Friday 29 April 2011

Those Titles and my family

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Picture from PA)
I really couldn't believe it when I heard the set of titles that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II bestowed upon her grandson on the day of his wedding. Creating him Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn and Baron Carrickfergus was a strange parallel to my family.

Before Katherine went to St. Andrews a girl from Lurgan did likewise. She met a man from St. Salvator's in her first year but it wasn't until their second year that these two started to go out, that man's mother at one point taught in Strathearn School in Belfast.

The two young people got married in Bangor, Northern Ireland, but the reception was at the Mageramourne Hotel near Larne. The Best Man, the groom's brother, drove them away from the reception, but had to return them there for the night. He I drove them to Carrickfergus Castle car park where they got out to have a stroll to have their first quiet time together since getting married, a little like the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are doing now.

Their elder child, my elder nephew completes the story, as after some time in Chester they moved to Cambridge where he was born and dedicated.

So congratulations to William and Catherine Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on this the day of their marriage. I was happy to watch their wedding with two other St. Andrews' graduands who I stood beside as they made their vows almost 16 years ago, and whose marriage I was one of the official witnesses.

Thursday 28 April 2011

Seven Days before the Polls open #Yes2AV

In seven days time the polls will be open!!

Unlike in recent years I am actually having to schedule in a trip to my polling station to cast my vote. Getting a postal vote here in Northern Ireland isn't quite as universal as it would be in Scotland. I will be presented with three ballot papers, two which for the Assembly and Council I've still to work out my lower preferences, seeing as I get to elect six people with each preferences down the list do matter. The other ballot is one I've known for months exactly how I'll be voting.

Of course I'll be voting Yes! for Alternative Vote by using an X. Some people might think it odd that I'm voting for AV using an X more associated with FPTP but I have voted in AV elections by an X before. While internal elections in the party are decided by preferential voting STV for committee spots and AV for single positions, there are occasions that only two people stand for a position and therefore an X suffices. It's why when people misrepresent Nick Clegg's 'miserable little compromise' comment they have it all wrong, we are a party that elects people to stand for a particular position by AV.

The miserable compromise came in the time that Gordon Brown tried to over up a smorgasbord of electoral and parliamentary reform, in the dying days of his premiership, when it looked like nothing could help him overcome the Conservatives in the polls and even the Lib Dems were threatening to be higher than Labour.

But there is also a misunderstanding of what are MPs are there to represent. Alex Salmond is once again trying to say that the Additional Member System in Scotland the second vote is there to elect a President First Minister, rather than MSPs to represent the region. The No 2 AV campaign seem to make the same mistake with why we elect our MPs. MPs are elected to best represent the voters in that constituency. Sometimes that does come from one of the two main parties, sometimes that comes from another party or from an independent. Westminster elections do not of themselves elect the Prime Minister only 1 in 650 voters have a say in electing the Prime Minister and even they don't always sure if they have or some other set of voters elsewhere have done so.

What we have in the UK is a representative democracy. We the people elect our representatives, they in turn vote for or against the Government of the day. What we are doing when we vote for MPs is elect the person we think will represent the needs of our area best. That is what AV will ensure that each voter in all of the constituencies will have, an MP with the backing of 50% of the valid votes.

Over 60% of us say we are willing to vote for more than one candidate, only 18% say they will only vote for one. How many of that 60% have already had to compromise on their opinions to vote to try to keep someone else out rather than for what they truly believe. Research shows that over 23% of us have voted for somebody else. Even that figure is higher than the number who say they only have one preference of who they will vote for.

Voting No in seven days time will restrict you to a signle choice in Westminster elections. More of us want to have that option of expressing our opinion than those who are tied to one particular party. More of us have voted for more than one option in our lives than those who will only ever vote one way. Is it right that they can scare people into thinking that a limit of one option is the way to decide who best represents you. I don't and most of those who vote don't.

That's why I'm saying Yes! next Thursday.

