The Daily Thread For Sunday 6th July 2025
Here you can post and discuss news stories, social media links, or whatever is on your mind. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
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The daily open threads
The Daily Thread For Saturday 5th July 2025
Here you can post and discuss news stories, social media links, or whatever is on your mind. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
The Daily Thread For Friday 4th July 2025
Here you can post and discuss news stories, social media links, or whatever is on your mind. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Challenges mount for our daily newspapers
Recently the official, independently audited daily sales of the UK and Ireland’s daily newspapers was published for the period July-December 2020. Not unexpectedly they made very uncomfortable reading for editors and proprietors as overall the UK daily regional press sale had fallen by a record 19%. Obviously, the impact of Covid-19 had a major impact on this period, but publishers will take no comfort from that as once lost, it is rare for readers to return, no matter the circumstances. …
In praise of a daily nap…
One thing that has kept me sane during lockdown is the resumption of my habit of taking a daily nap after lunch. I come from a long line of nappers. When I was young, you could walk into our living room and find us all snoozing away merrily after lunch. The napping habit died out a bit with the advent of daytime TV and the Internet, but I found lockdown to be so emotionally exhausting that I needed a break …
The UK now has more daily deaths from Covid than the rest of the entire EU put together…
From BBC Newsnight on Wednesday night: “The UK now has more daily deaths from Covid than the rest of the entire EU put together.” #Newsnight's Political Editor @nicholaswatt talks us through the latest #coronavirus data 👇 WATCH 👇 pic.twitter.com/odLY0L4jfS — BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) June 3, 2020 Boris Johnston did promise the UK would be World beaters… Brian O'NeillManaging Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. …
Modern life has lost the daily sense of ebb and flow…
Who would have thought that walking is almost as good for depression as taking an antidepressant? As we all now know from the Government’s Coronavirus advice, exercise is not just good for our physical health but also for our mental health. And not just any old exercise, the best is green exercise, exercise surrounded by nature. Creation feeds our souls and spirits. Looking at the birds of the air and considering the lilies of the field reassures us of God’s …
How does our press emerge from lockdown? Part two: Regional Daily Newspapers
Last week wrote of our local weekly newspaper sector and of the need to save them. I also said that I thought a lot of them COULD be saved if the will is there. But what of our three dailies? There may be less scope there for a happy ending in a sector that across the British Isles has been in freefall for over a decade. Up until the end of the troubles, the picture here was a simple one. …
COVID19 Spread In Both Irelands, the UK and Selected Countries: Updated Daily Graphs
I am collecting the daily statistics for cases and deaths due to COVID19 on a daily basis for both Irish jurisdictions, the UK, the USA, China, South Korea and Italy. Updated graphs can be seen at http://mysql02.comp.dkit.ie/mcguinnp/covid19/. Graphs show “Deaths per million of the population” (Northern Ireland doing worryingly badly in this regard; Republic of Ireland approaching the Italy curve); “New cases per day” (lack of testing in NI resulting in low figures); “Cumulative cases per million of the population” …
Robin Swann: NI moves to daily reporting of the #Covid19 case numbers…
One of the key advantages we have over China and Italy is the forewarning we have on the speed of the spread and the scale of the crisis. NI Health Minister, Robin Swann speaking to the Assembly today, has outlined what arrangements his department is making… …the Department will be moving to daily reporting of cases, as currently happens in England. The intention will be to release the figures each afternoon. As I have outlined previously, the increase in positive …
#EP19 Daily Crack: All stories told, it is over to the voters of Northern Ireland to make their difference…
So, the eighth (and final edition) of our election round ups (if we miss anything important, just stick it in the comment zone, or email me or David on the side)… Last night was probably the best managed debate so far, although it had the noisiest audience participation. I’m sceptical of how much they change minds, especially so close to polling day, when people have less opportunity to change their minds. Lucid Talk live polling scored it marginally for Colum …
#EP19 Daily Crack: Will Unionist unity outflank both Alliance and the SDLP for the third Euro seat?
So, the seventh of our election round ups (if we miss anything important, just stick it in the comment zone, or email me or David on the side)… Much of the discussion on Slugger seems to assume that the third seat is a shoo in for Naomi or failing that Colum. But last night the DUP unleashed its best PEB to date with Diane’s record carried in the words of colleagues and community groups: If nationalism has one key fault …
#EP19 Daily Crack: #WheresClare and the SDLP spent 16 times Alliance fighting Brexit in the #EURef…
So, the sixth of our election round ups (if we miss anything important, just stick it in the comment zone, or email me or David on the side)… Continuing a theme from yesterday’s Daily Crack, it turns out that in the 2016 EU Referendum, the SDLP spent £8,000 (more than half the £14,971 that went on the Assembly election the same year). Sinn Féin refused to disclose their spending, whilst the Greens spent £300. In the arms race row about …
#EP19 Daily Crack: When’s a campaign a campaign and when isn’t it, plus two tight southern battles for SF
So, the fifth of our election round ups (if we miss anything important, just stick it in the comment zone, or email me or David on the side)… It’s Sunday today, and quiet so this will be a very short one. I’ll start with this spot (h/t Gary) from Adam Turkington who raises an interesting question about when a political party is campaigning and when it isn’t. Saw this on a @SDLPlive car today. Proof that Remainers can lie just …
#EP19 Daily Crack: Phony war ends and a battle of the graphs begins, and the DUP goes pan Unionist…
So, the fourth of our election round ups (if we miss anything important, just stick it in the comment zone, or email me or David on the side)… And it looks like the phoney war is over and out comes the graph wars, Alliance councillor Danny Donnelly tweets… Left – SDLP leaflet stating the Alliance ‘can’t win here’ based on results from 2014. Right – Alliance leaflet showing change in local government seats SINCE 2014. #YesSheCan #VoteNaomiLong1 pic.twitter.com/G2e1nbLxe9 — Danny …
#EP19 Daily Crack: The View debate and the best of the social media campaigns…
So, the third of our election round ups (if we miss anything important, just stick it in the comment zone, or email me or David on the side). Re The View debate (in no particular order), which started well, sagged in the middle and ended with a cacophonous crash. Mostly it involved a shuffling of cards within two odd sets of ‘families”: Unionists v Remainers. ➡️ Naomi recovered after floundering over her alleged Brexit flip flop. She handled Jim Allister’s …
#EP19 Daily Crack: If you want send your politicians a message SHIFT YOUR VOTE!!
So, the second of our election round ups (if we miss anything important, just stick it in the comment zone, or email me or David on the side)… Slugger’s team has been active today. On Nolan I argued (17.04 in) that voters upset about the Secretary of State’s decision to put the decision about Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry to the local party’s at the Stormont talks can take matters into their own hands and SHIFT YOUR VOTE next week. Send …
Daily crack from #EP19: The #EastwoodExpress, Martina lays into Jim and “the Remain tag team”…
So, first of our election round ups (if we miss anything important, just stick it in the comment zone, or email me or David on the side)… So although I missed the UTV debate on Monday, the Sinn Fein Twitter account took the trouble to share Martina Anderson’s slapdown of Jim Allister (both are actually quite shy and introverted when you meet them in person) but Jim apparently was wearing one of his louder personas that night… No more to …