[Andy McDandy]

New laws trump old laws was pretty much day one of English law 101 at university.

Constitutional specialists Habib and Hoey knew better. They will leave court still convinced they’re right and invent a conspiracy about liberal elite judges to explain the verdict. Trimble is the Andrew Neil of Unionist politics. Garnered some respect late in his career only to piss it all away on Brexit.

Our tutor used the old example of shooting Welshmen in Chester (or Shrewsbury, or Hereford, or wherever) with a bow after dark. Yes, it's never been taken off the statute book (or hadn't in 1995), but plenty of laws about murder and carrying offensive weapons had been added.

[MisterMuncher]

I wonder if Kate Hoey has ever actually visited the Republic of Ireland. If she did spend time in the Republic she would see thousands of signs up and down the next to new motorways and industrial sites highlighting that the projects were funded by the EU.

Some years ago, I worked with a guy a good 20 years older than me. We went for a pint or two after shift, and much shite was talked. He was telling me of a girl who he once went out with who refused to go with him for a weekend in Galway because she believed Ian Paisley's speech about "the blue skies of Ulster" and the "Grey mists of an Irish republic" was literal meteorology.

Should have asked if her name was Kate, looking back on it now.

Less humorously, there's a core belief in fringier Unionist circle that any success in the republic is not real, and could only possibly be because of corruption or conspiracy. Join the dots to the end-times EU is the arm of the antichrist pope headtheball cult that is the Free Presbyterian church and the upper echelon of the DUP, such a thing would only confirm their prejudices

[Bones McCoy]

Less humorously, there's a core belief in fringier Unionist circle that any success in the republic is not real, and could only possibly be because of corruption or conspiracy. Join the dots to the end-times EU is the arm of the antichrist pope headtheball cult that is the Free Presbyterian church and the upper echelon of the DUP, such a thing would only confirm their prejudices

They expect us to believe the Irish have bene cooking the books since 1921 and nobody noticed?

It's about as plausible as a flat earth and humans coexisting with dinosaurs.

[MisterMuncher]

More or less.

Ireland's first 50-odd years post '21 were no days off wine and roses, but in keeping with such idea as Protestant Work Ethic (and not, say, that the majority of heavy industry has been taken out by partition*) this was viewed as entirely right and proper.

Once Ireland's found it's feet the narrative switched to "It's all the EU funding" and "We bailed you out in 2008"**.


*Industries that ended up either shutting down or receiving so much in the way of government subsidy and sweetener that it can truly be said that the Mexicans dodged a bullet here.

**There's no part of this that's not inaccurate coming from Northern unionists.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Jeffrey Donaldson off to a predictably grim start. More gay cake rows coming, I think.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Is this a credible pollster? Interesting if so. DUP dying on arse, but not that big a gain to TUV.

[Youngian]

DUP topped a poll I saw for the most stupid Brexit voters. Pushing fishermen into second place. A Leave voting DUP fisherman is probably Unlucky Alf from the Fast Show.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It's easy to sit here pushing flags around on the map, but is it possible that Sinn Fein lose out big time because the DUP lose out? The Northern Irish people as a whole support a peaceful peace, without balaclavas, flag dickheads and army councils.

In the past, of course, it was absolutely necessary that most of those people were brought onside. It was logical not to trust the other lot, and to vote for whoever you thought would stick it to them now and again (while not breaking the uneasy peace). But could the Alliance get to a position where the DUP and Sinn Fein aren't propping each other up?

[Spoonman]

Sinn Fein's general political strategy over the last few years, at least in NI, has been to keep quiet while others make the fuck ups. So far that has been a mostly successful policy for them outside of Derry city apart from the Bobby Storey funeral incident. As an Assembly election is due next year, the chances of Sinn Fein becoming the largest party and thus able to gain the title of First Minister** are looking increasingly good - the hyperbole is already gathering pace, just wait until nearer election time - and likely afterwards - from the DUP screech about a "Sinn Fein First Minister" and bringing down Stormont.



**"First Minister" is a nominal title, it holds no additional powers alongside that of the Deputy First Minister. Indeed, Sinn Fein (as have a few others) offered to rename the post "Joint First Minister(s)".