If you are voting in Northern Ireland don't forget to take along your ID with you.

  • A UK, Irish or EEA driving licence (photographic part)
  • A UK, Irish or EU passport
  • An electoral identity card
  • A Translink Senior SmartPass
  • A Translink 60+ SmartPass
  • A Translink War Disabled SmartPass
  • A Translink Blind Person’s SmartPass

Wednesday 27 April 2011

Location, location, location - of election posters

On Saturday local blogger Ian Parsley commented on the state of posters here for the Northern Irish elections. It really does make some interesting reading for my Scottish, English or Welsh friends and may well warrant a fuller response from myself at a later point. However, one thing he did mention is location, he said:

"I do wonder if there could be limitations on size and perhaps on location."

From my election campaigns in West Lothian and Endinburgh where I have often been the 'poster boy'* I can't believe some of the locations that the LARGE Northern Irish posters can appear on.

In all the Lothian elections I have helped poster in there are three simple rules by which affect the location.

1) Posters are only allowed on lamposts.

2) Posters are not allowed to be on any lampost that bears any other street furniture (i.e. direction and warning signs for traffic or traffic lights)

3) Posters are not allowed on traffic islands or central reservations.

Just locally I have seen some positioning of posters that causes me some concern, and maybe should have done for the poster teams that put them up. But without local by-laws as clear as those above they haven't thought about the implications of where they have put posters.

The first instance is on some railings outside a local corner shop. Children are liable to run out of this shop and cross the road, sometimes without thinking, yet as you can see there are posters on the railings that would further obscure their actions and distract a driver coming around the bend. From street level in a car travelling towards this behind the barriers is almost totally obscured.

The second is at the end of my road unto a major road. There is a staggered junction and a traffic island between to two to aid pedestrians. However, in the two weeks that the posters have already been up there has been slippage and it is becoming increasingly hard to see through it to any cars coming from the other junction, more so from an SUV type vehicle that often carry children.

Maybe Ian is right that there is a need for a little bit more regulation as to where posters should be allowed, as in the Lothian instructions should be clear enough and meet health and safety concerns. The things is in Northern Ireland there is no restiction as to when they can start going up, many have already been up for weeks and there are still 10 days before polling day. In West Lothian and Edinburgh they cannot be up before 00:01 on the Saturday before polling day and have to be down by the end of the second working day after the result is declared.

* For my Northern Irish readers that doesn't mean by face has been smiling down from them but I was responsible for their being put up and taken down again.

Tuesday 26 April 2011

Why I Need to Still Go to Church - Two Years On

It doesn't seem like almost two years since I stood on the Mound in Edinburgh outside the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to show my support for my friend Rev. Scott Rennie. However, although the vote that day went in favour of Scott's calling to Queen's Cross in Aberdeen there was a later discussion that put a moritorium on openly gay trainees for the ministry and appointing openly gay ministers. News today that the Special Commission on Same Sex Relationships and the Ministry* is to report to next month's Assembly signals an end of that process and a period when those within the church weren't to discuss this further.

What the commission has come up with in its recommendations are two trajectories.The first of which is to implement a ban on homosexuals training to be ministers — despite such discrimination being illegal — while the second is to allow people in a same-sex relationship to train for the ministry but set up a theological commission to come up with a definitive answer in 2013. Therefore one is a full stop to any progress, the other is to allow another 2 years of thinking time.

I've written in the past that my own personal journey and struggle to reconcile my faith with my sexuality took over a decade, "so I don't expect the Church to totally come to terms with things overnight. Although they have had 2000 or so years to get to grips with these issues." Therefore I'm wondering why the need for another two year commission to look at the theological questions. When the commision was established it knew it was facing a two-year moritorium on the issue, they would know that people would expectantly waiting to hear their findings, not only within the church but further afield. So the fact that one trajectory is a clear no and the other is a cloudy maybe is not good enough.

