March, 2013

I’ve just come off the Nolan show on BBC Raidio Uladh/Radio Ulster and I’m still hopping mad. Not because of the show itself but because of the topic. It was David Cameron’s immigration speech yesterday.  David McNarry, who quit the UUP and, in search of a home, found UKIP, was also on, doing his best […]

I’ve just come off the Nolan show on BBC Raidio Uladh/Radio Ulster and I’m still hopping mad. Not because of the show itself but because of the topic. It was David Cameron’s immigration speech yesterday.  David McNarry, who quit the UUP and, in search of a home, found UKIP, was also on, doing his best […]

The English comment from time to time on the American inability to do irony but from time to time they show themselves numb to its existence. There’s a good example in this morning’s Guardian. The headline is ‘England-only MP votes needed for English legislation, commission says’ and it’s a report which looks at that old […]

The English comment from time to time on the American inability to do irony but from time to time they show themselves numb to its existence. There’s a good example in this morning’s Guardian. The headline is ‘England-only MP votes needed for English legislation, commission says’ and it’s a report which looks at that old […]

So.  Now it can be told: Mike Nesbitt is going to sort education here. “Give it to us and we’ll fix it” he declares.  Mmm. That merits some thought.  Firstly, is education here broken? I don’t think so.  I’ve seen the inside of more schools and classrooms here than most people, and  by and large, […]

So.  Now it can be told: Mike Nesbitt is going to sort education here. “Give it to us and we’ll fix it” he declares.  Mmm. That merits some thought.  Firstly, is education here broken? I don’t think so.  I’ve seen the inside of more schools and classrooms here than most people, and  by and large, […]

What do you think of Gerry Adams’s Irish? You know, when he stands up in the Dail and talks for the first minute or two in the Irish language, before lapsing into English?  Some people like it. More say they find it embarrassing – so clumsy, so unmusical, so…Northern. Get that last bit? Denounce the […]

What do you think of Gerry Adams’s Irish? You know, when he stands up in the Dail and talks for the first minute or two in the Irish language, before lapsing into English?  Some people like it. More say they find it embarrassing – so clumsy, so unmusical, so…Northern. Get that last bit? Denounce the […]

Maybe you saw it. It was on BBC Newsline 6.30, I think, some days ago: a map showing how the proposed development of hospital provision would look here in the north. The suggestion seemed to be that hospitals would consist of a series of central hospitals, like the RVH and Altnagelvin, with satellite hospitals linked […]

Maybe you saw it. It was on BBC Newsline 6.30, I think, some days ago: a map showing how the proposed development of hospital provision would look here in the north. The suggestion seemed to be that hospitals would consist of a series of central hospitals, like the RVH and Altnagelvin, with satellite hospitals linked […]