Belfast Gonzo

YOUNG people in Northern Ireland are ‘nearing points of despair’ because soaring house prices are preventing them from clambering onto the property ladder, SDLP MP Alasdair McDonnell told a Westminster debate yesterday, adding that the province is in the grip of an affordable housing crisis. He urged the Government to introduce new rules to oblige developers to build affordable homes as part of their multi-million pound projects. Good idea. Now all we have to do is stop property speculators and …

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WATER charges are obviously a major issue in this election – but they’re also an issue across the, er, water in GB. Ofwat has announced that household water and sewerage bills will go up by an average of 7% in England and Wales in the coming financial year – pushing the average household bill up by £20 to £312. Under plans announced by the government for Northern Ireland, the average household will pay £115 at first, rising to £340 in …

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NONE of the online news reports of the inquest into the unlawful killing in Iraq of a former paratrooper who lived in Belfast seem to have mentioned his past. Working as a security consultant for Kroll Inc in Baghdad after leaving the army, Dolman, originally from Nottingham, was killed by a suicide bomber in 2004. However, two years ago, a BBC programme accused Dolman of firing the shots in Iraq which lead to the murders of six Red Caps. The …

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BELFAST City Council is seeking your views on how to transform a 200-acre wasteland (litter-ally: it’s Dargan Road Landfill) on the North Foreshore into an area of “national and regional significance” with an emphasis on “open spaces and recreational facilities”. Rumours that Peter Hain has suggested a new sports stadium are probably unfounded – although you can never really be sure with an opportunist who blows with the wind so much. Anyone who read this morning’s You Ask The Questions …

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IT’s being reported that an Egyptian blogger has been jailed for four years for insulting Islam and the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the Internet. One of his article’s described some of the companions of the Muslim prophet Muhammad as “terrorists”, and has likened Mr Mubarak to dictatorial pharaohs who ruled ancient Egypt. If you want to support Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman, check out Free Kareem! Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

WE’VE all got questions we’d like to ask Peter Hain – not all of them nice or easy. The Independent’s ‘You Ask The Questions’ next public figure up for public interrogation is our Dear Leader, so send your email query to {encode=”[email protected]” title=”[email protected]”} with his name in the subject line. But for Heaven’s sake, don’t expect a straight answer! Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

HERE’S a Downing Street petition to change the national anthem – though not before the anthem-laden Croker rugby game. But to this? Come on! Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

I BET a few heads turned today when Old Bailey bomber Gerry Kelly and hunger striker Raymond McCartney turned up at the Policing the Future conference. However, the atmosphere was probably calmer at the Waterfront Hall than in Lisburn, where UKUP leader Bob ‘Multi-seat’ McCartney confronted DUP leader Ian Paisley in the ‘city’ square. Mark Devenport blogs: “Denied a head to head debate the UK Unionist leader pursued the DUP leader with cries of “where’s the never, never, never” and …

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SCOTLAND Yard believes that the naming of the PSNI Chief Constable’s undercover cop mistress would cause “serious security concerns,” according to the Sunday Life, which published photos of her running hand-in-hand with her lover at the weekend – though all identifying features were blacked out. However, if you have a copy of the story, you don’t have to be a detective to search the marathons Sir Hugh Orde has run in recently, run a search on his name or race …

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EVEN though Castlereagh Council struck the lowest domestic rates this year, the new calculation based on house values means residents face the second highest rates rise in the whole of Northern Ireland – up 19% or £117. Belfast faces the steepest rise from last year (20% or £117), while luckier householders in Craigavon – whose council actually struck the highest district rates – can look forward to a 4% drop in their bills, £24 less on average. See how much …

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THE Department of the Environment (DoE) has announced that all district councils have struck their rates for the 2007/2008 financial year – see them here. The Dept says that since domestic rates “will be completely rebased on capital valuations for the first time this coming year, a like-for-like comparison cannot be made with the previous year’s figures”. In terms of both domestic and business rates, Castlereagh’s are the lowest in Northern Ireland – making me wonder what leisure centres will …

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BOB McCartney (QC) won’t be happy to find out that if he wins more than one seat in the Assembly election, he won’t be able to just pass the extra ones on to those on his substitute bench. He can hold the seats if he wins them, but according to the Irish Times, the NIO says “should he decide to resign one of his seats if elected on March 7 it would trigger a by-election instead of going to one …

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NICHOLAS Whyte’s ever popular election prediction contest is now online at the Northern Ireland Elections website. You can enter any time before the close of polls, and the prize, subject to negotiation, will be the winner’s choice of Flackes and Elliot’s Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1968-1999 or Brian Walker’s Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1918-92. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

ARGUMENTS over the release of terrorists/ political prisoners aren’t isolated to Northern Ireland, as the freeing of Red Army Faction leader Brigitte Mohnhaupt in Germany shows – especially when they express no remorse. Victims and survivors, unsurprisingly, feel hardest done by, as it’s easier for politicians who don’t have to deal with the pain of loss to ‘move on’. Back home, that seems to be how the father of a young policeman who died in an IRA bomb feels, in …

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A NUMBER of clips from NICVA’s election question time have been put on You Tube. The lists of candidates have been published online in full in the last few minutes. Elsewhere, Green candidate Brian Wilson has made his own personal election vid for You Tube (above) Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

ELECTION candidate surprises aren’t isolated to this side of the Irish Sea as Sir Patrick Cormack – chairman of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee – is deselected by his constituency party in South Staffordshire by a margin of one or two. It’s a shock, because, according to ePolitix, in the last General Election he increased both his share of the vote and his majority, and achieved a swing of 9.1% from Labour, the largest such swing of the whole General …

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LOOKS like there was a missing zero from the DUP contract for election candidates. Turns out the fine for non-compliance is only two grand and not £20,000, though the bad publicity was probably a factor. Maybe not ‘free’ speech, but ten times cheaper than first suggested(!) Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

HAS David McNarry of the UUP been badly caught out by the DUP’s Iris Robinson? If the DUP website is anything to go by, a speech by McNarry on Monday appears to bear a “startling similarity” to one delivered by Iris in Westminster on 19th April 2006. It’s barely over a year since McNarry was accused of applying for a job on the Parades Commission, a body he claimed he actually wanted rid of (noted in my post which rightly …

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LADY Sylvia Hermon has announced that she won’t stand for election to the Assembly. Good news for Alliance? Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

FORMER peace talks chairman, George Mitchell, has said Northern Ireland’s parliamentarians held their own as political leaders on the world stage while they were in power. “In the short time that they did have authority and engage in self government, I think it’s universally recognised that they did a good job,” he said. The European Court of Justicce would beg to differ. Perhaps I’m being uncharitable by singling out one area where the Assembly failed to act responsibly, so I’m …

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