Splash….
IS Daily View in trouble too?ADDS: Found a link. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Belfast Gonzo
DUP supporters…
…who wish to gloat, may do so here. In this thread alone, pleeeeeeeaaaaaeasssssssssseeeeee? Cheer me up with some council election predictions(!) Who’s ahead in the Nick Whyte/ARK contest?!…and will the last Indo reporter to leave NI, please turn the lights off. Thanks. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Well that’s that then: instant reaction *yawn*…
SO there we go. Well done to the SDLP. who confounded the critics in some ways – but with two pro-voluntary coalition MPs (inc. one dep. leader), has still has some pretty searching questions to face. Ditto the UUP. As predicted: UUP meltdown – your guess is as good as mine as to what happens next (not even a ‘Burnside’ potential ‘unifier’). No matter what perspective you have on politics here, the night undoubtedly goes to the DUP. Back to …
Some news just in…
BURNSIDE will definitely be OUT of South Antrim, according to reliable sources… Former Assembly Deputy Speaker Donovan McClelland (SDLP) will apparently struggle to even get back an Antrim Council seat… Lady Hermon will retain North Down with Alliance voters’ assistance – although the vote may well come back in the Council vote… Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Late breaking news…
‘GORGEOUS’ George Galloway wins for the anti-war Respect party; a blow for Tony Blair… Ex-NIO security minister Adam Ingram holds his seat, and is jeered by anti-war protesters… Education Secretary Ruth Kelly, who is from Limavady, holds her seat after her office was attacked by members of the protest group Fathers 4 Justice… NIO minister John Spellar holds on comfortably despite a 6.1% drop in the share of his vote… Same story with Ian Pearson, whose share falls 4.5%… Angela …
Blair is back…
TONY Blair is giving his victory speech. His Sedgefield majority was up, and he’ll be up celebrating tonight. After his breakfast with former BBC NI political correspondent and election blogger Mark Simpson this morning, I’m sure he’ll be able to keep going. It’s been a long day.The BBC reported: Speaking as he was returned on an increased majority in Sedgefield, Mr Blair said it was clear that “the British people wanted to return a Labour government but with a reduced …
Drawing a line under the election…
I PICKED up a second-hand copy of a Rowel Friers compilation of political cartoons from the 1970s in Oxfam on Belfast’s Dublin Road a couple of weeks ago, and discovered that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Chris Thornton delved into the world of the cartoonist and found that you can go much further back and get the same result – one particularly prescient 1936 cartoon in Queen’s University’s PTQ pictured a sectarian riot entitled ‘The …
No sympathy for Trimble…
WRITING in the Indo, Damian Corless is yet another neutral who appears to have put his faith in Trimble, but now sees him as a busted flush. He argues that “it’s hard to whip up sympathy for a UUP that might soon be receiving the last rites, because the Ulster Unionists have done little to cultivate the sympathies of neutrals. An innate mean-spiritedness has made the party hard to warm to, even after its move towards a softer stance in …
Runners prefer the traditional route…
THE Irish News reports that the Belfast Marathon is a bit of an organisational shambles. Leaving aside yesterday’s attempted bombing of the race, the new “flatter, faster” route itself has been slammed by runners. The deserted industrial wasteland towards the end is not seen as particularly enticing when support is appreciated by tiring runners; the toilet facilities were criticised; and wheelchair competitors had to dodge traffic too.Jim Stokes wrote on BBC Online: From personal experience, though, that third leg was …
Blair committed to NI, sadly…
TONY Blair has insisted that Northern Ireland will remain a priority for him after tomorrow’s election, if he’s still Prime Minister. God help us all. Hasn’t he enough to be worried about at home?Bliar said: “It still comes back to the same basic question, which is the way forward is for the republicans to give up violence completely and totally and go into a different mode of operation altogether of exclusively peaceful and democratic means, and for unionists on that …
Keeping kids off the streets. Or not…
FUNDING for out-of-school childcare is funded by the Government in other parts of the UK, but in Northern Ireland, it’s funded through the European Union’s Peace and Reconciliation Fund – a source which is about to dry up. Despite Labour’s so-called commitment to ending child poverty, NI still has high levels of the problem – which are likely to be exacerbated when 40 after-school clubs close.Parents may now have to quit to care for kids, and the knock-on social and …
Loyalism listening..?
