Monthly Archives: December 2014

              WHY THE DEAFENING SILENCE FROM THE PUP WITH REGARD TO THE EQUALITIES COMMISSION?

Yet again the totally unelected ,dictatorial,  so called equalities commission, is misusing tax payers money, in an attempt to legalise its own bigoted unrepresentative  policies.   This overpowered,  overpaid  quango,  seems to be intent on hounding Ashers Bakery through the courts, in an attempt to terrorise business owners into abandoning their basic, human moral principles in favour of, the promotion of, the normalisation of homosexual  marriage and practices.

This is the same unelected, dictatorially bigoted, so called equalities commission, who totally ignored the overwhelming results of its own public opinion polls, regarding the flying of the National Standard at the Belfast City Hall.

The results of their own various opinion polls showed a massive majority in favour of the status quo, with regard to the flying of the National Standard. Yet the self righteously bigoted and dictatorial equalities commission, not only totally ignored the results of the public opinion polls, which they had wasted tax payers money on, they then went on to gerrymander the overwhelming results of the opinion polls, by recommending to the council that, the National Standard should not be flown every day.

This recommendation was used as an excuse by the SDLP and the Alliance parties on  Belfast City Council, to support the political supporters of the IRA in the lowering of the National Standard  at Belfast City Hall.

Charlie Freel.

It’s Awards time! Soupie’s Top Tit: Campbell curry jibe bags gong

The Irish Volunteers, Gregory Campbell, tub-thumping cleric Jimmy McConnell, the Shinners and NI21 have swept the boards in the prestigious 2014 Coulter’s Coveted Cock-Up Cups.

East Derry DUP MP Campbell romped home with the Top Tip Trophy for insulting hundreds of years of Presbyterian heritage with his ‘Curry My Yoghurt’ jibe at the Irish language.

Top Tit ‘Soupie’ Campbell simply ignored the indisputable historical fact it was radical Protestant Presbyterians who fought to keep the Irish language alive.

His Tit award is also engraved with the phrase ‘curai mo iogart’, which he won’t find in the ‘Daft Dictionary of a Rural North Antrim Accent posing as The Ulster-Scots Language’.

The Shinners collect the Gerry Adams Sweepstake Award for admitting how they have taken the piss out of both Brits and Unionists using their stable of Trojan Horses. The award boasts a special engraving – ‘Don’t let the b*****ds grind you down!’

The tightest battle was for the sought-after Gobshite Cup for the person who says the dumbest comment about the Fearless Flying Column on social media.

The winner was the closed Facebook group of the Irish Volunteers Commemorative Committee, which banned me after I posted one of my columns on it.

I heard an unconfirmed whisper the North Korean government is so impressed with such censorship, it may sponsor next year’s Gobshite Cup.

The Ulster Unionists win the Bark At The Moon Award for thinking the party will win any seats in May’s Commons election. while the SDLP collects the Stoop Down Even Lower trophy for failing to form a coalition with the Shinners, and thereby condemning itself to electoral oblivion in 2015.

The Union flag-loving Alliance is top of the heap in the ‘Spruce Up Your Hair-Do And Think Voters Will Save Your Seat’ category as the party gets its curling tongs out to try and ensure Naomi Long holds East Belfast.

The ‘Screaming Lord Sutch Memorial Cup’ goes to Basil McCrea’s NI21 for giving us all a laugh as his party imploded days before crucial polls.

If he renamed the almost defunct NI21 the Irish Monster Raving Looney Party, it’d probably lose the Monty Python image it now enjoys.

As for Ukip and wee Jimmy Allister’s TUV, their parties are joint winners of the ‘What Is The Fecking Point Of This Movement’ Cup for totally ignoring the reality of 21^st century Irish politics.

And I hope the Northern Greens can prise themselves away from tree-hugging for a while to collect the ‘They Really Need To Get A Life’ award.