One thing the commission did say is that the church needs to acknowledge that homophobia is a sin, that the church should not be hostile to homosexuality. Also it should not deny those who are homosexual by orientation from being members or taking up positions of leadership.

Why is that a big deal you may ask? As my friend Caron wrote two years ago about her days at University:

"It was clear that [my gay friends] weren't welcome [within the Christian Union] just on the basis of their sexuality. That seemed fundamentally unfair to me and I ultimately decided that if you had to be like that to be in the Church, then I wasn't going to bother, thank you very much."

It was something I myself faced up to earlier this year.Whilst the church I grew up in and am attending again is happy that I play bass in the praise band (and I often get complimented for the sympathetic way that I do after services) I'm not a full member. Despite having become a member there in my teens on my profession of faith, that is no longer good enough. When I went for my membership interview, I was told that my blog had been read, and I was asked as question one, would I consider myself to be homosexual. Of course I would, I see part of what I have to do now as to help those young (and not so young) people who struggle with faith and sexuality issues, sometimes to the point of suicide, or contemplating it. 

At the ned of that interview it seemed to me that it would be far easier as a gay Christian to lie to yourself and to others. To bear false witness and pass all the comments about girlfriends or future wives off as not yet. Rather that allowing me the chance to carry on being happy accepting me as who I am rather than the misery that came with hiding my feelings for so long through my teens and twenties. I'm just glad that the place I was at in my forties enabled me to deal with such rejection, a teenage me might not have still been around after such rejection from the Church family that he had known all his life.

I wait to see what the Church of Scotland decide next month. There is a maybe option, and that is an option of hope for people like me within the Church who Christian and Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual.

* I note that the name of the commission has changed in the two years from one on Human Sexuality an inclusive title to only looking at Same-Sex relationships and the Ministry (lessening the scope).

Party Election Broadcast Watch 12: Some Independents #AE11

Already I've covered the media braodcasts that the mainstream media have covered here for the Northern Ireland elections. But we are in a social media age, so some of the many Independent candidates have put up there own videos on YouTube. They don't have the big media budgets of the mainstream parties, so they don't always have the production values if the videos I have posted before. But here are the ones I have found so far.

Starting in East Belfast with Stephen Stewart



Charles Smyth standing in South Belfast on a Pro Capitalism ticket



If you know of any others please let me know in the comments below and I will post them on the blog.

Sunday 24 April 2011

Party Election Broadcast Watch 11: People Before Profit #AE11

Over here in Northern Ireland we have a different set of parties, with a different set of policies and a different set of priorities to a lot of the rest of the UK. In the run up to the Assembly Election on May 5th they are going to be prodicing a series of election broadcasts. I intend to, if they are easily available (i.e. on YouTube), embed them here so that people outside of Northern Ireland can see what the parties here are saying. I personally won't be passing comment, but feel free to add you own in the comments thread.

I've been rather remiss at keeping this up this week, but here is the People Before Profit Alliance broadcast.

Party Election Broadcast Watch 10: TUV #AE11

Over here in Northern Ireland we have a different set of parties, with a different set of policies and a different set of priorities to a lot of the rest of the UK. In the run up to the Assembly Election on May 5th they are going to be prodicing a series of election broadcasts. I intend to, if they are easily available (i.e. on YouTube), embed them here so that people outside of Northern Ireland can see what the parties here are saying. I personally won't be passing comment, but feel free to add you own in the comments thread.

I've been rather remiss at keeping this up this week, but here is the Traditional Unionist Voice broadcast.

Party Election Broadcast Watch 9: Socialist Party #AE11

Over here in Northern Ireland we have a different set of parties, with a different set of policies and a different set of priorities to a lot of the rest of the UK. In the run up to the Assembly Election on May 5th they are going to be prodicing a series of election broadcasts. I intend to, if they are easily available (i.e. on YouTube), embed them here so that people outside of Northern Ireland can see what the parties here are saying. I personally won't be passing comment, but feel free to add you own in the comments thread.