SOME positive news from PR disaster-prone loyalism. The News Letter reports that in Larne an “agreement amongst the parties has determined that paramilitary flags will only be raised for four weeks in July and only in designated loyalist areas of the borough”. Well, at least it’s a start. Meanwhile, the Belfast Telegraph reports that the Orange Order is to get a consultant to “oversee projects which could include developing the “full tourist potential” of the occasion [the ‘Twelfth’]”. Bit late …
Hunting ‘not cruel’ say hunters…
FOLLOWING the BBC report of stag hunting in Co Down not so long ago, an investigation was held to find out whether accusations of cruelty could be upheld. Since the inquiry was carried out by three no-so-independent hunting organisations, the answer was unsurprisingly ‘no’. No kidding – what a farce.Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where wild stags can be hunted. However, I am aware of plenty of anecdotal evidence whch suggests stags are being illegally bred …
Moral guidance…
WRITING on the former Pope’s death, Michael Fitzpatrick thinks that Catholicism may be in the ascendency as a source of moral authority – both in the UK and globally – he also argues that the “doctrines of Catholicism provide no solutions to the terrestrial problems of the new millennium. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
The medium and the message…
IT’S probably sacrilege to link to this, but Martyn Perks isn’t convinced that blogging by politicians isn’t the most effective way of communicating a political message. While converts like Ian Duncan Smith may believe an MP’s blog can perform a similar role to the old town hall meetings of the past, and Karl Rove believes that the national conversation is being democratised, Perks doesn’t think they can be held accountable through such a medium.Perks writes: Although today’s webloggers are from …
Daily Ireland blames Government for job losses…
DAILY Ireland chief Mairtin O’Muilleoir has confirmed on Talkback today (about 2/3 way through) that jobs will go at the republican newspaper – but fewer than the 12 speculated. He blames the Brits, of course, for not advertising in the publicly-funded newspaper.O’Muilleoir argues that the Government discriminates against republicans by not advertising in it. Dunseith countered by saying that new Local Press publication Daily View doesn’t get Government advertising either, the reason being that it hasn’t been going long enough …
Alliance may call in police…
ALLIANCE is now considering calling in the police to investigate suspected UUP dirty tricks, as further links between the Ulster Unionists and a disputed leaflet are uncovered. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
It’s in the post…
THE BBC reports that there has been a record number of applications for postal votes. 33,000 have registered – 10,000 up on the 2004 European election and the 2003 Assembly election. A response to the annual registration process, or cause for concern about fraud?The BBC reported: The SDLP say they have come across cases of people who have given what they believed was a postal application form to a political party, but have then found the form switched to an …
Return of the grass…
IT’S been mentioned on another thread, but maybe deserves its own – the Crown is to use “informer evidence” again. Informers are expected to provide witness evidence in court for the first time in 20 years against suspected paramilitaries in a case against six men facing UDA membership and drugs charges. Sharon O’Neill recalls why there may be raised eyebrows at such a move.Quick question; if members of the PIRA can get membership charges dropped because PIRA is on a …
What happens next..?
THE DUP will be up for a post-election deal, Gerry Adams believes. And if they aren’t, Sinn Fein seems to be hinting that the ball will be in the two governments’ court – perhaps a suggestion that a future SF fallback position will be to push for joint authority in the event of a negotiating failure. However, Peter Robinson’s post-election plans are different – to bring about unionist unity, he says.Paisley seems to agree, which might confirm to some what …