I’m still not open to guest blogs except in very rare cases from blood relatives (hello, Clever Cousin Daniel), but I thought that, on a stinker-pissing day like today, you could do worse than compare and contrast these two pieces. The first is from my old chum Nelson McCausland. The second is a response from […]
March, 2018
Saturday pics of the week
Pics 1-4 are by Perkin Warbeck Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4 GDANSK, but no DANZIG. Linguistic issues have been to the bloody fore in the Land of Ire of late, much to the bafflement of the waffliing monoglot media in the Free Southern Stateen, the only remaining […]
British diplomacy and the moaning minnies
You’ve probably heard the moaning minnies. They say we’re not making enough progress in the Brexit negotiations. Some even say we’re not making any progress. Can you believe it? Pish-tosh. There have been two major movements in UK-EU negotiations. One happened last December and the other happened last Friday. In December, the UK and the […]
The UDA: they haven’t gone away, you know, but we still can smile
I watched the Nolan Show on a TV recording last night. A number of comments from readers of this blogsite have been swearing and rending their garments about the number of anti-Language Act people who were given air-time during the show. We could pursue that one but right now I’d prefer to pursue an incidental issue […]
Exception
As constant readers know, I’ve stopped hosting guest blogs – you can guess why and you might even be right. But I’m making an exception in the case of my Clever Cousin Daniel, who knows every nook and cranny of northern players playing for the ROI. Check this out. Smart or what? Did Michael […]
And now, the bad news: revised electoral boundaries
Readers of this blogsite will remember that yesterday, if you happen to be a nationalist or republican, or even a politics-neutral business person who sees the economic damage that a continued border does, there was good news. The Catholic/nationalist population in our North-Eastern Nest (NEN) is younger and growing, the Protestant/unionist section older and dwindling. […]
The growing Catholic/nationalist population: is it the death-knell of unionism?
Few people today would dispute that, when the state of Northern Ireland was set up in 1921, the intention was that it would have a permanent Protestant/unionist majority. But the state didn’t rely simply on a contorted line on the map. Gerrymandering and discrimination were put in place, to keep nationalists politically neutered. Derry was […]
North Korea and the Irish border
It’s easy to get bogged down in the details of Brexit, isn’t it? Should Britain stay in the customs union, should she stay in the single market, what about the north of Ireland, should Britain model herself on Canada, maybe Norway? The different issues whirl around and around in one’s head until you get to […]
Owen Smith MP and Tom Brake MP and not telling anyone about border security
In today’s The Observer, there is an editorial on Theresa May’s hapless and hopeless speech on Friday. The Observer slams it for being hapless, hopeless and leading the people of Britain towards “an act of self-harm”. It gives one sentence to the Irish border: “Even this prime minister’s special talent for delusional politics cannot conceal […]
The killing of Aidan McAnespie: imperialism in action
Some unionist politicians and journalists fret that young people today are being led to see the years of the Troubles as inevitable, and the IRA as taking a stand against oppression. This, they say, is to distort the past and to legitimize ‘terrorism’. Maybe if they studied the case of Aidan McAnespie, who died just […]