Remember the rage about the Belfast City Hall flag ‘tearing-down’? That was a good use of time and energy, wasn’t it? And now, since our politicians have only one brain each(well, most of them, Virginia) , aren’t there other areas today that might merit attention ahead of Daithígate feeding-frenzy? Here are four modest proposals. You’ve probably got your own.
- Farming. Given BREXIT, farmers in the north will need at least £260 million a year in support payments from the British Exchequer. Does Theresa May look or sound like a fan of subsidies? Especially for here, where she gets no votes? And then there’s the single market – will farmers here continue to have access to it? BREXIT doesn’t seem the best way of assuring that. And we haven’t even talked about £560 million of dairy, bakery, sheep and beef and other like products which northern farmers presently sell to the south each year. Is that going to continue as if nothing had happened?
- Transport. The road between Belfast and Derry has long been appalling. I travelled it weekly for a decade or more: in summer it’s twisting and tortuous, cars competing with trucks and buses; in winter you start down the hill from the Glenshane Pass to Toomebridge at your peril. The latest good news is that they’ll start making a dual carriageway from Randalstown to the Castledawson Roundabout. That’s nearly nine miles and it’ll cost £130 million. It may be six miles from Bangor to Donaghadee, but it’s over seventy from Belfast to Derry. Isn’t it time this life-taking legacy of the old unionist attitude to Derry was fixed, completely and for good?
- Education. Those young people getting their A Level results this week – many of them will study for their degrees at Queen’s University or Ulster University. While it’s nice to have them stay here rather than attend at universities in Britain, where they may then stay after graduation, is it good for young men and women to spend the crucial college years in the same inward-looking society they’ve always lived in? And then there’s jobs. What’s being done to eliminate the Macjobs that so many intelligent and qualified young people must take after graduation? If they’re lucky, that is.
- Health. Over-worked medical staff, people on trolleys, waiting lists to see consultants, overworked doctors…Need I go on?
I would describe all of the above areas as pressing, matters which are real and impact on the lives of real people and their families. Whether or not Daithí McKay tried to teach Jamie Bryson English before he faced a committee inquiry won’t affect a single farmer, a single student, a single road-user or a single hospital patient.
Bread-and-butter politics, you say? Forget it. Stormont doesn’t do bread-and-butter – Daithígate is so much more thrilling.
Anyone in SF stupid enough to trust the 30 minute hunger striker should quite correctly be tossed out.
All in all though, this is a storm in a teacup compared to the central allegations in the Nama scandal.
Let’s not forget the issue at centre of this, where it all began….Namagate.
Conveniently swept under the carpet.
“Nevermind that, look at this over here…”
pressing matters,couldnt be that pressing when everybodys off on a 2month paid holiday.
I listened with semi-intent yesterday to the immaturity of it all. And the comments on Twitter, especially from members of that Dervock band, were really quite sad that it made me wonder why the hell I bother living here. I have four members of my sisters maturing family who upped sticks and now live in London. They’ll never live here again they said. After this latest round of political negativity could you blame them? While Orange parades and protests continue to cost millions to police and threats from dissidents continue to be a drain on an already superficial economy, what took place yesterday looked exactly like what it was. An over inflated big pile of political point scoring bag of crap. I wish they’d close the place down and go with joint authority, that way unionists really would have something to complain about, for that was the biggest charade I’ve ever seen.
On the money, Ciarán, on the money…
Maybe on the money, but I think the old saw ‘Follow the money’ would be more appropriate. This is a distraction from NAMA!
Yes …it is draining and it’s not the first time I’ve wondered why I bothered returning here to this narrow-minded place . Two of my children decided to get out and I have to say I encouraged them every step of the way. Many friends made that decision to live away from this mad place years ago and I think that had it not been for family connections years ago it would be all a distant memory for me too. You have to ask yourself why so many Irish left here to live among the English rather than among their own countrymen, don’t you..
Jude just because you agree with Ciarans foolishness does not make his opinion correct it just confirms your own prejudices .
