Slugger O’Toole – Page 7 – Slugger O'Toole

‘Freddie’ quits the UUP to sit by the phone

Slugger O'Toole on December 3, 2010, 1:04 pm

| Readers 11

Further to Mick’s post last week, it seems that Harry doesn’t regard his end-of-the-line with the UUP as the end of his political ambitions: From the Beeb: “Harry Hamilton, a well-known Freddie Mercury impersonator, polled more than 10,500 votes in Upper Bann in the general election. However, he was rejected as a candidate for next year’s assembly elections. Mr Hamilton said he was keeping “an open mind” about the future but would be open to an approach from the Alliance …

Bank of Ireland – Government takes a majority stake

Slugger O'Toole on November 23, 2010, 10:35 pm

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… according to Reuters anyway and coming after a long plunge in today’s trading and a decision to hold a firesale of the family silver. They’re stopping short of full nationalisation though. It’s casting fresh doubt on the credibility of the stress-testing that both the Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank went through in July. Not much more detail than that available at the moment, but we’ll keep you posted. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and …

Cowen Statement (in case you missed it)

Slugger O'Toole on November 22, 2010, 9:38 pm

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Via Maman Poulet: Brian Cowen’s statement 22/11/010 from maman poulet on Vimeo. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

The new comments system is here

Slugger O'Toole on November 14, 2010, 3:48 pm

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We’ve just added our new comments system to the site. Have a look? The thinking behind it can be seen on this post from a few months ago. It will help us do the following things: Help readers find the best comments quickly. We often have 100+ comments on a thread. You will now be able to highlight the points that you agree with and that you think are original or well-made points. See who you regularly agree / disagree …

Sinn Féin’s ‘Alternative’

Slugger O'Toole on November 5, 2010, 7:07 pm

| Readers 25

This piece was first posted on ‘Fermanagh Fightback!’ – Sinn Féin recently published its plan for the cuts which offered a few populist measures as window-dressing

See you later?

Slugger O'Toole on October 25, 2010, 3:00 pm

| Readers 5

Don’t forget, the Great Big Politics Pub Quiz is on tonight at The Black Box. Online ticket sales have ended but you can pay on the door. The throw-in is at 7.45 but the doors are open at 7.30pm. Don’t be late – we won’t wait for you…. A few points to bear in mind: Tonight, everyone realise that you are as clever as you’ve been saying you are for a while now There are prizes. Actually, there are lots …

Great Big Politics Pub Quiz – prizes update & reassurance that you don’t have to attend with a fully formed table

Slugger O'Toole on October 22, 2010, 4:30 pm

| Readers 13

Politicos! We feel your pain. We know that you’re desperate to go to The Great Big Politics Pub Quiz, but you’re cursed with normal friends who would rather dip a tender extremity in acid than go and get bamboozled by questions about The East Lothian Question*. Do not despair. You can still join the fun even if all your friends are ‘normal’. Individuals coming along on Monday night (25 October) won’t be left without a team. Your name will be …

Time to send your own message to the media

Slugger O'Toole on October 16, 2010, 9:30 am

| Readers 6

We’ve doing The Slugger Awards very differently this year. Instead of having rigid ‘Journalist of the Year’ / ‘MLA of the Year’ type awards, we’re asking everyone who reads this blog to tell us what they want politicians / the media / public bodies to do more of. Once we know what behaviour you want to reward, we can work out who to give the awards to. Mick started the ball rolling asking everyone to finish the sentence “Politics would …

Slugger’s site moderation

Slugger O'Toole on October 15, 2010, 5:30 pm

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Just a quick reminder: Slugger has a comments policy. Personal insults, smears and rudeness are not supposed to be tolerated here and we try to stay on top of this with the ‘delete’ key as much as we can. Normally, Mick picks up a lot of this kind of thing, applying his patience and charm (virtues that not all of us are blessed with). But Mick’s away at the moment and not able to get involved. We know that a …

More brain-stretchers

Slugger O'Toole on October 15, 2010, 3:30 pm

| Readers 7

It’s Friday! It’s 3.30pm! It’s Poets Day. You’ve only got another 90 mins of Looking Busy to get through! The boss is probably going to be ‘off to a meeting’ shortly anyway, but in the meantime, here’s a few more samples of the kind of questions we’ll be asking you at the Great BIG Politics Pub Quiz, scheduled for Monday 25 October in the Black Box. NB. We will not be asking these actual questions just in case there are any …