I've been rather remiss at keeping this up this week, but here is the Socialist Party's broadcast.

Party Election Broadcast Watch 8: UKIP #AE11

Over here in Northern Ireland we have a different set of parties, with a different set of policies and a different set of priorities to a lot of the rest of the UK. In the run up to the Assembly Election on May 5th they are going to be prodicing a series of election broadcasts. I intend to, if they are easily available (i.e. on YouTube), embed them here so that people outside of Northern Ireland can see what the parties here are saying. I personally won't be passing comment, but feel free to add you own in the comments thread.


I've been rather remiss at keeping this up during this week, but here is UKIP's first venture into Northern Irish Assembly elections.

Party Election Broadcast Watch 7: Green Party #AE11

Over here in Northern Ireland we have a different set of parties, with a different set of policies and a different set of priorities to a lot of the rest of the UK. In the run up to the Assembly Election on May 5th they are going to be prodicing a series of election broadcasts. I intend to, if they are easily available (i.e. on YouTube), embed them here so that people outside of Northern Ireland can see what the parties here are saying. I personally won't be passing comment, but feel free to add you own in the comments thread.


I've been rather remiss at keeping this up during this week. But here is Monday's offering from the Northern Ireland Green Party.

Friday 22 April 2011

The Race in Run: RIP Grete Waitz

There once was a time when the longest distance that women could compete at was 1500m a mere 3¾ laps of a standard track. Into this era there was a Norwegian girl Grete Anderson from the suburbs of Oslo broke into the scene following the sporting footsteps of her brothers Arild and Jan.

In 1971 aged 17 she broke the European junior 1500m record running a time of 4:17. The following summer she made the trip to Munich as part of the Norwegian Olympic team but was knocked out in the heats. However, two years later she did pick up her first senior medal in the 1974 European Athletic championships in Rome.

In 1975 while she was working as PE teacher she met Jack Nilsen and for their married name they settled on his mother's name Waitz and he was to become her coach and make the major shift in her career.

Her first world record came the following year in the double distance 3000 metres (women still not deemed equal the men and able to run 5000m) running 8:46.6 in her native Olso. The following year she went faster still 8:45.4. In the 1978 European championships she again took bronze, this time in the 3000m, however it was seven weeks later that she was to find her true self.

Jack persuaded his wife that even though she had competed in the 3000 meters only weeks before that she was capable of running the New York Marathon, she had never even competed over a Half Marathon before. The race director Fred Lebow also took some persuading to enter this 3000m runner into his race. He eventually allowed her in as a pace maker and gave her the rather anonymous number of 1173F, elite competitors are usually given low numbers. Grete went out and ran at world record pace, and ran at it the whole way, crossing the line first in 2:32:30.

She was to return for nine of the next ten years and only on one of those occasions through injury did she fail to lead the field home. In 1983 she had a perfect year, she won the London Marathon in a World Record 2:25:29* (however Joan Benoit (USA) the following day in Boston ran 2:22:43), winning the inaugural World Marathon Title (the first championship race at this distance) and her fifth New York Marathon title.

She won medals at all the major championships bar one, the Olympics. In the inaugural women's Marathon in Los Angeles 1984 there were four legendary women that everyone wanted to see, Waitz who had been so dominant in the sport over the last 6 years and Benoit who had taken the world record off the Norwegian the previous year, also Portugal's Rosa Mota and fellow Norwegian and season best performer when winning in London Ingrid Kristiansen. It was a top class field hoping to add to their legendary status with that first Olympic gold. 

In the smoggy LA conditions Benoit pulled away from the other three to enter the stadium well ahead to finish in a time of 2:24:52 exception under the humidity and smog conditions. Waitz was second to enter the Coliseum to finish in 2:26:18, with Mota watching he from further down the track in 2:26:57, the other Norweigan Kristiansen missed out on the medals with 2:27:34.

