With the shit show that is the by-election in Dublin Bay South still gurgling away, casting the main parties – and some of the main candidates – in a less than flattering light, the reactionary press is getting a wee bit jittery at the prospect of Sinn Féin striking deep into what should be unassailable Establishment territory. How else to explain this McCarthyite analysis from John Lee, the politics editor with the Irish subsection of the British-led Daily Mail group?
Winston Churchill said of Sinn Féin’s ideological forebear, Communist Russia, that it was ‘a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma’.
Sinn Féin are so different from the traditional parties that they are an enigma that is difficult to decipher. There is, perhaps, a code, again to be found by studying Churchill.
Sinn Féin is a fanatical, revolutionary movement. So radically different are they from their rivals that they cannot be judged by their standards.
Sinn Féin believes of the Establishment as Adolf Hitler did of Russia before Operation Barbarossa: ‘We have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down.’
But as Barbarossa shows us, freedom and the urge to defend the homeland are powerful things. Don’t write off the Establishment yet. It still has one or two chess moves to play.
Even by Lee’s turgid standards this is risible stuff. But clearly indicative of a Leinster House clique that is feeling apprehensive about the vote on the 8th of July.
Meanwhile, as the Cedar Lounge Revolution notes in its regular weekend media review, we have this conspiratorial contribution from identikit right-wing newspaper columnist Larissa Nolan:
We’re living a far more restricted life now than we were this time last year, pre-vaccines. I wouldn’t be surprised if they decide to keep lockdown for good, even when the whole country is vaccinated.
For a democracy to thrive it must have a healthy and vigorous press; a news media that speaks truth to power. Not one that colludes with power to undermine a plurality of representation and opinion within the democracy or that promotes views that are toxic to the good functioning of that democracy.
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
A viable conspiracy might be if right-wing hysteria were actually promoting SF as a real left alternative, which it clearly is not. They would not even vote against major anti-democratic legislation that has been condemned by ICCL, Amnesty and the Human Rights Commission of the UN. Contrary to beliefs of their supporters and possibly even their leaders, those who crawl into government will not later be able to stand tall.
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There are so many things wrong with media, both in the UK and Ireland, it’s hard to know where to begin. The 24-hour news cycle has lead to barrel-scraping to fill the time; “opinion” dominates as its a proven bigger seller than straight news; on-line competition has driven down the standards and “reach” of conventional journalism; prominence given to the opinions of celebrity types and people famous for something other than what they are given a platform to pontificate upon; deeply unhealthy, symbiotic relationships between many journalists and politicians/governments; ultra powerful media moguls more influential and powerful than governments; and so on and so on.
It has always been the case that a media outlet was known to lean one way or another, and you factored this in when reading or listening to its reports. But whatever way it leaned, you could at least trust it not to downright lie. That is no longer the case.
It was always risible that people would somehow expect journalists to be apolitical. How is it even possible to be apolitical? What could and should be expected, however, and was always true of any good journalist, is that they do not allow their political opinions to interfere with their work. How many journos can you say that about nowadays?
Then finally we have the phenomenally-powerful poison of Facebook, Twitter and their ilk who operate at will, making multi-billionaires of their owners, while being used to undermine democracy, topple governments, and organise genocidal attacks.
I’m sure I’ve missed a few examples/reasons, but I’ve depressed myself enough with that lot
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OK. This is a rare occasion where I actually agree with Tamam. I also blame the 24-hour news cycle for a lot of what’s wrong with today’s world.
Some people -especially if insomniac or unemployeed-can go on the internet and literally spin their wheels for a large percentage of their working hours. People can run down all sorts of rabbit holes and almost become addicted to the internet in the process.
As for traditional journalism? Traditional journalism-especially the international variety- costs money. It’s much cheaper to spin out reams of inflammatory opinion pieces on the internet or fill up print and TV with fluffly local pieces than to pay for top of the line journalism in India, The West Bank, Moscow, and Beijing.