Chilean miners rescue: Liveblog

Slugger O'Toole on October 13, 2010, 8:24 am

| Readers 5

Slugger readers will be familiar with CoverItLive. Channel Four have a live news stream and liveblog of the Chilean miners rescue here. There are rumours that a couple of the miners are very annoyed with themselves because they forgot to clock-in at the start of their last shift…. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

Politics quiz time

Slugger O'Toole on October 3, 2010, 7:46 pm

| Readers 14

In what year did Jeffrey Donaldson and Arlene Foster join the DUP? Appointed in 1721, who was Britain’s first Prime Minister? Name the President of China. How many members (TDs) of Dail Éireann are there? Name the creator of US TV show The West Wing. To the nearest hundred votes, what was Naomi Long’s margin of victory in the 2010 Westminster election? Which two men were awarded the Nobel Peace Price in 1993? Which Belfast street was the birthplace of …

Foreign news and conjuring with the circulation figures

Slugger O'Toole on August 25, 2010, 10:51 am

| Readers 6

Even though news graphics often provide newspaper readers with more vivid versions of news events than mere words can sometimes offer, enthusiasm sometimes takes the place of accuracy, or consistency, as in the case of the Chilean mine story, which broke in the papers generally on 23rd August, a fortnight after the shaft collapse which buried 33 miners alive. All the newspapers agreed on many basic details, with one exception: where exactly did the collapse take place that entombed the miners? The Irish Daily …

Three officers shot during Belfast rioting

Slugger O'Toole on July 12, 2010, 8:30 am

| Readers 43

From the BBC: “A total of 27 officers were injured during disturbances – 14 in the New Lodge area of north Belfast and 13 at Broadway in west Belfast. About 200 people threw petrol bombs, stones and bottles at police during trouble in the Broadway area. The trouble began at about 2345 BST on Sunday. Police used water canon and fired baton rounds. At least one car was hijacked and set alight” Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily …

Press Watch: A new column…

Slugger O'Toole on June 28, 2010, 12:15 pm

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We’re not sure how regular this column will be, since it will depend to some extent on what comes in from you the readers. But f you see something wrong, misleading or inaccurate (Slugger O’Toole included, btw!!) then send it into Mick at [email protected] and he will pass it on. We cannot guarantee to publish everything we receive, but we’ll do our best to bring you the best. Here’s a couple of starters. First, these two divergent lines on the same story …

We’re here!

Slugger O'Toole on April 20, 2010, 2:22 pm

| Readers 9

Well, what do you think? Let us know, but – as Mark said in the probably-deleted comment thread on the old site, try and turn off your ‘I didn’t want it to change in the first place’ impulses and then give us your feedback in the comments thread below. Everyone who registered with the old site will be able to claim their username. For privacy reasons, your old passwords were encrypted so we’ve not been able to bring them across. You …

Best postcard views…

Slugger O'Toole on October 27, 2006, 12:46 pmComments Off | Readers 2

My cousin Paul sent me this competition to find the UK’s favourite view. Vote for your own choice, but I’m going for this one of the Antrim coast. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

Still working on getting Slugger back…

Slugger O'Toole on October 27, 2006, 10:05 am

| Readers 2

I’m guessing you don’t really want to know the details of Slugger’s travails over the last few weeks, but the upshot is that we’re in the process of moving the site. Last time we did that, it took 12 hours, this time, I’m doing it myself and its been in process, on and off, since five o’clock yesterday (I blame Pete for the big long posts). I’m trying to get this done asap. This time we’d like to put back …

Oireachtas adds blogging to list of banned activities

Slugger O'Toole on October 27, 2006, 9:55 am

| Readers 3

Here’s a statement I received this morning from the head of Human Resources at the Oireachtas, Dublin’s equivalent of the Palace of Westminster: “The policy of the Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas explicitly prohibits the use of our computer facilities for chat room purposes or for weblog (blog). Staff members who engage in blogging which is not related to their official duties, while using their Office computer will be subject to disciplinary action.” It follows several blog reports …