In which I join the Alliance Party

Don't panic I'm also still a Liberal Democrat.

That is a little constitutional anomaly with the Liberal Democrats not contesting elections here in this part of the UK. It means that members of our party here can join a local party that is in line with Liberal Democrat thinking.

There are already a number of members of the local Liberal Democrats who are also members of the Alliance Party.

I have never been a member of the Alliance Party, I only joined a political party when I went to University in Kingston, the first time I came back I wasn't aware that the Lib Dems existed locally, but also didn't want to get involved in local party politics at that time (late 90s) then I was working in the Civil Service. When I returned this time at the start for the sake of my job local party neutrality was a key factor while I worked for the Yes to Fairer Votes campaign. Then after that I felt that I could continue with my neutrality to work with whatever party was leading the way on liberal values. And yes that party wasn't always necessarily the Alliance Party.

However, in light of the events of this week. When there have been direct attacks on democracy following a vote in one council chamber which has erupted into violence, arson and other criminality I decided the time has come to stand and be counted. So I have joined the number of dual memberships.

Flag protest now leads to arson and terrorism

This is the scene tonight in Carrickfergus at the Constituency Office of Stewart Dickson MLA. He is the Alliance representative for East Antrim.

Stewart does not represent any part of Belfast, yet the protest against the decision made by the Alliance party to come with a middle ground between no flags and the status quo has not led to criminal damage being caused. There is probably outstanding case work that has been destroyed in the fire and Stewart will certainly be inconvenienced in working for this constituents while this mess is getting sorted out.

As Stewart has said:

"This is an outright attack on Democracy and cannot be allowed to continue."

The problem is that the DUP and UUP have been stirring up tension over the issue of the Union Flag at Belfast City Hall for a month. They dropped a leaflet into the protestant areas of East Belfast.

There are suggestions that they are using this issue to stir up support to regain the Westminster seat they lost to Naomi Long. But this protest has now reached criminal levels. There are calls nightly to met outside Alliance Constituency offices. Where are the calls from the DUP leaders or the UUP leadership for these attacks, because that is what they now are. This is no longer the threat against a Belfast Councillor but are not actual attacks.

Update No sooner had I blogged this that the DUP issued this. Although I think at the moment they should call on people not to protest outside Alliance Offices at all as there is too much tension.

UTV have published this picture of the inside of the office

Further update My own Alliance Party Councillor, Michael Bower, and his wife Christine also a Councillor have now been attacked at home, where they live with their infant daughter. This indiscriminate targeting of any Alliance representative has gone to new levels this evening, this is terrorism and intimidation. And yes attacking peoples homes in the dead of night is a form of terrorism.

Michael has now said:

"My daughter who is 17 months old had just gone to bed when I heard an explosion against the window.

"I guessed it was some sort of attack on our family home. I checked that my wife and daughter were okay. The paint bomb hit the corner of the room where my daughter usually plays.

"There is damage to the window, but it could so easily have been so much worse. If events had been different, a young life could have been lost. I would plead with people to calm down and to stop attacking representatives doing their best to support their communities."

Even further update Police have reported that petrol or another accelerant were poured on the front of the Alliance Party offices in Bangor. A passing patrol disrupted their attempts at arson and no damage was done.

Why designated days actually make the Flag special

The designated days that the Alliance Party amendment ensured that the Union Flag will still fly over Belfast City Hall are key days to our Monarch.

It is rather ironic that a number of people have said that they didn't notice there was a Union Flag flying over City Hall on Twitter today. I used to work in a Government Office and the Union Flag was only flown on designated days. It always stood out as a special day when I could see the flag on the pole outside my window, it made me wonder what (and more often who) we were celebrating that day.

Indeed here is the recommendation and clarification from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport on when the Union Flag is to be flown. It is being misreported on the news that this will next happen on January 20th for the Countess of Wessex's birthday when it will actually be the 9th for the Duchess of Cambridge. There are now 18 of these Days that apply in Northern Ireland (again people are forgetting the addition of the Duchess of Cambridge last year). These days as you can see actually all honour either our monarch and her family, our fallen forces or each nation's individual identity.

Also the flag should only be flown from 8am until sunset (unless the flag is floodlit). This is why the military have their bugle calls for the raising and lowering of the flag at their barracks. They serve under the flag, hence its raising all 365 days and lowering at the end of the day. This is respect of the flag for them, they do not keep it up all day and night and let it get frayed, indeed they will repair it overnight if that is required.

So actually designated days helps keep the flag special, it honours the monarch and her family more so that flying it every day, all day throughout the year. It is a pity that there aren't more vexillologists around here in Belfast who understand that.

Christmas countdown day 3

So this year having seen the number of performing Christmas (and other seasons) light displays I'm bringing you all a different one each day.

So if you put down the games on your mobile phones long enough to look up here is today's offereing

Christmas countdown 2012 Day 2

This year I've noticed a lot of YouTube showing houses with their 'performing' Christmas (or other seasons) light displays.

So here we have a little offering from Halloween but replace the pumpkin with a Santa and you get a great Christmas display.