Making its first appearance is a new trophy, The Pharisee Prize, which goes to the cleric who has done the most in 2014 to embarrass the Christian faith.

For much of the year, Catholic clergy convicted of child sex abuse were dog collar to dog collar with Prod clergy who are more interested in their ‘Christian’ image than actually helping young people with problems.

Then fundamentalist Bible-basher Pastor Jimmy McConnell unleashed his ‘Islam is satanic’ rant. Pastor Jimmy is now Ireland’s Top Tub Thumper and his grovelling ‘sorry to Muslims’ earns him the inaugural Pharisee Prize.

Entering Coulter’s Hall of Shame is the Executive for running power-sharing with only two parties – the Dupes and Shinners – with the rest of the ministers mere bums on seats.

And I’ve already got a fine array of political arseholes, brain-dead keyboard warriors and moralising tub-thumpers in the running for the next Coulter’s Coveted Cock-Ups! Roll on Easter!

Julie -Anne is a member of the Progressive Unionist Party and a councillor for the Oldpark Ward in North Belfast

One of the major local headlines last week was that British Prime Minister David Cameron and Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny had “cleared their diaries” to lend their support to the inter-party talks at Stormont. It seems that no Stormont talks are complete without a crisis intervention from a Prime Minister, President, or some other person of note. We all remember Sir Reg Empey receiving his phone call from Hilary Clinton in 2010 over the crisis around the devolution of justice powers, and when this didn’t work, former US President George was tempted out of retirement to make another transatlantic telephone intervention by calling David Cameron. One wonders whether the crises are real crises at all, or just an opportunity for our publicity hungry politicians to have global leaders run after them, chalking up another anecdote for future reminiscence. One can hear Sir Reg remarking, “Did I ever tell you about the time David Cameron AND Hilary Clinton AND George Bush chased after me?” to which an eager researcher will respond, “No way!”

While our politicians are concocting ever more elaborate crises to get world leaders running after them (Will they really be happy that only David Cameron and Enda Kenny are in a panic and that President Obama isn’t warming up the White House phone in anticipation?), the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s autumn statement was setting the context for increased austerity, with The Guardian headline stating, “Osborne moves to cut spending to 1930s levels in dramatic autumn statement.” Inevitably, this will affect the poor the most, and just as some overzealous evangelical preachers blamed the debaucheries of the poor in Sri Lanka and New Orleans for the devastation caused by natural disasters, so the poor are blamed for the current economic crisis – it’s caused by immigrants, lazy people on benefits, the idle and feckless. It’s nothing to do with greedy bankers and speculators bringing down the world economy. Bankers and speculators have been bailed out and seemingly learned nothing – while the poor and vulnerable are left to pick up the pieces, increasingly relying on food banks and charity to get by. While the stock markets approach apparently record levels, the poor are begrudged an extra bedroom in their homes.

I sometimes wonder how world leaders achieve the seemingly remarkable and get our politicians to reach agreement – do they dance, do they sing, or prostrate themselves like prophets in the Old Testament and cry out and beg. Perhaps it’s all three, or just maybe the decisions our politicians have to make aren’t that hard at all and they just like to see a little cabaret. As I write this, David Cameron is probably picking his tunes – will he sing The Smiths? Deciding on his costume – a hat or a tiara? Will he do a duet with Enda Kenny? I’m sure it must be nerve wracking. He’ll want to get the performance just right. If it takes a song and a dance to get someone to listen, then maybe I should prepare something for his arrival. Perhaps I can convince him that the poor aren’t idle, feckless and undeserving after all. Just maybe George Osborne’s budget statement is his own version of a political crisis in Northern Ireland, it’s not really that bad, and with the right song and dance everything will be ok. It’s worth a try.