In Seoul in 1988 she dropped out at the 18 mile mark with a knee injury. Having flirted with retirement before that first New York Marathon she finally retired in 1991.

She says it was the New York Marathon that made her into a Marathon runner and it New York that proved Fred Lebow wrong she was more than just a hare, she was the thoroughbred that would last the course time and again. She did so again in 1992 when she ran with Lebow who had been diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1990, they ran in together in just over five and a half hours.

In 2005 Waitz herself was diagnosed with cancer, having been renowned for her winter training regime on the treadmill, she carried on with that through her chemotherapy, walking instead of running. In recent years she has been working for the charity Aktiv Mot Kreft (Action Against Cancer). However, she hit the wall with that disease on Tuesday, a second of those strong, courageous, female individuals of my youth to succumb to cancer this week, on the same day.

As a distance runner it was stories like Grete's that actually inspired me. It was the longevity of her career, that always made me think at the end of the Olympics when the sportspeople are called to assemble again in four years time that gave me some outside hope (that was until the last time). She was an inspiration not just to female atheltes like Liz McColgan who said "Grete was the first world-class distance runner and she opened the doors for everyone. If it wasn't for Grete, womens's distance running would not be where it is now." She was also an inspiration to women who are fighting to clear any glass ceiling, as well as an inspiration to all of us to find that niche which is actually us.

Grete Waitz (neé Andersen) 1 October 1953 - 19 April 2011




* Waitz had lowered the woman's mark by nine minutes from Christa Vahlensieck's time of 2:34:47 down to 2:32:30 in 1978, 2:27:33 in 1979, 2:25:41 in 1980, and finally to that 2:25:29 London time. She was to set her personal best 2:24:54 in London in 1986.

Blogged Elsewhere: Why Northern Ireland should say Yes to the Alternative Vote

Over on Slugger O'Toole I've posted the following earlier to day.

Is it right that only three of Northern Ireland’s 18 MPs had the backing of over 50% of those who voted last May? Or right that another three had only one in three people vote for them? That is the situation that Northern Ireland found itself in last May after the only election that we place an X on our ballots rather than ranking our candidates by order of preference.

You can read the rest here it even contains my word of the week 'promiscuous'.

Wednesday 20 April 2011

Elisabeth Sladen This Was Your Life

We all know that Elisabeth Sladen best known as the Doctor's companion Sarah Jane Smith passed away as a result of cancer yesterday. It came as a shock to us all and Whovians across the world were shocked at the second stalwart of the Jon Pertwee years, after Nick Courtney (who played Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart KBE), passing away in such quick succession. What was worse about Elisabeth's passing was that she was now loved by a second generation through the Sarah Jane Adventures a lot of little ones were either told last night or this morning that one of their favourite characters was no longer going to be around.

Therefore I'd thought I'd take a look at some of Elisabeth Sladen's work, not just Doctor Who related.

Even before she first met the enigmatic Dr Jones who was The Doctor undercover in Hand of Fear (her first adventure) she ran in Frank Spencer (Michael Crawford) as the greengrocers in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em here is that scene.



Maybe it was her triumphant return to the series in which she made her name and left her mark in the episode School Reunion that made her the ideal choice to give an award to the Best Sustainable School in that year's Teacher's Awards. I hope the school and the judges in question had checked the chip oil in the kitchens.



The man who not only brought back Doctor Who  but of course Sarah Jane was Russell T. Davies. He like me was a child of the sixties growing up with Pertwee and Tom Baker. Here is the tribute that RTD made last night on hearing along with so many of the rest of us the sad news that Elisabeth had been cruelly wiped out by cancer. A disease which some of those that even worked with her in the last year say you wouldn't have known she was suffering from because of the old adage "the show must go on".



Then there is this from the Doctor himself, for those of us of my vintage. Tom Baker on his website has posted his own emotional tribute.

Sarah Jane dead? No, impossible! Impossible. 