I don’t believe that the demand for good journalism has actually declined much. The real issue is how to find a good business model. And by business model, I”m not talking about huge profits so much as having the money to fund good journalism-especially if it’s done in several countries, TV and print infrastructure, and if necessary deal with a libel suit or other legal issues that can pop up.
As for lockdown polarization……sigh!!!……..I feel that a lot of important discussions have been lost over THAT polarization.
In my mind choices involving lockdown were an absolutely unwinnable moral dilemma from the very beginning and not the least because of the likely harms caused by lockdown such as children missing lots of school and some likely having their eductions derails or “trajectory changed” by it, domestic violence (EVERYTHING about lockdown was all a batterers grandest dreams come true in every way), and the fact that the economic consequences of lockdown did not just -or even mostly-fall on big business. Often it fell on working people, and small businesses at a time when things like free school meals and soup kitchens were largely closed down.
Even a modest long-term effect on public transportation might be very serious from a standpoint of dealing with climate change. I’m also a firm believer that the long term social ramifications of telling people constantly to avoid anyone not in their immediate household. I don’t believe you can have a long term viable Democracy in a society where people largely stick to their own family groups and a small circle of friends. In fact, that creates many of the same problems as the 24 hour news cycle: especially if people rely mostly on the internet for a view into the world outside their families and small group of friends. I don’t believe homeschooling or online schooling is in the best interests of the large majority of students from any age group. I worry about the impact it could have that not only did so many kids in countries around the world miss school (or even get taken out of it entirely), but also that so many have at least one year-pushing two of homeschooling or online schooling and many parents may decide to continue that method for some years-possible until their child graduates into university or work. I’m not sure that’s the best way to educate a generation to deal with the problems of today’s world.
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As for lockdown vs masks and vaccines. I don’t put vaccines or even masks in the same category as lockdown. My position now and when we didn’t know when we’d get a vaccine and how good it would be, was always that society should look for better ways to control the virus than lockdown (and there were/are a variety of scientists who had some interesting ideas on how they thought the virus could be contained and controlled even if vaccines weren’t that effective or even never came). Now there are good vaccines and likely more to come, I still think it’s reasonable to consider some of them such as localized quarantines based on sewage testing, testing to get on an airplane or certain intercity trains or buses, virus detection robots, prophylactic nasal sprays, radically improved ventilation standards, and more….both for Covid-19 and the next pandemic.
I’m not an ant-vaxxer at all. In fact, I’ve despised anti-vaxxers since I new they existed, and would even favor vaccine mandates under some circumstances. I do want to be clear on that. The idea that lockdown was a genuine moral and political dilemma as it involved a good deal of concrete harm as well as real risks to not just personal freedom, but society’s ability to respond to other problems the world is facing.
That’s not the same as saying Covid-19 lockdowns were a conspiracy, and from the standpoint I describe vaccines are if anything a potential “escape” from this no-win situation between lockdown and letting the virus run wild.
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Would I want to sit on the jury of some murdering drug dealer/gangster etc ? NO….most EU countries do not use juries by the way
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I suspected some time ago that Ireland would be confronted with difficult choices re: EU fiscal integration and political integration. It seems to be coming to pass faster than I imagined: see article in POLITICO by Eoin Drea, senior research officer of the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies.
“After Brexit, Ireland can’t have it both ways.”
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The Special Criminal Court wasn’t brought in because juries were being threatened or intimidated during political trials. Trials of IRA activists. The primary issue was that juries were returning the “wrong” verdicts in the eyes of the Government and authorities. Embarrassing the Government and outraging the press with not guilty verdicts. Look at some of the newspaper commentary of the time and the attacks on juries that were sympathetic to some of those on trial for political or subversive offences.
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Whatever the history of the Special Criminal Court and the reasoning behind its original purpose (all subjective, of course) surely ASF the question has to be whether it has a legitimate role to play today. Are jurors serving at the trails of gangsters/drug dealers and the like at risk of intimidation or worse? If so, what to do about that?
