After Garvaghy recklessness has a price: Burrows and the new unionist competition
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For a generation, unionist parties competed on who looked toughest. The Garvaghy Road standoff suggests that has changed. Jon Burrows has made restraint look like strength, and the DUP now faces pressure from both sides. A game-theory look at how the three unionist parties responded.
Chambré Weekly Bulletin
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The Executive remains without an agreed Budget as talks continued this week. While the parties maintain that NI is underfunded, they have until January to come to a settlement, otherwise NI Secretary Chris Bryant MP has threatened to withdraw an …
No Matter Who Wins, the Palestinians Lose.
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There are few foreign countries whose elections are of interest to us. We don’t follow the elections in Japan or Greece or Mexico all that much. We do follow those in France and in Germany given the impact they can …
Open Sunday – discuss what you like…
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The idea for Open Sunday is to let you discuss what you like. Just two rules. Keep it civil and no man/woman playing. Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday.
Open sunday – politics free zone…
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In addition to our normal open Sunday, we have a politics-free post to give you all a break. So discuss what you like here, but no politics. Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday.
Storytime with Houdi – The Lying Ant…
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The song Before You Go, by Lewis Capaldi, is taken from his debut album, Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent. It refers to the suicide of his aunt when he was a boy. Capaldi became synonymous with the Covid lockdown …
Lough Neagh: polluted by animal waste products both now and in its myth-origin story…
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Dining in a restaurant in a town near Lough Neagh last weekend, I noticed a spelling mistake on the ‘Specials’ menu. (Too chicken to try the fish, I went for the chicken.) I couldn’t help horsing around with the spelling …
The future of Unionism. It’s all about leadership, stupid
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It’s about leadership stupid. Something strange that has yet to be explained in the defenestration of Paisley the late chuckle brother. It was ideological as well as personal over his loss of grip due to age. A leap too far …
After Drumcree 2026, unionist unity is a fading pipedream…
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Gavin Robinson’s call for unionist electoral co-operation looks back to a past that no longer exists. After the muted response to Drumcree, a growing pro-union constituency wants delivery, consensus and a working Good Friday Agreement rather than “circle the wagons” pacts. This piece asks why the UUP would tie itself to the DUP and TUV.
Does the BBC report the news or make the news?
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There have long been concerns about the power of BBC Northern Ireland in the local media landscape. They have more journalists than the rest of the media put together and they very often shape what is discussed and highlighted. Who …