Follow-up to BBC/RAF story…
AFTER Private Eye highlighted how a senior BBC Northern Ireland editor was also a senior RAF spin doctor, Mike Cairns resigned his military post. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Belfast Gonzo
Ahern confirms Fianna Fail to organise in NI…
BERTIE Ahern has confirmed that Fianna Fail will organise in Northern Ireland, following speculation. According to PA, the Taoiseach today told a party meeting in Co Wicklow: “I am announcing that Fianna Fail the Republican Party, will now move to develop a strategy for organising on a 32 county basis. This moves reflects the dramatic changes we have seen across the island.” Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern is leading the charge north, which seems to indicate FF is taking this …
Abolish the NIO – redux…
IT’S Liberal Democrat party conference time, and Northern Ireland spokesman Alistair Carmichael has reiterated the party’s call for the Northern Ireland Office to be abolished. In fact, he wants the Scottish and Welsh offices done away with too, and the three amalgamated. Carmichael said: “Labour has never really known where it is heading on the constitution. We now have a parliament in Scotland and assemblies in Wales, London and Northern Ireland. There is absolutely no appetite to undo these changes …
Spy agency advertises for first time in Northern Ireland…
IT’S a far cry from those enigmatic job ‘ads’ in the Sunday Times classifieds of old, as MI5 advertise in the three Northern Irish regional newspapers today for IT professionals and foreign language transcribers – though I can’t imagine there being too many local Arabic speakers end up in Palace Barracks (pictured). Nor – despite continuing controversy over the security service’s history and role here – are they seeking Irish or Ulster-Scot speakers(!) The News Letter reports that a senior …
No stone being left unturned in Causeway debate…
THE debate over the DUP’s plan to hand the Giant’s Causeway tourist centre to one of its members has continued unabated since yesterday, with some new developments. Aside from membership of the DUP, there are several links between the developer, Seymour Sweeney, and the party. The Tele reports how “Mr Sweeney sold a north Antrim property some years ago to DUP politician Ian Paisley Jnr”, now a junior Stormont minister, who “is currently listed as a member of the businessman’s …
Paisley to cut OFMDFM staff levels..?
AFTER recent UUP criticism of the size of OFMDFM, the First Minister yesterday hinted he might get rid of some of the staff. Slugger pointed out a couple of weeks ago that it was under the UUP that the office got so bloated, and yesterday Paisley provided the latest figures on OFMDFM staffing levels. I wasn’t far out – and was right that under the previous administration the figure was actually higher, which scuppers the UUP criticism somewhat, as Paisley …
Minister promoting “filth” shocker…
JUDGE not lest ye be judged – unless you’re a Free Presbyterian minister, in which case local rock bands are “filth”. After Arts Minister and Free P member Edwin Poots lent his support to the Oh Yeah music centre by joining Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody and Ash’s Tim Wheeler in Belfast last week, Rev Ivan Foster (the Jim Allister of Protestantism) issued his second condemnation of Mr Poots (this being the first). That anyone calling themselves a Christian should commend …
Poacher AND gamekeeper…
THE Tele followed up on Private Eye’s highlighting of the curious double role of Mike Cairns the other day. On one hand, as Commanding Officer of the RAF’s 7764 (public relations) squadron, he’s responsible for producing military propaganda. And on the other, as Editor Newsgathering for local issues in BBC Northern Ireland, he’s responsible for questioning, um, military propaganda. The Beeb doesn’t believe there is a conflict of interest. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Northern Ireland Executive is now unique, as Scots go for ‘government’…
THE Scottish Executive has been rebranded as the Scottish Government (though the former remains the legal name). According to a BBC report, First Minister Alex Salmond said Northern Ireland was the only other country in the world where the word ‘executive’ was used to describe a layer of government. In addition, the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom will be removed from all the Scottish Government’s official documents and replaced with a saltire. The move came after a …
“No more exceptionally stupid wars” in NI…
WHILE I’m not convinced that the ‘lessons of Northern Ireland’ are directly applicable to other conflicts, there are some lovely turns of phrase in this article in Kenya’s Daily Nation. Here’s one: Essentially, the army in Northern Ireland prevented warmongers and brewers of hatred from annihilating each other. Meanwhile, they became civilised. Hopefully, a relapse to barbarism will remain on vacation. Then the remaining 5,000 British troops can just train and expect no more exceptionally stupid wars. One more: There’s …
UUP and DUP support smaller OFMDFM (unless they’re in it)…
ULSTER Unionist deputy leader Danny Kennedy has been complaining that staffing levels at the Office of the First and Deputy First Ministers are too high – at 415. However, he forgot to mention that when the UUP was in charge of the office, it employed between 417 and 424. Meanwhile, Junior Minister Paisley Junior has (rather feebly) defended the sleekit appointment of two special advisers to him and his Sinn Fein counterpart, Gerry Kelly, by saying it was the Secretary …
Is Reg speading himself a bit thin..?