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But are they? That is the question. And so far there has been relatively little evidence of jurors being intimidated in non-SCC trials. Including high profile ones involving organised gangs. So is it a solution in search of a problem
I’d like to see the evidence, the proof, why a veritable Star Chamber is required. The problem with curtailing normal legal processes is that they can take on an institutional life of their own and people forget that they once didn’t exist.
Lockdowns are a temporary solution to a temporary problem. In time they will have to go.
The SCC was also a temporary solution to a temporary problem. The problem is gone. But the solution remains.
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I”m not au fait with such trials in the South, but it would be remarkable if, given the opportunity, Irish criminal gangs wouldn’t be as interested in interfering with jurors as their counterparts in other parts of the world. And, of course, with the SCC in existence one can only speculate on what the situation would be without such a court.
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The gangs could of course carry out jury intimidation. But legislation exists to cover this. And if that legislation is inadequate then tougher legislation can be brought in. And if that is inadequate then let’s revert to an SCC arrangement, one that is properly regulated and accountable rather than through legislation that was always intended to cover a temporary situation.
But I would ask. What are the levels of witness intimidation in the Irish courts? We do have evidence of that. But the evidence points to a relatively low occurrence. And it is dealt with quite vigorously. And rightly so.
Which begs the question. If we can have can cope with and counter witness intimidation through ordinary means why not jury intimidation?
Finally, I would just add, having a Garda stand in a witness box and testify that I believe Accused X is a member of a proscribed organization and having that simply accepted as a fact, as evidence of guilt, is troubling. Especially when it directly leads to custodial sentences. It’s no way to run a courts system.
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I agree with you entirely on your last point. As I say, I’m not familiar with the court system in the South, never mind the legislation, so I can’t pursue that with you.
I was initially struck by Joe stating “Would I want to sit on the jury of some murdering drug dealer/gangster etc ? NO…” And I thought to myself, “Well neither would I, to be honest”. And I most certainly wouldn’t want a loved one of mine to be in that situation.
The only way to deal with the danger of juror intimidation in organised crime cases, as I see it, is through special courts. With all the necessary protective legal measures in place for the accused, of course. In fact, exactly the same as a conventional court, but with a panel of judges instead of a jury. Witnesses in such cases are already well looked after and protected, I would imagine, or there would be a complete dearth of them.
(There is still the small matter of what constitutes “organised crime” but I’ll pass on that. 😀)
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Actually that is a very common problem. Sometimes temporary solutions DO get extended longer than planned.
As for lockdowns…actually from the beginning of the pandemic there were people who advocate if not exactly lockdowns a society remodeled for intensive social distancing as a more or less permanent norm. A shocking number of them seemed not only to predict that outcome, but actually root for it.
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“Sometimes temporary solutions DO get extended longer than planned.”
One such temporary solution is celebrating its centenary this year.
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This is wonderful, as always, from Marina Hyde:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/29/lord-chancellor-park-yobs-mates-robert-buckland-chris-whitty
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Yes Boris is a proven liar. The media have even got him on tape. But they never broadcast it are the BBC really that terrified of the government? We can only imagine the kind of whoppers he will tell just to keep the show on the road. The DUP are well and truly shafted. Boris has to keep the Yanks and the EU happy so the protocol stays and the DUP will just have to suck it up.
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Some very interesting findings in this latest poll by Lucid Talk for QUB:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/northern-ireland-protocol-poll-b1875160.html
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Such as this: “The findings showed that the DUP is distrusted by eight out of 10 voters, while Sinn Fein, is distrusted by six out of 10 respondents. Alliance, the SDLP and the UUP are distrusted by around four in 10 respondents.”
This: “Only a minority (38%) said that they would like to see such checks and controls moved from ports and airports in Northern Ireland to the Irish land border.”
This: “… and 56% agree that the Protocol provides Northern Ireland with a unique set of post-Brexit economic opportunities.”
And this: “A majority of respondents (57%) say that they would like to see the UK agreeing to regulatory alignment with the EU to address this.”
Imagine what the figures would be if local media (no point in expecting anything from national media) were to occassionally point up the benefits to NI from the Protocol.