Robert – this is what I’d consider a pointless/verging on the abusive. Don’t call me or anyone else prejudiced or foolish without backing it with an argument. If you do, it’ll not go up.
“Jude just because you agree with Ciarans foolishness does not make his opinion correct it just confirms your own prejudices.”
Robert, you cant decide whether Ciaran’s opinions are right for him or not.
You may not agree with them as they don’t suit you, but you cannot say they are not correct for him.
Opinions are subjective and none are universally correct.
what give you the right to call me foolish boyo? is it the truth hurts or that you are too narrow-minded to see the truth. this place is merry-go-round. this is a blog, these are our opinions and you seem incapable of constructing any irrefutable evidence to the contrary of my opinion. but then you are of unionist sympathy and there is little room for movement in that.
Deflection alert from Jude isnt it strange that Jude wants to talk about Farming Transport etc when SF are in trouble but seldom makes mention of them on his blog when they arnt very strange indeed.
“Deflection alert from Jude isnt it strange that Jude wants to talk about Farming Transport etc when SF are in trouble but seldom makes mention of them on his blog when they arnt very strange indeed”
You obviously haven’t been paying attention to Jude’s articles Robert because he has spoke of focusing on bread and butter issues many times before, usually during times when Unionist politicians are crying about the Parades Commission or Flags. Most of the Shankill’s youth may be semi-literate and without a hope of getting a job that pays above the minimum wage but hey banging Lambeg drums to annoy “them’uns” is more important.
I don’t think it has to be, either/or.
But generally, yes, it might be helpful if every once in a while we could be distracted by something useful to the rest of us.
Sinn Fein deserve all they get for being so stupid as to involve themselves with Bryson. Robinson was on his way out anyway. A lot of straining at gnats and swallowing camels going on but in your blog its nothing but a deflection
Have we got our priorities right?
This ‘crisis’ would not have arisen only for the DUP involvement in NAMA, and the question of the £7m which had been earmarked for unionist politicians.
Daithi McKay may have overstepped the mark as committee chairman in dealing with Jamie Bryson before he gave his evidence. But that doesn’t mean that the evidence is any less credible.
It seems Thomas O’Hara has had his Sinn Fein membership suspended. What has he done to warrant this? He is not a member of the Stormont committee, nor has he done anything illegal!
Why are Sinn Fein in such a panic that they are throwing bodies overboard? Will Mairtin O’Muilleor be next?
Somehow I couldn’t imagine the DUP in similar circumstances, summarily dumping otherwise good members.
What evidence did Mr Bryson present Sherdy?
As far as I know he made pretty strong allegations, but produced nothing in the way of hard evidence.
Memory tells me he claimed to be presenting evidence (would allegations have been allowed at such an inquiry?).
I suppose we’ll have to await the outcome of the NAMA inquiries by the NCA and the SEC before we can adjudge his statement to have been allegations or evidence.
The Irish government has also held some sort of inquiry, the result of which has been on Michael Noonan’s desk for some days now, so either he’s on holiday or doesn’t like the report, choosing to bury it – again we’ll have to wait!
As far as I’m aware Sherdy he made his claims but has never presented any real evidence.
He got away with making these claims without evidence because he was protected by a type of parliamentary privilege that meant he couldn’t be held libel for his claims.
We now know that Mr McKay (the committee chairperson) helped to facilitate Jaime Bryson on how to most effectively make these allegations. This why he’s had to resign.
If Mr Byrson has any evidence then he should make it public. Until he does why should anyone take his allegations seriously?
Maybe Mr Bryson is thinking of self preservation and he’s saying nothing in public, as he would not have the advantage of parliamentary privilege.
You could be right there Sherdy. Perhaps he has got a good reason for holding the evidence back that I’m not aware of.
Until he produces such evidence however his remarks are pure speculation and have no value.
Jamie Bryson is a nobody, with no political outlook, without any political clout and seems to be granted the status of being important in this nowhere little part of Ireland. Let Mick Wallace show his hand, let him tell what he knows and forever side-line this little fleg-waver.
