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Carsons Cat has commented 99 times (2 in the last month).
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Books
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Talking to a brick wall: how to make politicians listen?
It took me a long time to warm to advertising agencies. The first time I worked with one I was working in sales management on Fairy Washing Up Liquid. I was due to attend a meeting at which I was to be told what consumers really thought of the brand. I remember my reluctance to [...] read our review »
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“You can see Newton’s mind at work…”
To add to the open access treasure trove at the Royal Society, Cambridge University Library is putting online some of its collection of books, maps, manuscripts and journals. We have called the first phase of our work on the Cambridge Digital Library the Foundations Project, which runs from mid-2010 to mid-2013 and has been made possible [...] read our review » -
Voices from the Grave
Coming up to the Halloween holiday, some people might be frightened of the idea of Voices from the Grave – but for others, the chance to hear an oral history of the Troubles from the mouths of two (in)famous protagonists, PUP leader and former UVF member David Ervine, and Brendan “The Dark” Hughes, is not [...] read our review »
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Comment on Obama endorses gay marriage
on 10 May 2012 at 9:52 am
In the slow but inevitable slide of Slugger from a site I used to usually leave on my screen fairly constantly to a mildly annoying way now to kill five minutes this thread at least gives us a date we can point to for that ‘jump the shark’ moment.
I think we should have a moments silence. A truly woeful initial post topped only by even more woeful comments.
Well slugger, it was nice knowin ya….
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Comment on SF Lord Mayor to step down before having to meet the Queen…
on 23 April 2012 at 12:46 pm
“SF backing for a DUP candidate”
BCC uses d’Hondt now so that can’t exactly be true – parties get their go on the allocation – no deals or backing required.
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Comment on Sinn Fein’s seven goals towards unification?
on 8 April 2012 at 12:49 pm
It looks like a direct, and fairly poor response by SF to catch up with the kind of moves made by Robinson over the last year or so. He’s made a virtue out of attempting to widen the brand and Gerry wants people to like him too.
However, one of the problems is that it *looks* like they’re just trying to copy Robinson and not very well at that. It’s all the kind of tree-hugging nothingness that is pure Adams. That kind of superficial crap in turn then actually damages any real attempts they want to widen their appeal.
The trouble is that for years the Shinners were treated as the statesmen that they self-evidently weren’t but people gave them a bye-ball in the hope they’d stop killing people. However Adams and co believed the hype and now seem to think that everything they say has some great inbuilt profoundness and must deserve serious intellectual discussion. People treating them as if they were something special has made them lazy.
The reverse treatment of Robinson, particularly post 1998 has done the opposite for him – its made him work twice as hard to actually put something forward with a bit of substance.
The underlying substance of these 7 points are that if SF close their eyes and hope hard enough that somehow unionists, the British Government and the rest of the world will one day wake up and realise that we’ve all been wrong all along and we’ll recognise that Gerry has been an intellectual colossus all along.
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Comment on Mike Nesbitt takes 81% of UUP vote
on 31 March 2012 at 9:41 pm
Lamhdearg
Smarmy – just cant think exactly who that reminds me of. Oh yes, it was the word Mrs CC (who has little or no interest in politics) used to describe Nesbitt after hearing he had decided to run for leadership.
Framer
Indeed, a party that can bring out 600 members has some force – mind you given the pictures I seen on the news that number could well drop heavily if there happens to be a particularly harsh winter. It should have been sponsored by Saga.
Mind you, I am amazed that about 100 people turned up with the apparent intention of just making it clear that neither of the two candidates were worth voting for. That’s really the kind of endorsement you need……
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Comment on I Hereby Invoke …
on 30 March 2012 at 3:43 pm
We could also have a rule against mis-spelling *Godwin’s*
# oops, corrected now, our Neighbours were Goodwins, or gu-dins as it was pronounced # DR
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Comment on Willie Clarke ‘allowed the option’ of working in Down council…
on 22 February 2012 at 10:04 am
“It’s not particularly thought to have anything to do with the SDLP selection of a successor”
Its probably got nothing to do with the Assembly whatsoever. Its a recognition that Clarke is probably Councillor level and not going to go any further.
