Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

If you were asked to name an organisation less likely to promote a positive vision of what it means to be British than the UDA, it might take a while to come up with an answer. Let us not forget that the political ‘brains’ behind this paramilitary organisation spent the 1970s arguing for Ulster independence. If anyone were actually to attend Gordon Brown’s focus groups which seek to define Britishness, it is unlikely that ‘a loose amalgamation of sectarian murder gangs, criminals and drug dealers’ would feature in members’ ‘quintessentially British’ top 10. Nevertheless, the UDA has announced that it is to launch a campaign against the ‘unabating Sinn Féin threat to British culture’ . Anyone who detects ominous overtones in such an ambition, given that the organisation has yet to decommission its illegally assembled arsenal, should set their mind at rest. The Association has in mind a non-violent ‘battlefield’. Any right thinking person will not welcome the prospect of republican...

I couldn't let this go past without a plug. Ballymena United will grace Sky Sports 1 tonight , as the game against Newry City is broadcast throughout the UK. The mind boggles. For those who can get to the Showgrounds tonight value for money is to be had. Admission is £3 for adults and U16s get in free. Let's hope Walkers' men play like they did against Linfield and don't reproduce some of their other form so far this season. If you can't make it, crack open a can and settle into your favourite armchair or (if like me you are a freeview pleb) get yourself down to the pub!

I have largely avoided contributing to the comments zone developing below my post about Gerry Adams’ ethno-nationalist remarks at last Sunday’s homecoming parade. It has become something of a bun fight in which I have little inclination either to participate or intervene. However, that argument, Tom Hartley’s snub of Remembrance Day in Belfast and Eamon McCann’s fine article in the Belfast Telegraph, have motivated me to flesh out a little my thoughts as to why Sinn Féin’s adherence to the principle of consent is merely rhetorical and why Adams’ comment puts last week’s protest in its rightful context, as an abhorrent event. When nationalists, Sinn Féin included, signed up to the principle of consent, as enshrined in the Belfast Agreement, they were acknowledging that Northern Ireland should remain part of the United Kingdom until a majority here decides otherwise. As McCann intimates in his piece, and as I have stressed repeatedly on this blog, a sizable section of nationalism, an...

More speculation in the Irish Times that progress is imminent as regards Sir Reg Empey and David Cameron’s efforts to forge a new Conservative and Ulster Unionist political movement. Frank Millar reports that the two leaders have agreed to create a ‘joint Conservative-Unionist committee to oversee the forthcoming European and Westminster elections, with Mr Cameron and Sir Reg jointly nominating candidates’. ( H/T Peter Baker) . When I met Owen Paterson and representatives of the NI Conservative party last week the suggestion was that negotiations were ongoing. Certainly they were surprised by rumours arising from a previous Millar article, that a UUP Executive meeting was being called over the weekend just past, in order to consider an important development about to be announced. Whether this new rumour has more substance remains to be seen. Inevitably both parties retain, to an extent, slightly different visions of what a Conservative and Ulster Unionist movement might comprise. ...

It appears that Lord Mayor of Belfast, Tom Hartley, is absenting himself from the commemoration at the cenotaph at City Hall on Sunday. Although Sinn Féin has cited prior engagements in the Republic, Hartley and his advisers must have known the significance of the day long before any alternative arrangements were organised. Alex Maskey made great play of staging his own acts of remembrance during his tenure as mayor, arguing that as representative of all the people of Belfast, he was bound to do so. Hartley himself marked the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme and has observed other similar ceremonies. Hartley’s absence is convenient, at a time when Sinn Féin seems to be hardening its intolerance towards unionism and any exhibition of British identity in Northern Ireland. His decision to snub Remembrance Sunday follows crude ethno-nationalist statements which party president Gerry Adams made at the weekend. Drawing on Adams’ comments at the Homecoming Parade, Eamon McCann h...

On Wednesday I highlighted a remark carried attributed to Jim Allister in the News Letter. “A vote for any unionist other than a TUV candidate will be interpreted as an endorsement of Sinn Fein/IRA's place in government.” A representative of the TUV has contacted me to point out that Mr Allister was misquoted in the original article. The press release to which it referred actually stated the following. "In reality, a first preference vote for any unionist other than a TUV candidate at the next election will be interpreted as an endorsement of Sinn Fein/IRA’s place in government." I know that Stephen Dempster, who wrote the News Letter article is aware of the error, for my part hopefully this clears up any confusion. My understanding is still that NO electoral pact was struck between the UUP and TUV. The correspondence I received from Mr Allister's office also stresses that at no time did either party announce any such pact.

As an informed bunch, I appreciate that this blog’s visitors expect to read about crucial geo-political matters of the day. In that spirit, I feel bound to offer an update on my ongoing struggle with mice, unfolding in the former redoubt of the South Belfast dwelling house in which I live. More forensic readers amongst you will have noted that I refer to ‘mice’ as opposed to ‘a mouse’, because the insurgency has rather gained momentum. My response has been a security crackdown, in order to rock this proliferation of new rodent movements and establish unequivocally that overt displays of mousiness will not be without consequences. You will remember that from its traditional heartlands of the chimney breast and fuse box, my original enemy had been sighted in less familiar territory under the settee. My response was to remilitarise this area, deploying a weapon of mass destruction, aka mouse and rat poison. The enemy duly ate the poison, engineering his own end through questionable ...