I wonder what music will work best? Perhaps I could start with a line from Pink, “Dear Mr Prime Minister, come take a walk with me. Let’s just pretend we’re just two people and you’re not better than me.” Then I could maybe break into Tracy Chapman (“Here in Subcity, life is hard”) or some Gil Scott-Heron (‘You never dig sharing, always had to have the most”). Perhaps not, this will just depress him. Maybe I’m no good at show business. I’ll take him on a walking tour of the Shankill Road and ask him – “Do you really think these children, older people and hard-working families struggling to make ends meet are the cause of all our economic woes. Do you really think they are less deserving that the wealthy and multi-national corporations?” I’d also ask him to tell Ian Duncan Smith to stop using the language of social justice to mask his sustained efforts to reduce the living standards of the poor and to make their lives worse – “being poorer is good for you – it makes you appreciate things more.”

If I did take him along Belfast’s Shankill Road, what would he see – social deprivation, educational under-attainment, isolated and vulnerable pensioners, unemployment and physical dereliction? I could introduce him to my friend Joe Bloggs, a single man living in a small flat who can’t afford to heat his house in the winter; or there is Mrs Smith who took the bus to the bargain store to buy a canvas to hide the damp on her walls that a private landlord wouldn’t repair. Mrs Smith’s daughter wants to be a doctor when she grows up – the closest she’s come to achieving her dream is being a community care worker on a zero hours contract for £6.31 an hour. Mr Jones is an electrician by trade, but he needs surgery on his knee and is working through pain. The NHS is supposed to be sending him to private care but the funds have dried up and his knee is getting worse. He can’t understand why the private clinic is operating out of the local NHS hospital. Surely the TTIP agreement hasn’t led to the NHS being sold off just yet? I think Mr Cameron will have had enough by then, “Take me home, this is more depressing than The Smiths. Can we please avoid the war veterans sleeping rough, I don’t think I can take another look.”

I doubt he would reflect much on his walk through Shankill as he is taken on the journey to Stormont, it’s much easier to sing for our politicians at Stormont than it is to stand up to the wealthy and say the poor aren’t to blame after all. It’s also easier for our politicians to exacerbate fake crises of their own making, sling some mud at each other, then settle down for a good old cabaret courtesy of the British and Irish Governments. A few songs, a few dances, a stand-up comic and some good wine, everything is ok and they are all getting on again. “I didn’t really mean it when I asked if you could put curry in my yoghurt” and “Our leader was only joking when he called you all bastards.” However, while the behind the scenes chumminess resumes, greased up by a good old sing-a-long chorus, the poor are still the poor – whether they live in Shankill or Falls – and they are still left wondering who is going to come and sing and dance for them and do something to make their lives better. “Did I ever tell you about the time…………..?”

This article first appeared on sluggerotoole

Gerry’s the Trojan one … Shinners’ best strategy

(John Coulter, Irish Daily Star)

Sinn Féin must continue with its policy of using Trojan Horses if it is to become the Irish king-maker by the centenary of the Rising in 2016.

In ancient mythology, the Trojan Horse was the cunning plan which the Greeks used to break into the heavily defended city of Troy and capture it from the inside.

Unionists really have their Orange knickers in a real twist over Shinner boss Gerry Adams’ comments on the use of equality as a political Trojan Horse to achieve the party’s final goal.

This is no big secret. What is surprising is that Unionism and the British have, time after time, allowed Sinn Féin to give them a whole stable of Trojan Horses since the late 1960s.

Basically, Unionists fall for the republican Trojan Horse at every jump! Their jibes at Adams’ so-called republican mask slipping is a pathetic attempt to defect attention away from the reality that the Shinners have been duping Unionists for decades.

Look at what republicans have achieved using the Trojan Horse tactic.

After the disastrous IRA Border campaign of 1956-62, republicans infiltrated the Civil Rights Movement to give the Provos a terror springboard across the whole of the North and not just the border counties.

Republicans persuaded the Brits to scrap the B Specials militia, the Ulster Defence Regiment, the RUC, and axe the original Stormont Parliament, effectively leaving Unionists powerless.