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Story Funeral looked appalling. "You lot can fuck off with your old Mum's funeral, this guy is more important than her, he shot people".

What was behind their collapse in Derry, out of interest?

[MisterMuncher]

Derry has always had effective SDLP folk, and tends to get second string shinners, at best.

The folk who insist on pronouncing the silent London have to make do with Gregory Fucking Campbell, though, so I think they deserve any sympathy going.

[Spoonman]

The Story Funeral looked appalling. "You lot can fuck off with your old Mum's funeral, this guy is more important than her, he shot people".

What was behind their collapse in Derry, out of interest?

Not easy to explain well, especially as the worst of it occurred over the last 6-18 months, but basically there was a local clique within Sinn Fein in the area, based around former MLA & MEP Martina Anderson (one of the few modern day links in SF that has a link back to the days of being a "volunteer" during The Troubles), that was taking the piss in terms of nepotism and backhanders concerning local social groups, publicly funded jobs etc. It was a large part of the reason why Elisha McCallion (a niece of Anderson), whom narrowly won the Foyle Westminster seat for SF in 2017 from the SDLP ended up being utterly routed by them in 2019. The fallout from it all seen the main Belfast wing of Sinn Fein having to stage an intervention in Derry, "encouraging" the two MLAs in the seat to step down and be replaced a few months ago - despite Anderson previously saying that she wouldn't budge (and she would have thought because of her background that she'd be "untouchable"). So Sinn Fein are somewhat in the process of rebuilding up in Derry city - keeping two MLA seats in Foyle after the Stormont elections next year would be a good start, there's a chance they could lose one.

In saying that, the problems that have affected Sinn Fein in Derry City are not unique to them there - outside of Belfast there are a lot of similar stories of nepotism, backhanders, "boys clubs" etc. but they haven't yet spilled over the surface largely down to (a) relatively stable high support bases, especially in border constituencies, and (b) the general top-down diktat that operates in the party, where as long as the things that the top of the party are carried out, the operation of the lower rungs tend to be ignored unless it becomes inconvenient and/or damaging to the party image, like what happened in Derry.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Thank you, very interesting. I suppose if you went to jail for bombmaking or whatever, it's easy to have a sense of entitlement about political appointments.

[Spoonman]

An awful lot of Unionist politicians, some self-appointed loyalist "leaders" of various stripes & some loud ERG/"Leave dot EU" headbangers: "THE PROTOCOL WILL DEVASTATE THE NORTHERN IRISH ECONOMY!!!!1one"

Reality...

...figures that I guess are a tad inconvenient also for that unelected bureaucrat, Lord Frost.

[MisterMuncher]

Kate Hoey is once again speaking her mind. Writing a foreward to a fringe loyalist publication backed by esteemed legal counsel and sometime bin-topping rabble-rouser Jamie Bryson*, she's giving the idea that them dastardly Fenians went out, got educated and got decent jobs so they could position themselves as the enemy within and bring down NI.

It's going down well.

https://www.irishnews.com/news/northern ... m-2553923/


*It's hard to explain or quantify Bryson. Imagine the acumen of Darren Grimes with the wit and charm of Yaxley-Lennon, poured into the body of an immense physical coward with a brain that could just about figure out that you don't need to slice soup.

[Spoonman]

Replace Fenians with blacks or Jews and the sinister undertones of Hoey's comments become ever clearer. It's British "Culture War" bollocks cranked up to 11. Rather than people in NI regardless of their religion/background simply getting themselves an education to help get themselves jobs and advance in their careers to the betterment of themselves, their families and their community overall - but oh no it's a Sinn Fein/IRA/Catholic Church conspiracy!

The leadership of unionism in Northern Ireland is utterly rudderless at the moment, in particular when its main representatives in the media and wider circles consist of Bryson, Jim Allistar, Sammy Wilson, Jim Wells and Hoey forming a group of loose cannons whereas the supposed DUP leader is behaving like an 8 year old child threatening to run away from home if they don't get to eat ice cream for dinner every night, and is just about as potent.

