April, 2015

  Why do politicians parade their wives and families? Alasdair McDonnell was at it yesterday, listing his children, their ages, their musical tastes. Peter Robinson once was happy to have displayed pictures of himself being kissed by his smiling wife. Ed Miliband did a park walk with his wife and two youngsters. David Cameron’s wife […]

  Yes, you’re right Virginia. It is tempting to go after Health Minister Jim Wells and ask him if he usually says bad things about gays when his mind is a bit distracted. But I won’t. There are bigger and more lethal events that demand attention. Like around Pozzallo. It’s a seaside resort in Sicily where […]

Could the SDLP be done under the Trades Description Act? They present themselves as the moderate nationalist party, but where’s the beef? Take their name – the Social Democratic and Labour Party. Those are all commendable titles but none of them make reference to being an Irish nationalist party. They have declared – and this […]

    We are a funny species, aren’t we?Throughout the world many open-minded people are busily working away to attempting to improve life for everyone and yet here in Norneverland we have a curious tunnel-visioned attitude about …well , mostly everything you can think of. If you listened to local radio , you’d soon conclude […]

  I’ve just finished listening to  part of a discussion between Danny Morrison of Sinn Féin and Malachi O’Doherty the journalist. I know both men and I like both of them, although I often find myself on the other side of the argument from the latter. That’s the case this morning. Malachi has written a […]

Sometimes I hate it but most of the time I love it. Otherwise I wouldn’t be pouring out my heart and guts on a daily blog basis. I’m talking about the internet. If somebody had said in, say, 1970, that we’d form communities of people  (like this little ragged band of ours)whom we’d never met, […]

  Add MediaNow there’s a thing to think about……. Several times we’ve approached this one and tried to get a fair wind behind the idea of compulsory voting.Yes… I  know , many of you out there in Norneverland implied that there is no one worth voting for out there and anyway when you do vote […]

  An interesting issue in this Westminster election is, what difference do we make? Or more exactly, what difference will our elected MPs make? The DUP has been emitting loud noises about how influential they will be in a hung parliament. That strikes me as a dangerous thing to say. If the parliament is hung in […]