Profile for carl marks
A man of expensive tastes and little money.
Hates. Holland (nice people but too flat) zealots, tribal marchers (green or orange) being called Groucho (funny the first 10 times), water in whisky, petrol heads, those who can’t see the elephant, Tories ,new labour, fascists, flags up lampposts, street preachers and those who hand out tracts (litter louts for Jesus)
Loves Mountains, tents snow Jameson’s whisky and hot chocolate (put them all together and I’m in paradise) Guinness, good books, music.
I’m a republican but not a shiner left of centre but mellowing in my old age.
If you ask me for advice I’ll tell you,
Don’t take sleeping tablets and laxatives at the same time
Latest comments from carl marks (see all)
carl marks has commented 662 times (41 in the last month).
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Books
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Sunday Supplement
It being Sunday, we’ve all got time to consider and ponder things at greater length than during the working week, yes? If it’s good enough for the Sunday papers, it’s good enough for this guest blogger. So here’s the review section… Actually, it’s my introduction to a book published last year, Goin’ Down Slow: selected [...] read our review » -
“Unionism Decayed 1997-2007″ by David Vance: book review
I initially wrote this when the book was first published three years ago; whilst certain elements of it now sound dated, its basic premise that the period of 1997-2007 was a period of irreversible decay for Northern Irish Unionism can still be argued as a valid opinion. My own feeling is that it did indeed [...] read our review » -
Ian O’Riordan’s Miles to Run: An invitation to madness?
Ireland is in the middle of a boom – a running boom. Chances are, even if you have never run a step yourself (apart from some painful P.E. classes many moons ago), someone you know has taken up running over the last little while. Road races in Northern Ireland and in the Republic have seen [...] read our review »
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Comment on Paisley: I have nothing to apologise for…
on 17 May 2012 at 11:41 am
Comrade Stalin
True £10,000 is small change out of 15 billion but there are 2 very important principals here that i think are relevant,
1/ a politician, who is wasteful or misuses the recourses given to him to carry out his constituency work, cannot be trusted to handle the big money.
2/ the mind your own business answer when asked about his/her spending of public money is not acceptable, these people are elected by us and paid by us and have a duty to give full and honest answers.
Now i don’t give a toss what party they belong to, they all have a duty to be careful with our money and another to explain how it was spent and on what.
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Comment on Would the legalisation of cannibis help reduce the drug problem in Derry (and elsewhere)?
on 16 May 2012 at 7:45 pm
Harry Flashman
My how things have changed, when i was in NTT and PNG from 82-86 betel nut was the drug of choice everywhere but Bali.
One granny in the kampong I lived in for a while would regularly get stoned and wonder of into the bush, the whole kampong would all go looking for her, when she was found she was given a very gentle ticking off by the headman but it made no difference a couple of days later of she went.
Let me tell you carrying out a search in a tropical rain forest at night is no fun.
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Comment on Paisley: I have nothing to apologise for…
on 16 May 2012 at 7:27 pm
sdelaneys (profile)
16 May 2012 at 6:33 pm
DUP at the envelopes, SF at the ink cartridges, which are the biggest wasters of taxpayers money? (we won’t count MLA’s use of DLA cars).
They are about the same in my opinion, both a waste of taxpayers’ money.
One thing that gets to me is the sheer banality of it all, ink cartridges, envelopes what’s next biros?
And they show the same lack of imagination in the way they run the country, and you know it’s our fault we elect these people and I’m willing to bet that we re-elect them next time round.
Somebody once said that you get the politicians you deserve, he/she was right.
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Comment on Looks like the Minister really did find that extra £72 million down the back of a departmental sofa…
on 16 May 2012 at 5:43 pm
cynic2 (profile)
16 May 2012 at 8:30 am
So will the Accounting Officer be sacked?
I hope so and replace him with the person who ordered the sofa
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Comment on Looks like the Minister really did find that extra £72 million down the back of a departmental sofa…
on 16 May 2012 at 5:41 pm
sherdy (profile)
16 May 2012 at 5:34 pm
Wish I had a sofa like that!
Have you checked, im just about to take a stanly knife to mine
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Comment on Paisley: I have nothing to apologise for…
on 16 May 2012 at 5:06 pm
dwatch
“Explain to who?”
The taxpayer’s of which I’m one, the envelopes are not free, we must pay for them.
If your happy with politicians spending your money without having to explain it then more the fool you.
things tight all over and those who we elect to represent us hav a duty to explain how they spend our money.
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Comment on Paisley: I have nothing to apologise for…
on 16 May 2012 at 4:45 pm
dwatch (profile)
16 May 2012 at 4:28 pm
Reader, no one has posted the assembly rules and regulations regards the use of (FREE ASSEMBLY ENVELOPES) and the numbers & cost that have been used by other MLA’s.
Without such documentation how can IP be judged?
that sounds like the defence used by quite a few MPs during the recent expenses scandal.
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Comment on Paisley: I have nothing to apologise for…
on 16 May 2012 at 4:42 pm
I don’t know if JPJ is guilty of anything and i think he is entitled to a presumption of innocence but he must explain this properly.
Now in view of your post of
16 May 2012 at 3:57 pm
Carl Marks,
SF MLA Daithi McKay can question all he likes until the cows come home. But unless Ian Paisley is ever ever charged with misusing public funds his is questioning will be viewed by others in the assembly as a load of mud slinging hot air.
And considering no SF MLA has ever been charged with the Northern Job.
Then the post below can be viewed as a load of mud slinging hot air
, Maybe SF MLA Daithi McKay should be asked does he or any other SF MLA know were the £26 million disappeared to from the Northern Bank robbery a few years ago? Now that is more interesting.
Unless of course you apply different standards to different people, which I’m sure you don’t as that would be hypocrisy.
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Comment on Paisley: I have nothing to apologise for…
on 16 May 2012 at 4:28 pm
dwatch
But unless Ian Paisley is ever ever charged with misusing public funds his is questioning will be viewed by others in the assembly as a load of mud slinging hot air.
and unless IPJ answers the questions he is asked then some of the mud will stick. or will we have another “I know of him” moment.
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Comment on Paisley: I have nothing to apologise for…
on 16 May 2012 at 1:12 pm
dwatch
It was £10,000 over one year, yes questions should be asked about the northern job,
and I’m sorry you think possible misuse of public funds is a joke, perhaps you could explain the funny side to someone needing a operation that the NHS can’t afford or a OAP waiting for access work to be done in their house that the housing executive can’t afford.
Of Course if you think two wrongs make a right then wasting public money is ok then i suppose
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