Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) – Page 46 – Slugger O'Toole

Dead tree circulation continues to decline – Belfast Telegraph dropping at nearly twice rate of News Letter & Irish News

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on March 1, 2012, 6:30 am

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Table showing circulation decline for Belfast Telegraph, Irish News, News Letter and Irish Times - up to date with second half 2011 figures

Looking at the latest set of newspaper circulation figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) – July to December 2011 – it is once again a story of decline. You’re unlikely to read anything about this in today’s papers! For the last few years, the Belfast Telegraph has performed better in the first half of each year. However, its overall trend is still down. With an average audited circulation of 53,771 copies in the second half of 2011, the …

“Those with the least capacity to suffer cuts should not be made to suffer more.”

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 29, 2012, 7:40 pm

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We want to respectfully challenge those who hold authority in civil society to act with justice and to show compassion to those most in need. Those with the least capacity to suffer cuts should not be made to suffer more. Those were the words of Cardinal Brady at an event tonight looking at welfare reform in Northern Ireland involving the main church leaders along with the Secretary of State Owen Paterson and Social Development Minister Nelson McCausland. The evening was …

Poverty, deprivation, identity and voting, a desire for integration, and who funds peace building?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 29, 2012, 9:32 am

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As posted earlier, the Community Relations Council’s first Northern Ireland Peace Monitoring Report was published today. It includes a handy reminder of the main moments since 1974 when ‘the hand of history’ has been on the peace process as well as an overview of the demography of Northern Ireland and a profile of its workforce. Amongst population figures, communal identity breakdown charts and graphs of productivity and living standards, one table explains that compared to the UK as a whole, …

Painting a picture of the peace process by numbers – CRC’s NI Peace Monitoring Report

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 29, 2012, 7:35 am

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Almost £100m a year has been granted for peace-building in Northern Ireland and the six border counties of the Republic since 1987. The number of incidents of paramilitary violence decreased between 2010 and 2011. The PSNI clearance rate for crimes such as paramilitary assaults/punishment beatings in 2011 was only 4%. Northern Ireland has the highest percentage of adults of working age in the UK with no educational qualifications: 20%, compared with 10% of the UK as a whole. The overwhelming …

Artless protest? Or a disappointing protest that hasn’t yet occupied the agenda of the public or the church?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 26, 2012, 11:38 pm

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Despite being critical of Occupy Belfast’s media strategy over the past few months, I’m still disappointed when they respond to Peter Robinson’s jibe about their “artless protest” with a press release. Occupy Belfast would like to take this opportunity to say that we will not be going away and will be relentless in our campaign to expose the hypocrisy and spin emanating from the charade on the hill. At the NI Assembly Business Trust’s event last Thursday evening, the First …

Is it effective when only 5-10% of DSD’s £50,000 Laganside Community Activity fund was spent in last two years?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 26, 2012, 8:20 pm

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laganside boundary

Nelson McCausland, Minister for Social Development, appeared before the Assembly’s Social Development Committee on Thursday 23 February. [Audio temporarily available on NI Assembly website, and should appear shortly on BBC Democracy Live.] In his opening statement, he explained about the decision to withdraw the non-essential Laganside Events Grant and pointed out that it only contributed 5-10% of many events’ budgets (as charted in a blog post last week). The minister explained that he’d no need to know where Finance Minister …

“the relentlessly negative portrayal of our economy by some economists & media commentators”

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 24, 2012, 5:22 pm

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Still image grab from Peter Robinson talking before DUP's 2011 Assembly Election launch

At last night’s NI Assembly Business Trust event, Peter Robinson took aim at Occupy Belfast protesters before moving on to the media: At times like this, when society is struggling to break the grip of the worst recession for two generations, there is far more to be gained by contributing intelligent opinion to informed thinking than by occupying major buildings in our towns and cities in artless protest. For it is only when we all pull together as a team …

“the game for the UUP is virtually up unless it is able to come to terms with … the unpalatable reality”

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 19, 2012, 8:26 pm

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Tom Eliott wielding scissors at the opening of David McNarry's Saintfield Advice Centre Opening

The king of the UUP-scourging quote is back. David McNarry, the man who gave us the line “the party will close ranks and anybody who wants to be a hypocrite will get their photograph taken” has given up his early Lenten abstinence from the media. The UUP member and independent MLA at the centre of the party’s most recent fracas has emerged and spoken once again to the News Letter, despite the ongoing disciplinary process and the instruction to all …

What has the Laganside Events Grant scheme been spent on?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 18, 2012, 9:15 am

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laganside boundary

After an unexpected intervention on Thursday night, some of the data requested from the Department for Social Development was emailed to me at lunchtime on Friday. It covers the last three years of the Laganside Events Grant, specifying the organisations as well as the amounts they have received. In 2009/10, the largest grant was awarded to Belfast Festival At Queen’s which received 22,650. (This is the last year I remember the Spiegeltent being set up in Custom House Square as …

Does History Matter? BBC NI’s Festival of History & Broadcasting

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 17, 2012, 8:30 am

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BBC NI Festival of History and Broadcasting

I gave up history at the age of 14. Keeping on three sciences meant that it was a straight choice between geography and history. As a result, my knowledge of history is confined to the legend of Finn McCool, the Roundheads and the Cavaliers, and a link between the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in an open top charabanc and the start of the First World War. Maybe if Horrible Histories had been around twenty five years ago I might …

