Dennis Canavan Calls For Referendum On Monarchy

Dennis Canavan has said: “As to the possibility of another King George, it is important to remember that true democracy is based on the sovereignty of the people rather than the sovereignty of any monarch,” adding: “In an independent Scotland, the people of Scotland should therefore be given an early opportunity to decide whether they want to retain the monarchy or choose an elected head of state.”

SOCA Scandal

The Serious Organized Crime Agency is involved in a serious scandal.Covering up the wrong doing of large Companies and Banks as well as wealthy individuals. These Companies hired private investigators in order to obtain private data on individuals. This went on for years. SOCA investigated this and compiled a list of 101 clients who hired private investigators. The head of the SOCA demanded that the list be “kept in a safe in a locked room, within a secure building and that the document should not be left unattended on a desk at any time”. If journalists can be arrested for this why not leading businessmen?

Transition Is Never A Easy Thing

The creation of 11 new Super Councils was never going to run smooth here. Councils right across the North are appointing what are known as Statutory Transition Committees.

Their job will be to oversee the reduction from 26 to just 11 Super Councils.

The Alliance Party is not happy about the appointment of two Unionist councillor’s by Castlereagh Council to a Transition Committee. They believe that they are entitled to at least one of the posts. On Lisburn Council they have appointed a SDLP councillor and a DUP Councillor which has upset SF who are threatening legal action.

A DUP spokesman said: “The guidance issued by the environment minister to councils in relation to the transition committees was guidance and not legally binding.

“Legal advice was sought in relation to these appointments by at least one of the councils in question which supported the view taken by members of the council.”

An Ulster Unionist spokesperson said: “Whilst the Alliance Party may disagree with the democratic decision of Lisburn and Castlereagh councils, this is the same party who acted tactlessly in their decision to remove the union flag from Belfast City Hall.

“After the last Assembly election the Ulster Unionist Party returned 16 Assembly Members and the SDLP 14. Both parties subsequently took up one place on the Executive. The Alliance Party, however, returned only eight Assembly members, yet shamelessly took two places on the Executive. Maybe they should take a look closer to home before coming out with such hypocritical statements.”

Oh The Things They Say

“Have people learned nothing about the way these things operate in Northern Ireland? If you deny someone the right to do something – very often the reaction is precisely the opposite of what you desired.” So says Jeffrey Donaldson the DUP MP and well known film buff about the flying of flags.

Live Long And Prosper

In England today their is a North/South divide when it comes to life expectancy. In East Dorset men can expect to live to 83, 9.2 years more than men in Blackpool, Lancashire, which had the lowest male life expectancy at 73.8 years.

East Dorset had a life expectancy for women of 86.4 years, 7.1 years more than the lowest, the 79.3 year life expectancy in Manchester.

It seems if you live in the South of England you will live longer than if you live in the North of England.

Putting Out The Writs?

Six days after the broadcast of a Spotlight Special programme about Nelson McCausland and the BBC have said they have not received any legal writs from the DUP. This is despite Peter Robinson threatening immediate legal action if the TV programme was broadcast. This is not the first time the DUP have threatened legal action against the BBC. A previous Spotlight programme about the leaders wife and her sexual relationship with a teenage businessman.And her financial involvement with two local property developers also brought threats of legal action that didn't eventually materialize. The days of the DUP hiding behind the law seem to be well and truly over.

Dubious Use Of Petition

So what are the DUP trying to hide? They have issued a petition of concern regarding Nelson McCausland and the Red Sky Affair up at Stormont. Which means they can veto any outcome of the debate up there on Monday. I don't think those who drew up these rules meant for them to be used to cover up alleged corruption and abuse of power.

Nelson Must Go

According to Robin Swann the UUP MLA Nelson McCausland the Social Development Minister should step aside now. This is following last night's BBC Spotlight Special TV programme. Jenny Palmer a DUP councillor in Lisburn and a member of the Housing Executive Board blew the whistle on Red Sky and the Housing Executive. Ms Palmer told the programme: "He (Mr Stephen Brimstone a Special Advisor to Nelson McCausland) said 'the party comes first, you do what you're told', otherwise there's no point in me being on the board, if I wasn't prepared to do what they asked me to do."

UDA Still Up To Their Necks In Crime

The UDA is still involved in racketeering and other criminal behaviour. A court yesterday sent down 4 men for a blackmail plot to extort thousands of pounds from a businessman.Richard Barry (40) of Cairndore Way, Newtownards was arrested by police while sitting in a Newtownards bar counting an envelope stuffed with cash. Richard Barry was sentenced to nine years.
Glen Benson (42) of Barnagh Park, Donaghadee, was given eight years, Andrew McBride (31) from Upper Movilla Street in Ards, seven years, and 42-year-old David Walsh from Kearney Gardens in Bangor, received five years in jail.

Robinson V Robinson

Compare and Contrast:

Iris Robinson launched a scathing attack on integrated education in 2007 saying it is "founded primarily on sectarianism".
Mrs Robinson also said the integrated lobby was discouraging support with the "high handed and arrogant stance perpetually adopted by its public proponents".
She added that it thrived off sectarianism and was part of a wider programme of social engineering driven by government.
Mrs Robinson's comments were made after government rejected a proposal for a new integrated post-primary school – Rowallane College.
She said the philosophy of the integrated lobby "consists of nothing else other than self-righteous, pompous claims of reconciliation, no more amazing than claiming they can fit 200 people into the back seat of a Mini".
"Far from transcending sectarianism with some stupendous alternative for the provision of education in Northern Ireland, the integrated lobby is an integral part of that sectarian system and feeds off it – without it, it would starve and die," she added.
"It is a philosophy founded primarily on sectarianism, as opposed to the delivery of education and is part of a wider programme of social engineering driven by the government and abetted by the holier than thou section of our population.
"I will, therefore, never act in such a fashion as to further jeopardise the delivery of education to the overwhelming majority of our children, simply to please the politically tainted demands of the tiny minority."

But Peter Robinson has said: "How anybody who is looking for shared education can be seen to be sectarian is beyond me and beyond everyone else."