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And the local politician they distrust most on the NIP is Jeffrey Donaldson. Most people in the North seem ready to give the Northern Ireland Protocol a fair crack of the whip. All the DUP scare stories have fallen on deaf ears. I think Jeffrey should go back to the drawing board if he really is the pragmatic moderate politician his cheerleaders in the local media claim he is.
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But knowing the way the DUP functions they will probably double down on their opposition to the NIP. They just won’t be happy until literally nobody in the North trusts them over the Northern Ireland Protocol. We are now at the start of the Orange marching season expect DUP politicians to be booed at the field. When are they going to admit they backed the wrong horse?
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Unionists lose Belfast court case on Northern Ireland Protocol.
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Yep, between one thing and another, not a good day at all for the anti-Protocol Brexiteers.
First a poll in the morning showing that months of mini-protests, destruction, threats of violence, and the media fog-horning anti-protocol propaganda night and day hasn’t changed a single mind in Northern Ireland. Then this court ruling in the early afternoon, where m’lud in his finest legalise more or less declared, “ffs, wud yis catch yerselves on”. And still to come later today, an agreement on the protocol between the EU and UK which will be sold as a game-changer by them but will be to the anti-Protocolists as the equivalent of applying lipstick to a pig.
Arise Sir Jeffrey (newly crowned the-most-distrusted-politician-in-Northern-Ireland) your party awaits you.
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So a judge rules that parliament is sovereign, who would have thought it. Clearly not the eejits who took this case.
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This is as close as a judge gets to saying, “It’s not as if parliament [which includes your MPs] wasn’t fully aware of what it was signing up for.”
Mr Justice Colton went on: “This matter must also be considered in light of the fact that every provision and clause of the Withdrawal Acts, the protocol and associated documents were fully considered by Parliament. Parliament did so in the context of the three previous rejections of the Withdrawal Agreement which had a different arrangement for Northern Ireland.
“The views supported by the applicants in this case that the protocol was contrary to the constitutional arrangements for Northern Ireland were known to the legislature.
“The Acts were passed by a legislature which was fully sighted of the terms and consequences of the Withdrawal Act.
“The Acts have been approved and implemented pursuant to the express will of Parliament and any tension with Article VI of the Act of Union should be resolved in favour of the Agreement Acts of 2018 and 2020.”
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Ian Paisley begging Boris to scrap the protocol what a sad case that man really is. Saying Boris should use his majority in Parliament to bin the Protocol. Forgetting Boris won that majority on a Get Brexit Done platform. Great Britain got its Brexit the North got special treatment ie the Protocol. Lap it up boys it look like the Northern Ireland Protocol is here to stay.
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Yeah, that was obviously for the optics. He’s badly out of favour within the DUP at the minute, and that’s just the sort of simplistic nonsense that will play well with the North Antrim backwoodsmen.
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This constantly repeated line from Frost accusing the EU of being “too legally purist” is risible. Imagine a defendant trying to use it as a defence, “M’lud, don’t you think you’re maybe being a bit legally purist.”
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Frost seems to be one of these Government officials promoted well beyond his ability. He is well out of his depth when involved in international negotiations with the EU. Remember when the UK said it was going to get the best International negotiators for this well if Frost is the best I would hate to see the worst.
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He was Foreign Office mediocrity and an avid Remainer, until he spotted an opportunity and suddenly became a rabid Brexiteer. He has, deliberately in my view, been promoted light years beyond his abilities as yet another fall-guy in the making. Just like Hancock, Williamson and so many of the other nonentities that Johnson has surrounded himself with.
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The NI Protocol problem could be solved with the stroke of a pen if the UK would agree to regulatory alignment with the EU on foodstuffs, medicines, animal welfare etc. They refuse to do so on the pretext of principle (sovereignty, “taking back control” and all that shit).
Principle my arse. It’s to leave the way clear for doing deals with the likes of the US, Australia etc where animal welfare hardly exists and cattle, sheep, chickens and so on are pumped full of all sorts of cancer-causing growth accelerants.
