Opus Dei cabinet minister supports Plater College closure

It seems ironic that Mr. Rhys-Burgess's postal address is "Cardinal Chambers". Is this sheer coincidence?

Mr Weiss is doubly unfortunate it seems, to be collared by the Catholic hierarcy is one thing, a kind of mental castration, but to be so worried about the spending of the ill-gotten gains of the Fatman Complex (military-commercial-scientific complex)seems
a trifle over the top!
I would strongly advise Mr. Weiss takes a retreat from his neo-liberal obsessions and anxieties by resting in a Cistercian Monastery. There, I can vouch that he will be cared for free, if he has no money, and he will not be asked to attend the monastic worship, he will be fed three times a day, with coffees if he likes, in between. He will even be free to indulge his thoughts to God, or failing that to a kind old monk who has in all likelihood been praying for him since the day he was born.
Finally, there would seem to be no point in paying a thought to 'value for money' because God will give him everything he needs and more, and might even save him from 'efficiency'.
Robin LESLIE

When I was setting up my law practice in Oxford, I had hoped to secure premises in St. Aldates owned by Christ's College (the original name of which was Cardinal College, after its founder, Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey). I therefore decided to call my premises "Cardinal Chambers".

There are a number of points that should be addressed regarding the article published by Mr. Weiss 19.6.2005. Mr. Weiss headlines the piece 'Opus Dei minister supports Plater closure'.
I think that this is misleading. Because a person or government department does not openly support a cause does not mean that they condone it. It may be that there are un-seen hands at work and as an individual, working for that particular governmental department, they are obliged to ' toe the party line' Similarly there is no proof that Ms. Kelly has been 'got at' by any Catholic Clergy and induced to refuse to intervene in the Plater closure. This is pure speculation that is without foundation.

There is mention of two 'known ' members of Opus Dei, who were also Plater College Foundation members, having tried to bring pressure to bear on the PCF to halt any further legal action. I would ask that If these peole were 'known' Opus Dei members why they were allowed to become PCL members in the first place and why have these people not been publicly named by their accusers ?.

The more I read of the goings on of the PCF I have to ask if this piece is more to do with Mr. Rhys-Burgess's personal issue's with the Plater College Trustee's, and assorted cohorts, than the actuality of the core issue which is the Colleges closure. This is apparent by Mr. Rhys-Burgess constant reminders to the readers of how academically gifted he is. There is some justification for this, it has to be said, but we don't need to be constanly reminded what a 'clever lad' you are John. It gets tedious after a while. Likewise the reference to Mr. Burgess being ' A Human Rights Lawyer'.. Mr. Rhys-Burgess himself will tell you he has the right to apply to ICHR for right of audience but has, to date and to the best of my knowledge, no legal standing in this country.In all probability I have had more time in civil courts, employment tribunal etc. than he has representing clients not as a Lawyer but as a 'McKenzie friend'. which is all the Mr. Rhys -Burgess can claim to be at this stage. There are a couple of exceptions to this rule but in the main this is accurate

I , for my part, wholly support the efforts to right this un-justified closure not least because it offends me to think that the Catholic Church once again considers itself to be above the law.

John Rhys Burgess explains why he chose the name Cardinal Chambers when setting up his Law Practice.It must have been a struggle giving rise to many sleepless nights to...-ing and fro...-ing un-decided.The expense to consider after all he would'nt want anyone else having a similar name for a rented post-box in an accomodation address would he?

Setting up a Law Practice is a costly business.In this case perhaps £10 pounds a week but probably less! At least there are no amenities to pay for gas, heating, lighting. No staff or business rates. No furniture to buy { he could hardly fit easy chairs, desk and filing cabinets, fax machine, computer and copier} into a Post-box.....Ooops I mean Law Practice, could he ? John you're full of it!....Joe Hall

John Rhys-Burgess studied Politics and Economics at Plater College, Oxford between October 2003 and June 2004 for which he received a Certificate in Higher Education with Distinction, attaining an average grade of 86%, which according to his tutor, Dr. Hugh Macdonald, was probably the highest grade of any student that had ever completed this course. The CHE which is validated by the Open University is equivalent to the first year of
an undergraduate degree and a Distinction is at the level of First Class honours. John's academic standard would have been equivalent in standard to a double first at Oxford.

Whilst a student at Plater College, John was commissioned as a Eucharistic minister for the Roman Catholic parish of St. Anthony of Padua in Headington and was also a member of the parish's Justice and Peace Group.