However, its maybe also a recognition that the other ‘shining star’ of South Down SF, probably shouldn’t even be at the level of Councillor. My guess is that SF are bringing someone in who can neatly replace the universally loved Catriona Ruane as their next Westminster candidate.
Its quite clear that a huge chunk of the population (unionist and nationalist) would sooner vote for satan himself than stick an X beside Ruane’s name and SF’s attraction in the area is severely limited by her – combined with the fact that Clarke’s clearly nothing better than a bit of lobby fodder.
Not sure where you get this notion that Ritchie’s Assembly successor isn’t still “waiting in the wings”. The only way that could possibly be true is if the Stoops have completely ditched him and Richie is going to get her preferred candidate to replace her after all. As it is, Maggie is clinging on by her fingertips to that Assembly seat and maybe she’s allowing Sean to do a bit of photocopying up on the hill, but he’s certainly not getting to do much more.
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Comment on DSD withdraw funding for Laganside Events
on 10 February 2012 at 9:11 am
I’m glad you put the link to the Alternative Ulster story here… some of the comments are just gold.
Apparently the arts is “Thee most important thing in Northern Ireland”
So there was me thinking that nurses were the people no-one was ever allowed to criticise or do anything nasty to when all along I should have realised its the luvvies who put on a few festivals – well provided the public pick up the cost at source, not by actually turning up at the events.
Now run along Government and close a few of ‘dem wards and get my festival back on track….
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Comment on Unionist unity is a debate worth having rather than a ‘fate accompli’…
on 27 January 2012 at 10:19 am
Meanwhile the Ulster Unionists have decided that their new strategy is that, in any argument you must play directly into the hands of your opponents.
1) Reg Empey & Tom Elliott’s increasingly hysterical screamings about Scottish independence are manna from heaven for Salmond.
2) Not to be outdone, Shillers weighs in with his anti-unionist unity piece which must have anyone in the DUP rubbing their hands with glee.
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Comment on “They do absolutely fantastic work in some very challenging areas”
on 18 January 2012 at 9:21 am
I do love it when Shinners disagree.
John O’Dowd was on Radio Ulster this morning telling us that it simply wasn’t possible to prevent a retired teacher from coming back in as a sub – it would be illegal to legislate to prevent them.
Perhaps John needs to have a word with Gerry about the legalities of discrimination based on former employment, particularly when they’re the best qualified people for the job.
Those issues aren’t as important of course when you’re trying to play super-republican and tell all those dissidents how you’re keeping them uppity peelers in their place.
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Comment on Reducing the number of departments by one and missing the opportunity to meet manifesto commitments
on 12 January 2012 at 11:10 am
Alan,
“But why bother rolling a single department reduction into the justice discussions?”
Why *not* include it? yes it would be better to get an all singing, all dancing review, now but if a small reduction can be achieved quickly then why reject it? My guess is that if you’d asked every party during the election whether DEL should have been scrapped immediately then the answer would have been yes. Oddly once Farry’s Ministerial car & salary are in the mix, the Alliance Party are a little less keen on the idea of getting rid.
“But why bother rolling a single department reduction into the justice discussions? Abolishing DEL didn’t help the DUP or Sinn Fein.”
Maybe it wasn’t actually all about the DUP & SF – read some of the press from the UUP in the last week. It was only last weekend they were bleating heavily about getting rid of DEL. They’re now being offered exactly what they were asking for and they can’t very well now complain as much about the DoJ arrangements (well not with any credibility anyway).
It won’t stop the complainers in the SDLP – if possible, they appear to have even less positive to add than the UUP. At least Kennedy would appear to have something about him even if Elliott doesnt whilst both Attwood & McDonnell are both woeful.
However, back to the man issue – the leaping on some alleged “manifesto failure/breach” by Alan is all just a little too premature and smacks a little too much of somehow leaping to Alliance’s defence to have even a shred of credibility.
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