Kathleen I met with Jenny muir this morning. Jenny is a lecturer and lives in South Belfast, and she spoke to me this morning on women in politics. A question we discussed was what is it that puts women off politics? Jenny raised points such as time, the lack of any networks for women in politics, which contributes to making them feel isolated, and how political parties are organised and conduct their business. Each point raised, Jenny had an argument to …
updateThere is to be a discussiion on Experience in political conflict, in the Studio at the Waterfront Hall, after the matinee of the show this Saturday at 4.45 pm. Danny Morrison, Billy Hutchinson William McQuiston, Brian Erskine and Dr Rona Friels (USA- a specialist in political violence). The discussion will be chaired by Noel Thompson. —————— Martin Lynch’s play is on at the Waterfront hall. Not in the main auditorium but off to the side in the studio. You can’t …
Dinosaur in Lisburn constituency. Kathleen
The SDLP has kindly agreed to slugger readers putting questions to Mark Durkan,at the Annual Conference this weekend. The questions are to be answered in a video format. This is now an opportunity to put those questions to our elected representatives you really want answers to. The questions can be about anything, but Mick will be the final judge as to what questions will be selected to go forward….. Kathleen
Vince Cable is sought out by the media for his sharp assessment of the economy, but the respect he has earned in the public eye has not rubbed off on the Liberal Democrats. Vince Cable is seen as an individual when speaking on the economy rather than as part of the Liberal Democrat Party. In the video Shirley Williams gives her assessment of the Liberal Democrats position, and why they should be seen as an alternative government. She says: It …
Tomorrow will see the 90th anniversary of the first Dail, established on the same day as the first shots were fired in the war of independence . The commeration is to be held tomorrow, a day early. Sinn Fein however managed to book the Mansion house for Wednesday, and offered to share the date with the Republic’s government, provided it was an all Ireland event. According to Gerry Adams: We would ship out what ever the government needed provided it …
Northumberland Street. (Lower Falls Road end.) Belfast. Kathleen
With Peter Mandelson, now Business secretary, and Alan Milburn looking into social mobility for the government, there is talk of the Conservative Party bringing back Ken Clarke. The footage takes a look at the pros and cons of that internal debate within the Conservative party. According to Danny Finkelstein in the footage: I think also worrying in this race is how little people actually know who the political figures are. Where some very senior political figres in the Conservative party …
A pilot lands a plane on a river in New York and everyone says he’s a hero. Now Gordon Brown wants to land thousands of planes on fields West of London and nobody has a good thing to say about it… Kathleen
From the discussion on the BBC’s Seven Days Wendy Austin asks Mick Fealty What do you think it is about this conflict perhaps more than many others that moves people here to take action. Perhaps go on to the streets or get in touch with a programme that they’ve never got in touch with before? Photo from Falls Road. Mick Fealty. “I think before moving on to the specifics of it the most obvious thing is that its a terrible …
The lower Shankill Road. Kathleen
An annoymus householder who owns a holiday home in the gaeltacht has complained about stop signs in Irish. Although Donegal county council says the signs are not a high risk threat, they are going to change them to read stop in English, to the huge annoyance of the locals. Kathleen
George W Bush’s last press conference was given today, and he warned that a terrorist attack is still the most urgent threat to the United States, and reflects upon his presidency. Kathleen
More gloom on the economic front as Land of Leather shares have been suspended on the London stock exchange and administrators have been called in. In the Republic, Land of Leather employs 84 people in its eleven stores. In Northern Ireland it has five stores. Update: A special conference in Dublin attended by 200 economists urge the government to come up with a credible plan to deal with the turmoil in the public finances and the difficulties in the housing …
Mohammed Shafiq, from the Ramadhan Foundation writes on his blog I am deeply shocked and saddened at Prince Harry’s racism which upsets and offends many British Asians. The use of this sort of racism has no justification and I am saddened by those that are advocating using this term is not racist. On BBC 5 Live Mohammed condemns Prince Harry without reservation. He says: He’s a thug. He’s somebody who uses violence and he is somebody who is trying to …
On the day Dublin buried Tony Gregory a drug dealer was murdered there a few hours later. The irony of this was not lost on the community there. According to RTE news Michael ‘Roly’ Cronin and another man were shot in the head as they sat in a black Volvo sports car in central Dublin. From the video report: At one stage heroin was regarded as a drug that was confined to deprived areas, but mainly used between the two …
Radio Caller: I responded to the call on BBC television by a very nice young lady who said there would be a peaceful candlelit procession from clonard Monastery to the city hall in support of the citizens of Gaza. Now I went along. I’m a supporter of the Israeli standpoint, I went along expecting it to be completely non political, non sectarian situation. When I arrived there at the city hall, I arrived quite early. I noticed several Palestinian flags …
Bishop of Cloyne Bishop John Magee has accepted responsibility for dangerous child protection practices after a report by the NBSC, found the Cloyne diocese had failed vulnerable children The report did not investigate the allegations of child sex abuse , but investigated how the Diocese of Cloyne handled the allegations. The report examined two cases, of credible child sex abuse against two priests in the diocese and again according to theIrish Examiner one of its conclusions was that children “have …
This part of the speech deals with the slippery slope argument, of which there are many versions. Among the versions of this argument is that if a law comes in it is sure to be abused. Patients will no longer trust their doctors, and the distinction between voluntary and non-voluntary suicide will be eroded if the law is liberalised. The slippery slope argument argues that patients will be coerced because they feel they are a burden on family or society …
