THE GERRYMANDERING ALLIANCE PARTY.
On the 18th may 2011, Belfast City Council agreed to a 16 week public consultation, with regard to their policy of flying the National Standard of the United Kingdom 365 days a year at Belfast City Hall. This situation arose due to a complaint made to the EQIA, by the IRA representatives on Belfast City Council.
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Sinn Fein’s Latest Call for a Border Poll
Patricia McCarthy and Mick Rafferty.
Gerry Adam’s in his article ‘Demographics and attitudes are crying out for a border poll’ (Irish Times 16/ 1/13) is as cited ‘the politics of fantasy’. Coming as it does after six weeks of rage and rioting of mainly loyalist, this cry from the Republican movement demonstrates a surprising lack of subtly and indeed reality. No national or ethnic conflict between people sharing the same territory has ever been solved by one side out growing the other particularly in a sensitive post conflict situation. The politics of head counting will not advance the peace process. The way forward as contained in the Belfast agreement, must be mutual respect for the traditions of the two dominant sides the planter and the gael.
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Welcome to new contributors Patricia McCarthy and Mick Rafferty. Both are well known community activists based in inner city Dublin but with many years experience working with various Loyalist working class communities in Belfast and other parts of Northern Ireland.
Class, Flags and Identity
Ever since Belfast City Council voted to fly the Union Jack on only designated days there has been turmoil in the city. This vote was itself a compromise proposed by those in the middle ground, the Alliance Party. The Nationalists wanted no flags flown at all and the Unionists wanted no change. This conformed to the historic Northern pattern that you don’t cast your vote, you vote for your caste. The compromise has brought Loyalist rage onto the middle ground andAlliancepoliticians have been threatened for apparently taking the nationalist side. This of course was a democratic decision. The issue of the flag was raised first at the Council’s strategic policy and resource committee on which the Nationalists have a majority. The result was 11 voted for a complete removal of the flag and 9 against a complete removal. This then went to a Council meeting on the December 3rd with the compromise proposal of the flag flying on 15 designated days being carried by 29 to 21.
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Former Blanket commentator, DR JOHN COULTER, in the first of a series of exclusive articles for Long Kesh Inside Out, outlines his ideology of New Loyalism, which he believes will give the entire Protestant community a fresh and positive political direction.
While there is much talk about the so-called loyalist revolution which is taking place within the Protestant community, the core challenge to loyalism is that it needs an ideological direction. Entire articles can be devoted to the faults of loyalism, the failures of political unionism, and Protestant apathy. We can all list what loyalism opposes, but the Protestant/Unionist/Loyalist (PUL) community needs to radically address what it supports and stands for.
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Over the weekend I read–as I always do–the latest updates on Anthony McIntyre’s site–The Pensive Quill. For the uninitiated TPQ is a personal blog which mostly–but not exclusively–promotes Anthony’s own brand of Republicanism. Since I first starting reading it–following on from The Blanket–I have to say that I have always found it informative, entertaining and very educational.
Posted in Current Affairs, HET
Border Referendum
As someone who is proud to belong to that section of the community which, the supposedly intellectual, completely baffled local media and the supposedly intellectual, equally baffled local politicians, consider to be the underclass. I find it amazing that all our overpaid supposed political experts are sitting scratching their heads, completely baffled and asking the peaceful defenders of the National Standard, to provide a solution to the problem which has been caused by the total incompetence, of these same self-profiteering supposedly intellectual political failures, from the middle and upper classes.
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THE BELFAST TELEGRAPH NEEDS TO REMEMBER THAT A GOOD LIAR ALSO NEEDS A GOOD MEMORY.
The Princess Victoria sank on the 31st January 1953, one hundred and thirty three lives were lost, including a relative of mine. In their 3rd of January 2013 edition, the Belfast Telegraph has totally dishonoured the memory of these lost souls and desecrated their 60th anniversary, by publishing a sensationalised and totally fictional picture of the Princess Victoria supposedly sinking, as a lifeboat pulled away from it. Read more
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Read our regular contributor Robert Allen’s views on the latest protests by opening the document below.
When does a protest stop being a protest
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