusive to Northern Ireland. If it forms the next government, it favours including any rights which might be specifically relevant in a UK wide Bill of Rights and Responsibilities. On the issue of a Northern Ireland bill, reason is winning. Which is perhaps why Monica McWilliams, whose £70,000 per annum salary is dependent on the tax payer, is growing increasingly shrill. David Cameron might be intent on subjecting members of parliament to a pay cut, but public money is better spent paying representatives, mandated by the electorate and required to work on behalf of their constituents, rather than funding a quango which o...

Rather than actually penning an article about human rights, Brian Walker has simply published , verbatim, Jeff Dudgeon's account of a debate at the 'McCloskey Civil Rights Summer School', on Slugger. The result is that, unique amongst Walker's blogposts, it is actually worth reading. The NIHRC's chief quangocrat, Monica McWilliams, attended the event and, from Jeff's synopsis, it sounds like she faced a robust challenge from the floor. Given that she has presided over the human rights bill fiasco and continues to defend recommendations, expensively formulated, which comprehensively fail to fulfil the commission's remit, she deserves little sympathy. McWilliams response to criticism aimed at the NIHRC and its work typifies the fashion in which unelected bodies, purportedly constituted in order to perform a particular task impartially, often develop an entirely independent dynamic of their own. Rather than serving the public they instead start to push a s...