I happened to catch Nick Robinson’s interview with Nigel Dodds on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme this morning. Nick made a point – at the start and at the end – that the leader of the DUP had been invited to appear and declined, and Nick wasn’t overly impressed by that. However, in my view he was led up a blind alley by Nigel Dodds about the reason for this election.
You’ve probably guessed what Mr Dodds said. That’s right – it was all Sinn Féin’s fault. He also said that Nick was “factually inaccurate” to say that Arlene had resigned. She had been brought down by Sinn Féin, and the whole mess that things are in now are essentially Sinn Féin’s fault. I’m guessing that Nick didn’t/doesn’t know the true facts of the case, and the incompetence at best and corruption at worst swirling around the whole RHI scheme. I’m also guessing that Sinn Féin will not have a chance on the Today programme to set Nigel’s version in shall we say a fuller context.
Which if I’m right is a pity, since the BBC prides itself on its balance.
For the DUP it is a case of continuing with the delusion and to keep on telling themselves and everyone else the Big Lie until it sticks.We know the game but the punters in England couldn’t care less anyway. To them the RHI scandal would read like a fairy story, at best ,if they could even be bothered. As for something like NAMA it would be all but inpenetrable to most.Watch though as all this bullshit begins to stick.
There shoukd be a big board in London detailing the amount of money pumped into NI.
Just bullet points;
BLOCK GRANT – SQUILLIONS
RHI – 400 MILLION +
etc etc. Then the punters will take notice. They could even re-jig that Brexit bus advert that suggested that millions would go to the BUS every week.
If i was of a nationalist bent I would appeal to rich ‘pro-unification’ businessmen to pay for such a bill board poster to stay up all year round.
RADIO DODDCAST
Dodds is one at odds with tripods
Not quite right for Missus.Tussaud’s
Arl is fragile
Send in Nigel
‘Blame in on SF’s ‘Sods for Wads’!
Paddy, as I pointed out a few day’s ago, on the return from England of my youngest, the brit’s are fiercely interested in this, he gets it in the ear daily with them stating their upset at the money wasted to maintain the occupied edifice afloat for those who can make most from it.
I recall a conference I attended in 1991 in the Forum Hotel on economic development, the main speaker, a wealthy Englishman, arrived and commenced with an announcement of his previous belief, having never been to Ireland before, that we were all socially disadvantaged, essentially paupers or croppies, but that, on his way in from the Airport at Antrim he had seen a new Mercedes, one which was top of the range and, as yet, had seen none of them on his travels round his homeland, S.E. England having much wealth.
The party of working class loyalism will continue to feed the wealthy and ignore ordinary working class Protestant’s so long as their greedy pockets are filled with ‘contributions’.
I take your point , Mark and it is true that the more insightful and educated folks have a head- start on some of their fellows.I recall working in London years ago with a group of lads who had never been to Ireland, who spoke of it as being”out there”, as though it was thousands of miles away at the other side of the world.They were not interested and lived within a small world much as you’d see in a soap-opera such as “Eastenders” or somesuch; their own little communities , pubs and so on. Ireland , to them was far far away…but just that bit further away than the north of England or Scotland which most of them had never visited either and probably would never have a good reason to.
There’s a good possibility that years later, many of them have still never ventured outside of London at all and that has comprised their entire world. On the other hand my daughters have been educated and two of them now have chosen to live in English cities and their extended friends know a little more of the detail of life in Ireland . Brexit has been a huge awakening for a lot of young people ,it seems , many who feel let down by their elders voting for a closed Europe. They feel a sense of isolation. There is a divide though between those who think about such things and those who really are not sure about the detail. I’m sure that the many DUP scandals have made little impact with the majority of English people either.As long as their “boys” are not sent over here to be slaughtered there’ll be little talk about Ireland. Now, if the majority of them actually knew how cackhandedly their money was being syphoned into certain pockets and was been burnt up in smoke , there might well be a different reaction , but nobody is really telling that story loudly enough yet.Still…..there’s years more of it to come , so who knows what the future will bring, eh?
Let’s hold a referendum then Mark, and include the Englanders in it. The Duppers won’t know what hit them.
Now …in light of what I’ve just said to Mark ,that is one hell of an idea Gearoid.
Mr Robinson didn’t do his Journalistic research then, Naughty Naughty NIck…
english people are more interested in getting rid of immigrants as shown in the vote than a few quid going missing here.its their main topic on all the social media sites.its little odds what they think anyway their brits.
Remember the fuss about the MP’s expenses? It kept the English gutter press in spasms for months. Now here is Arlene’s kingdom being torn asunder by RHI and the Brits don’t really care. That venerable publication, Private Eye, was never one to let a crisis be wasted but since Christmas nary a word. Most of the other publications either get it wrong or avoid it like you would a wasp’s nest. The by-elections in England got wall to wall coverage and do we get a mention? Do they know that £1 per second of their money is going up in smoke? It will be very interesting to see how SF ‘negotiate’ after Thursday. The pressure will be piled on them as hospitals close, QUANGOS cease to exist and Direct rule is threatened. No budgets, no Stormont etc. The entire colonial administration will come down on their heads because it was them caused this mess and this unnecessary election. The ideal scenario would be no administration in Stormont when it comes time to celebrate the birth of this temporary, deformed state. Remember and keep saying over and over “There is no such country as Northern Ireland”
I would have thought during an election the BBC would have to give (or at least offer) the same airtime to SF as to the DUP.
It would certainly be odd if they did not.
they give them an hour there.lol…cringe.
From 1969 onwards it became blatantly obvious that Britain’s solution to the festering sore that was her first ,and last , colony was to send in the troops and prop up the establishment….teach the native Irish a lesson. Inevitably this led to resistance and the IRA Almost from the beginning I maintained that the war was being fought in the wrong country….Britain only listens when Britain is affected ! They finally came to the negotiating table after the successful bombing campaign in their financial heartland…..Money , and the threat to it ,that’s the language they understand.I believe today that if the ordinary 5/8 Englishman ,especially in the poorer north , knew what it costs to keep this utterly failed and irredeemable cesspool afloat ….and if they knew about the scandals and the stench of corruption arising from their Unionist representatives here ,they would dump this place quicker than holy water from an Orange lodge….perhaps that’s an education the English need !