Reaffirming my belief framework

Despite all of my best intentions the following words will most likely be read by others who have very similar belief frameworks to me rather than those holding contrary ones but there is always hope. Beliefs about what is right and what is wrong in not only in British society but what is believed to be right or wrong in other societies across the world.

Michael Mansfield - Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer

I found this book in a local book bank tucked away between volumes on tort and contract law. Someone who has studied law must have been having a good clear out. Over four hundred pages that included the author's biography but more importantly gave detailed descriptions of some of the most important cases he was involved with as defending counsel. The subject interested me, the use of the English language was brilliant as it read almost like a thriller with pace and clarity. I only had to reach for the dictionary a couple of times.

The author's mantra throughout his professional life has been:

"Everyone has the right to representation. As a defence lawyer it's my job to defend the indefensible."

And thank goodness there are barristers and lawyers who are driven by that desire to support the underdogs, defend civil rights and put right what has been done wrongly.

"The radical lawyer has become an icon in a disenchanted age...The establishment loathes him" Sunday Times review

Not only by the justice system but in our name as citizens.

On 21st November 1974 five mates boarded the 1955 train from Birmingham New Street Station to Heysham Harbour to catch a ferry to Belfast where they were planning to attend the funeral of an acquaintance and catch up with some friends and relatives. That acquaintance, they found out later and to their shock, was a member of the IRA At 2225 and 2227 in two different pubs in Birmingham two bombs exploded that killed twenty one people and injured one hundred and eight two.

Six men through circumstances were soon arrested, charged, tried, found guilty of perpetrating the bombs and each sentenced to twenty one life terms. All of them vehemently protested their innocence.

Following at least two appeals against their sentencing Michael Mansfield took up the brief in 1987 and began his research into the circumstances surrounding their convictions. This included going through the men's confessions from November 1974 when they all say they suffered physical abuse tantamount to torture and threats against their families from the police. None of the confessions were consistent. Then he reviewed the forensic evidence that was used by the prosecution. In court the author and his team "demolished" the evidence but in January 1988 the judge presiding said "The longer this hearing has gone on, the more convinced this court has become that the verdict of the jury was correct".

The men had to languish in prison for another sixteen years until March 1991 before their convictions were overturned. They had to wait a further ten years for financial compensation.

All of this was done in the form of justice but justice is supposed to be carried out in our names as members of society.

In Michael Mansfield's words "the experience had demolished their lives". But, and this is where my beliefs in how our society conducts itself, what if we had still had capital punishment as part of our justice system when these men were convicted?

Balcony Over Jerusalem by John Lyons

John Lyons (1961 - ) is a very experienced journalist who was posted to Jerusalem by the ABC Network of Australia. This book is a long form memoir taking the reader beyond and behind the the stories taht appear on the screens and the front pages. It is about how he, his wife and son experienced what was happening during their six years in Jerusalem.

This is well written with a nice mix of what the author witnessed from the viewpoint of being a journalist as well as being a husband a father watching how the living conditions in Jerusalem affected every day life.

Imagine having lived in a house, your home, where your family has lived for generations. Where they have tended the gardens, built extensions to accommodate the ever growing family, planted olive trees and made memories that are the adhesive that bind families together. Then one day all of you have gone out to attend a family reunion, a funeral or even a wedding. Then when you return your house, your home, your possessions have either been bulldozed to the ground or taken over by another family.

You go to court attempting to get your property back or rebuilt but the legal system you are working through doesn't recognise your rights let alone your citizenship of the country and throws your case out. Then to make matters worse if your house has been bulldozed the court then imposes a daily fine of 600 shekels until you have cleared the rubble from the site.

Or, you have a stall in a local shopping street where you trade with the locals selling food, hardware or anything else that you can turn a profit on. New neighbours move into the houses overlooking the street where your stall is. Like all households those new neighbours generate rubbish. Instead of putting it in bin bags to be collected by the local authorities thetychuck it out of the windows overlooking the street where your shop is. Not just tins and packaging but chicken carcasses and nappies.

Why should you move away despite this? Instead you and your fellow shop owners pay to have a grill put over what was once an open air street to stop the rubbish getting on to the street or hitting your customers. It does do that but still the rubbish is thrown out of the upper windows.

These events happened during the six years John Lyons was based in Jerusalem from January 2009 until January 2015. Given the circumstances and the location I have no reason to believe that these sorts of things are no longer happening. I fact, watching the news from several different sources there is every reason they are getting worse.

Given these types of experiences, and there were a lot worse detailed in the book, can any of us blame any of the people on the receiving end of this treatment for wanting to get away. To somewhere else where as parents they know there is a future, where further generations can grow up with an education, there is security of ownership of property and where no one will be throwing rubbish of all sorts on to High Streets where they can shop or even run a business in safety.

Even if that "get away" involves crossing Europe, by any means, being exploited by gangs just to get on a dinghy in Calais or Dunkirk to cross the constantly dangerous open waters of the English Channel?

References:

Michael Mansfield Memoirs of A Radical Lawyer (2009) published by Bloomsbury ISBN 978 0 7475 76549

A Middle East Memoir - Balcony Over Jerusalem by John Lyons with Sylvie Le Clezio (2017) published by Harper Collins ISBN 978 1 4607 5256 2