Brian Walker After the PSNI’s decision not to prosecute her for hate crime you wouldn’t expect Iris to be contrite. When the row broke, she followed standard practice on all sides to squeeze the last ounce of victimhood out of the situation. “I am defending the word of God. I think at the moment there is a witch hunt to curb or actually stop or prevent Christians speaking out and I make no apology for what I said because it’s the word …
But still one in favour – you can still find a bargain even though my return flight booked well in advance was abruptly cancelled and I was moved to last flight, getting me back home on almost the last tube. Or Nightbus if delayed. If I had rejected the offer I could have rebooked at treble the price. The list grows longer. Brian WalkerFormer BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current …
Hooray! After an eight year campaign and a legal case by the Family Planning Association, the Health Department have at last issued a few brief guidelines about how an NI woman can obtain an abortion, though of course not in our God fearing Province. At least I think they have. The guidelines aren’t specific about the information available – we’ll have to wait for that. And Jeffrey Donaldson’s heroic ( not) resistance continues on behalf of the DUP, supported no …
While Mick toils manfully in the booming blogosphere, I get more and more worried about newspapers. In the UK and Ireland, crisis point hasn’t yet been reached. But in the US, it’s arrived. The fine old Christian Science Monitor (its quality belied its title) has just folded, I’m shocked to learn. Johann Hari in the beleaguered Indy is right. If (newspapers) vanish, blogs will be left in an airless cabin, talking only about themselves. Hari steers clear of washing his …
Although the Holy land disturbance ( what’s this “Holylands”?) has attracted a record volume of comment, I still thought it worthwhile to draw attention to Henry’s burst in the Guardian. In the massive and absorbing Slugger reaction , I was struck by the generation gap – many (relative) city slicker oldies, regardless of their first foot forward, wanted to smash the young “culchies” ( the unanimously adopted epithet for them). I share the concern about what the state of Holy …
Thanks to Pete for highlighting Robin Wilson’s typically challenging analysis of where we are politically after the murders. Robin joins those who are scathing about most of the political reaction admired so piously in the MSM, arguing that a resort to violence is inherent in the narrative of the Troubles which led to the agreements. In other words, violence paid off to put SF in power; but politics has failed to get them what they want so far, giving plausiblity …
A hard-headed interview in two stages, one before last week’s murders, the other after, on the subject of reconciliation, “a phase into which Northern Ireland thought it had passed until last week’s murder of three members of the security forces by republican terrorists.” according to the Times writer. It’s with UVF killer Alistair Little, in advance of Alistair Little’s transformation, “Five Minutes of Heaven”, a new film by Oliver Hirschbiegel, to be broadcast by the BBC next month. In it, …
Despite the local emphasis of the reporting, thanks to the size of the public sector locally, Northern Ireland is not the worst region hit by unemployment to a UK level of 2 million with another million to come. But there’s no doubt, the unprecedented surge everywhere comes as a shock and we have some of the worst black spots. The three highest percentage rises are in the same parts of Northern Ireland – Magherafelt, Dungannon and Cookstown – all in …
Cor, blow me down, stone the crows and what have you – and on St Paddy Day too – the drink trade in Northern Ireland seem to have backed the medical establishment in England and Scotland’s bid to set a minimum price for alcohol which Gordon Brown turned down out of political funk even before the case was made. I suspect somehow that this isn’t the last word from the locals. The drink trade’s usual “responsible” line is put by …
Let’s hope that the de facto merger of BBC regional news with ITV’s news offerings doesn’t set a precedent for Northern Ireland. The decision announced last week that BBC and ITV are to co-operate to keep ITV regional news going in England is as big as if the old Soviet Union and the US were to share the Bomb or Rangers and Celtic decided to become a single Firm (well maybe not quite). The unions accuse ailing ITV of bad …
Last week we had a number of slightly off-true if well meaning comments ( in my opinion) on our native land from the slightly embarrassed and mildly indifferent English commentariat, on its regrettable and hopefully brief return to the news agenda. Charles Moore, a rare example of a commentator who feels passionately about us, albeit on the right wing Tory side, repeated his views on David Dimbleby’s Question Time on BBC1, though Any Questions on Radio 4 passed off in …
If you feel helpless in the face of the news from Copenhagen and the general failure to get the Green Revolution going; turned off by the new fatalists and prophets of doom ; depressed that much recycling is being diverted back to landfill and asking – God – do we have to have more nuclear? – read this from the doyen of environment correspondents Geoffrey Lean, on the good practical ideas which look like working – provided the politicians have …
Well done the MPs on the NI Committee for gnawing away at the Omagh bombing. Tomorrow afternoon at 3.15 ( Monday 16 March) should see a more than ever relevant re-opening of the Omagh dossier, with the families’ representatives appearing before the Commons NI committee in the Stormont senate chamber, followed by John Ware, the indefatigable Panorama reporter on Wednesday week. Ware has asked, as Slugger has noted, what exactly was GCHQ listening to? on the day and what if …
Yet again, the GB timetable clashes with NI’s. Which will win out this time? Tucked away in the Times last week was the news that Hugh Orde is likely to quit soon to head up the Association of Chief Police Officers. Without an obvious successor seasoned in NI affairs, is this the time to be quitting? He must clarify the position very soon. And a point for later: will Sinn Fein and the SDLP accept another GB chief and will …
It may be taste free to point it out according to some Sluggerites, but sympathy for David Cameron over the death of his son Ivan has helped inch him ahead in the latest You Gov poll. This is hardly surprising, as people react to politicians in the round and identify with human tragedy easier than they follow the twists and turns of financial crisis. Yet the overall Tory lead is soft. 59% of voters saying Cameron) is doing a good …
A couple of good close accounts, one from a former soldier, now the Telegraph on Sunday’s defence correspondent contrasting then with now and describing the huge scale of the operation that it took to contain the IRA. Familiar apostates Richard O’Rawe , quoted by Liam Clarke in the Sunday Times and Anthony McIntyre get an outing in the UK national press, making you realise that it is only a small turn of a screw that transforms their embittered disillusion into …
Might the last week have encouraged the idea that the time has come to cut the crap and start a new form of politics? In GB, that half-traditionalist, half radical Andreas Whittam-Smith, founder of the Independent, is the latest to spot the opportunities offered by New Technology. The way to secure the election of independent members is to use digital technology flat out: websites, emails, mobile phones, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, blogs, e-newsletters, online advertising. Barack Obama made masterly use of …
More ominous newspaper news…“We have no plans to sell – at this stage” says Gavin O’Reilly, announced this morning as his father’s successor as CEO of Independent News and Media, the owners of the creaking media empire including the Independent in London, the Irish Independent in Dublin and its tiring cash cow the Belfast Telegraph. Father Tony ( a.k.a. Sir Anthony) has come under tremendous pressure to wrap up his feud with telecoms tycoon Denis O’Brien who had fiercely opposed …
Deep do-do for regional and local papers, famously more popular on the island in Ireland than anywhere else. Even so, that lean machine Johnston Press, the UK’s third largest regional newspaper group and owners of the (Belfast) Newsletter, the free sheet Belfast News and the Derry Journal and 11 former Morton local papers is suffering a massive loss in advertising revenue, of “ more than 35% in the first months of 2009. as overall revenue fell by more than 12% …
An interesting piece by Dean Godson , Conservative guru and author of the monumental biography of David Trimble, in this week’s Spectator. The piece seems informed by a high level security briefing, (though he’s under the misapprehension that British welfare payments are higher than the Republic’s). Godson is reluctant to state outright that it was wrong to dismantle so much of the security system – and that applies to the IRA of Adams and Mc Guinness as well, which might …