Went to the chapel and got asked about marriage

As some of you who follow my Twitter or are friends on Facebook (or read the last post) will know I have been away to a family wedding. Yesterday saw the culmination of my cousin Rachel marrying someone I had befriended on Twitter at least, and maybe on Facebook, before they were going out, Paul Burgin.

With England, Wales and Scotland it was delightful to be a single cousin of the bride and being asked if I had plans to be married from friends of both the bride and groom. Yes, in the word's of the favourite performer of the bride's father "For the times they are a changin'".

Well as the wedding was in England and all of the political activists (yes it was one of those sorts of weddings) knew about the forthcoming changes in legislation it was assumed that all would be fair an equal in a few years time. You see at the time of my father's funeral, Rachel, three of my second-cousins and myself who were all single made a promise to create some happier familial get togethers. We knew what we meant and the other four knew that at that point I could only dream of it being marriage for me.

My cousin and her new husband Paul Burgin

The marriage of Rachel yesterday makes it three such events in the last three years, there is a fourth scheduled for next summer, so obviously there is no pressure on me the pressure is on me to keep up the run for 2014.

Now of course there may well prove to be one hurdle.

While I may be able in 2014, or even 2015 be able to marry the man of my dreams in England, Wales or Scotland I may not be able to do so here in Northern Ireland. Of course I have family here, am very proud to be from here. But on this matter the unionists don't agree with the United Kingdom.....yet.

There is a petition from Equal Marriage in Northern Ireland calling on the Minster of Finance and Personnel, for it falls under his remit, which says:

"I stand with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender men and women of Northern Ireland, their family and their friends, and call on the Minister for Finance and Personnel to bring forward legislation which will end the discriminatory ban on loving and committed same-sex couples getting married. I believe that different religious denominations must have the right to determine which marriages they solemnise, that no religious celebrant should be compelled to conduct same-sex marriages and that the government must allow those faith groups who wish to conduct same-sex marriages to do so."

The petition was only started yesterday but has just passed the 100 person mark. Please sign and share and help give LGBT people anywhere in the UK the same equal marriage rights and not be subject to a postcode lottery.

Has Cameron sounded death knell for Coalition? #Leveson

I’m sorry I have no posted for a couple of days but I have been rather busy preparing  for the marriage of fellow bloggers Paul Burgin and my cousin Rachel Stalker. 

Therefore I will be probably be a little late in making this statement but I will make it anyway.

Back in July 2011 David Cameron said:

"The public want us to work together to sort this problem out, because until we do so it will not be possible to get back to the issues they care about even more"

Failure to take on the key part of the report from the Inquiry he was calling for on that day is a sham.

He went on later when being question on that day he recalled Parliament to say:

"...the last Government and the last Opposition too often put on the back burner the issue of how to regulate the media. That is the mistake that we made. We have both—all—got to be honest about it. And by the way, this is not just about the relationship with News International; it is also about the work we do trying to win over the BBC or The Independent or The Guardian. Let us be frank about this, and let us be transparent about the meetings that we have. Then we can learn the lessons and use this as a cathartic moment to sort out the relationship and put it on a better footing."

It appears in his comments about the Leveson report where he says that "writing elements of press regulation into the law of the land." would threaten freedom of speech that hold a problem. He welcomes Leveson's calls for an independent regulator of the press but does not want to regulate for it either. Therefore as Leveson and many of us know the Press Complaints Commission is a lame dog able to bite but not to punish those that have stretched the realms of what is right and decent to print in a free press.

 If David Cameron defies a vote in Parliament about giving statutory powers to an independent press watchdog or issues a lily livered bill that does not take into main thrust of Leveson's recommendation, then we reach an impasse.  I believe, should that happen, the Liberal Democrats should call for a vote of no confidence and vote for the motion. We cannot maintain an sense of integrity if our coalition partners ignore a report that they called for so urgently.

We have the word democrat in our party name for a reason and that should be adhered to. There have been any number of time that I have voted against a policy that our party has adopted but as the majority has accepted it I will defend such things. On the issues that Leveson has raised we have had debates, maybe not formally but as things have been going on, that a self-governing press has certainly failed. Added to this that the Press Complaints Commission has lacked the power to make any punitive judgement that would have any real implication.

From my brief post wedding reading of what Leveson is saying these are two key components. From what Dave ‘friend of the press barons’ Cameron is saying these are just the reasons that he is prepared to fly in the face of democracy.

Last time I checked, which I admit was Thursday lunchtime, the UK was still a democracy. Having at the end of last night had my principles tested as a sole Lib Dem in a hot bed of Labour activists and a few Tories, I know just what we as Liberal Democrats should do. When I showed the groom a treat that said that Harriet Harman had agreed with Nick’s statement that was enough to tell us that there was a consensus there as Harriet has been baying for Nick’s blood for weeks and months now. If the public wants it, Labour, Lib Dems and 70 Conservative back benchers want it, Cameron doing nothing or acting half-heartedly to bring forth legislation is a smite on the democratic principle. If he acts like this he is an affront to democracy and we as a party who support the democratic principle should have nothing to do with this despot