The last severe floods saw swift action by the Executive to provide support to those supported effected through a £5m flood fund and a review highlighting a number of areas for future action. Will they act again to tackle the present floods? Or should it be can they act with SF blocking Executive meetings?
If you want to get a flavour of the proceedings at the Political Studies Association conference on its opening day, then the Storify collation below will bring you some of the images, tweets and sounds of the day. Particular highlights included: the Opening Plenary with David Blunkett, Peter Riddell and Matthew Flinders; and the late [...] read our review »
It’s the quiet ones you have to watch, they say. When I last saw Eamonn Namcarrow, back in the mid 1980s he was a congenial, good-natured and highly sociable young lad. The next time was 26 years later, in Lavery’s Gin Palace in Bradbury Place. He’d just brought out his first book, Holywood Star about [...] read our review »
Crazy stuff.
The Lord Mayor of Belfast, Tom Hartley was outside houses in one area trying to clear drains with his bear hands, in the dark when even many of the residents had called it a day and went indoors. Wearing water boots and giving out info and numbers for those flooded.
I’m sure other councillors from all parties were doing the same in other areas and I’ve no idea what SF’s official response will be but that’s what he did.
Poor old Tom; the ‘bear’ hands were probably of great use to him and if he had ‘bear’ feet too he wouldn’t have needed water boots.
Do you think Sellafield would have anything to do with Tom having ‘bear’ hands?
“Or should it be can they act with SF blocking Executive meetings?”
These executive meetings wouldn’t be blocked if the DUP quit their sectarian antics and just stopped blocking what was agreed at St. Andrews. Get off your high horse Fair deal and stop trying to use a straw man argument for your own narrow-minded political agenda.
Eireannach you mustn’t have been paying attention to Pete Bakers blogs.
I know that all parties will act in the same manner in which they have to introduce many pieces of legislation which make our lives….so much BETTER here….
Slug the blocking of these meetings is down to the political Unionism’s intransigence. The expression ‘cutting off your nose to spite someone’ comes to mind. Political unionism needs to grow up and move beyond its old narrow mindset. Would you rather a return to a political mood of old where rooms is created for militant organizations. Triumphantism from either side will only lead things back to the way they were
#
Slug the blocking of these meetings is down to the political Unionism’s intransigence. The expression ‘cutting off your nose to spite someone’ comes to mind. Political unionism needs to grow up and move beyond its old narrow mindset. Would you rather a return to a political mood of old where rooms is created for militant organizations. Triumphantism from either side will only lead things back to the way they were
Posted by Eireannach Saolta on Aug 16, 2008 @ 11:49 PM
—————————————–
no , its because SF wouldnt agree to an agenda. Its either SF way or no way.
Observer what was agreed in St Andrews was agreed in St Andrews. The last thing unionists need is a split in Sinn Féin unless of course they want random car bombs going off everywhere. The expertise is still out there to carry out attacks. The information is widely available on the internet and theres alot of guns floating around in southern drug gangs
The last thing unionists need is a split in Sinn Féin unless of course they want random car bombs going off everywhere.
—————————-
The true face of bigoted nationalism, do as we say or we`ll kill you.
Getting back to the question – will the Executive act?
When Conor Murphy officially opened the underpass at Broadway one year before time, I’ll bet that the Shinners in Sevastopol Street never thought that he was also going to deliver a swimming pool for West Belfast as well.
Now, I’m no civil engineer but -
If you travel into Belfast every day to work, you’re bound to notice the Bog Meadows on the left/passenger side of your vehicle. That’s were the swans usually swim or paddle about.
There are a few small lakes there which would indicate where the water table is to most sensible people.
So if you were going to build an underpass at Broadway, at a level which is lower than those lakes (where the swans are), some-one should surely have realised that the drains in that underpass, which are below the natural water-table, would need to have been equipped with electrically or mechanically driven pumps to remove surplus water. Who forgot to put those pumps in?
Did a few civil servants do so in order to embarrass an SF minister?
Or did an SF minister disregard civil service advice in order to be seen to deliver something quickly?
Unfortunately, we, the tax-payers will never know the answer.
Back-stroke: Excellent stuff. Great points you’re making there.
“Poor old Tom; the ‘bear’ hands were probably of great use to him and if he had ‘bear’ feet too he wouldn’t have needed water boots.
Do you think Sellafield would have anything to do with Tom having ‘bear’ hands?”
Heh! Well, obviously I’m dead clued-in and all so I get the joke but I guess you’d better explain it for all the dummies who might be reading. The daft baastards! *Looks around nervously*
billie-joe, backstroke,
They’re not excellent points at all, they in fact show the poster’s ignorance. The broadway underpass incorporates a drainage pool and pumps. They pump the water into the nearby water drainage system.
The trouble is that the nearby water drainage system was already overwhelmed, and it was that which was draining into the Westlink. The pumps were working, but they had no effect.
Or did an SF minister disregard civil service advice in order to be seen to deliver something quickly?
Now we’re getting really stupid. The project was signed off long before the present powersharing executive came into being. In fact, I think I remember Gordon Brown announcing it in his budget for 1998. I’m reasonably sure there was probably a plan for some sort of underpass there going back to the 1970s.
NEWSFLASH THE EXECUTIVE IS MEETING THIS AFTERNOON
Regardless of when or by whom decisions were made and followed through we have again coughed up from the public coffers to an illusion.
Just imagine one of the major car manufacturers launching a new model complete with another row of seats installed but lacking access to same.
Someones head would be on the line.
Functionality is derelict when not able to complete proposed function.
Eireannach,
The blocking of meetings is being caused by Sinn Fein who are, er, doing the blocking. The StA doesn’t contain anything requiring devolution of policing and justice powers by a fixed deadline. The right way to solve this is through dialogue, and that’s not what SF are doing.
Eireannach
Red card for libel
slug
Source?