Twelve 'lessons' from Northern Ireland politics in 2012

Here are twelve things I learnt about politics in Northern Ireland this year

1. UUP play follow the leader unfortunately as neither Lord Maginnis, David McNarry, John McCallister or Basil McCrea et al realised and showed at various times it wasn't their own leader but the leader of the DUP.

2. Petitions of Concern don't need to be about the groups involved the petition of concern was designed for the bilateral differences in Northern Irish society nationalist v unionist. But in October the DUP used one to effectively veto equal marriage. Surely a petition of concern should be for the group affected and the other side; in this case the LGBT MLAs, who number zero, against the rest.

3. It's not all about the economy at least not when the flag is only going to be flown on designated days. Many businesses have been crying out for weeks that the protests are affecting business. Yet there are mixed messages from unionist MLAs a suspension of protests, a revisit of the issue at Stormont, a right to peaceful protest, elected representatives joining the protests.

4. Catholic MLAs are more gay friendly while the LGBT community is a mix of unionist, nationalist and other you'd think that all the LGBT people voted nationalist or other. When it comes to matters of LGBT rights in Northern with only a few noticeable exceptions all questions raised and motions bought are from either Sinn Féin, SDLP, Alliance or the Greens. On the first vote on a home grown motion on LGBT issues only 3 Unionist MLAs voted in favour. Is homophobia the real new sectarianism?

5. The DUP is only Democratic when it goes their way with the vote on flags in Belfast City Council the Democratic Unionist Party said it was an afront and that the democratic vote had to be turned around as soon as possible.

6. When Edwin Poots says he has come to a decision he really hasn't this year, for a second time, the DUP's health minister said he had come to a decision on the blood ban here in Northern Ireland. But when I lodged a repeat freedom of information request I am told that yet again he had not made a final decision, but some of my points were answered. He's also taking legal action to prevent same-sex couples adopting.

7. Sometimes the nationalists are more pro-Union than the unionists yeah on certain issues like the blood ban, equal marriage and maybe even a women's right to choose the nationalists are more likely to argue for the same policy as the rest of the UK, while the unionists argue for an all-Ireland approach!

8. I'm not sure what the D in DUP stands for it appears to not stand for Democratic as I said above. But it also seems to not stand for dialogue or debate. You can ask members of other parties things and criticise them and they will answer and not block or unfriend you. The DUP seem to not even be prepared to answer or acknowledge that people have written to them about this from the other side of the argument. One who I'm sort of related to by marriage even blanked me in the restaurant at Stormont over an issue.

9. Apparently standing up for equality is dancing to a republican tune yes seriously issues such as equal marriage are for self-interest and promotion of Sinn Féin and not about genuine equality issues, so said UUP leader Mike Nesbitt.

10. We're anti-abortion but also anti-extending adoption yeah there is a dichotomy from those who say that abortion, even in the case of a rape victim, is wrong and should go full term while also failing to extent adoption to same-sex couples to help ease the back log. Even though the high court has declared the ban illegal some are not for turning.

11. Playing Beach Boys classics is OK outside Catholic Churches no matter how those playing it have adapted the lyrics for sectarian purposes. Of course this opinion is only that of the Loyal Orders, Unionist politicians and not that of the Parades Commission, worshipers at said church and local residents.

12. By attending each others' sports we live in a shared society yeah it appears to be the limit of ambitions. Turning up to a GAA match seems to the be the limit of a shared society. Integrating housing, education, dealing with the contentious issues of flags and symbols, recognising the LGBT community are all parts of a shared society that are constantly being swept under the carpet. So we continue to create divides from birth in our young people inspired by out politicians. Wonder if the publication of the Cohesion, Sharing and Intergration strategy will do anything to address the tough issues or just try to manage and referee division as the draft did.

NRA Fact and Cost Check

So the National Rifle Association have finally spoken after the shootings at Sandy Hook. Basically they have said "Don't take our guns away, but place an armed police office at every school."

So lets look at the stats:

There are 98,917 public schools and 33,366 Private schools (2009-10 figures)

At a mean $26.74 per hour (2010 national mean), say a 40 hour week to cover arrival and departure times as well as teaching time that comes to $141.5Bn M per week

Typically with 36 weeks per year that is $5.094 Trillion Billion per year

Now there are only 644,300 Police Officers in the whole of the United States, therefore during the school year 132,283 of these or approximately 1 in 5 will be spending their entire working week on school protection detail. So there would have to be some sort of scheme to overcome the short fall in crime prevention, investigation and protection of the general public.

