Thursday, March 20, 2008
Gerry Must Go
So sez Squinter, 20 years on, Gerry must face the truth:
“Adams has been the West Belfast MP for 20 years.
If a week is a long time in politics, then 20 years is the Upper Paleolithic Age. It is in that same 20-year period that the slow, steady decline into chaos in certain parts of West Belfast began, and it was on his watch that it has gathered pace to become the runaway train that it is today.
...there are many people and many agencies to blame for the state of the lower Falls ... But while Adams can and does point the finger at some or even all of the above, Squinter has to say that he has never heard Adams accepting any responsibility for the fact that large parts of his constituency are no-go areas ...
Who’s to blame for the failure to press home the Harry Holland momentum? Gerry Adams is to blame, that’s who.
Gerry Adams is the MP, has been for 20 years. He’s supposed to know how to marshal and direct; he’s supposed to give us the ideas and the leadership; he’s supposed to make things better. When he asks for and gets our votes he accepts a host of very onerous responsibilities, and the most basic of those responsibilities is to make his constituency a good place for decent people to live and for parents to bring up their families. In that he has failed terribly.”
“It wasn’t as if Adams didn’t have the clout and the contacts. A former aide of Tony Blair has been making frankly embarrassing revelations in a new book about how close Adams and Blair were. Adams was the Oprah Winfrey of Irish-America. And what did we get? InBev gone and Visteon going. A huge investment conference that holds its nose as it swishes past West Belfast ferrying ministers and Invest NI suits to Hillsborough and Cultra. Adams might have got away with pointing to the lack of investment in his constituency in 1983 and saying: “Nothing to do with me, mate.” 20 years on and you’d buy a house in Ross Street quicker than you’d buy that.
20 years. Two decades. Four parliamentary terms. Four US Presidents. Two Popes. 11 Secretaries of State. Five UN Secretary-Generals. Five Taoisigh. Five Prime Ministers. In Ross Street the wind of change blows in empty Budweiser boxes and despair; it blows out good people and hope.”
Rusty Nail @ 11:41 AM
I am a strong SF supporter in West Belfast but Squinter has his finger right on the pulse.
We did not go through years of struggle and deprivation for this. What good is power sharing if the elderly and the good people are afraid to go outside their door. Time to take a stand and take the consequences.
Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 11:53 AMWell said, Robin! Articulating perfectly - and not for the first tinme - what many in WB have concluded long ago.
Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 12:10 PMfinally, finally the penny begins to drop. But where Robin might like the buck to begin and end with Gerry, the true failure of political leadership there is not his alone.
Let’s not forget the much celebrated victory of Sinn Fein in the Assembly election. When a party has 5 out of 6 Assembly seats in a constituency, and that constituency is making virtually no economic or social progress, what has to happen for the people there to see the connection?
Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 12:16 PMThe killing of a former volunteer merely illustrates what we all already know. anti-social behaviour is seriously out of control.
Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 12:16 PMAnother thing. I’ve often heard it said that Mairtin O’Millionaire fancies himself in Gerry’s role.
Could Squinter’s kite flying be part of that process????
Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 12:18 PMRobin Livingstone doesn’t drop pennies.
He is given pennies to drop.An interesting piece for the Kremlinologists to ponder.
Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 12:20 PMI think it’s probably time for quite a few retirements at the top of all the parties. People run out of energy and ideas eventually.
Let the younger generation have a go. At least that would also remove any remaining taint, justified or not, that politicians on all sides had unsavoury links.Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 12:22 PMAh Urquhart, you’re Kremlinologising beat me to it! I reckon the O’Millionaire scenario is a bit far fetched though. Even he can’t be that delusional.
Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 12:22 PM“anti-social behaviour is seriously out of control.”
Eoghan, would it be fair to say that this phenomenon is fairly widespread throughout these islands, especially, but not exclusively, in inner-city areas?
Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 12:30 PM“I reckon the O’Millionaire scenario is a bit far fetched though. Even he can’t be that delusional.”
LOL.
Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 12:30 PMYou’ve lost me guys. Who is O’Millionaire?
Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 12:34 PMmusic to my ears.
Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 12:34 PM“You’ve lost me guys. Who is O’Millionaire?
Posted by joeCanuck on Mar 20, 2008 @ 12:34 PM”
He’s the International Media Baron, Community Champion, Tycoon, Yankophile, Philosopher, West Belfast Colossus.
And runs the Andytown News.
Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 12:45 PMNevin
I’d reckon you are slightly out of date Nevin. Middle class areas in Britain are now just as likely to be experiencing this surge of anti-social behaviour as inner city areas. Well according to the amount of murders/assaults that are reported on the news. Seems the average white householder is now just as likely to be murdered on his doorstep, as the black kid grom Brixton, or teenager from the east end of Glasgow.
Formerly Republican areas of the six counties are really just catching up to where the rest of us probably already are. However this murder serves to illustrate(well in my mind anyhow) just how far it has gone.
Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 01:10 PMI’ve just read that again, and I want to say - again?
hear hear!!
Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 01:10 PMadams and the republican leadership singularly failed to bring any post-peace benefits to west belfast. instead the area has descended into bloody mayhem and the adams leadership sat back and watched it all unfold. today, their mantra is its a failure of policing. its a failure of leadership, its a betrayal of the people who believed in adams and the republican leadership, a leadership who opted to leave the field with lots of money, overseas property portfolios and other forms of wealth the suffering people of working class communities will never experience.
as for mairtin o millionaire as a replacement: tweedle dee-tweedle dum.Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 01:14 PMGrizzly has been the undoubted star of Republicanism but although a big fan myself there seems to be a little bit of the Eddie O’Sullivan factor creeping in - ie he’s going a bit stale.
The sooner police and justice is devolved to allow for the unambiguous support for (Irish )law and order and police - but thats not down to Grizzly but to the DUP.
Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 01:28 PMSo devolving policing and justice will benefit the people? Since we’ve just read an article stating the fact, that grizzly has been at the helm of west Belfast for nigh on 20 odd years and it has reached the state it has, the outlook of things improving for all of us if policing and justice are devolved is bleak in my view.
Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 01:38 PMPrince Eoghan - you may be right but these are communities who would not be beaten down in the past but seem so helpless now. There are many factors to blame but I still want something done about it!
Why cant the good people come out on a Friday night in their thousands to show these hoods - this is our community and we are not afraid of you. Evil prospers when the good do nothing - unless people take ownership NOW a bad situation will only get worse.
Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 01:41 PMI still can’t see how the blame can be laid on 1 MP for an ill that is replicated the world over, especially when he has no access to power at all.
The Assembly could be held account for it, and by that token SF going forward.But up to now? Nah.
Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 01:44 PMWB because street politics has failed us before. Demonstrating against hoods is useless unless the powers that be are brought to account. So it’s ‘over to you Mr Adams’. Has been for a long time.
Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 01:47 PMTy,
well there was a bit of insurgency going on there for a while and the police were not acceptable to the population - so lets hope the DUP allow things to be moved along.
Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 01:49 PMWB when and at what time is the demo on friday night?
Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 01:49 PMSammy, well Mr Adams we’re told has had a lot of foresight within the peace process, so maybe he should have had a little of that for his own constituents. What he did in Ballymurphy - is hardly a shinny example of his skills in the policing department. Or Sinn Fein’s either.
Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 01:53 PMThe beginning of the end for Adam’s leadership? someone above said that Robin is given pennies to drop. That was certainly the case a few years ago, not sure about now, but its an interesting theory.
When he stated in the paper - at least a couple of years before it happened - that the time had come to support the PSNI (’Trevors’) he was threatened and from memory he was even attacked. But that was flying a kite for the movement.
Where has Adams been this last few weeks as the constituency goes to hell? As the Investment conference prepares to pass by holding its nose? He is of course in the States, hamming it up in New York far away from Ross Road.
Such criticism / observations have been a regular feature on this website over the last couple of years - SF politicans (with a few notable exceptions) have failed west Belfast? Who will stand up to take their place?
Its a well written piece too.
Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 @ 01:56 PM
