Lord Hutton, a pillock of the British Establishment, has had a career sign-posted by some of the most shameful episodes in Britain's human rights record. His judicial career and findings in the Kelly affair bring shame to all fair-minded people in Northern Ireland:

- Hutton began his career as a junior counsel to the Nothern Ireland Attorney General in the 1960s;

- By 1988 he had risen to the top to occupy the post of Lord Chief 'Justice';

- He spent most of his career as judge and jury, overseeing the scandalous non-jury 'Diplock courts', including the system of 'supergrass' trials;

- Hutton also played a role in the Widgery whitewash following the State killings on the streets of Derry on Bloody Sunday;

- In 1978 he once again defended the indefensible before the European Court of Human Rights, defending the British Government against a ruling that it abused internees;

- In a more recent low point in his career, in 1999, Hutton led the right-wing attack on Lord Hoffman following Hoffman's support for the arrest and extradition of General Pinochet of Chile during a visit to Britain. Hutton had the gall to suggest that Pinochet's arrest could shake public confidence in the integrity of the administration of justice.

- Hutton was also involved in the ruling that David Shayler, the former MI5 agent, could not argue he was acting in the public interest by revealing secrets.

We can take some comfort from the fact that Hutton's findings in the Kelly affair are so transparent. Clearly, most people in Britain view the Law Lord's findings as a whitewash. Hutton will not only live to see his unbalanced findings continue to undermine the Blair Government and underpin demands for a rigorours public inquiry into the administraiton's justification for re-starting the war on Iraq. Hutton's own name will go down in the footnotes of British history as a remnant of an 'Empire State' mindset, associated with abuses of power, gut wrenching and self-serving deference to authority, and post-imperial stress disorder (PIST).

The Green Party looks forward to and support Anthony Scrivener's plans to launch a legal challenge to Hutton's findings on press freedom.