A similar sort of cynicism is at play with the NHS, which is kept hopelessly under-resourced, under-funded, and its staff under-paid and constantly overworked. Now the government is talking about getting rid of the “foreign workers” in the NHS.
The plan is to cripple the NHS to the extent that as many people as possible are forced into taking up private healthcare. Eventually, on the back of Tory claims that the NHS is no longer fit for purpose (a situation they themselves will have brought about) they’ll introduce some sort of hybrid system close to that in the US. The NHS will be reduced to a shadow of itself, and something only the poorest fall back upon because they can’t afford any better. In the interim, conveniently for the Tories, local hospitals, health trusts and the NHS will continue to take all the flak for the massive waiting lists.
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To be fair a hybrid health system has worked out pretty well for France and Australia. Sure those systems aren’t perfect, but nothing is. Japan and Germany have done rather well with systems where most of the healthcare is funded by independent but non-profit statutory insurance system. Indeed in a lot of hybrid systems the public system is not always strictly a fallback. Oftentimes the public system will end up taking most of the responsbility for things like acute trauma, ambulance, vaccine campaigns, screenings, etc, while nearly all family doctors are covered mandatory/statutory insurance. Also in many system that have mandatory/statutory insurance the system for the poor may actually be a system that covers copayments. Those on the state means-tested system may be getting the same insurance as people who may be fairly well off either via an employer or via a public sliding scale system not-too-disimilar from Germany’s, while the state system essentially helps them with copayments and things the better- off on the same insurance plans would be expected to simply buy out of pocket.
I certainly get that for many Britons the ideal that nothing should ever come with fees as point of service is a heartfelt one. However, my guess is that even if the Tories do manage to destroy the NHS, the English would probably create something better than what you describe. The might go for more of an Australian or Canadian model
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We fall into the trap (Britons included) of describing the NHS as “free”. It isn’t free at all, every worker in the UK pays a contribution from their salaries towards the NHS. I easily get that there are workable health systems of different types in other parts of the world. But none comes close to the service a properly funded and resourced NHS provides for everyone, including the poor and those in need. I believe that the UK public would happily contribute more to the NHS, if they could be certain that the extra money would indeed go to the NHS. But of course they can’t be, especially with this government which has been wasting fortunes on handing health-related contracts to friends and relatives.
The Tories are intent, in my view, on selling off parts of the NHS. They’re intent on introducing a system to the benefit of the highest bidders from amongst big pharma, big insurance, and multiple other types of health-related multi-national corporations. None of whom, much like the Tories themselves, have any history of giving a shit about the poor and in need. Quite the opposite, in fact. As ever with the Tories, the end game is enriching themselves, their friends and donors, and the already obscenely wealthy.
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In fact, you may have unintentionally alluded to a big advantage of a statutory insurance and/or hybrid system. It may be much harder to defund 100 statutory insurance plans-all of which get money from numerous sources- than an entity like the NHS. The same to a lesser extent may be true of a hybrid that includes public funding from both centralized/federal and state/province/devolved funding.
The reality is that a number of statutory or hybrid systems are at minimum very competitive with the NHS. Some are ranked better. I’m sure that the NHS like anything would do better with more money. I’ve known enough British people, to easily believe that they’d happily pay more for the NHS. However, some statutory systems have done a great job at including people who are poor. It’s been done.
I rather like the idea of statutory insurance in part because I believe it benefits the private non-profit sector. While I’d be happy to see for-profit have a marginal role in the system, I don’t want to see private non-profit radically diminished. So far every tenable option I’ve ever heard of that not only allows a vibrant private non-profit sector that is available to those below a certain income (except via charity care), involves some form of statutory insurance.
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A DUP MLA has resigned from the party. Stormont Assembly member Alex Easton cited a lack of “respect, discipline or decency” within the DUP as the reasons for his departure. He must be a bit slow on the uptake, after being in the party for 21 years and he’s only noticing this now.
Easton’s resignation leaves the DUP and Sinn Fein each on the same number of seats, 27.