Now surely we can find cheaper ways to protect the school children from the bad men with guns, rather than having good guys with guns (another NRA quote) there?

Update sorry I was miscounting my zeroes Billions were millions and trillions merely billions

Where is the integrity of leap into DUP bed for Harbinson?

So the unelected Councillor for Bangor West, Adam Harbinson, has hardly surprised us with the announcement today that he has joined the DUP. When he

In his letter to the Belfast Newsletter explaining why he thought he had no need to resign his seat he said;

"It is they who will vindicate me on the principled stand I have taken and on my record as I continue to seek to serve them – regardless of race or creed, political affiliation or sexual orientation."

If that is true he will possibly be the only DUP Councillor on North Down Council he actually does serve his constituents regardless of sexual orientation. I have had no acknowledgement of any correspondence to most of my correspondence to my DUP representatives, bar one on the issue of equal marriage. It basically said that the Cllr would not change his mind on this issue and it was pointless me writing to him about it. So if that is the record of how my DUP representatives serve me in a neighbouring DEA I wonder how the voters of Bangor West will fare.

One of the reason that I believe Cllr Harbinson has given for leaving the Alliance was on the issue of equal marriage. The reason behind it would have something to do with his faith.

In his newspaper column in the Larne Times in August Cllr Harbinson started by saying:

"Did it ever strike you as odd that the Christian religion, which in the beginning was all about transformation, has become so impervious and resistant to change?"

Now I know that the church is always more reticent to change, it was something I blogged about in the past.

Before going on to say when talking about turning away the unchurched:

"Some find it surprising that Jesus had little time for the religious leaders of his day and they had no love for him.

"Pointing to them on at least one occasion he described them thus: 'They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden'.

"Jesus makes no such demands. To him only one rule is called for and it applies equally to us all: 'I give you a new commandment,' he said. 'As I have loved you, you should love each other.'"

I imagine the same it true today. But this stance on a policy that has every time it has come forward seek to protest religious freedoms of groups who object as well as those that are open to the idea shows a lack of understanding and integrity.

I rarely play this card but today I have and will again now. The Liberal Democrat policy on equal marriage, on which the Scottish and Westminster (for England and Wales) Bills are grounded, were not formed without taking into account religious groups and individuals on both sides of that divide. I know this first hand, having had many discussions about the drafting of the Scottish policy which was largely copied for Federal. I also met with Steven Agnew to express the importance of religious and individual freedom to choose being in the Northern Ireland Assembly motion.

If faith groups are not secure in the respective guarantees that they are protected from carrying out same-sex marriage, despite them all including the Church of England being protected from marrying divorced people if they don't want to, they should work with the Government to strengthen those areas of concern. But each individual or faith groups that protests on the basis that they don't want to do it, is missing the fact that they are not being forced to.

Maybe Cllr Harbinson and others should pay attention to the essence of what he writes.

Now there some leap in terms of shared society from what the Alliance means to what the DUP means. n May 2011 I had them at different ends of my preferences, so hardly a easy transition. When he resigned Cllr Harbinson said "'if a man does not have integrity he has nothing", may I be so bold to ask where is the integrity in leaving behind the Alliance to join the DUP. I

Eejits in Belfast

Having worked in retail I know that today should have been the second busiest day in retailers' year. Only next Saturday the last before Christmas will see higher footfall and turnover.

However, with tensions already heightened and many people avoiding Belfast City Centre, with the ongoing uncertainty about protests about the flag, we now have a bob alert phoned into Castle Court. The biggest retail mall in the City Centre on one of the busiest retail streets. Surronding businesses already affected last Saturday by the flags protest keeping people out of the city centre are seeing more people driven out of from a police cordon around Castle Court.

Northern Ireland people being what they are, will suspect there may be another device somewhere in the City Centre to others may be deserting other retailers even though there is no immediate threat.

So for the second Saturday in a row Belfast retailers will be seeing takings down. Saturdays in December are often what allow shops to keep going in tough financial times. But losing out on two of these in Belfast there may be more empty shops in the city centre early next year because this ongoing stupidity. This bomb threat has not been linked to the flags protests, but with tensions already high it certainly isn't helping the local economy.

Update with nothing suspicious found the people who called in this warning are even bigger eejits.

"The streets of heaven...

...are crowded with too many angels tonight." from The West Wing

The news from Newtown, Connecticut today is not good.

