Slugger O'Toole

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Latest comments from StarHound (see all)

StarHound has commented 9 times (0 in the last month).

1. Comment on Tele takes a hiding
   on 21 February 2011 at 2:04 pm

   Dewi

   The Sunday Journal is more than helped out by the other two issues of the Derry Journal, see further down the page at the link.

   ‘Derry Journal (Fri) 18,182 -1.9pc
   Derry Journal (Tue) 15,848 -3.8pc
   Derry Journal Group 58,365 -3.6pc’

   Belfast Telegraph:

   Long since a pointless purchase due to it’s sheer lack of real news and analysis. Claims of ‘balance’ have no credibility in the face of the ‘UK’ bias in it’s language and the clear anti-nationalist tilt of it’s reporting, columnists and editorial.

   Lazy pages of tittle tattle and trivia from the PR world seem like cheap filler, especially when accompanied by a few columnists who it’s claimed shoot from the hip etc etc but more frequently seem to talk from their uniformed backsides.

   It’s circulation must surely have halved in the last ten years by these figures.

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2. Comment on SDLP getting down to business
   on 13 May 2010 at 3:21 pm

   I don’t recall seeing a text of the oath posted on here before – that and self-declared Nationalists swearing such an explicit oath is the point of the thread. Many Nationalists will shudder as they read through that text – thus my point about how effective it would if used as a campaigning tool.

   I also don’t see the problem with the point being presented in a graphical way, this seems like an excuse for those who don’t like the content. If you want it all in Times New Roman, take the next left to go back to 2002.

   It is relevant to South Belfast as it is one the three constituencies where the SDLP currently matter. Whether he likes it or not, at the last election as well as the one before that, Alasdair Mc Donnell was elected by many Nationalists who plain don’t like him, holding their noses and voting for him as well as many borrowed Sinn Féin votes, clearly more this time. The oath is one more thing that could shave votes off the SDLP.

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3. Comment on SDLP getting down to business
   on 13 May 2010 at 2:52 pm

   My Goodness, that’s the Stoops well and truly wound up for today – ‘a new low for Slugger’, this is the straw’(sic), ‘inane’….that sounds like a few cappuchinos dropped across South Belfast, though in fairness, Conall ‘I am the new SDLP’ McDevittgate may have already put the cat among the croissants earlier today.

   I have a feeling that this oath business may run and run though – imagine Sinn Féin taking the text round the houses to wavering SDLP voters…no wonder it’s the SDLP’s dirty secret.

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4. Comment on New “united” Spratt posters appear in South Belfast
   on 6 May 2010 at 1:39 pm

   As well as the above, it could also have the effect of driving wavering Nationalists and Republicans straight to the SDLP, cancelling out any benefit the DUP might have achieved from scaring Unionists.

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5. Comment on New “united” Spratt posters appear in South Belfast
   on 6 May 2010 at 11:20 am

   I’m not sure how it is exactly that ‘Alasdair’s people are fighting very hard indeed’. I’ve had one leaflet through the door, same as from the other parties apart from the ultimately pointless avalanche I’ve had from Paula Bradshaw. I did see Conall Mc Devitt and some young, neatly turned out houmous eaters dandering up the Lisburn Road last night but that has been as much as I’ve seen all campaign.

   I would really like know why the SDLP think that they should be entitled to borrow my vote but they don’t seem to be have enough people on the ground to go knocking doors and engage. Since Margaret Ritchie has been elected they have made one mistake after another – the biggest mistake seems to have been electing her in the first place. I’ll bet Big Al has had a few chuckles to himself watching her woeful debate performances.

   From a few recent conversations around the place it seems that quite a few people in South Belfast are confused and annoyed about the direction and state of the SDLP, some I’ve talked to (ranging from ex-SDLP Sinn Féin voters, Sinn Féin voters, SDLP voters and floaters have said that they won’t be voting, are considering not voting or will be holding their noses to vote SDLP hoping that something is done soon about Ritchie. The main issues have been:

   - Ritchie’s leadership – a total car crash, who can really defend it?

   - The point of the SDLP – just how are they different from Sinn Fein now? Where is the vision?

   Policy – Can you want a ‘Shared Future’ and a United Ireland? – Eleven Plus – Yes, No or Malone Road Fudge?

   Party Unity – Why does it seem that everyone in the SDLP hates each other and is out for themselves? Why does the SDLP still looks like separate unrelated fiefdoms.

   - The Fianna Fáil snub – why was she so deliberately offensive and just who was she speaking for?

   - Abstentionism – Big deal. Just how has it hurt Sinn Féin’s ability to negotiate or deliver? Are the SDLP just chasing status and OBEs and do they keep their fingers crossed for the oath to the queen?

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6. Comment on Team Martin McAuley for North Belfast…
   on 20 April 2010 at 2:21 am

   So was it cost, naivety or as Keith impishly imples, Irish identity is no more relevant to North Belfast than than of Tuvalu, so .co.uk it is?

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7. Comment on Team Martin McAuley for North Belfast…
   on 20 April 2010 at 2:07 am

   Perhaps when they next get out of the Mystery Machine perhaps someone could ask the gang why I can’t find http://www.votemcauley.ie just votemccauley.co.uk?

   They did say that ‘We believe that peoples’ identity is important’ but it seems that they have chosen one over the other here.

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8. Comment on Margaret’s watch not chiming with backbenchers?
   on 20 April 2010 at 1:48 am

   I have to say that I raised an eyebrow at the way Margaret Ritchie delivered her pronouncement on merger with Fianna Fáil – ‘Not on my watch’ was as crassly unnecessary as it was misguided. Her leadership seems to becoming not just a car-crash but increasingly surreal – which part of the SDLP is she actually leading? Has she actually told anyone else in the SDLP what her vision is? It certainly doesn’t look like it.

   I talked to people in South Belfast today who voted SDLP last time who were discussing not voting this time or who were Sinn Féin voters who voted for McDonnell last time and were not going to do it this time because of this outburst, puzzlement over the ‘Shared Future’ nonsense as well as her rejection of talks with Sinn Féin over Fermanagh & South Tyrone and South Belfast itself.

   And yes, Fearghal Mc Kinney was terrible, Gerry Kelly demolished him with ease. Why did Margaret Ritchie not hold off with this ‘master stroke’ till the Assembly election?

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9. Comment on “Saville is pointless (so is any question on it)”
   on 4 March 2010 at 5:36 am

   Saville was only necessary because of the previous government sponsored, whitewash of an enquiry.

   Ford has basically just insulted the victims and their families, his holier than thou pomposity has finally crumbled away as he reveals an unusual notion of what Justice really means to him. He has also demonstrated that he does not understand what Bloody Sunday meant to Nationalists and how it affected the next 30 years – to think that Alliance has been seen as a crypto-unionist party by Nationalists…

   Sinn Féin and the SDLP really need to push him to explain himself this as he can’t be allowed to become Minister for Justice with this hanging over him.

   The fact Ford has gone in to hiding, avoiding all questions, is just pathetic – perhaps he’s polishing the Alliance famed ‘social conscience’.

   (Re Harry J :Good to see that calling for someone to be shot isn’t actually acceptable on Slugger.)

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