The backbone of Unionist rule in the North for generations was the Protestant Marching Orders, especially the Orange.

That Trojan Horse was the network of republican-dominated nationalist residents’ groups objecting to traditional parades.

That succeeded – as at Drumcree – in driving a wedge between the Orders and the Protestant middle class who abhorred the violence now associated with such contentious marches.

Now a second Trojan Horse has been delivered to the Unionist stable – objecting to loyalist band parades, such as Rasharkin in Co Antrim.

The aim of this ploy is to drive another wedge between working class Protestants, and the police and Parades Commission.

The ultimate aim of the Sinn Féin stable of Trojan Horses is not about securing equality for republicans, but about isolating Unionism politically, socially and culturally.

The worst thing Sinn Féin can do is to abandon the concept of using political Trojan Horses now that Unionists have worked out how republicans have always stayed several steps ahead of them for decades.

In the Republic, Sinn Féin must use the Trojan Horse of its anti-austerity stance to convince voters the party should be a coalition partner in the next Dail.

And in the North, it must continue to encourage more draft-dodgers into its ranks. These are young republicans who have never served an apprenticeship in the IRA.

This Trojan Horse enabled Sinn Féin to heavily eat into the SDLP’s traditional middle class Catholic vote.

But yet another Trojan Horse is needed here – to ensure middle class nationalists do not abandon the Stoops completely and set up a new moderate party.

Yet more Trojan Horses which the Shinners need to urgently create are one to combat the threat from the dissident republican movement, given the dire warnings coming from the police.

Sinn Féin can take a giant leap towards Irish unity if it ditches abstentionism at Westminster and becomes part of a coalition Government with Labour boss Ed Miliband.

This Trojan Horse is used to fool republican hardliners within Sinn Féin ranks that the party has not joined the British Establishment, but taking Commons seats is part of a clever plan.

As for Trojan Horses from Unionism, there’s no chance. Unionism’s stable is full of blind donkeys ready for the political knackers yard!

December 9, 2014________________

This article appeared in the December 8, 2014 edition of the Irish Daily Star.

One law for the rich another for the poor?

   I am not surprised in any measure about the revelations of Kiernan Conway that the Provos had contacts and assistance from inside the Garda in the 1970s and even later.  I not surprised about help going to the Provos  from the politicians or businessmen. I was puzzled by the reference to him as a barrister.  Reading the articles in the press it says he came from an upper middle class family in south Dublin. But it clearly says that he was jailed in the Crumlin Road prison after being caught by the army in Londonderry.  He even went on hunger strike for political status.

“The ex-IRA intelligence officer turned Dublin barrister”

So how does someone with such a conviction walk in the hallowed halls of justice?  As an ex paramilitary prisoner one thing that has dogged me since my release is the constant discrimination shown in job selection procedures and interviews.  Maybe it’s OK to get a Diplock conviction then move south and there’s no problem?  Did the legal eagles down there vet his application to the bar? Or maybe it’s more a class thing?  Maybe Conway’s family and friends moved in the right circles that could get things sorted? No harm in sliding him in if you were also turning a blind eye to the slaughter that was going on in Belfast and the border?

But what of working class loyalist men and women who decided to stand up in the ‘70s? Maybe our ideas then about collusion between the Irish government and the Provos were correct?  And in some ways thank heavens we stood up for what was right.  But ordinary loyalists have struggled to get good jobs to look after their families upon release from prison and long after they had left their organisation.  Some of the discrimination I encountered was from middle and upper class unionists.

And not only loyalist ex-prisoners. I have followed the case of two ex-republicans who wanted to work in a homeless place in west Belfast. Bottom line. They cant.  So if you are from the Shankill or the Falls i.e. working class, and not upper middle class, you cannot, and never will be,  a barrister or such like.  After such a revelation is it any wonder that ordinary loyalists do not, and will not, go into a United Ireland? What sort of life awaits us there?

Working class Prod and Diplock court sentenced.