SIR Reg Empey must be pleased at Northern Ireland’s low unemployment rate, which stands at 3.7%. It would be even closer to zero if the Employment Minister didn’t have so many jobs for himself! OK, a bit facetious, but as Minister, MLA, UUP leader and councillor, and at a time when his party is in dire need of a massive overhaul and engaged in an internal debate over its role, is Reg spreading himself even thinner than his comb-over? Chris …
UDA hark back to bad old days with tarring and feathering…
THE UDA has been blamed for tarring and feathering an alleged drug dealer in the loyalist Taughmonagh estate, home of UDA leader and Irish presidential golf caddy Jackie McDonald. This medieval ‘punishment’ used to be popular with the IRA in the 1970s, and was briefly revived by the INLA in 2003. I think that, bizarrely, this is the neanderthals in the UDA trying to show they are ‘moving away from violence’, by not meting out their usual form of ‘community …
Friendly People with a Zest for Life or Why Northern Ireland is Really Really Brilliant…
ARE you from Northern Ireland? Then you’ll be delighted to know that you are “hospitable, friendly and generous”. This is because we natives (and invaders, I suppose) “are vibrant and colourful with a real zest for life and a taste for the good things in life”. Not only that, the Northern Irish are “hard-working people, they are also family-orientated and like nothing better than sharing laughter and the craic with friends and family. Their strong work ethos cuts across into …
UUP blogger in call to leave Executive…
YOUNG Unionist blogger Rick Cairns has laid his cards on the table and said the UUP should move into Opposition, attracting a fair amount of criticism in the process. However, the party appears to be keeping such a shift on the long finger.Cairns writes: The UUP needs to gain the trust of the electorate that has been lost to the DUP since 1998. This can be done by offering a real alternative to the DUP-Sinn Fein coalition. The issue of …
Ex-IRA leader to address left-wing republican party…
LEFT-WING republican group éirígí has announced that Bernard Fox (pictured) will be a guest speaker at its Thomas Ashe commemoration in Dublin in September. Sinn Fein might be disappointed that the former hunger striker – who resigned as a member of the IRA army council last year – is addressing the hardline organisation, which is disillusioned with SF policies. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Bank holiday blogging and airport security…
CALLS have been made for another Bank Holiday for the UK, which doesn’t have any between the summer and Christmas. After all, it might help the new PM in his quest to build a British identity. The Scots are less worried about a holiday to celebrate ‘community heroes’ than they are about taking a St Andrew’s Day off. (Could our Assembly not give us St Paddy’s off?!) But if you’re flying today, spare a thought for poor Sinn Fein leader …
A brief glance into UUP thinking…
DAVID Burnside’s recent suggestion that the UUP leave the Executive to join the Opposition looks likes it’s been put on the long finger, if these minutes (below the fold) of UUP meetings earlier this month are anything to go by. Elsewhere in the (admittedly rather dull) document, the party seems keen on pushing the establishment of an Environmental Protection Agency (thus removing Crown immunity from the Dept of Environment run by the DUP’s Arlene Foster) and 15 local authorities (as …
Police defend failed fraud investigation into police fraud…
AFTER the PSNI investigated itself in a major fraud probe requested by the High Court and – big surprise – didn’t find enough evidence to bring charges against its own officers, the Police Service has now come out and defended itself. However, David Gordon notes that the two PSNI employees suspended in late 2005 are still not back at work, which “suggests that internal procedures relating to the armour plating contract saga have yet to be concluded”. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Why we need to put sharing ahead of separation…
ASIDE from the good social reasons for ending the ‘benign apartheid’ that dictates a large part of the parallel existence of the two main communities in Northern Ireland, the economic rationale is becoming more apparent. David McKitterick has got his hands on a leaked report that puts the cost of segregation and sectarianism at a tentative £1.5 billion – A YEAR! The report concludes: “The divide has led to duplication or even multiplication of service delivery for the communities as …