After completing his course at Plater College, John studied Human Rights at the Institut International des Droits de l'Homme at Strasbourg. This is an intensive postgraduate course euqivalent in standard to the Human Rights module of a Master of Laws degree. After this, John successfully applied to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for permission to practice at the bar of the Court as an advocate, following which he returned to Oxford to complete a one year Master of Laws degree course at Brookes in International Law.

Whilst at Brookes, John concurrently attended classes in Latin, Moral Theology and Canon Law at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford.

In October 2003, John was admitted to the Postgraduate Training Committee of Oxford Brookes University's Law Department.

In February 2004, following completion of the European Law module of his degree course, John was elected as an Adjunct Member of the European Affairs Committee of the New York City Bar.

In May 2004, John was accepted for membership of the International Bar Association and became a member of the IBA's Human Rights Law Committee and several other committees of this association. The IBA is the largest and and one of the oldest established bar associations in the world.

In June 2004, John was admitted to membership of the Human Rights Commission of the Union des Avocats Europeens, Luxembourg and in the following month was elected to membership of the European Bar Human Rights Institute, Paris.

In July 2004, John was elected to membership of the Barreau Penal International (or International Criminal Court Bar) at The Hague and in the following month was elected to membership of the European Circuit of the Bar of England and Wales.

In November 2004, John was elected to the Legal Affairs Committee of the Welsh Centre for International Affairs, which is part of the United Nations Association for Wales in Cardiff and in April 2005, he became a member of the Wales Public Law and Human Rights Association.

Although he is not a barrister or a solicitor, John sometimes undertakes cases in the courts of England and Wales with special permission of the court. He appeared in a case before the Chancery Division at the Royal Courts of Justice before Mr. Justice Evans Lombe, Mr. Justice Lindsay and Master Moncaster, during January 2004, which was indeed his first case as an advocate. He acted in other proceedings in the Cardiff County Court in October 2004, before District Judge Singh and in the Swansea County Court before His Honour Judge Wyn Williams, QC. During 2005, he has acted in cases in the High Court in Birmingham, before His Honour Judge Norris, QC, in the Administrative Court at the Royal Courts of Justice, London, before Mr. Justice Moses, and in the Court of Appeal before Lord Justice Lloyd. Additionally, John has conducted Immigration and Asylum applications and appeals in Liverpool and Newport, and in other cases at Manchester Employment Tribunal and Sheffield Magistrates Court. He currently has several cases pending before the European Court of Human Rights, the European Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court where John represents victims of war crimes.

John started his first international law firm in St. James's, London in 1992 which is now part of Cassin Monnet Schuman of which he is senior partner.

In November, John was invited to attend a symposium at the House of Lords at the request of of the People's Mujahadeen Organisation of Iran.

In spite of his busy work schedule, in September, John obtained his postgraduate Diploma in Human Rights Law and Practice from the International Bar Association and during the coming year will be completing research for an M. Phil degree at Cardiff University.

In February 2005, John was the founder of The Plater College Foundation, a company which he set up entirely at his own expense with a view to taking over the management of Plater College which the trustees of the college had without good reason decided to close.

He took on responsibility for mounting a legal challenge to the conduct of the trustees of Plater College but during October 2005 was obliged to remove the board of directors that he appointed to run the Foundation for misconduct. As a result, the Foundation was unable to proceed with its case against the trustees of Plater College. The Foundation has now changed its name to the Charles Plater Endowment for Human Rights and Social Justice which John continues to run as its sole director. Following impending changes in the regulation of legal services in the United Kingdom, John hopes to float his law firm on the London Stock Exchange and intends to donate part of his profits from this venture to the Foundation to enable it to open a new Plater College in Oxford as well as to provide study facilities in the fields of politics, Human Rights, trade and social justice.

Disappointingly, John has not yet received his Masters degree from Oxford Brookes University due to the late submission of his dissertation and was granted additional time for its completion. John is terminally ill with prostate cancer and diabetes and may not have long to live. He was 60 years of age on November 28 and has three daughters and is a grandfather of three. John and I live together in the village of Peillon near Nice in southern France and in the Mid Wales town of Llandrindod Wells near Hereford. I am his personal business manager and we are engaged to be marriied.

The allegations made my Mr. Hall appear to be part of a general smear campaign propagated by former Labour councillor, Mick McAndrews. Mr. McAndrews was formerly the chairman of The Plater College Foundation until dismissed from his position by John Rhys-Burgess on October 8.

John did in fact, call a lawyer working for the Catholic Education Service, an unscrupulous liar and a hypocrite and did so because he believed and still believes his comments to be justified. John did later apologise because he felt that as a practising Roman Catholic he ought not to have expressed himself so forthrightly and in such a public manner.

