'Oh, so that's who Richard Morris is..." Lord Hattersley on The Daily Politics

'An influential activist' - The Guardian

'Iain Dale, without the self loathing' - Matthew Fox in The New Statesman

'
You are a tinker...' - Tim Farron

Tuesday 2 August 2011

One of those occasions when you lose all faith in the press.

Let's imagine the following scenario.

A gunman goes on the rampage somewhere on the outskirts of a capital city - let's imagine it's Windsor.

He's shooting dozens of children and young people who are all camping there on a retreat. In a desperate attempt to escape, many of the children throw themselves into the Thames to try and escape, where the gunman pursues them, shooting into the water.

Seeing all this unfold before their unbelieving eyes, a couple on the opposite bank drive their boat TOWARDS the scene, and brave their lives to scoop the victims out of the water and take 40 of them to safety.

We'd probably know about it , wouldn't we?

In fact I'd wager the papers would have gone quite big on it. There would be in depth analysis of their actions, endless praise, they would be (quite rightly) feted from the rooftops and the feel good factor they generated would probably get the Daily Mail to tie their actions into an immediate rise in house prices.

Well, last week, in Oslo, exactly this scenario unfolded.

A couple were camping on an island near to where Anders Behring Breivik went on the rampage. Seeing what was happening, they did indeed untie their boat, speed over to the island and rescued 40 people from the water, apparently ignoring the danger they put themselves in. Afterwards, they found bullet holes in their boat.

So why haven't we heard about this brave young couple?

Is it because Hege Dalen and her spouse, Toril Hansen don't quite fit with the idealised image of the stereotypical heroic married couple - because they are gay?

I really hope it isn't.

But I'm struggling to find another reason.

You can read their amazing story on this link

Please do send this story on to as many as people as possible. It's truly awful that their heroism is going unpublished.

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