The Jihadi Beatle and me

IT’S pretty sobering when you realise that you shared a journey with someone who went on to become one of the most reviled people on the planet and, if not a multiple killer, certainly an accomplice of one, and who appears to have no regrets even to this day. Not just the one, but another who died in a suicide bomb attack, having spent five years in Guantanamo Bay and been given £1 million compensation by the British Government.

It was in 2009 and the two men – Alexanda Kotey, later one of the "Beatles" IS execution group, and Ronald Fiddler, aka Jamal al-Harith, the bomber – were part of a 500-person, 120-vehicle aid convoy to embargoed Gaza, still under siege to this day. I was one of the organisers. Kotey was from London, a Queens Park Rangers supporter, and al-Harith came from Manchester. As far as I know they did not know each other before the trip, but both had clearly been radicalised earlier. Perhaps seeing the awful plight of the people of Gaza was the tipping point, but I doubt it.

Neither man stood out as a potential terrorist – although I don’t know how you detect one, it seems to defeat even MI6 – they were quiet and obviously devout but unexceptional. The members of the convoy spanned ages, religions and none, sexes and colour. Some were political, others were humanitarians.

There were no detectable signs on the long, long journey of what was to come. It did not come out until much later that al-Harith had been given the compensation package after threatening to sue the British Government over the security services alleged involvement in his "torture".

Kotey, or "Jihadi Ringo", was at the right hand of "Jihadi John", Mohammed Emwazi, and was caught last year by Kurdish forces trying to escape from Syria. Last week he was taken, or handed over, to US forces. He appeared on the ITV News in an interview on Friday evening, still clearly unrepentant, refusing to divulge the location of the remains of the aid worker David Haines who was beheaded by Emwazi.

Haines’ daughter, Bethany, from Perth, had travelled to Syria hoping to find out where her father lay. “There's always that hope, and that hope will never fade, even if it's another six years, 20 years, 30 years, I won't stop trying until he is found," she says.

No refuge home

David Miliband came out on Friday, from his lavish office in New York as head of the International Rescue Committee, and spoke about the Turkish invasion of Syria. He said that although he had to be careful talking about military engagement, he thought that US presence there had been a stabilising force. This mess, incipient massacre and massive displacement of thousands of people, is yet another fallout from the invasion of Iraq which Miliband, when an MP, voted for.

Miliband now has a million dollar salary package, and bosses an organisation which has an income of more than $740 million, around £50m a year from the UK, and assets of more than $220m.

Turkey’s President Recip Erdogan has now threatened to “open the gates” and let 3.6 million Syrian refugees flood into Europe. Well if he does, they certainly won’t be coming here for shelter. Lest we forget, two years ago the Commons voted by 294 to 276 to reject harbouring 3000 unaccompanied child refugees who had ended up in mainland Europe without a parent or guardian.

Featuring on the role of dishonour were the usual hard hearts, the members of the European Research Group led by Jacob Rees-Mogg, present Home Secretary Priti Patel, Rory Stewart, the aspiring mayor of London, the most diverse city in Britain, and the future Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who I am sure has no trouble sleeping at night, even with his own partner.

Hale and hearty

Supreme Court President Lady Hale had T-shirts and brooches struck in her honour after she read out the judgment on the successful appeal by Joanna Cherry MP and others which found that Boris Johnson’s decision to prorogued Parliament was unlawful. No sooner had that happened than Barbie got in on the act. The toymaker Mattel has created a range of Judge Barbie dolls aimed at encouraging more women to take up the law, not to mention putting a few more millions in the company’s accounts. The dolls, in a variety of skin colours, are clad in US-style judicial robes, no wigs, apart from the synthetic hair on the dolls obviously.

Lisa McKnight, who is the global head of Barbie, commented that the doll has had more than 200 careers. “There isn’t a plastic ceiling Barbie hasn't broken,” she said. Well there’s the eco awareness one.

A hairy case

Another PC, a uniformed one, has won an un-PC case against the Northern Ireland police service. Constable Gordon Downey was awarded £10,000 in a sex discrimination case after he was transferred from an armed response unit because he refused to shave his facial hair, which was deemed dangerous. He got rid of his beard but left a moustache but that wasn’t good enough for the uniforms, so he sued, pointing out that women officers aren’t required to keep their hair short in case it gets grabbed in a street brawl.

After the result he said rather plaintively: “As an older person with a receding hairline and alopecia who is slightly overweight, all I can do is grow a bit of fur on my top lip. To have that removed for absolutely no reason is wrong.”

Clear for landing at Big Yin

The Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar gave a press conference about his constructive (hopefully) meeting with Boris Johnson over Brexit in Liverpool at the city airport on Thursday. It’s called Liverpool John Lennon, after its most famous late son. Now, as Glasgow’s most famous son, Billy Connolly, is about to shuffle off the performing stage for the last time why don’t we name Glasgow Airport after him?

I know, the people of Kelvinside or Newton Mearns would be aghast. Good. No one has brought greater attention to Glasgow, with all its quirks, flaws, vibrancy and wholeheartedness, or made more people joyful and reflective than he has.

I’m thinking about launching a petition. I’m going to call the Lord Provost and suggest it, although she’ll probably be busy shopping, and also council leader Susan Aitken, who clearly has a sense of humour, defending Eve Bolander and her 23 new pairs of shoes, although perhaps they have the same shoe size, but hopefully not big banana feet.