Of course I have to finish with the original exit from Doctor Who the first time a companion's leaving drew as much attention as that of the Doctor's regenerations.




Finally I've found a moving poem created from lines spoken by Sarah Jane on muir_wolf's blog.

In the words of the Doctor
 "Don't forget me."

Sarah Jane and Elisabeth in the words you spoke back which ring out as true for you as they do for the Doctor;

"No one is ever going to forget you."

Thank you for being a part of my childhood and again part of my adulthood all these years later.

Two Legends Show Families of 96 They'll Never Walk Alone #YNWA

Regular readers will know that as a Liverpool fan of some 36 years there is one newspaper that I don't even mention let alone link to on this blog. Although its namesake has been very welcome in our sky the last few days and long may it remain visible.

Well two heros of the Kop have put the reason that Liverpool fans and players boycott that publication before personal gain when they were invited to host RTÉ's Premier Soccer Sunday. So it is hats off to Ronnie Whelan and Ray Houghton two of the players from the team on that day at Hillsborough. That certain newpaper was sponsoring the show that the Liverpool and Republic of Ireland greats had been due to appear in.

These two are saying to the fans and the relatives of the Hillsborough 96 You'll Never Walk Alone as we're walking there with you all the way.

RIP Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith)

Oops! I posted this on the wrong blog last night.

A young Elisabeth Sladen with K-9
The BBC has just confirmed the news that I was seeing across Twitter when I got in a few moments ago. Elisabeth Sladen the actress best known as Sarah Jane Smith companion to both Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker's Doctor as well as appearing with with David Tennent and Matt Smith has passed away aged 63.

As a result of her appearance along with K-9 in that David Tennent story School Reunion she was given what was her second spin off series The Sarah Jane Adventures having previously been in the short-lived K-9 and Company in the 80s.

The new generation of Doctor Who fans including my nephews will always have as their first companion Rose Tyler as played by Billie Piper. For people of my vintage the first companion we remember is Sarah Jane. So her return to the new series was like us revisiting our childhood. Indeed when she left the series in 1976 serial The Hand of Fear it was the first time that the leaving of a companion caused as much media interest as the previous three Doctors leaving.

She first appeared as an investigative reporter when the Doctor himself was undercover to the Smith and Jones was born, the Doctor used in the pseudonym Jones when he needs to have a last name. But she also was the first of the companions to actually have a strong personality and really be able to get some solutions even before the Doctor managed which is why she stands out as a iconic assistant. She will be sadly missed amongst the Whovians from here to the co-ordinates of Gallifrey, although I suspect some lifeforms within metal containers may well CEL-LE-BRATE. However, I'm sure if they do so in front of the Doctor his sonic screwdriver may well get revenge for us all.

Elisabeth Sladen 1948-2011

Tuesday 19 April 2011

Not all sports are first past the post

By Bob Moran in The Guardian 19 April 2011

The above cartoon in this mornings Guardian was to some up the two cross party events yesterday by the Yes and No campaigns in the AV referendum. However, it also draws to mind the No2AV literature which starting arriving on people doormats yesterday morning as well. There were three sportsmen from three different sports featured inside.


The first was Amir Khan the boxer, the timing of his appearance in this literature couldn't have been worse timed. At the weekend Khan retained his title when a doctor stepped in to controversially say that a cut above Khan's opponent eye was too bad for the fight to continue. The thing is in boxing there such event do occur, on Saturday Khan was ahead on points at the time the doctor intervened, but there have been occasions when the boxer leading on the judges score cards has been deemed unable to continue because of a cut. Sometimes such cuts are also the result of illegal actions earlier in the fight like a boxer using the thumb of his glove, or rubbing heads together. Even if the referee has giving warnings or point deductions for such activity if this results in the other boxer eventually bleeding, the fight could be stopped and given to the opponent who may have cheated and may have been trailing to get that far.