‘good members’ are you having a laugh ?
Have you information to the contrary?
Your using the straw man argument here Jude. What Daithi McKay did was wrong. If it was such a trivial matter then why have SF gone into damage control ? If Daithe McKay hadn’t acted in such a boneheaded manner then Stormont wouldn’t be “distracted’ from bread and butter issues. The Chair of a Stormont committee acts in a dubious manner and you think no big deal ?
‘in a dubious manner’ – yes, relatively speaking I think this is a pointless, procedural distraction. How SF react is a matter for SF.
Two utterances on today’s Morning Ireland, Esteemed Blogmeister, caught the ear.
Both were uttered by the same uber-professional anchorperson on RTE Radio’s bellwether of broadcasting and the tone of each utterance was in marked contrast, one with the other. Whereas one tone was wolfish , the other was lapdogmatic..
The latter was uttered at the conclusion of a gentle yet encouragingly searching interview with the Miss Marple of the Media who had first managed to climb all over the five- bar Daithigate. After the last drop of mushy information had been squeezed out of this particularly plump pumpkin-parable , the interviewer paused momentarily before lapsing into laudatory mode:
-You are to be commended for uncovering this MOST significant news story.
Eh?
It was nothing if not in keeping with the Olympic zeitgeist. It was akin to the interviewer donning the de rigeur ill-fitting blazer, tie, trousers and tan brogues of the designated sporting bureaucrat johnnie . Prior to looping the ribbon around the neck of the gold medal-winning gumshoe and bestowing a couple of chaste cheek to cheek kisses.
The versatile Cathal Mac Coille (mar is e a bhi ann !) then looked to his inner decathlete for the second utterance, the one with the wolfish tone. This came at the death of the programme. And came as a bolt from the Bluetooth. Apropos of nothing in particular, at least nothing in the previous few segments of the prog.
-We made every effort to contact Aonghus O Snodaigh, the TD for the Dublin South Central Constituency , in connection with the shooting of a Drimnagh man in Majorca. Despite all our efforts, we were unable to contact him.
Eh (2)?
Why he, Lord ? There are four TDs representing that particular constituency. Why were the other three TD’s not namechecked for a spot of knuckle rapping ? Including even the Blueshirted one by, erm, Bluetooth?
RTE’s ROLE MODEL
Panorama’s still the cat’s pajama
Of TV progs:Sinn Fein and Nama
(Whack, whack, whack
The Woodman is back)
RTE royalty ‘ll turn it into melodrama.
The Miss Marple in question seems to have “sources” that might require some scrutiny .
Agreed, Jude. And then I see, with amusement that Mervyn Storey has jumped on the already bulging bandwagon. I just can’t take this guy seriously with his , “Dinosaurs were roaming the earth with people 6000 years ago” line. And he’s a minister in Norneverland, like making laws etc… I’m off to my bee-loud glade with the whiskey.
Jude,
Scenario:- you are back in your old career as a teacher /lecturer. A complaint has been made about you by a student and you have been told the chair of governors is to chair the disciplinary meeting.
You discover that the chair of the governors has been helping the student in how to best convince the other panel members of your guilt when presenting their evidence.
Now I am sure you wouldn’t like that and would object because it is against every tenet of fairness and you wouldn’t be convinced by others saying that a complaint made by you shouldn’t be addressed because the school/ college had bigger priorities such as building maintenance, results or falling rolls. You don’t need to be a committee chair to know it is not the correct thing to do.
I consider myself a Republican and I don’t like when procedures were unfairly applied or abused to stymie justice against Republicans that is why it is even more important that Republicans are seen to act and behave fairly when in positions of power.
Daithí was caught in the full glare of the public headlights with trousers metaphorically down. I like him as a politician and he had the good grace to accept that what he did was wrong and resigned which was the honourable thing to do.
It undermines the Republican case to defend his actions in any way even to use whataboutary such as the Stephen Brimstone case.
