October, 2014

I’ve just surfaced from a weekend in Teletubbyland. There was some fine food and lots of good wine and conviviality, but essentially the time was dominated by my golden grandchild who consumes time and energy as Galactus would readily consume whole planets . I  sit here a shattered but happy  man.Apparently,  I narrowly missed a […]

I am not , as  readers will know,  a man easily given to  rage. But  there are times  when it’s tempting to start yelling and screaming. This is one of those moment of temptation. That poll in the Belfast Telegraph  which  showed that well over half of people here thought  the performance of Stormont, compared […]

“There’s no more money! How many times do I have to repeat it?”  That was Gregory Campbell, being his stone-wall self on BBC TV’s The Nolan Show  last night. He was referring to the famous British subvention, whereby we are all expected to clap hands and sing because every year, being a kind Mother Country, […]

I used not understand the idea of electoral intimidation. Electoral personation – that I’ve   understood for some time. Bernadette McAliskey explained  to me the way it worked, at least as it was explained to her and others by Lord Fitt, at the time known as plain Gerry Fitt. The clever use of personation at the […]

It’s apple time in the Orchard County . I was picking up some grit for the garden and I popped into the  orchard adjoining the supplier for a quick look around. It’s a beautiful time of the year , especially with this rare sunny spell we’re curently having. It’ll soon be apple-picking  season  with a […]

Oh dear. Even as Peter grapples with the lemmings ( or should that be “Waves them goodbye as they careen slowly over the cliff”?), south of the border Enda has his own ethical questions to answer. “Not Enda!” you cry, Virginia. “Not that nice man who feels secure in reminding others of their past sins […]