John says that he remembers Mr. Hall very well and expresses the hope that Mr. Hall's new career as a professional Mackenzie Friend has met with success. He is sorry that Mr. Hall appears to have so readily joined in the despicable calumnies that Mr. McAndrews and others have now spread through their self-evident malice and envy at John's evident success.

In further reference to Cardinal Chambers, John relaunched his law firm in Strasbourg in July 2003. On returning to complete his studies at Brookes, he intended to take a lease on premises owned by Christ Church (formerly Cardinal's) College in Oxford and would have named the building in question "Cardinal Chambers". John was later offered less expensive premises in Garrick Street, London, near the Royal Courts of Justice. However, whilst at Oxford he was living at Plater College. Since he clearly could not receive mail from clients at College premises, he rented a mail box in Headington. John now works mainly from Trinity Chambers in Llandrindod Wells which is above the Porticus Gallery in the centre of this attractive country town though increasingly whilst battling with his cancer and diabetes from our home in the south of France, though meetings with clients are normally held in London, Paris or Strasbourg.

John is entitled to act in proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights, the European Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. He is entitled to conduct proceedings before the courts of England and Wales with special permission under Sections 27 (2) (c), 27 (2) (e) and 28 (2) (c) of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990. John, who also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Commercial Arbitration from the International Bar Association, is also qualified to advise on cases before the London Court of International Arbitration, the City Disputes Panel, the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes of the World Bank.

I was thoroughly dissappointed to hear the news about the closure of Plater college. This college provided me and many like me the opportunity to get back on track and get the qualifications in order to find employment to contribute to society- after all that's what it is all about, right? It seems to me that the situation over the closure of the college reflects a lack of interest by the church hierarchy -(Cardinal,bishops as trustees) to support the college at a higher level in order that it could be made a designated FE institution. It was always the catholic workers college, so why was there no interest in keeping this dream alive. Jesus was a carpenter, so surely there should have been interest in keeping this vision going? Or did the catholic high ranking members get fed up with their working class routes? And I hear that Opus Dei, were about as useful as a credit card in an Afgan market. And, O, Also, Ruth Kelly, being a good ol' catholic and a member of Opus Dei, and a staunch new labour advocate- you would think that the working class roots of the college would sit pretty with the New Labour socialist principles-but I guess not-because their was no attempt to give this college the official designation of an official adult education college-despite that the government had plugged some 20 million quid into the college, in order for the students to study there, sounds a bit ambigous doesn't it?

Oh I forgot to say, what about the 5.5 million quid that the catholic church received from the sale of good ol' Plater collge, this is ludicrous because the church did not put a penny into it, it was funded by central goverment and supported by the grants of the good people who went there. So what you going to do with cash boys? A condo on South Beach? Supplement the retirement pension?

To me all this sounds like a stich up between the trustees of Plater college, Cardinal and bishops and Opus Dei, (who had no financial stake in the college) and the Department of Education who no longer wished to fund the college. Then, Hey, everyone's a winer right? The state don't have to plug any more cash into Plater, why they can give it to Ruskin instead. And the Church gets it's dosh for sitting on it's posterior. Sounds awfully familiar doesn't it?

I think Charles Plater SJ the original founder of Plater college would turn in his grave if he knew that his creation had been stiched up by his own. I think that the church should give this money back to a newly formed Plater College foundation, so that the 5.5 million quid can be shared among needy students who share a dream to be eduacted to improve themselves and society.

Thank you Plater for all you did for me and others like me. Rest now in the knowledge that it was not your visionaries that drew the veil down on your vision, but the ones that had been entrusted with it, and the ones that we were trying to improve the quality of society.

Shame on you Ruth Kelly .Plater College was my place of inspiration. I went there a troubled 20 yr old with 1 G.C
S.E & left with a University Diploma in Social Administration , but more importantly,i left with some self esteem.
I met some of the biggest chraters of life there who made me grow up & realise the value of an education. 30 yrs later i have just begun a Criminolgy/Sociology BSc at Salford Uni.. During the app. process i was told that my Diploma was'nt a recognised course & Plater could'nt be identified as a recognise institution
So after s lot of e-mails&phome calls i got an e-mail from the Manager og Oxford University degree conferrals who had traced my records & will send me my certificate. I hope now i can put my Diploma to gpod use & stand use my degre to do something useful in my community were many prople are being brought to their knees at the hands of RUTHi KELLY's governent- Plater College was living proof that given the right enviroment anything can be acheived Its so sad its gone but the spirit & ethos of the place will last forever
Thankyou Fr.Plater xxxx