Well-argued case and neat parallel, Pointis. Though mind you, prepping a witness would be exactly what I’d expect if the powers that be were putting me under the gun. The other thing is, I know any complaint about me by a student would bogus, whereas we don’t know that Mick Wallace and even the ineffable Jamie aren’t speaking the truth – they may not have produced evidence but that’s not to say it isn’t possible. I think in general people have a suspicion that some pretty big bad financial stuff has occurred but they don’t know what it is. So I find it a bit crazy that the political world is wobbling over committee procedure and appears to have given up on getting to the core of this whole NAMA thing. In sport they say that big money inevitably produces crookery. The same goes for politics, as has often been shown. As to whataboutery – it’s true that using it shifts attention from the topic in hand. But that doesn’t mean the shift is to something that doesn’t deserve scrutiny. (Thinks: jeez – I said I wasn’t going to get sucked into this commenting stuff again. Be QUIET , Pointis)
I agree with you Jude that something definitely smells fishy about the NAMA affair and this does somewhat distract from the case and may even undermine attempts to get to the truth but let’s look at some no no no’s!
Using Twitter to communicate with Jamie Bryson about confidential material……
Procedurally inappropriate!
Twitter is a cloud based system and is not secure!
If Sinn Fein’s communications aren’t bugged then Jamie Brysons certainly would be.
Daithí McKay and Jamie Bryson have plenty of enemies in powerful places and have friends who would hate the other.
If you were going to communicate with someone and you didn’t want the rest of the world knowing why not use a proxy account not one which uses a blokes name on it!
Can’t disagree with a word of that, Pointis – except maybe the bit “If Sinn Féin’s communications aren’t bugged”. That should read “If Sinn Feín’s communications aren’t bugged, Eileen Paisley used to be a pole dancer”…
Ha ha Jude, you have put some very strange images in my head which I am finding impossible to dispel. Guaranteed other readers are having the same issue!
Now there’s a thought, Jude to ruin a mans Friday taverna-peregrinations!!
I broadly agree Dr, it’s another weapon of mass distraction.
For reasons I won’t go into I’d rather not see the Glenshane road done up.
I think the original idea of Belfast – Antrim – Ballymena – Ballymoney – Coleraine – Limavady (I think) – Derry was a good idea.
They’re large centres of population all joined up in relatively easy terrain.
The problem is that common sense gives way to paranioa “THOSE ARE MAINLY PROTESTANT TOWNS!!!” would be the cry.
Yes, but they’re mainly ugly towns too and industrial, so a bit more concrete and tarmac wouldn’t do them any harm.
But wrecking the Glenshane pass with more traffic lanes? A crime in my opinion.
Derry a protestant town!!?? GASP!!
“Derry a protestant town!!?? GASP!!”
Derry is 80% Catholic City
I cant remember the exact figures for Belfast but I believe its roughly 60% Catholic, 40% Protestant.
Likes of Lisburn is 70% Protestant, 30% Catholic. Places like Strangford is almost exclusively Protestant or like Newry almost exclusively Catholic, according to my sources.
From looks of it Housing will remain separated along religious lines because both DUP/SF have no interest in solving the issue.
Right, delete as applicable…
It would be better if we kept the Culchies in Derry Strabane and Omagh without inflicting them on the civilized parts of east Northern Ireland.
Surely you mean the Taigs, Robert?
“And then there’s jobs. What’s being done to eliminate the Macjobs that so many intelligent and qualified young people must take after graduation? If they’re lucky, that is.”
There’s no doubt that we churn out highly qualified, educated young people but what’s the point when we cant keep them because there’s no jobs? My nephew got his A-Level results, he got 2 A stars and 1 A. He still doesn’t know what he wants to do for a living. He’s keen on the idea of either being a Journalist or going to Queens to study Aerospace Engineering. He also likes Law and I suggested he think about being a Barrister. I also suggested he think about doing a trade, specifically Plumbing, a trade that pays very well and is finding it difficult to gain talented apprentices because many young people are choosing easier subjects.
