In a week where this hideous Government passed another bill further attacking the poor in society, Senator David Norris pulled his own publicity stunt on the topic of minimum pricing for alcohol.
No sooner had the bill been passed when the infamous old codger was reported to have said, "People on welfare should not be allowed to buy drink." For those of you unfamiliar with the bold 'Davy-boy' he is a passable academic more famous for being a homosexual. That fame arises from the fact that he's always on about being so and he used it to try for a "Gay Presidency" as well.
David was to fore in the recent vote on gay marriage in Ireland. He waffled on about his desire for an inclusive, pluralist society where people had rights that were protected. He shed crocodile tears for the downtrodden LBGT community and appealed to our better side on voting day. Such a self-important clown would never beg, you understand, but for a brief moment her endured humble temerity until the vote was passed.
Then he's out in force at the beginning of the season of goodwill with a classic Norris quotable-quote. "I don't spend my tax dollars to buy drinks for people on social welfare, I don't think tax is for people to be drinking all the time." Short of calling those on social welfare a bunch of n'er do well blood sucking leeches, David put the boot in as much as he could. It is in the public domain that David has, in the past, been a bit of a martyr for the booze himself so maybe he has his own undeclared perspective on this.
But a shallow dig brings up interesting information about our lauded Senator. After contracting the water-borne variation of hepatitis while visiting Central Europe in 1994, Norris received disability payments from a private income continuance insurer worth thousands of euro over 16 years, and from a Trinity College insurance policy on top of that. Norris left his role as a lecturer after Trinity College authorities said the situation arising from his illness was "untenable," although he remained an elected senator. This then is a lad who really knows how to milk the system.
But it is his gay-ness that he uses to constantly raise his profile. Norris took the Attorney General to the High Court over the criminalisation of homosexual acts. His claim was based on the fact that the law infringed on his right to privacy and that since the introduction of the Constitution of Ireland the law passed under British rule became repugnant to the constitution. The High Court ruled against Norris. He then promptly appealed his case to the Supreme Court of Ireland. In 1983, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the law by a three to two verdict.
But not to be undone, he took the case to European Court of Human Rights where he eventually won. Ironically it turned on the fact that, "The law was held to infringe on the right of adults to engage in acts of their own choice." Read that again! Norris fought on the grounds that an adult has the right to engage in acts of their own choice. Is a recipient of social welfare not also doing just that when they buy a drink? Does the privileged David find the sight of an unemployed man imbibing alcohol repugnant? Does the mere thought of it turn his stomach? Does it disgust him to his core? I think I leave the rest of that hanging there unfinished, just in case!
Norris represents the University of Dublin constituency in the Senate so he's not even elected to his €65,000 a year taxpayer-funded part-time job. As with the Dail of course, the real money is to be had from un-vouched expenses there. That is at the taxpayers expense as well as that fat salary for someone none of us elected in the first place. Think of it as social welfare on steroids for our Davy. The bored, jumped-up, aspiring aristocrat has loads of idle time on his hands to pronounce on others. Years of masquerading as one who seeks inclusiveness, that hateful sponge can't help showing how exclusive he really thinks he is. His latest swipe at the poor from his lush protected surroundings is nothing short of despicable. And to think we were allowed to consider the self-serving Norris for the highest post in the land.
David Norris openly boasted about traveling "all over the world" and being provided with "chauffeur-driven limousines" at the taxpayers' expense, the Herald revealed. The controversial senator made the flippant remark about living the diplomatic high life as the economy was crashing in November 2009. Also, the Joycean scholar smugly joked about his taxpayer-funded trips in an interview with Dublin City University's student radio station, DCU FM. And he also jovially discussed the disability payments he received from Trinity College, at the same time he was drawing his Seanad salary. You can read more of that kind of shit from him here
His Presidential aspirations came to an end when it emerged that one of his ex-lovers was convicted in Israel on the charge of raping a 15 year-old Palestinian boy. The "inclusive" Senator Norris used letterhead paper from our Senate to plea for leniency for the rapist and when that came to light, the rest of us made up our minds about him. It didn't help him either when he was quoted as saying elsewhere that he could understand the benefits of an older man introducing a young boy to sex. His comments were in relation to classic Greek literature but it sounded pretty representative of what he really feels today.
To my mind at leat, most of what's wrong with this country right now is encapsulated in this horrible, vicious little man.