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Has Arlene Foster also left the party? If so, the DUP now has 26 seats to Sinn Féin’s 27.
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Jeffreys speech this morning lashed out at Dublin even brought up Articles 2 and 3. I think the little corporal ought to have a good look in the mirror before accusing others of acting in bad faith. He did accept the money at the time of the referendum that paid for the advert in the Metro newspaper.
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And the little Corporal never got round to naming any of the films he watched and then claimed on parliamentary expenses. Before being forced to pay the money back of course
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DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson: “…our goal is to remove the Irish Sea border… This is the route to restoring the constitutional balance that was achieved by the Belfast and St Andrews Agreements and it is the only path to stable and sustainable government in N. Ireland.”
Ha, ha, ha, this from the guy who walked out of negotiations rather than accept the GFA. Now he says he wants to see it “restored”. Well Jeffrey, you led the charge on supporting the hardest possible Brexit and keeping the Tories in power to achieve it. Hoping by doing that you would destroy the GFA. You failed. Time to reap what you sowed.
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The DUP think they can use the GFA to bring the protocol down. It’s not going to happen. I hope that those in the Loyalist Community wise up to the DUP. The only thing supporting the DUP will do is put a new generation of Protestants in prison or an early grave. They should think of the economic benefits that the Protocol will bring to their areas. The DUP are only interested in working class Protestants when it comes to election time. Jeffrey is just as much an extremist as any other DUP leader he uses warm words but that is all they are. The party seems to be falling apart with probably more resignations on the way. In the room at Jeffreys speech Gavin Robinson was up at the front but Ian Junior was skulking down the back. I think the worst is yet to come for the DUP.
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They tried to use Brexit to bring down the GFA, and are now trying to use the GFA to bring down the Protocol that resulted in them trying to use Brexit to bring down the GFA.
And the chief GFA opponents are now posing as the chief GFA defenders.
Political unionism just looks like a whole bag of crazy these days.
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Brilliant. 😂
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Some heartening news to wake up to. Despite the efforts of the wholly despicable George Galloway to thwart her, Labour’s Kim Leadbeater has narrowly won the Batley and Spen by-election by 323 votes. Kim Leadbetter is the sister of the Labour MP Jo Cox, who was murdered in Batley and Spen by a far-right extremist in 2016.
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Unionist politicians new buzz word seem to be stability this of course is a threat. It should be treated as such as well. They don’t want the North to work and threaten to wreck the place if they don’t get their way on the Protocol.
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Those who talk loudest about a threat to stability usually ARE the threat.
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I see Gove and his wife have announced they are getting a divorce. You have got to admire the cheek of her for asking for privacy at this difficult time.
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Yeah, as heavily trailed by her in a column last week.
Not sure which is more laughable, her plea for privacy or this bit “there is no one else involved”.
Whatever, try to contain your excitement boys and girls throughout the land, The Govemeister is back in the game,
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The Government should cut off all funding to Loyalist Community Groups if their is any loyalist violence or lawbreaking this summer. The UDA and UVF should have gone out of business over 20 years ago. Less of the carrot more of the stick is what is needed. Let them go find real work and stop the drug dealing prostitution and money lending which funds their lavish lifestyles.
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I see Stephen Nolan has been awarded a second large payout in a week for shit posted about him by anonymous accounts on Twitter. At least £100,000 in the first case and between £10,000 and £99,000 in the second, plus legal expenses in both cases.
No problem at all with the principle here. Free speech does not, and never should, include the freedom to abuse and make spurious claims about someone online. Although I can’t help comparing the size of the settlements with those for work-related injuries etc.
Also, I never stop being amazed at how many people think a pseudonym allows them TOTAL protection to say whatever they like online. Talk about a false sense of security. It certainly hides their identity from the ordinary punter, but gives absolutely no protection against an IT expert.
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Not sure what a security team has to do with anything, to be honest. And while you might well be right about rich and famous people flying into Belfast to use our courts, I’m not aware of any.
