Turnout almost 52 percent…
ACCORDING to the BBC, the election turnout was 51.72 percent. Pretty low, but not as low as some predictions. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Belfast Gonzo
Here comes the summer…
AS revealed by Slugger contributor Sean yesterday (on several threads – tut!), the prime minister’s Chief Mover and Shaker, Jonathan Powell, has held talks with members of Sinn Fein and the DUP in Stormont. The Irish Government was also present, and while talks have been continuing quietly recently, the significance of this round is unclear. As we move towards the height of the marching season, possibly more security-related than political? It was busy at Stormont – for a change – …
DUP/SF proxy talks ‘success’..?
THE DUP/SF/British/Irish proxy talks yesterday seems to have been about whether it was worth convening a round of talks next Tuesday. Since parties excluded from the talks have been invited to the Review, presumably the two governments saw the potential for some accommodation between the DUP and Sinn Fein. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Mobile patrols for election…
OVER half of polling stations will not be manned full-time by PSNI officers during tomorrow’s polling, sparking unionist concerns that Sinn Fein may take advantage again. More static security cutbacks are due to be announced tomorrow. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Bomb in Germany…
A BOMB has just gone off in Cologne (Koln), Germany. I think it may have been in a Turkish district. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Paisley’s protest…
ARCHBISHOP Sean Brady attended the installation of the new Presbyterian Moderator, Rev Dr Ken Newell last night – the first attendance of a Catholic leader at the ceremony. Rev Newell said: “Can we not as churches create a shared space, a forum, where we start dealing with that hurt [of NI’s past] and foster healing?” Free Presbyterian Church leader Rev Dr Ian Paisley, MP, MEP (Ret’d) was outside the doors making his usual response to this sentiment – a placard …
Government seeks truth, then buries it…
AFTER it was suggested recently that the PSNI might seek gagging orders to keep information on controversial killings secret, as if on cue the first one is issued by the Government – just as the Secretary of State comes back from South Africa to tell us what he learned about truth and reconciliation. Almost funny. But not quite, as questions about dirty tricks and this bizarre trial are unlikely to go away. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
The deal that died…
THE Belfast Telegraph is serialising the latest Trimble biography by the terribly well-spoken Dean Godson of the Daily Telegraph. This section could be an indicator of things to come. The importance of the Andrew Sens statement to unionists in the midst of last October’s decommissioning fiasco, despite the rejection of de Chastelain’s weary words, indicates where unionist acceptance may eventually be found for future IICD statements. Here’s the relevant passage from the extract: “The Governments – and Trimble – thought …
Gilliland rejected UUP offer…
RELIABLE sources have confirmed that Independent European candidate John Gilliland was approached by the UUP some time ago to stand as a candidate for them. He said no, obviously. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
In a flutter over flags…
THE PSNI have now been issued with guidelines on how to deal with the flying of paramilitary flags. My understanding is that after the successful prosecution of a number of men in Holywood – eight in total, although only the four jailed were reported – an ‘idiot’s guide’ to prosecutions for flying paramilitary flags was produced by the North Down DCU, who have shown the most leadership on the matter. Although not all District Commanders are as keen to rock …
Transforming the IRA…
CARRIE at Broom of Anger reckons the recent debacles over PIRA and RIRA membership in the courts could be part of a softening up process for legalisation of the PIRA. Since PIRA refuses to disband, some have suggested that it instead becomes a kind of republican Old Boys’ (Senior Felons? Republican Veterans?) Club, with commemorations, wreath-laying ceremonies at Milltown cemetery and so on, as a compromise. Maybe that’s why Alex Maskey built links with the Royal British Legion and attended …
Noticeable by its absence…
GAIL Walker complains today – well, every Tuesday, but you know what I mean – about the lack of interest in the European election. She writes: “There’s talk that some sort of election is looming. I can’t be sure, since there seems to be very little political activity in the media or on the streets of the Fair Province, but it has something to do with Europe.” Hmmm… I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that …
Lies, damned lies and truth commissions…
AS the Secretary of State heads over to South Africa to learn from their experiences of truth and reconciliation, Brian Walker fears that Tony Blair’s “war on international terrorism clashes directly with his aim of finding closure in Northern Ireland”. Walker continues: “Despite encouraging gestures of openness to the Hutton inquiry, the signs are that the gates have now slammed shut. “I suspect Blair is now a lot less likely to set an Irish precedent that could force disclosure of …
‘Unfair’ BBC slammed over elections…
AFTER Eamonn McCann’s court defeat in a bid to get a party election broadcast for the SEA, this early day motion (1113) slamming the BBC’s election coverage was tabled in the House of Commons yesterday. The Beeb is showing the broadcasts for the four largest parties three times each. Everyone else gets none. Nothing like the status quo for Auntie, as Newton Emerson pointed out to his erstwhile employer on Saturday. Heck, even Ken Livingstone got one when he ran …
Troubles on tour…
YANK In Ulster blogs his thoughts on the Linenhall Library’s Troubled Images exhibition as it hits America. I would advise anyone in New York interested in the politics of Northern Ireland to go see this excellent award-winning collection of symbols, information and propaganda from across the political spectrum at the National Arts Club. By a strange coincidence, when I went to see the Claudio Hils exhibition ‘Archive_Belfast’ (which I blogged yesterday), I found it contains a photograph of the Troubled …
An environmental boob..?
GREEN Party letter writer Malachy McAnespie has been prolific in the Belfast Telegraph recently, but do these two diatribes about women in the past two days really represent party policy? Elections have attracted fake letters to the Tele in the past, it must be said. Ms Whitcroft is well respected and known for her strongly-held views on equality for women, so it would be interesting to know how the Greens would react to these letters should they prove to be …
Overground, undercover, Wombling free…
HAVE Indymedia readers found a way to publish pictures of people they believe to be undercover Garda officers on the internet – a foreign server? If Cryptome has got it wrong, as Indymedia did, they’re putting people in danger. If they’re right, it’s quite an embarassment for the Irish security forces that they were so obvious and easily photographed. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Living on the edge…
THE reaction to proposals for social housing for pensioners on the Crumlin Road clearly illustrates the lack of trust that exists between loyalist and republican interface communities. It must be tough for those wanting to do something positive in North Belfast. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be…
WE’RE fond of the past in Norn Irn, but can old political artifacts really be ‘art’? With Germans currently appropriating and reinventing old East German (GDR) symbols and memorabilia in their own fad called ‘Ostalgie’, are we now about to experience something similar here, a theme explored in a photographic exhibition at Belfast Exposed? We’ve got Communist-era statues in post-ceasefire Belfast superpub (just visible) ‘The Northern Whig’ (with its own historical and political references), but are we ready to regurgitate …
UVF in first feud strike…
THE UVF has been blamed for the murder of an alleged LVF member in East Belfast this morning. Loyalist feuding is virtually a post-Agreement tradition now, although it may also be a two-fingered salute to the IMC as much as internecine hatred or revenge. So much for the UVF’s ‘no first strike’ policy anyway, or does that only apply to republicans? Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com