Amal Clooney - Any Political Aspirations?

I had the strangest thought earlier today after reading a "blind" that our governor has been urging a senior member of the Senate to retire due to her age/health issues.

He apparently has promised to replace this senior member of senate with a woman.

Now here's where Amal popped into my head.  Obviously, she is an extremely intelligent woman and cares about people.  And I actually thought, "Too bad she's not eligible to be in our govt since she is not a U.S. citizen."

But then I thought that would be strange if she were.  Could you imagine George hanging out in D.C. taking care of the twins, whilst she was in meetings and hearings?

Just didn't seem plausible to me. 

Which brought to mind another high profile Brit related person who IS eligible to be in our govt but who I fear has a sketchy past that would preclude her from running without having that past leaked and used against her.

Guys can get away with all manner of stupid stuff and still be elected into office in our country, but a woman is always subjected to an expectation of a higher standard.

Sigh.

I'm not sure Gov. Cuomo would agree with you on that last point!

Who is the other Brit related person you were thinking of?

Amal already advises the British government, and has been for sometime, and

was on the UK government advisory panel on international law with Ben Emmerson QC

(also guest at wedding and brief fiance of other guest, Ellen Barkin), and she recently resigned

from this [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I fully expect that she will be nominated to be a member of the House of Lords in a few

years........

To be honest, Lorna, when you look at her caseload you could wonder how she juggles it
now.

She trains judges from all over the world on international human rights, is a visiting professor at

Columbia, has goodness knows how many cases (and I saw the other day that two of her

assistants are involved in online presentations) so I think she has many choices, and the

House of Lords is not necessarily a full-time thing but no doubt a brilliant platform for

international human rights. George would be even more proud. They are doing great things

together

Well, whatever either of them decides to do in the future, unless they're planning to home school the twins or hire private tutors, they'll have to settle somewhere. If we've learned anything from this last year it's that children need a stable, settled routine and a chance to interact with children their own age on a regular basis. If George's past statements are anything to go by, sending the twins to boarding school is not an option, so they'll have to decide where they want the twins to go to school and work things out from there.

Mm, I have a feeling they would both want school 'normality' for them and would then juggle

their own schedules around that - they've had a bit of practice at adapting to a home base

lately.

George said when the kids were born that when it was time for them to start school they would choose a place to 
settle down. They can also go to school in Britain and America if they have to spend time in both places for their parent's work.

I imagine (and it's just my speculation) that Amal may feel much the same way about public office as George does; namely that she can achieve more with what she's doing now rather than having to deal with the nasty side of politics.

House of Lords speculation is interesting.  Personally I think they're largely a waste of space and cut be cut down to no more than 100 of them.  At the absolute maximum.  And membership should be limited to people with actual experience in what they're doing (such as someone like Amal who's worked in law for all her career).  Kick out all the hereditary peers apart from the ones with actual professional backgrounds relevant to law making.  But that's just me!

Ignorant American here: I thought the House of Lords was only hereditary. How do other members get in? How many members are there? ( Sorry. I know this is off topic, but ...you started it!!! )


I agree with you about Amal going into government. I also think that once the twins are school age they'll settle in one place - probably England - because moving the kids back and forth really isn't a great idea and California is becoming an increasingly difficult place to live.

LizzyNY wrote:Ignorant American here: I thought the House of Lords was only hereditary. How do other members get in? How many members are there? ( Sorry. I know this is off topic, but ...you started it!!! )

Yeah, sorry for taking us off-topic there! Apparently there are 800 members of the House of Lords, which is just ridiculous for a country roughly the size of Oregon (although with a population of 66 million).

Many are hereditary, but loads are given peerages that last only for their own lifetimes. You get peerages for all sorts of things such as services to the arts, charity work and so on as well as those dished out to most retiring politicians, current senior judges, and senior members of the armed forces etc.

Erm, back to Amal. I'd support her getting a peerage - the HoL needs a good shakeup with new faces and definitely more women in it.

I think life there has changed quite a lot and of course they are the second house when it

comes to the law - anything the Commons wants to put into law (eg Brexit!) has to get through

the Lords.

One of the ways it has changed is the new peers - it was great to see that Stephen Lawrence's

mother was given a peerage. (Stephen was a 16 year old schoolboy murdered at a bus stop on



his way to school by a gang of boys who should have been in school in 1993. Bringing them to

court and convicting  those responsible was fought for for many years by his family)


The Houses of Parliament are a great place to visit by the way (when you can!)

Good grief!! 800 members? And the House of Commons, too? How do they ever get anything done? We've got less than half that and they can never agree on anything!

That’s what I was thinking.  Wow!  How do almost 800 members reach consensus.  The U.S. Congress can’t even agree that there was a riot at our Capitol on January 6th!

Here you are, girls

   
     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Lords

Needless to say,  these people, who have all reached the top of their own personal trees (by

whichever way), all have very busy lives outside the chamber, so are rarely all there together

(coronations and vital voting aside). And much like the Commons there are protocols to

entering the chamber too...........

Ps The State Opening of Parliament by the Queen happens every year - this year in May - and that is when everybody is there

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] - please note the wigs of those in the Judicial system are required attire!