NewsBiscuit

A nine year old Spanish girl is to petition the European Court of Human Rights in a desperate attempt to be allowed to go to bed at a reasonable hour. After years of exhaustion and fractious behaviour while accompanying her parents to bars and restaurants, Maria Marquez has finally cracked and is taking legal action that will force her parents to tuck her up at eight o’clock or get a baby-sitter if they wish to go out.

The news got a mixed reaction from British tourists in the bars of the Costa del Sol. ‘Oh I think it’s marvellous the way the Mediterranean countries take their children out with them when they go out to eat in the evenings’ said British tourist, Mike Stevens, adding ‘Except that four year old boy has been crying for quite a long time now, and his brother is just fast asleep in the middle of the floor and all the waiters are having to step over him.’ ‘It’s not fair that we have to go to sleep so early’ said seven year old British girl Julie McEntee. ‘Yes it is’ countered her older sister, poking her gently with a finger, apparently causing her to scream in agony and then lunge at her sibling’s face with a breadstick.

Lawyers acting on behalf of Maria Marquez have said that she demands the right to have other people decide her bedtime for her, and that she would like to fall asleep with her head on a pillow rather than a plate of cold paella. The case will be heard at 11 a.m. on Friday morning despite the eight year old’s legal team explaining that there is no way that she will be up that early.
The ruling looks set to become another test case exposing the cultural faultlines that divide Northern Europe from its Latin neighbours. Last month an elderly Greek widow won a compensation claim that she was being discriminated against because she didn’t have a moustache while another law is being brought in to stop young men riding mopeds with a dog on the back.

Posted: Nov 10th, 2009 by Guest