Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) – Page 47 – Slugger O'Toole

McNarry: “the party will close ranks and anybody who wants to be a hypocrite will get their photograph taken”

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 1, 2012, 9:10 pm

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

It’s the story that keeps on giving. And that looks to be David McNarry’s intention. Now free of having to notify the UUP press office about media interviews and statements – something that Tom Elliott has adhered to as Party Leader – David McNarry is everywhere. This morning’s News Letter. The Belfast Telegraph. Though nothing fully authored by him in the Irish News. [Ed: Maybe he’s saving that as a treat for Thursday?] In recent days he has appeared on …

East Belfast Speaks Out on Thursday evening (reminder)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 30, 2012, 9:00 am

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East Belfast Speaks Out 2012 leaflet

Quick reminder to East Belfast readers that they have a chance to put their questions to local representatives as well as the minister of education at Thursday evening’s East Belfast Speaks Out event. The general theme of the evening is still: How responsive is the Assembly to the real concerns of the electorate? John O’Dowd MLA (Sinn Féin) will be joined on the panel by Michael Copeland (UUP), Sammy Douglas MLA (DUP), John Kyle (PUP councillor) and Chris Lyttle MLA …

David McNarry resigns from UUP Assembly Group after Tom Elliott cuts him out of education committee role

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 27, 2012, 8:22 pm

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

The News Letter and UTV’s Ken Reid have been tweeting tonight what looks like being the latest episode in the UUP-DUP united unionist soap opera. David McNarry has resigned from the UUP Assembly group after Tom Elliott withdrew him as vice-chair of education committee, though stopped short of taking away the party whip. The BBC add: Mr McNarry said he spoke to the party leader on Friday evening by telephone. And Mr Elliott told him he was being disciplined as …

Newt Gingrich: a space cadet with ideas that are out of this world?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 27, 2012, 7:26 pm

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Canadian teenagers Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad launch a Lego man into space and he safely returns to Earth

By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American. (Newt Gingrich) It certainly qualifies as a BHAG – Big Hairy Audacious Goal for anyone lucky enough not to be fluent in management speak. An injection of ambition and cash into the state space industry would be a big sweetener to people listening to Newt Gingrich’s message at his Florida campaign rally. We will have commercial near-Earth activities …

John Kyle on faith and loyalism

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 23, 2012, 9:17 am

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Councillor John Kyle (PUP)

John Kyle – Belfast City councillor, well known East Belfast GP and evangelical Christian – addressed a large crowd at Contemporary Christianity last Tuesday evening. The strapline for his thirty minute address was Where Faith and Loyalism Collide You can listen to his talk on the Contemporary Christianity website or through the embedded audio player below. John Kyle explained how he joined the Progressive Unionist Party in 2000 “to support David Ervine”, a man who he found to be “refreshingly …

Occupy Belfast – a (small) protest about housing

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 14, 2012, 5:00 pm

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Gerry Lynch mentioned Occupy Belfast in a post yesterday. I called past the front of Belfast City Hall just before 1pm today to see the latest in their series of Saturday afternoon protests. I started asking people who were sitting or standing around the railings if they knew there was going to be a protest, or had heard about Occupy Belfast and what they stood for. There was a mixed reaction, with quite a few people aware of the tents …

What if David Ford and the Alliance ruling council did walk away from justice? Allister? Agnew? Hay?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 12, 2012, 10:38 pm

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[Sherlock Holmes] How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? Let’s play a game of What If? for a minute … What if David Ford meets with the Alliance Party’s ruling council and they decide to show their giant bluff card and walk away from the Department of Justice? Since a Sinn Fein Justice Minister seems to still be beyond the tolerance of the other parties, …

Reducing the number of departments by one and missing the opportunity to meet manifesto commitments

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 12, 2012, 9:00 am

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Peter Robinson told me at the end of March that: I have a well worn copy of the manifesto because I keep it in front of me and I keep looking to see what else we have to do and we have to accomplish. Like many other local party leaders, this week’s settlement on the number of departments and method of selection of the Justice minster won’t require any pencil ticks to be made on the pages of Peter Robinson’s …

‘Media clampdown’ at Belfast courts – no parking, no data, no tweeting

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 9, 2012, 9:30 pm

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media vehicle clamped across the road from Belfast courts

Traditionally, broadcast crews covering cases in Belfast courts park their vehicles on the other side of the road underneath the banners advertising the next big event in the Waterfront Hall. Unlike the nearby car parks, their chosen parking spot is free and has line of sight across to the court railings, allowing journalists to ‘go live’ on the lunchtime news with wireless cameras and mics. Any other car or van parked around Lanyon Place would be quickly targeted by the …

East Belfast Speaks Out on Thursday 2 February 2012

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 5, 2012, 9:00 am

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East Belfast Speaks Out 2012 leaflet

Update – click through to read coverage of the actual event. The motto of East Belfast Speaks Out must be “If at first you don’t succeed, try again”. Having been thwarted in November by the public sector strikes, a new date has been scheduled – Thursday 2 February 2012 at 7.30pm in Ashfield Boys’ School. The general theme of the evening is still: How responsive is the Assembly to the real concerns of the electorate? Due to availability and travel …

Invest NI respond about their (lack of) relationship with Walsh Doherty and David Walsh

