There was only one heavy shower, which was well timed for me as I was within feet of Broadcasting House. It passed, the sun came out and I spent the next hour sweating in the sun at the City Hall.Gavin Scott wrote:I saw a chunk of it on BBC News channel. Sissons spluttered out Iris' quote before throwing to a live at the roadside. Weather looked shocking.
Glad you had a good time.
The All New Northern Ireland
Good to hear the day went well and at last got a bit of press coverage, not necessarily for the right reasons but still more than in previous years. I missed any TV reports and the BBC News site did have a mix of images of bible-thumpers and floats but that seems like nothing new!
York's very own Pride, even smaller and less-profile than Belfast's, for now - is today two weeks.
York's very own Pride, even smaller and less-profile than Belfast's, for now - is today two weeks.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/ ... 55271.html
The comments on this article say more about Norn Irn society than Madame Iris. Wonder how she would have spent that eighty grand? Getting us all free sessions with her therapist mate?
The comments on this article say more about Norn Irn society than Madame Iris. Wonder how she would have spent that eighty grand? Getting us all free sessions with her therapist mate?
For a change, another DUP MP stirs things up with their opinions...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7599810.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7599810.stm
The man is an arsehole.
The DUP is a religious fundamentalist homophobic party that has got where it is through nothing more than a policy where it endlessly proclaims it is protecting the union and therefore garnering as many unionist votes as possible. The problem is that the party's policy's are more and more at odds with those of the UK government and are becoming entirely inwards looking, as if to create some sort of Taliban-esque state within the UK.
The other problem it has is that its members are almost exclusively thick as pig shit.
On the other side of the religious and governmental divide you have Catriona Ruane, the Sinn Fein Education minister, who doesn't even live in Northern Ireland (famous for declaring that three men suspected of training FARC guerilla terrorists in Colombia were obviously innocent because they were Irish) who has scrapped the 11+. No bad thing you may say, and I may agree. It, combined with pushy parents, caused stress on children. However that one regulated exam has now been replaced by a completely unregulated system whereby schools can set their own entrance tests. So one regulated exam, though unpalatable, has been replaced with a situation whereby a child could be sitting half a dozen different tests for different schools.
Genius.
The DUP is a religious fundamentalist homophobic party that has got where it is through nothing more than a policy where it endlessly proclaims it is protecting the union and therefore garnering as many unionist votes as possible. The problem is that the party's policy's are more and more at odds with those of the UK government and are becoming entirely inwards looking, as if to create some sort of Taliban-esque state within the UK.
The other problem it has is that its members are almost exclusively thick as pig shit.
On the other side of the religious and governmental divide you have Catriona Ruane, the Sinn Fein Education minister, who doesn't even live in Northern Ireland (famous for declaring that three men suspected of training FARC guerilla terrorists in Colombia were obviously innocent because they were Irish) who has scrapped the 11+. No bad thing you may say, and I may agree. It, combined with pushy parents, caused stress on children. However that one regulated exam has now been replaced by a completely unregulated system whereby schools can set their own entrance tests. So one regulated exam, though unpalatable, has been replaced with a situation whereby a child could be sitting half a dozen different tests for different schools.
Genius.
What's the current view of the general public about the DUP in Norn Iron?
Dunno, no one does polls. Well, that's not true, the Belfast Telegraph occasionally commission one but I haven't heard the result of one in a long time.Col wrote:What's the current view of the general public about the DUP in Norn Iron?
Next time we find out is at the European Election in June.
Candidates will be:
DUP - Diane Dodds (wife of Finance Minister, Nigel - keeping it in the family, again)
UUP - Jim Nicholson
Sinn Fein - Bairbre DeBrun
TUV (Traditional Unionist Voice, bizarrely even more extreme than the DUP) - Jim Allister
I'm not sure who the SDLP candidate will be, or if they've yet chosen one.
The incumbents are Nicholson, DeBrun and Allister. The latter only because he left the DUP to start his own party when he felt the DUP was becoming too liberal.
The problem with SDLP is since Hume and Mallon retired, there is no-one within the party who, for all their good intentions, will never really have the same charisma or "awh"-ness to appeal to the voting masses. The same for the Ulster Unionists. They'll still get votes from middle-class voters, but they still have a lot of work to do to get the youth vote.
As for the DUP and the Shinners, they are probably the only political parties in the majority position in administration who can have inept, morally abhorrent MPs who can succeed in not only annoying their polar opposites, but also the general public. Yet somehow you can guarantee they will top the poll because of voters being too afraid of progression.
Seeing "Milk" at the cinema the other night made me think what a wonderful moment it could be if a gay candidate stood against The Wicked Witch of the North at the next General Election in Strangford and take the seat - but I doubt that will ever happen. Will be interesting to see if the DUP and Shinners lose ground at the European Election - and aren't there local elections due this year too?
As for the DUP and the Shinners, they are probably the only political parties in the majority position in administration who can have inept, morally abhorrent MPs who can succeed in not only annoying their polar opposites, but also the general public. Yet somehow you can guarantee they will top the poll because of voters being too afraid of progression.
Seeing "Milk" at the cinema the other night made me think what a wonderful moment it could be if a gay candidate stood against The Wicked Witch of the North at the next General Election in Strangford and take the seat - but I doubt that will ever happen. Will be interesting to see if the DUP and Shinners lose ground at the European Election - and aren't there local elections due this year too?