But already my nephew is thinking of heading to Canada to join his Uncle on his fathers side who moved to Canada just 3 years ago and is loving it. He’s been offered a room in his house, rent free and a job. My Brother In Laws brother is a skilled Electrical Engineer who left Ireland because he lost his job in Belfast because the company he worked for had to make cuts. He is now living very well out in Canada and isn’t planning on returning to Ireland, like tens of thousands of others since 2010. So Ireland lost another talented citizen to the benefit of Canada and my Nephew could be next.
Its the same old story in Ireland. Our biggest export is our most intelligent and talented young people. According to Professor Richard Lynn, who worked at the University of Ulster and wrote many well known books on IQ, he said Ireland’s average IQ is in the mid 90’s (England’s is 99, Germany’s 100 and Italy’s 102). He said it would be higher but for the constant “Brain Drain” from Ireland. In 2002’s BBC Nation wide Televised IQ Test “Test the Nation” hosted by Anne Robinson, Derry had the highest average IQ out of all the Cities in the UK, beating even London, with an average of 107.
So what is the Irish Government and Stormont doing to stop this constant emigration and brain drain? Nothing from what I can see. Unionist politicians are more worried about parades, flags and bitterness than anything else. The Irish Government are too busy taking orders from their EU Masters, whilst Ireland’s life blood drains from it.
What needs done is for this culture of emigration in Ireland to be eliminated first of all. Irish people have to stop running away from things at the first sign of economic trouble. There then needs to be a massive investment in jobs, in Irish entrepreneurs, in attracting business, etc. Partition also plays a massive role in our economic misfortunates on both sides of the border too. If we don’t resolve those issues than we will just remain a place where our most talented will flee from at the first opportunity.
Also Dr c, regarding jobs.
I advocated removing business rates altogether from hamlets and very small villages for boutique businesses and small rural pubs.
This would be of minimal cost to The Hill, create jobs and reinject some life into some of the small towns that are essentially just dormitories for bigger towns.
Also, have you noticed how few rural pubs remain these days? Once upon a time even the most secluded hermit could still tramp across the fields to a pub, not anymore.
Not exactly an industrial revolution but a cheap way to help us stagger along a bit easier.
So to make up for the shortfall you would you tax?
Depends on the size of the shortfall. However, in the four hamlets near my folks there is one shop and two pubs, 20 years ago there were 4 shops and 4 pubs (maybe more).
The smaller hamlets now have NO businesses.
Stormont’s shortfall won’t be great if it isn’t bringing in money from businesses that don’t exist.
And if there is a significant shortfall caused by rate relief of hamlets then that woukd indicate shockingly high rates which in turn would illustrate that the rates are too high in general.
And it’s not like the extra jobs created wouldn’t partly compensate.
It’s a vague plan but i believe it’s doable, it’s absurd that a business has to pay thousands just for the right to exist.
Also, if I could expand on the earlier answer (?) the thought occurred yesterday that in a 3 mile radius of my parents house the were once 9 pubs (not including the main town), there are now 2.
Assuming that each pub employed 3 people that is 27 people once employed whereas now there is 6.
That’s a difference of 21 people.
Lets say that 1/4 of them just retired, that’s 15 people unemployed (and yes, they may well find other work but that would be at the expense of other job seekers)
That’s 60 quid per week for 15 people i.e. 46 800 GBP per year.
I can’t see Stormont recouping nearly 50k per year in rates from just two rural pubs.
Now, obviously other factors affect pub closures e.g. the advent of the ‘super pub’, driving restrictions et al but some of these pubs were very nice picture post card material but have since been demolished.
That means their respective villages have lost a potential tourist source (in an era where NI is seeing more and more tourists), a part of their community and a part of their history.
Overall costs to the community are measured in more than just finance.
So, although it’ll need a lot of tinkering I believe that a significant rate reduction (if not total abolition) would be of benefit to the hamlets.