Belfast Gonzo

A SIGNIFICANT turning point seems to have been reached in Israel, as premier Ariel Sharon takes the political gamble of his life by resigning from Likud to form his own party. Will Sharon’s shift from hardliner to (relative) moderate result in a centrist coalition in the Knesset? Will he be in any position to offer potential partners anything? The run-up to the March election will be fascinating stuff, with implications for the direction of the Middle East peace process. We’ve …

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TODAY’S the day when the biggest shake-up in public administration since 1973 will be announced. It’s uncharted territory, and with the Assembly still in limbo, there are quite a few worried politicians out there. Will a seven-council Northern Ireland lead to a west-east division, with all nationalist councils west of the Bann and all unionist councils on the east – with Belfast hanging in the balance? How many jobs will go? How will our politicians tackle tricky issues like planning …

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COMMUNITY Restorative Justice is underpinned by the ‘Vienna convention on restorative justice’, according to itself. Newton Emerson asks what that actually means and wonders why those promoting CRJ only seem to pay lip service to it. Emerson concludes: “So let’s be absolutely clear about where this waltz is heading. If the government’s next dirty deal involves endorsing community restorative justice – let alone funding it – then the IRA will be officially policing your neighbourhood tomorrow and the UDA will …

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THE fundraising ban slapped on Gerry Adams in America recently led to the Sinn Fein president having to address the Irish American faithful via video link. Ray O’Hanlon reports that this may even have boosted numbers to the Friends of Sinn Fein fundraiser, and the wheeze won’t have pleased the US State Department much. The reason for the stand-off between the Bush administration and SF at the minute is policing. Ambassador Mitchel Reiss wants SF to back the new policing …

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AHERN plays another classic wheeze, on the face of it. This time, he announces he will never share power with Sinn Fein in a coalition government in the Republic. It’s convenient for Bertie to come down hard on Sinn Fein right now, but maybe it’s aimed at some floating PD voters too? Course it is. This being Bertie, you gotta read the small print. If Ahern sees himself as the man to shunt Sinn Fein off their republican pedestal and …

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WHETHER you agree with them or not, it’s hard not to admire the guts of these two men from different sides of the sectarian fence in Nothern Ireland – Denis Bradley and Raymond McCord. Often rejected by their ‘own’ communities, both have shown extraordinary courage at great personal cost in recent times.Addressing the home crowd at the SDLP annual conference, Bradley – who took a horrific beating for his support for the police recently – acknowledged the 50/50 recruitment quota …

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OVER at the Tallrite Blog, Tony Allwright is celebrating his letter of the week in Mark Steyn’s mailbox at Steyn Online. Both Allwright and Steyn are concerned about the sanitisation of the Provisional IRA’s violent campaign, something the British Government is now being accused of too, as it seeks to bury the past in a disrespectful and inept manner, hand-in-hand with its former enemies (this certainly didn’t convince). After all, Tony Blair’s arrogance is creating unlikely new allies… on more …

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THINGS have been a bit back-to-front today. First The Sun accuses the DUP of being ‘traitors’ and Paisley as ‘treacherous’ for not backing Blair’s defeated Terror Bill. Then the SDLP accuses the Brits of cover-up and collusion. Not with loyalists though… with Sinn Fein.The DUP must be laughing that they could add to Blair’s ignominious defeat, which is now prompting questions about his position as Prime Minister. Peter Robinson was in the odd position of voting against the Terror Bill, …

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COULD this be the riot control weapon of choice in the near future..? Well, they’ve tested nearly everything else, but this is still the preferred option. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

If blogs are to be considered useful sources of feedback and comment, people need to stop treating them like public toilet walls. Speech may be free, but that doesn’t mean intelligent thought should fly out the window as well argues Grace Chua in Spiked. She was mildly chastising student bloggers in Singapore, who discovered that their right to free expression didn’t appear to extend to slagging off their teachers online…Chua adds: Rather than clamping down on what gets written online, …

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IT was too good to last. After the Union flag and the Irish tricolour flew alongside one another for the first time at a war memorial in Derry to remember Irish and British soldiers killed at the Battle of Messines in 1917, someone had to complain.The DUP’s Willie Hay had the following objections to the flying of the Irish flag alongside the Union flag (as well as a few other nations): People have no problem with the Legion coming up …

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FOR every action in the political process, there is an equal and opposite reaction(ary). As the Three Governments are currently trying to strike a cosy balance between the need to bribe/coax Sinn Fein onto the Policing Board and the need to persuade the loyalist paramilitaries to wind up without taking everyone with them, the opinion of the weakened centre seems to have been bypassed somewhat. With Irish presidents hugging UDA leaders on golf courses, probably, and the prospect of post-Agreement …

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AFTER meeting the mother of Real IRA murder victim Danny McGurk, republican critic Anthony McIntyre thinks it’s high time they went away too. Police have blamed a wall of silence for the lack of a conviction in the McGurk murder, although McIntyre reports suspicions of an informer’s involvement.McIntyre writes: The Real IRA should forget questions of grand strategy. After almost a decade in the field it should accept that it is not fit for purpose. While it can do absolutely …

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WHEN Desmond Tutu facilitated a meeting between loyalist serial-killer-turned-painter Michael Stone and the family of one of his victims for a TV programme, Mark Thompson of Relatives for Justice tried to dissuade the Archbishop from attending.I wonder if Jo Berry & Pat Magee would have approved, or even Community Restorative Justice, which often brings victims and criminals together for the purpose of some form of restitution. Or is it, as in the case of IRA fugitives, that mainstream republicans only …

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HENRY McDonald reports how parties in the House of Lords are set to unite in their opposition to legislation to allow suspected IRA fugitives to return home. Ultimately, this would delay matters for maybe a year before the Government would force something cobbled together through. There is also the prospect of the Irish Government taking a tougher legislative line on ‘On-The-Runs’ (OTRs) than the British. This is going to be a key political battleground in the next few months.In the …

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ANYONE who was around for the 2005 election here will remember the disastrous UUP campaign. Ulster Unionist Michael Kerr has just written a book describing the unfolding chaos at the time from the inside. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

THE Government finally told us what those who ever signed up to Jobskills knew – it was a waste of their time and taxpayers’ money. There’s a discussion on the political and economic arguments surrounding the civil service here, but doesn’t everyone have a Jobskills story to tell? Personally, I found it a bit of a joke, and here’s why…After graduating, I was lucky enough to be able to continue with my part-time McJob until something better turned up. I …

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AFTER the announcement of the end of the loyalist feud between the UVF and Loyalist Volunteer Force, the directionless LVF leadership ordered all its military units to stand down from midnight. It marks the welcome end to one of Northern Ireland’s shortest-lived, but possibly most sectarian, terrorist groups. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

A tale of two Gerries – Gerry Adams has just told Gerry Kelly (the UTV show host, not the politician) that “the war is obviously over”, the first time he’s said as much. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

THE INLA is pissed off that eBay has banned its paraphernalia from the auction website. “The INLA has been identified to us by a government agency as a group that fits into this category, and therefore will not be allowed on eBay,” was the US company’s reply to a complaint from one republican socialist, who grandly accused eBay of being “part of an effort to demonize any organization prepared to defend the interests of working class people against the armed …

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