Friday, February 22, 2008
“any lengths to avoid making difficult decisions..”
Interesting point made by one of the Victims Commissioners designate, Mike Nesbitt, on Let’s Talk tonight. Apparently he has been meeting, and making representations on behalf of, victims.. but he has been officially cautioned that he should not do so as he has not, actually, been appointed yet. To which, unlike the response by the panellists on the programme, the correct response is - quite right. His designated post has no legal standing because the “damaging fudge” of four commissioners instead of one is not matched by the legislation. Adds BBC report here.
Pete Baker @ 12:16 AM
Quite right, Peter. Whether Nesbitt likes it or not, he has no legal status to be investigating or meeting people. We have laws for very good reasons. He used the programme tonight to position himself, and avoided answering absolutely ANY question that was raised on any other issue. When he was asked what his qualification for the job was, he told an emotive story about a wake, as if that tragic story qualified HIM in any way. Unbelievable nonsense from Nesbitt throughout the show.
Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 12:43 AMTonight’s Let’s was a disgrace. A journalistic disgrace as much as anything else. Yet again, Mark Carruthers turns everything into extended interviews with members of the audience, and misses every opportunity to press the panel on subjects.
1. Who picked a panel who were so united in their unwillingness to criticize the DUP for anything? In this of all weeks, it should have been possible for the production team to find even ONE panel member who would say SOMETHING critical of the DUP. No. Not a single problem with assembly expenses, renting office space from family members, or even the 50K per year rent the Paisleys have been paying relatives.
2. Mike Nesbitt singularly refused to answer any questions except the victims subject.
3. Margaret Ritchie needs to have political teeth fitted.
4. Henry Kelly is clearly in his dotage. He is completely disconnected with the issues and grandstanded arrogantly from ignorance.
5. Arlene Foster did her party a great job. I’ve no complaints to make about here. She needed to be challenged and wasn’t; but that’s not her fault.
Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 12:53 AMThey’re all doing all right out of the troubles, Nonentity Nesbitt from the North Down UTV money set, and the dup all boxing their wives and daughters off for jobs, and get a wee grant fir ha’ing the weebsite put intae ulster scots, meanwhile back in the real world, where’s that water bill and whats that about negative equity?
Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 12:53 AMSurely the gay rugby team question should have had a more intelligent response than this programme managed? Why didn’t Mark press the point that it was a SPORTS MINISTER who was attacking a gay rugby team in an amateur league? It took an audience member to bring up that point after all four panellists had been asked their views.
Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 12:56 AMYeah i was pissed off by carruthers too. He treated the gay story like it was a fun item at the end of the show with no political important. Yet here was a government sports minister engaging in a homophobic attack on a gay rugby team. This is a serious issue because the DUP has so many fundamentalists and when they get into government they tend to bring their fundamentalist views with them. If Poots was a Westminister sports minister, he would have been sacked the very next day. Why didnt that happen here? Because Northern Ireland is an adolescent democratic culture that needs to grow up. How come the presenter of lets talk doesnt seem to understand that serious political point?
mark, if you’re reading this: gay people are not a funny at the end of a show.
Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 01:02 AMAnd, with the exception of LNT’s comment, if we could get back to the actual topic..
Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 01:02 AMI wasn’t impressed by the pseudo victims commissioner tonight. why did he agree to go on a show when he was not prepared to answer any of the questions requiring a personal view? Answer: he went on the show to make a case for his own job. That young woman in the audience brilliantly pulled down the whole house of cards: how is it value for money to spend 250k on 4 commissioners who are not allowed to do any work, when we could have one commissioner at 65k doing the job.
Also: why didnt mark carruthers ask if mike is collecting his wages yet?
Nice wee earner when your media career disappears in front of your eyes Mike.
Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 01:06 AMI was amazed at Arlene and Margaret. They think they can make a phone call tomorrow to their executive colleagues and fix this? Fix what? It’s a legal question, not a political question. These 4 commissioners have suspect legal status. Only new legislation can fix that.
Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 01:08 AMSorry Pete. Off thread you may think, but that programme tonight was bizarre. Leave it to lets talk to find a panel who made love to paisley and the DUP for the entire programme. Under par beyond words. At this point, I dont see the point of opting out of Question Time for this.
Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 01:11 AMI was impressed by Mike Nesbitt. He seemed to want to reach out to victims/survivors and is frustrated that he can’t do that. He is a genuine guy I think, that’s important for this kind of role.
Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 01:15 AMI think we should check the panel’s expenses to see if they are paying assembly grants to their family members. They were so protective on that question that i was left wondering why they were there. A DUP party political broadcast. Mark’s not the worst - he doesn’t pick the panel. He was all over the place at one point with Nesbitt and Henry giving him trouble (he looked worried) but held it together just about. Nesbitt kept looking at Mark like he wanted his job!
Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 01:20 AMOn Victims, I want to see the legislation introduced soon. Can that be done at Stormont or does it need to go to westminster? If the assembly wants these appoitnments, and gordon brown is supporting it, surely emergency legislation would sort this out speedily?
On the programme, I agree with others - nesbitt avoided all the questions, wouldnt give his views away on anything, and the others seems unwilling to criticise anything the DUP has been doing. The MLAs I can understand - why would they criticise expenses when their words may come back to haunt them in the next series of revelations.
Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 01:27 AMMaybe we should have all proposals for local goverment lodged through current affairs programmes.(for instantanious results)
In amazement 2 of the relevent panelists have pledged movement immediatly on ammending legislation to afford M Nesbitt essential tools required to carry out duties being paid for by we the tax payer.
This point has to raise the question, are any of our ministers or MLA`s aware of these problems as the 2 panelists appeared to be totaly unaware to this important issue.(after commenting the priority of this issue)
One would have thought the issue would be in front of all concerned bodies in black and white.
Are we to assume both panelists knew nothing of the problem.
On Hearts and minds we then heard the subject of a possable 16% pay increase to be awarded to our MLA`s BY OUR MLA`s
Why would any of them be entitled to this criminal pay increase when obvisiously not paying attention to relevent and URGENT matters as above.
A point not raised to Mike Nessbit was the subject of agreement differentual that may occurr between the 4 commissioners.
Should we not have 1 boss from the four.Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 01:30 AMI am also was annoyed at the way the discussion was handled about what The Minister for Sport said this week.
Arlene Foster said she didn’t see reason for gay rugby team nor gay bars.
A recent report found that 43% of gay people would conceal their sexual orientation if working in sport.
Name one out sportsman or sportswomen in Northern Ireland. Answer = zero.
Is that good enough?
What about fact that 29% young people in Northern Ireland have attempted suicide because of their sexual orientation.
Good enough?
What about fact that 55% of lesbian, gay and bisexual people in Northern Ireland have experienced homophobic violence.
What else do you need?
Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 01:40 AMAndrew, this panel didnt seem to think there was any issue with Poots’ comments. Why can’t they see that point you’re making?
Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 01:50 AMAndrew, this panel didnt seem to think there was any issue with Poots’ comments. Why can’t they see that point you’re making?
Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 01:50 AMIf Mike Nesbitt has not been appointed yet, who has the right to caution him?
As a private citizen, he can do anything he wants.
And if he’s working for free, that’s a bonus to us.Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 02:00 AMLet’s Talk has long been Question Time for Provincial
Dummies. Tonight’s episode was one of the worst ever.