The second was Olympic rower Sir Steve Redgrave. Redgrave took part in one of the events that has a strange route to getting to the finals of an event the repechage. This is a way that the rowers who didn't quite qualify for the final as of right in their heats have a second race in which to do this. Redgrave himself is not superhuman and has had off days that have necessitated going through a repechage to get to a final. He's even come through a repechage and gone on to win gold at World Championships. If he'd been trying to qualify for a USA or Kenyan position in a Olympic team athletics event there would have been no repechage no second change, the top three only get to go to the Olympics there is no discretion for the selectors. Yet Redgrave and other rowers do benefit from having that second change within their sport at the highest levels.


The final choice is Sir Bobby Moore the captain of the 1966 England World Cup football sq. Yet in football we now have the misnomer of a Champions League, when in some cases the team that has come 4th in their national championship can go on to lift the title, unlike in the old European Cup where the national champions and the holders fought it out over knockouts from the start. Even as a Liverpool fan I have to admit that our 5th title in 2005 was achieved from just such a position, champions of Europe despite not being champions of England since 1990. Or teams can lose out on aggregate to a team in the various group stages and then go on to win the trophy. There has even been cases of teams being unbeaten on the way through losing out to a team that had lost in the group stages going out on away goals after two draws in the knock out stages.


Football like boxing or rowing is a game where the team that is leading at the first stage isn't always the winner at the end. As Kris Akabushi said when he appeared at a Yes2AV event even in the 100m at the Olympics there are the first and second round and semi-finals. It is rare that the eventual champion will have won every round of that race. What is important is that they win on the final round. Just like Alternative Vote it is getting over the final line, the one that is set at 50%, the one that doesn't move that is important. That will lead to more competitive elections where you are the IPPR report said yesterday.

Friday 15 April 2011

Petrol Bombs and Bricks Shall Not Stop Our Democratic Shared Future

The fact that election campaigners in Northern Ireland are going door to door canvassing in something to be applauded. Indeed it is something that all to recently would have led to some candidates setting foot in certain parts of the area they were seeking to represent.The fact that twice in the past 24 hours on two separate incidents SDLP canvass teams have been attacked is a shame to those who carried out such attacks.

Not Delores Kelly's windscreen but an example
Last night a petrol bomb aimed at the car of election volunteers and today when a brick was thrown at the windscreen of Delores Kelly seeking re-election in Upper Bann. This is not how this election campaign, or how the last assembly or the next one, is going to get along. There is consensus that things now will be done through the ballot box, this anti-social and indeed anti-democracy attacks on candidates are something that nobody involved in politics should condone, we should all stand together and condemn such actions. Thankfully nobody has been seriously hurt in either incident, although people could so easily have been.

However, all is not light an consensus in Northern Ireland right now. Tom Elliot along with the leaders of all the parties attended the funeral of PSNI Constable Ronan Kerr last week (an event that united the majority of the population with only a few dissenters). However, a group of fundamentalist Orangemen have called on the UUP leader to be expelled from the Loyal Order.

People outside Northern Ireland may not know what the fuss is about. Well yesterday as I was reading the DUP council candidates profile as they came through my door the one thing that I did notice was the mention in three of the four of involvement in or with the Loyal Orders, it is shorthand to the Unionist base to vote for them they're one of you. However, as myself and few others have expressed we don't see the point of such emphasis when we are talking about a shared future. In fact the DUP recently were actually asking Catholic economic liberals to vote for them based on their right leaning economic policies rather than the left leaning of the SDLP and Sinn Féin.

So while Northern Ireland parties are talking up a game of sharing over the airwaves, through the doors there is still a little of the politics of separation coming through from some quarters. It is not what I have been used to the last 9 years in Scotland and I will taking serious consideration over how I place my preferences on May 5th.

Poems for the Ninety Six #YNWA

Two years ago I did one of my simpliest yet most emmotional blogposts ever. All it was was the lyrics of one show song adopted on terraces and a list of 96 neames with the ages they were on a sunny afternoon in Sheffield 22 years ago.

