Belfast Gonzo

JUST back from London and have enjoyed flicking through everything I missed at Slugger central while on the London Eye and watching the hilariously un-PC Avenue Q. Since everything else has been blogged, this caught my eye on the BBC site today. Even in London, I don’t think, proportionately, there were as many beggars as there are in Belfast right now. I’ve nothing against begging – it certainly doesn’t bother me as much as chuggers do – but the Children’s …

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NORTHERN Ireland might be above Wales in the international rankings, but the fans will be looking for revenge tomorrow night, as the visitors beat them at Windsor Park last year (guess who went for a burger at half time and missed the two NI goals because of the queue – doh!) Goal hungry Healy is out due to injury, but sure it’s only a ‘friendly’! Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

TWO years to the day since the Robert McCartney murder, Gerry Adams has urged republicans who have information on the killing (and there must be a few) to hand it over to the police. The official DUP response is still awaited, but I hear Jim Allister is still far from happy. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

ALLIANCE leader David Ford has asked the watchdog Audit Office to look into the £1 million that has been spent by Executive parties on ministerial advisers during the period that there has been, errrr, no Executive (ie, since 2002) and no ministers to advise. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

…he say ‘yes.’ Looks like it was by more than three-quarters in favour of the motion. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

TODAY’S Irish News splash is hardly an exclusive – after all, Slugger predicted that Northern Ireland would benefit from the Republic’s National Development Plan to the tune of a billion euros back in November, and we probably weren’t the only ones. Nevertheless, Billy Graham’s better-late-than-never story fleshes out the detail a little before Tuesday’s announcement, and still beats the other local dailies. The story is below the fold.Ahern’s €1bn plan for north EXCLUSIVE By William Graham Political Correspondent A ‘NATIONAL …

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WHILE Sinn Fein might be feeling a pinch of political pain over policing, Pat Ramsey has borne the bloody brunt of dissident republicanism’s opposition to the PSNI – suffering actual, as opposed to implied, attacks for his support for policing. After a long campaign of intimidation, the SDLP man has finally been forced from his house, at considerable expense to his family. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

IT will be difficult enough for the Progressive Unionists to fill David Ervine‘s shoes. The unfortunate timing of his tragic death just before an election makes things hard enough, but Ervine‘s charisma and public profile will be sorely missed in this campaign, and his successor could struggle to make much of an impact before the polls. With the party not having performed particularly well in recent elections, even with Ervine’s profile, I doubt if invoking his name in this one …

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A recent exchange in the Commons involving DUP hardliners and the Security Minister probably revealed more about the DUP than their allegation that the brother of a Sinn Fein MP was the subject of a security operation in which “important documents relating to security force members and leading politicians were removed by the Police Service of Northern Ireland”. Republicans will view this with customary contempt, as a other allegations made in Parliament by the party remained unsubstantiated. And even if …

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ANYONE looking for a wacko flutter might want to bet on which county in Ireland Michael Jackson will set up home in. Antrim is top of the Northern Irish list at 16/1, but the south is well ahead. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

IN a grumpy assessment of the policing debate, Eric Waugh expresses doubts about the long-term success of devolution. After all is said and done, the purse strings are still held by Westminster, and Waugh reckons the very limited form of government Stormont provides (where agreement on bread and butter issues was often difficult in the past) will be ineffective. Given our politicians legendary ability to avoid real politics, will a weak government be better than none if the big issues …

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PUP leader David Ervine, who helped broker the loyalist ceasefire in 1994, has died. Mr Ervine had been on a life support machine for a day, after a heart attack, stroke and brain haemorrhage. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

DAVID Ervine is, as I write this, not dead, despite reports to the contrary. It would appear a hoax caller has been ringing around various media outlets, such as RTE, who reported his death earlier. However, Ervine is in a very critical condition. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

LISBURN mayor Trevor Lunn is to fill former Alliance deputy Seamus Close’s boots for the forthcoming election (assuming there is one). Also out of the frame in the Lagan Valley constituency is the SDLP’s Patricia Lewsley. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

CECIL Walker, the former North Belfast MP who was humiliated by the DUP’s Nigel Dodds at the polls in 2001, is dead. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

THE Ulster Unionists have published the controversial letter from Peter Hain to the Transitional Assembly’s sub-group on policing and justice on their website, saying it demolishes the DUP’s ‘triple lock’ spin. UUP leader Sir Reg Empey argues that “the proposal amounted to a Ministerial directive, and held out the very real prospect of a Sinn Fein Minister of Policing and Justice by May 2008, regardless and in spite of DUP claims of a ‘triple lock’ on the issue”. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

THE Queen goes hi-tech and releases one’s royal podcast here on Christmas day. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

NORTHERN Ireland’s first – and therefore best – Muslim comic, at the Empire. Good gags about Michael Stone and west Belfast… worth a wee listen to Bellal! Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

“DO we want to have a culture of Podge and Rodge, or one of decency and respect?” Archbishop Sean Brady asks. Will the gruesome twosome become our new favourite pincushion for all social ills? Well, their “coarseness and aggression” is represented in the “dehumanisation” of society. Two paragraphs later in Patsy McArdle’s article, Brady argues that he’s learned a lot in the last decade about how people suffered sexual abuse in his church, and points out how a church – …

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