[Youngian]

Trying to recall who accused TV current affairs of deliberately inviting not very bright people on to speak in favour of Brexit instead of unidentified intellectual advocates. If it wasn’t Kate Hoey I’d be surprised.

[Spoonman]

In amongst all the current goings on at Westminster & at Downing Street, at today's PMQs Johnson threw the DUP under a bus - again!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-60050164

For context: NI Assembly elections are due in a few months and DUP leader, Jeffery Donaldson is the current MP for Lagan Valley. He wants to become NI's First Minister but of course he needs to be an MLA at Stormont to have a chance of making that happen - current rules that were thrashed out in the mid 2010's at present prevent someone from being an MP & MLA at the same time (aka "double jobbing") that are legally binding, if you're an MP and you get elected as an MLA (or vice versa) then you must give up your previously elected position. About a week ago it looked like the current Tory government were going to put a quick bill through in Westminster at the behest of the DUP to allow someone to be an MLA & MP at the same time again, allowing Donaldson to potentially become NI First Minister whilst still being an MP. The other NI political parties are/were strongly opposed to allow double jobbing to be permitted again, with the DUP responding that the other parties were "feigning outrage" over the plan but today's announcement by Johnson that they're withdrawing support from the said bill has put the kibosh on that and left a fair bit of panic and red faces at the top of the DUP at that sudden announcement! It now means that if Donaldson becomes an MLA, his MP seat of Lagan Valley would then have a by-election in the summer. Lagan Valley was once solid Donaldson territory when he was with both the UUP & DUP, but at current polling trends there's at least a half decent chance that if Lagan Valley went to a by-election (with Donaldson unable to stand) Alliance could take the seat away from the DUP!

Just to add - it could be Paisley Jnr or Sammy Wilson shouting "WHAT!" but that was the precise moment Johnson shat on the DUP again! They will never learn, will they?!

[MisterMuncher]

Claire Hanna was asked to confirm who was shouting "Whaaaat!"

[Spoonman]

Something slightly more mundane for once...

Bedroom tax: MLAs vote to extend welfare mitigations indefinitely

MLAs at Stormont have backed a proposal to extend some welfare mitigations in Northern Ireland indefinitely.

They overturned a previous executive decision which saw the measures in place only for three more years.

The legislation being taken through the assembly ensures people who would have been affected by the bedroom tax get top-up payments.

The parties also agreed to support a review of the measures being carried out by March 2025.

Sinn Fein's Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey is taking the bill through the assembly and has long called for the mitigations to be in place indefinitely.

Last year, its power-sharing partner in the executive had disagreed, with the DUP arguing that any extension needed to be "fiscally appropriate" and should be initially capped at three years.

But on Tuesday, DUP deputy leader and communities committee chair, Paula Bradley, said she understood that a "cliff edge" needed to be avoided.

She said the issue was "far too important" to cause a divided vote between parties.

Ms Hargey said she had always given a commitment to ensure a review of the mitigations and welcomed the decision by assembly members to scrap the end date.

The bill is being fast-tracked through the assembly to become law before the assembly is dissolved for the election in May.

It will put an obligation on the Department for Communities to extend the mitigations permanently.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-60307531

Now I'm someone whom is potentially affected by this and I'm in slightly two minds about it. I live in social housing & have a "spare" bedroom so was potentially subject to the "bedroom tax" but this has been mitigated by a supplementary payment that by the looks of the above article is to become permanent. On one hand if the supplement was to sunset, I could (at least for the time being) be able to absorb the additional charge and I think that the money allocated for this could be better spent elsewhere. OTOH there are plenty whom are not in such a fortunate position like myself for whom an additional £10+ per week cost for having a spare room in their home can be the difference in helping heat it or feeding themselves/their family - that and the introduction of this charge by IDS was an idiotic piece of ideology over practicality that was a classic case of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut as opposed to looking for other ways to encourage social housing residents to potentially downsize where possible or practical. I don't know much about social housing stock in Britain, but in NI there is a glut of 3 & 4 bedroom accommodation with very little in terms of 1 bedroom accommodation especially outside of the major urban areas.