Belfast Gonzo

AFTER Slugger highlighted speculation that Peter Hain could nominate the First and Deputy First Ministers last Sunday, in breach of the St Andrews Agreement, the Secretary of State issued a typically curt denial on Tuesday. “The nominations are a bridge to the transitional Assembly… if you don’t cross the first bridge then you have dissolution,” he said. Yes, but nominations to what? Now it’s being reported that “the governments are attempting to construct a formula where instead of a formal …

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ONE of the most important and closest battles in the recent US Senate elections was in Virginia, where Jim Webb eventually won his key seat for the Democrats by a small margin. Webb managed to tap into a vein of resentment felt by the so-called ‘rednecks’ he was appealing to, and successfully exploited his ‘Scotch-Irish’ (‘Ulster-Scots’) heritage to his electoral advantage. Unionist parties in Northern Ireland, including the DUP, have rarely played the ‘Ulster-Scots card’ (preferring the traditional Orange one), …

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THE BBC and Sunday Times report that the November 24 deadline – not unexpectedly – is to be fudged. The ST reports: “They [the British and Irish governments] are considering a plan to allow Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland secretary, to choose the ministers. This would require Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionists to agree by letter to accept the nominations at some future date, if their conditions are met”, while Mark Devenport reported Hain on Inside Politics “didn’t appear …

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…and were the Tories just plain stupid, or did they secretly betray Northern Ireland? Lord Trimble seems more than a tad unhappy with the Conservatives because the “Rates Order could have been defeated” last night. But the Tories, somewhat gullibly, backed the Government when Lord Rooker took on board Lord Glentoran’s amendment to “set a valuation cap at £500,000 and to take action to help lower income pensioner households”. There was no mention of this being conditional on the return …

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GERRY Adams will be allowed to raise funds from his appearance at a Friends of Sinn Fein function tomorrow. Previously, he had been banned from raising funds, and the US administration had refused to budge for some considerable time. Sinn Fein put the shift down to some successful lobbying, but the only thing the US special envoy Mitchell Reiss was interested in was SF movement on policing. If a highly stubborn Reiss has relented, there must be good reason. Belfast …

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FOR the first time in nearly five years, our Assembly members have revealed their outside business and property interests in a new register, David Gordon reports here. From Gerry’s country cottage “in the 26 Counties” to Sir Reg’s trips to the opera, the official list is all here. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

EVERYTHING you wanted to know about how the Second World War affected Northern Ireland is on this new website. One for the young historian. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

POLLS are notorious when it comes to gauging levels of support in Northern Ireland. But my guess is that – even factoring in the usual margins of error – quite a few eyebrows are going to be raised tomorrow morning when the BBC reveals the very interesting results of its Hearts & Minds survey on the St Andrews Agreement… Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

FROM sponsored swimmers to grieving golfers, being crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year has less and less to do with being good at sport, argues Rob Lyons on Spiked as he takes a hard-hearted swipe at Norn Iron’s Ryder Cup hero Darren Clarke. He adds: “Clarke is a pretty decent golfer. He’s never won a ‘major’ nor topped the European Order of Merit, but he was one of the best players in the Europe team that retained the Ryder …

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OVER in Ayr recently, and this dispute was the splash on one of the local papers – controversy over a republican parade through the town. Then there was the loyalist paramilitary who plonked himself down beside me on the boat… you just can’t leave Northern Ireland behind, can you? Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

COLONEL Tim Collins is presenting a show on BBC1 tonight (10.35pm) looking at the role of Ulster Generals in World War 2, as they defended Britain’s Middle Eastern front line in 1941. The BBC’s blurb is below the fold.Ulster Generals By the summer of 1942, the Middle East was Britain’s front line. During the Second World War, the British Army was being punched back towards Egypt at such speed that Rommel would take Cairo within a week. The Allies would …

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SENIOR cop Mark Gilmore has urged those behind racist attacks in Lisburn to turn themselves in “before receiving a visit from police”. That seems pretty unlikely, as no-one has ever been prosecuted for a racist attack under the two-year-old hate crimes legislation. And, as the PSNI’s own statistics reveal, only seven racial offences were ‘cleared’ by Lisburn police last year – although ‘clearing’ a crime doesn’t necessarily mean there were any prosecutions. Perhaps asking the racists behind the attack to …

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ON the discussion on libel and blogs, it seems as though the law is largely untested (but do you want to be the first?!), and there appear to be a helluva lot of grey areas. Guido thinks he has some neat tricks to get him off the hook – he’s hosted abroad, is an Irish citizen and holds his assets overseas. But after listening to Simon, I’m not sure that any blogger could make himself legally fireproof! Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

WILL Ian Paisley ever be First Minister to Martin McGuinness’s Deputy First Minister? “Provided Martin McGuinness is converted to be a democrat,” the DUP leader, who seems happy enough to pose for a St Andrews photo with Gerry Adams, tells Mark Hookham. Wonder if he’ll be in the same frame of mind for his historic meeting with Archbishop Brady on Monday though? Paisley and the DUP seem remarkably upbeat right now, even moreso than before Leeds Castle, so I’m wondering, …

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YER man says he was heading through Toome a wee while ago, when he spotted one of those reverential roadside commemorations to the Hunger Strike. Slightly further down the road is the Elk bar, and on the opposite side was an advertising hoarding which read: “All you can eat for £10.” Oops… Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

TODAY’S ‘Morning View’ leader column (sadly not online) in the unionist News Letter is titled: ‘Republican terror wanes but more is needed’. Be careful what you wish for Darwin! Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

ONE of the emerging themes of the Omagh bomb trial is how the police appear to be verging on incompetent when it comes to handling evidence… Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

THE DUP have a six-point plan for devolution. According to the Beeb, it includes an end to IRA paramilitary activity, republican support for the rule of law and “fundamental changes to the Good Friday Agreement”. Since those boxes will all be able to be ticked in the very near future, I wonder what else is on the list? Today, Jeffrey Donaldson cunningly conjured another obstacle out of the air when he said: “We differ from the IMC in their view …

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LOYALIST terrorists want funding to transform their community, so nationalists complain. ‘Nationalist areas’ get more funding from a package than ‘loyalist areas’, so unionists complain.Since the DUP complaint isn’t online, here’s what PA reported: Diane Dodds and Nelson McCausland accused Government of favouring republican areas and disadvantaging the Greater Shankill. “Nationalist west Belfast will receive £9 million of funding for projects, whereas only £900,000 is going to community-specific projects in the Shankill,” they said. “This means that nationalist-specific projects will …

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