Is Prime Minister Cameron going to announce “No benefits for school leavers before they are twenty one”? Did I hear that right? I was sitting here wondering will this mizzly, misty day burn off and unveil a little late September sunshine. It’s been so unseasonalby warm and humid this past week or so and of […]
September, 2014
Paul’s back!
Crikey, he’s back! I thought he’d sort of melted into obscurity. But there it is, in today’s News Letter. Former DUP MLA Paul Berry is back in the saddle again. As the News Letter so diplomatically puts it, he “left the party in acrimony in 2006 after allegations in a Sunday newspaper”. But he’s now an independent unionist councillor […]
Alex,me and Nolan
Having a duet with Alex Kane on the Nolan Show this morning… https://audioboom.com/boos/2519435-crisis-what-crisis-first-and-deputy-first-ministers-criticised-for-rydercup-attendance
LOOKING FOR THE OPENING by Randall Stephen Hall
With talks about new talks and our local politicians talking again about why they shouldn’t talk, what they need to talk and who they are prepared to talk to, it puts me in mind of what we are blessed with, as a gift. It all comes pre-packaged, when we are born, and, with careful nurturing […]
DOES ANYONE REALLY WATCH TELEVISION ANYMORE by Harry McAvinchey
Does anyone really watch television anymore? I’m only asking because I am finding it more and more a pointless pursuit.Let’s put it like this .There are two televisions in my home .There’s the wee one in the kitchen area where we seem to spend virtually all our time anyway and then there’s the big screen […]
Peter and Martin and the sin of Gleneagles
There are some very silly things being said about Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness these days. They’ve attended the Ryder Cup in Scotland – and suddenly voiced raised – why aren’t they here, don’t they know how serious the situation is, we don’t pay them to go waltzing off, yamma yamma yoooo. Dear God. Hasn’t […]
‘Sunday Politics’ and a coming referendum?
‘Sunday Politics’ on BBC TV is usually interesting viewing. It’s got Andrew Neill as presenter, and while he mightn’t win the Most-Loveable-Human-Being-I’ve-Ever-Met contest, he does know how to lob a hand-grenade question. He had David Davis, the man who was once considered a cert to lead the Tories, on just now. Neill’s first question was […]
WHO WON THE WAR by Harry McAvinchey
“If you smile at me, I will understand ‘Cause that is something everybody everywhere does In the same language I can see by your coat, my friend You’re from the other side There’s just one thing I got to know Can you tell me please, who won the war ?” “Wooden Ships” by Jefferson Airplane/Crosby,Stills […]
Peter faces the car-boot
Family – such a nice word. The mind flashes to the back of cornflakes packets, squeaky clean and smiles all around the breakfast table. That’d probably be the sense of the word the DUP have in mind when they boast of the family atmosphere within the party. But there’s an equally famous type of family: the […]
SEND IN THE CLOWNS by Harry McAvinchey
At the circus the cry would ring out among the performers.”Send in the clowns!….Quickly!”..The clowns were a timely distraction or space -filler to be used when an act wasn’t yet prepared thoroughly ; the fire-eater might have gotten the inflammable liquid confused with the Hendricks Gin , the wire-walker might have stabbed her husband a […]