The lesson is, don’t post anything libellous or defamatory unless you can stand over it. Just because someone is in the public eye doesn’t mean they’re fair game for every rumourmonger, troll, and hate-filled nut-job on the internet. As for ordinary people not having access to legal representation. Not sure about that. Start posting something libellous or defamatory about one of your neighbours and you’ll soon find out. I suspect lawyers would eagerly take on any clear cut case, regardless of the personal finances of the complainant. After all, they know the transgressor(s) will have to pay them.
I should add, I personally don’t have any time at all for Stephen Nolan’s style of broadcasting. I wouldn’t listen to or watch one of his shows if you paid me.
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As always, Orwell nailed it: “The right is always looking for people to recruit while the left searches for traitors to expel.”
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There’s “shooting yourself in the foot” then there’s taking a machine gun to every part of your body. These latest stats on the cost to the UK of Brexit up to the end of 2020 suggest the second analogy is the more accurate. (Statistics are from Forbes statista, based on Bloomberg analysis of lost economic growth to the UK up to the end of 2020).
Total UK contributions to the EU budget (1973 – 2020): £215bn
Cost to the UK of Brexit by the end of 2020: £203bn
In other words, Brexit costs to the UK so far nearly match the TOTAL of its ALL-TIME contributions to the EU.
Meanwhile, while extolling and selling the virtues and benefits of Brexit to the UK populace, James Dyson was moving his fortune and himself to Singapore and Rees-Mogg was setting up two investment companies in Dublin (according to Channel 4, it is estimated that Rees-Mogg has made at least £7 million already from one of those companies. Figures for the other company are not available).
On the media front, a fortnight or so after its launch, Andrew Neill has taken leave of absence from the right-wing GB News television station that he fronts and helped set-up. No doubt he’s resting at his home in the South of France where he and his wife are now domiciled.
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Businesses will adapt or die it’s that simple. They will find new sources in Europe or elsewhere. No room for national pride in commerce. I thought the idea was for Brexit to open up new markets make new relationships and rebuild old ones. That is already happening it’s a pity Unionist politicians are that blinkered to the economic process that their blind support for Brexit has just kickstarted.
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My point was that some of the loudest advocates of Brexit were/are moving their business interests out of the UK, which hardly indicates faith in the prosperous future for the UK that they were publicly predicting.
It’s a bit like these “I love Ireland” ex-Pats who neglect to put “just not enough to live there” at the end of their declaration.
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I see according to the Sunday papers that the guy who paid out 100k to Stephen Nolan is a Stormont advisor who votes for the Alliance Party.
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Wow, I (like everyone else in NI) was wondering who it might be, and who could afford such a payout. But I’d never have guessed this. So, is he an ADVISOR to the Alliance Party at Stormont?
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On economics and finance. I bet you everyone up on the hill knows who it is. I mean how many advisors can one party have?
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He’ll need those skills to work out how to pay the £100+ grand. Yeah, it’ll be common knowledge on the hill.
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It might not be a he. I’ve had a look around the internet and can only find a woman who fits the Bill. A SPAD in the top tier could afford it.
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We need to be careful with this, particularly when so few people appear to fit the bill.
Newspaper reports talk of s/he being a Alliance “voter” rather than a Alliance “adviser”. Which is a strange way of putting it. Now this could just be a careful use of language by the media to avoid being accused of more or less identifying the person, or a way of saying “despite the speculation, this person is not connected to Sinn Fein (or unionists either, for that matter)”. Still, the person could well be a (now former, one suspects) government employee rather than a Spad, whose voting preferences emerged during questioning.
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The BBC NI News and Belfast Live websites refer to the troll as a person. So they are not even saying what sex the person is.Yet the Sunday Life use the term he to refer to the troll so are saying it’s a man.
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According to the Belfast Telegraph he or she lives in County Down and he or she is in the 40’s age bracket.
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If they are an Alliance voter it’s more likely that they live in North Down rather than South Down or Strangford.
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Hi all, comments are closed on this post since we have to be mindful of those eager-beaver lawyers!
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