What Nelson takes away with one hand, Sammy can replace with the other

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 16, 2012, 7:20 pm

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laganside boundary

This evening a combination of OFMDFM, DFP and DSD came together to announce that £200,000 unallocated after the January Monitoring round is being made available from DFP to extend the Laganside Events Grant for one further year. The Department of Finance & Personnel statement details two conditions on the funding being made available. (i) that DSD takes steps to ensure that only groups that are viable over the longer term are assisted; and (ii) that DSD and DCAL work together …

Freedom of Information – when the minister has access to the information the public can’t see

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 15, 2012, 4:26 pm

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laganside boundary

Minister for Social Development Nelson McCausland rang into the Nolan show on Radio Ulster on Tuesday morning to respond to the debate around the cessation of the Laganside Events Grant scheme. He had figures – from across departments – at his finger tips to explain the public funding that was being granted to events. In particular, he was able to rattle off the different public funding streams for the Festival of Fools. My query into the DSD communications team seven …

Outfoxed – as cunning as an iPhone game developed in Belfast and voiced by Jackie Fullerton

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 11, 2012, 8:40 am

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Something for the weekend … If the Executive is to be fully believed, it feels like the local creative industries are second only to Titanic tourists in being at the heart of Northern Ireland’s economic recovery! With seed corn funding from the Creative Industries Innovation Fund (administered by the Arts Council NI for DCAL), local game company Billy Goat Entertainment have been developing a series of iPhone games. They launched their latest title – Outfoxed™ – on Thursday night in …

DSD withdraw funding for Laganside Events

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 9, 2012, 12:23 pm

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laganside boundary

Since the closure of the Laganside Corporation on 31 March 2007, the Department for Social Development has given out grants for events and community activities in the Laganside area of Belfast. The area includes the Cathedral Quarter as well as stretching our towards York Street, Corporation Street, the Sydenham bypass (but not including Titanic Quarter), Sirocco, Lanyon Place, St George’s Market, the Markets, the Gasworks and the banks of the Lagan. Back in 2007, the then minister Margaret Ritchie pointed …

Stormtroopers on red alert for St Paddy’s Day riots in South Belfast

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 9, 2012, 10:40 am

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Stormtroopers gathering outside Dublin Road Movie House

Last night, the PSNI riot squad took part in a dress rehearsal in advance of any trouble in the university/Holylands area over the St Patrick’s Day long weekend. One officer privately expressed concern that the new protective clothing “wouldn’t be taken seriously by tipsy students”. Another added that the pockets weren’t very accessible and there was no where to store his phone or his “emergency doughnut”. A spokesperson explained that enhanced scrutiny of PSNI spending together with the reduction of …

Dead tree columnist prejudices public’s perception of bloggers?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 8, 2012, 7:09 pm

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pixelated Irish News masthead

Allison Morris made a number of contributions to this morning’s Irish News. As well as the front page article about the alleged security breach when a police officer’s personal mobile fell into the hands of dissident republicans (and its contents were subsequently passed to the Irish News), she also writes a curious opinion piece on page 19. Trapped behind a paywall, it only seems fair that her column gets a wider reading. Rambling online twits prejudice trials at will Kicking …

Some secondary schools get better results than selective grammar schools

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 5, 2012, 9:05 pm

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In days and weeks to come, there may be many ways to slice and dice the data that Kathryn Torney published in The Detail and the Sunday Times this morning. Chris has already alluded to the potential weakness in directly comparing the raw NI stats about numbers of pupils achieving 7 or more GCSEs at grades A*-C including English and Maths with English secondary schools given the selective nature of the NI educational system. I wondered about the blurred boundary …

John O’Dowd: the education debate is “continuing in a better atmosphere” but it’s not yet time for all-party talks

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 3, 2012, 8:50 am

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John O'Dowd on East Belfast Speaks Out panel

I grabbed a very quick interview with Education Minister John O’Dowd as he headed down the corridor in Ashfield Boys School to go home after last night’s East Belfast Speaks Out community hustings. In the past few months he’s announced reductions in school budgets, given a partial reprieve after finding extra money for his department, and most recently announced a shake up of SEN/statementing. I asked whether this was all not a lot for school principals to have to deal …

East Belfast Speaks Out – a community hustings that was in the hands of the people

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 3, 2012, 8:00 am

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East Belfast Speaks Out 2012 leaflet

East Belfast Speaks Out was back for a third time last night. Having eliminated the warm up act, this year it was straight into questions after a brief introduction from chairperson Mark Devenport. The panel consisted of Alliance MLA Chris Lyttle, DUP MLA Sammy Douglas, Sinn Fein Education Minister John O’Dowd, UUP MLA Michael Copeland, PUP councillor John Kyle. (For the third year in a row, Owen Paterson didn’t turn up at the event. For the first time, the reason …

What’s in Belfast City Council’s draft investment programme?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 2, 2012, 3:30 pm

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belfast city council draft investment programme 2012 2015 - front of brochure

Belfast City Council launched their 2012-2015 Draft Investment Programme (PDF) this morning. The 44-page colour brochure is packed with optimism, bullet points and potential. But away from the headline £233m figure and the photocall with Peter Robinson, Martin McGuinness, Niall Ó Donnghaile and Deirdre Hargey, what’s the real story? It should be recognised as a plan with cross-party and cross-institution agreement. All the parties represented in the City Hall have put their name to the plans. It’s a coordinated effort …