A man walked into an Elementary School, for children aged 5-11 and opened fire. 18 young children died at the scene, 2 more died at the nearby hospital. Six adults were dead in the school teachers and/or administrators, there is also another adult dead in the town.

This is more school children killed, at a far younger age, than the Columbine shootings.

Already the two sides in America are taking sides on the issue of gun control and the right to bear arms. The actually second amendment read at the time it was suggested:

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

Now the state funded militias are what has become the National Guard. So these are the regulated people that now for the security of a free state should have the right to bear Arms. The militia at the founding of the Union was any citizen that could fire a rifle but these days that has change, national service is not required and the threat of the occupying force coming back to claim its territory. 

No doubt the argument will rage again. But 20 children possible as young as six lost their lives today. They were no armed but a man in his twenties was, and came into their classroom and took their lives. How is the security of those children protected when everyone can get hold of a firearm. 

I'm not going to look solely at the raw figures of over 30,000 gun related homicides but look at it per capital.

In 2011 there was 9 gun related deaths per 100,000 of the USA's population. To be fair only 3.25 were from homicides or unintended reasons (the rest were suicides). 

Switzerland where ever man over 18 and under 60 has a fire arm as part of he nations defense force the figure was only 6.4 of which 0.73 were homicides or  unintended. In France the total was 3, 0.06 from homicide, UK 0.22 total 0.03 by homicide. German figures indicate 1.1 all of which are recorded as homicide.

But, I'll conclude as I began. The streets of heaven are crowded with too many angels tonight, so here is that clip.

 

Kenneth Kendall 1924-2012

Kenneth helping look for clues on Treasure Hunt

Younger readers will certainly not remember Kenneth Kendall reading the news, he retired from that role in 1981. But he was soon taking part in one of the signature programmes of the new Channel 4 Treasure Hunt he was in the studio unsure of what was happening next but helping the contestants to help Anneka Rice hunt down clues while Ann Meo, Annette Lynton or Wincey Willis were the clue setters in the background.

In was in that role that I best remembered Kendall, as even I was a little on the young side to appreciate him as a news anchor. He lived on the Isle of Wight with his partner of twenty-two years Mark Fear so this edition of Treasure Hunt (Part 2) was either one he knew a little about the area or one that sparked him to move there. Though he was born in India and brought up in Cornwall.

Another role in which he appeared in my your was as the voice of the speech synthesiser software for the BBC Micro computer.

As a young man Kendall was a school teacher before becoming a captain in the Coldstream Guards during World War II.  He was injured during the Normandy beach landings on D-Day.

A young Kenneth from the early days

After the war he became a journalist on BBC radio from 1948 moving to TV in 1954 just as the medium was starting to take off just after the Coronation. In 1955 he became the first newsreader to appear in vision, before that news was a series of slides with the newsreader only as a voice over. He worked as a freelance for most of his career even while with the BBC, but he left in 1961 to take up a post with ITN until 1969, but returned to the BBC in 1969 for the remainder of his news reading career.

After 1989 he appearances were less frequent as he enjoyed semi-retirement presenting the occasion episode of Songs of Praise. In 2010 he also took part in the BBC's documentary The Young Ones looking at the lives of people in their 70s and 80s and how they overcame the process of aging.

He was a gentleman who always dressed sartorially and never was too blatant about his sexuality, keeping that part of him relatively in the private sphere. But he was always calm whether on the news or in the frantic final moments at the end of an episode of Treasure Hunt.

Ey up lad, it's lads on bikes

The Tour of Britain on Ilkley Moor

Yeah the 2014 Grand Depart of the Tour de France will come to Yorkshire. The first two days of racing will feature the county on 5 and 6 July before a stage down to London where the third days racing will end.

It is the fourth time that the Tour has visited Britain after trips in 1974 for a stage two loop around Plymouth, 1994 when after stage 3 went from Calais to the Eurotunnel. stage 4 took the Tour from Dover to Brighton and then stage 5 for a loop around Portsmouth, 2007 saw the Grand Depart with a time trail around Hyde Park in London, followed by a stage down to Canterbury which David Miller did his best to try and win.

This time with three days racing on English soil it is the longest sojourn unto British soil in one visit of the races history a reflection of how successful and popular cycling now is in the UK.

Yorkshire had beaten off bids from Florence and Edinburgh, but race officials have not ruled out a visit to Sir Chris Hoy's home city at come point in the near future so the Tour may well be back.

Perhaps we shall need a new verse to On Ilklaa Moor Baht'at maybe something along the lines of:

Then t'lad in yella cycled past