Virtual Methodist

This morning's Thought for the Day... For those who missed it and prefer to listen rather than read, you can find it here 25 minutes and 85 minutes in, and in the second case just after an interview with Linda Ervine, about the Irish language classes in East Belfast Mission, proving the power of education in all its forms to help us to understand one another and find a new way of relating to each other. It was encouraging to read over the weekend that a stand-off at Hazelwood College in North Belfast , between their management and the Belfast Education and Library Board is heading towards a resolution [although to later hear of the issue being dragged into the High Court didn't exactly fill me with joy.. . recourse to law rarely produces reconciliation...] I don’t know all the rights and wrongs, but it was not good to see children padlocked out of classrooms… Much worse however, were the threats supposedly made on Friday, by the so called Red Hand Defenders , ag...

Yeah! Someone has actually taken the time to do the work required to filter the potty-politics of Northern Ireland through an on-line programme to help us poor bewildered voters decide where to put our x. Didn't learn too much through it and where I put my x probably won't make any difference in this constituency but its worth a look, if only to confirm your prejudices... You are reading this because your browser doesn't support Iframes. Try this link instead. Cheers

And so the deal has been done ... But what a palaver it has all been and few have emerged with much credit from the morass. I'll lay my cards on the table... I wanted the devolution of police and justice powers simply because without it the whole shakey political side of the peace process might have ground to a complete halt. But I'm not naive enough to believe that this will bring huge improvements to policing and criminal justice here overnight... far from it... the political incompetence that the folks on the hill have demonstrated over the past few weeks suggests that they shouldn't be put in charge of a murder mystery dinner party, never mind a bribe/budget of £800 million (why does every significant political move here need to be oiled by collosal amounts of cash? Maybe Harold Wilson was right... maybe we are a nation of spongers). Their performance on other issues including education, job creation, planning, water rates etc wouldn't fill you with confidence eithe...

I could never be said to be a staunch supporter of DUP politics, or particularly of Ian Paisley Junior, but I have felt a little uneasy about the headlong pursuit of him by the baying pack of media hounds recently. Yes he seems to have been receiving more full time salaries than it would seem possible to deserve... Yes his handling of the Giant's Causeway shenanigans has more than a wiff of self-interest in it... Yes his constituency lobbying during the St Andrew's talks seems a tad inappropriate... and his personal financial affairs seem a little nepotistic... But I do wonder whether the media only noticed all of this because of who his father is. One conspiracy theorist recently suggested to me that his comments about homosexuality offended key people in the media (because we all know that those in the media are predominantly homosexual, being the sub-text). Another suggested that he has been fingered for attack by someone within the party. Anyway... for whatever reason, it h...