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 4, 2012, 4:50 pm

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Following on from last night’s post, Invest NI have responded to questions that were raised about their relationship with Walsh Doherty and David Walsh. Partially (or wholly) in response to David H. Kirk’s criticisms about Invest NI’s “strategy and intervention in Northern Ireland’s investment ecosystem” and the report he gave Invest NI – concerns which are not universally shared across the sector – a meeting of the Access To Capital Stakeholders Forum was scheduled by Invest NI for mid-October, and …

NI’s venture capital scene has a dark corner

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 3, 2012, 11:39 pm

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Mick hinted at the details in his earlier post, but the story deserves a bit of unravelling. In the first part of 2011, David Kirk raised criticisms about Invest NI’s “strategy and intervention in Northern Ireland’s investment ecosystem” and followed them up with a written report. In response, Invest NI arranged an ‘Access To Capital Stakeholders Forum’ with investors and industry reps to be held in mid-October 2011, though they were reluctant to invite any NI angel investors with technology …

Is my education system better than your education system? Finland vs the world.

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on December 31, 2011, 3:13 pm

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Depending on who you ask, Scotland has a world class education system, a Northern Ireland grammar school education is the envy of the UK, and pupils from Anahilt primary school go on to dominate the head girl and head boy posts in local post-primary schools (according to a leaflet in Lisburn Library). Idly browsing through some tweets this morning I noticed a link to an article in The Atlantic about the Finnish education system which has been at or near …

Even carrots can be politicised? You learn something new every day!

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on December 30, 2011, 10:25 pm

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orange and purple carrots - from http://www.flickr.com/photos/satrina0/

From the farming report at the end of tonight’s Evening Extra. [Richard Wright] … the vegetables that are grown and sold have always reflected changes in society. But the oddest claim is that carrots which are naturally a purple colour were bred as we know them today as part of an underground political strategy. [Christopher Stocks] We think carrots probably came to Britain with Protestant Dutch people fleeing from Holland at the time of the Inquisition. Bizarrely, Holland in the …

Christmas morning routines – run, church, sawing, lunch – in Portrush!

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on December 24, 2011, 9:00 am

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As you sleepily wander around the house in your pyjamas on Christmas morning, spare a thought for 28 year old Olympic single sculling hopeful (and world silver and bronze medallist) Alan Campbell who’ll be enjoying a rather more energetic Christmas. Friday’s Guardian explains his routine: I get up pretty early, usually about 6.30am. I’ll have a quick bowl of cereal then straight into the car. Then I head for Portrush East Strand, where I run along the beach to the …

Papers, debates, research and e-services – information up #onthehill

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on December 21, 2011, 8:50 am

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Only a few steps away from the main entrance and the Great Hall in Parliament Buildings you’ll find the Assembly Library. It’s part of the Assembly’s Research and Information Service (RaISe) which exists to assist the work of the Members in their parliamentary business as well as the Assembly’s secretariat. When I was up at the Assembly last Tuesday, I spoke to Ingrid Mercer (Senior Librarian) and Michael (a research officer) about their work. RaISe provides MLAs and their staff …

Who is really paying for the price of justice? The “fine” Detail has been doing its sums …

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on December 16, 2011, 2:45 pm

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The Detail’s Kathryn Torney has published an analysis of NI prison admissions due to fine defaulting. Information held in the Prison Records Management System covering 14,259 prison admissions over a 70 month period was released under a Freedom of Information request. The data shows that 2000 people go to jail in NI every year for fine defaulting – around a third of prison admissions. The Criminal Justice Inspectorate has also spoken out strongly. Chief Inspector Dr Michael Maguire said: “The …

#onthehill Alex Maskey explaining the work and role of NI Assembly committees

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on December 16, 2011, 9:00 am

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The work of committees up at Stormont is a crucial part of the democratic jigsaw, many of them scrutinising the plans and work of Executive departments. On Tuesday I asked Alex Maskey about the role of committees in general, and then more specifically about the Social Development committee which he chairs. Alex Maskey explaining the role and work of @niassembly committees (mp3) After a couple of minutes of prelude looking at the context of the Assembly and Executive and the …

#onthehill End of term report: how do MLAs assess the Assembly’s performance? (Can you name the 16 voices?)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on December 15, 2011, 9:00 am

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Loitering around the Great Hall on Tuesday, I asked 16 MLAs to give a score out of ten and supply the headmaster’s comment for the Assembly’s end of term report card. Here’s what they said: End of term report: how do MLAs assess @niassembly performance? (mp3) But can you name all sixteen? No prize, other than the satisfaction of being correct and first! Given the sample size, any statistical inference is very unscientific. However, it’s still interesting to note that …

#onthehill The middle letter in M L A is Legislative

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on December 14, 2011, 11:24 pm

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Before the plenary session on Tuesday, two charities had arranged photo opportunities with MLAs to promote campaigns – one disability-related, the other fuel poverty. The UUP’s Michael Copeland was well prepared with his furry hat for the outside snaps. Speaking to @MCopelandMLA this morning: "it strikes me as a piece of drama" (mp3) He spoke to me about his long working hours and the volume of constituency work. People say we [MLAs] need to be at a certain higher strategic …