They’re still at it. – trying to beat up (politically) Michelle O’Neill, because she said that there was no choice but violence for some republicans. Was she right? And how could she be, if there were people like John Hume and many SDLP people who chose to reject violence? Maybe it came down to personal experience – maybe if you’d been beaten off the street, or tormented in Castlereagh, or seen your friend shot dead at the end of your street, you might have felt that the war came to you rather than that you went to war.
There’s been a prediction by a data analyst name of Peter Donaghy who believes it’s perfectly possible that Sinn Féin could win another three seats at the next Westminster election – in Foyle, Upper Bann and East Derry. Mind you, Foyle is held right now by Colum Eastwood, and he holds it with a 15,000 majority. That’ll take some shifting.
Finally, Philip Schofield, who’s fallen from grace big-time. Were there other people in ITV who knew what was going on all the time but chose to be quiet on the subject? Is it similar to the BBC and Jimmy Savile – nobody knew what he was up to until the story broke. It takes a bit of believing, that.A final point: should Schofield be judged, not by his moral character, but as his ability as a TV host? After all, we don’t care two toots about the private life of the surgeon who’s operating on us, providing he – or she- does the job well and makes you healthy again.
OK – it’s play time. Bain sult as – Enjoy….
John Hume was the exception to the rule. I can not think of any other political leader in the north or free state or Britain who did not support political violence during the conflict.