On the issue of MLA nepotism, Mike Nesbitt and Henry Kelly reminisced nostalgically about the days when one did not need to bother one’s head with the inconvenience of open competition for jobs. Nesbitt said that his interview for the Victims Commisssion was his first ever job interview and went on to demonstrate that he had f-all squared to say about anything . God help the victims.Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 02:01 AMYeah mike nesbitt’s comments about broadcasting, and Henry’s too, were strange. It must be strange for them two boys, stuck in that shared bubble, because the rest of the world has moved on and journalists now get interviewed for their jobs too. Henry was particularly weird tonight. As far as he’s concerned, as long as we have peace in NI, sure we can all put up with a bit of corruption in local politics. Mike seemed to agree: he thinks this financial corruption debate is at least “real politics”. What tosh. Real politics isn’t about whether politicians should be able to employ their kids and rent houses from themselves (ahem, their wives, I mean), it’s about how we build a healthy, integrated and prosperous society.
Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 02:29 AMCan someone tell me if Mike Nesbitt is already collecting salary for a job he says he’s so far unable to do?
Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 02:30 AMWell said Anon. Why can’t we have Question Time instead of this amateur, mutual, childish appreciation society.It was totally pathetic Henry Kelly came across as totally unprepared and out of touch with current affairs.Arlene Foster and the other woman were total lightweights.Incidentally why is the auditor general making payments to people like the follically challenged Nesbitt who have no legally established positions, one wonders if he and others are taking their money under false pretences.It appears that the vast majority of our elected politicians are abusing the system; this is totally unacceptable. I also thought that it was illegal for one to be a member of a UK parliament or presumably an assembly and hold an office of profit under the Crown. What are The Manor of Northsteads and The Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds for other wise. Papa Doc hopefully will apply for one of these asap.
Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 02:42 AMProof that this is a damaging fudge indeed.
If the Executive cannot even appoint a Commissioner… you know the rest.
Hmmm and Anon
Agreed. The audience won it.
If they’re going to select two Executive parties, they should at least select a back-bencher from one of them.
On Paisley and the Victims’ Commissioner I simply could not believe what I was hearing! The man held us back for more than a generation, and then messed up an appointment. It’s a farce - why did it take the audience to say so?!
Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 09:33 AM“..why did it take the audience to say so?!”
It was the public which got so fed up with the elderly rural ‘folk’ who have held politics back for generations that they have finally torn the script up. I don’t like unionists, I detest how rightwing the SDLP is becoming, and there are times when I get very worried about the people around the fringes of Sinn Fein but I’ll support anyone who wants powersharing and a future for my grandchildren.
Every politican and every party gets involved in these things, whether it’s about flats in Paris, collecting brown envelopes in Dublin, selling honours in London, or stealing speeches in Washington. Get over yourselves and realise you’re just not that important to the rest of us. Do your bloody job and stop the hysterical over reaction.....and stop the nonsense about the mafia and/or fascism because that’s what democracy is all about, my friend. Petty local officals fighting about petty local corruption and the lengths and colours of children’s hair!
Unionism has lost any possibility of positive thinking and endlessly objecting to the GFA doesn’t appeal to anybody. Compaining about a few million being ripped off in a petty local squabble? Big deal! What did we think you were up to at the back of the Lodge or around the 19th hole?
Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 10:14 AMNo need for a gay rugby team? Does everyone forget the lesson of Justin Fashanu so quickly? One of Englands brightest stars never allowed to shine because he was gay, and ended his days dangling from a rope.
Of course Arlene and her neanderthal colleagues don’t understand the need for gay bars, those morons don’t see the need for any bars at all. They also think that an invisible sky pixie has chosen them, that the earth is only 3000 years old nor do they recognise that dinosaurs ever existed despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 10:22 AM‘What did we think you were up to at the back of the Lodge or around the 19th hole?’
lib2016
you’ve hit on something. Talk Back should be taken out of the studio and filmed at various tasteful and polite 19th holes around this great wee country. The panel can sit at the bar (subsidised )while the plebs mutter darkly in the greenskeeper shed.
This probably relates more to the blog on the Nolan show but… would TalkBack be any different if Nolan had chaired the proceedings? Or what about the gifted and eloquent Mr Curran?
That said, I hear Joe Pesci is looking for work.
Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 @ 10:24 AM