It is a regularly visited blogpost ever since especially about the 15th April. This year to mark my love for Liverpool FC I'm found some poems on YouTube about the 96 and that afternoon in Sheffield. ***warning*** have a tissue to hand I did when I first played these and every time since.



And more



One final tribute on this day is the 20th Anniversary reworking of the Kop anthemThe Fields of Anfield Road which was released two years ago, with the addition of a Hillsborough verse to add to those for Shanks and Paisley. I'm not sure if we ever see Kenny Dalglish shouting "And could he play!" in the response to the line "Where one we watched the King Kenny play". But the Liverpool collective included many of the players who were on the pitch that day 22 years ago, this is their tribute and ongoing contribution to the families of the 96.



You'll Never Walk Alone

Hillsbourgh, 15 April 1989

Postscript: Also two years ago I wrote about the final part of the journey I never made on that day. Recently I stood on the same platform, waiting to make the same journey, to find myself surrounded by as many police as were around that day, not for football but for a party conference. It was also a sunny day but I stood for a moment to remember them, the 96, there where I'd been 22 years ago and not been back until that day.

Thursday 14 April 2011

Who is standing in North Down #AE11

Here is the notice of cadidates for North Down in the Assembly election.

In full they are (with online links and contact details where available):

Steven Agnew - Green Party Twitter Mob: 07706 784 436 Email: stevenagnewgpni@hotmail.co.uk

Colin Breen - Ulster Unionist Party Email: colinbreen.vote1@gmail.com

Alan Chambers - Independent

Leslie Cree - Ulster Unionist Party Mob: 07876 170 309 Email: l.cree726@gmail.com

Gordon Dunne - Democratic Unionist Party - D.U.P Tel: (028) 9042 3046

Alex Easton - Democratic Unionist Party - D.U.P Tel: (028) 9188 9620

Stephen Farry - Alliance Party Mob: 07775 687 152 Email stephen.farry@allianceparty.org

Conor Keenan - Sinn Féin Tel: (028) 9024 3194 (Email: conor.keenan@sinn-fein.ie

Liam Logan - SDLP (Social Democratic & Labour Party) Email: gonoorthat@gmail.com

Alan McFarland - Independent Tel: (028) 9147 0900 Twitter

Fred McGlade - United Kingdom Independence Party Tel: (028) 9146 7707 Email: mail@ukipni.org

Peter James Weir - Democratic Unionist Party - D.U.P.Tel: (028) 9145 4500 Email: pjweir@hotmail.com

Anne Wilson - Alliance Party Tel: (028) 9145 9110 Email anne.wilson@allianceparty.org

Party Election Broadcast Watch 6: UUP #AE11

Over here in Northern Ireland we have a different set of parties, with a different set of policies and a different set of priorities to a lot of the rest of the UK. In the run up to the Assembly Election on May 5th they are going to be prodicing a series of election broadcasts. I intend to, if they are easily available (i.e. on YouTube), embed them here so that people outside of Northern Ireland can see what the parties here are saying. I personally won't be passing comment, but feel free to add you own in the comments thread.


Kicking off the second round of broadcasts this evening is the Ulster Unionist Party.

Wednesday 13 April 2011

Party Election Broadcast Watch 5: Alliance Party #AE11

Over here in Northern Ireland we have a different set of parties, with a different set of policies and a different set of priorities to a lot of the rest of the UK. In the run up to the Assembly Election on May 5th they are going to be prodicing a series of election broadcasts. I intend to, if they are easily available (i.e. on YouTube), embed them here so that people outside of Northern Ireland can see what the parties here are saying. I personally won't be passing comment, but feel free to add you own in the comments thread.

This evening's offering comes from the Alliance Party.

Sunday 10 April 2011

No Excuse for me in 9 years 3xx days

The current blood transfusion service tag line is give blood no excuses. Well it appears that I might just be able to avoid all the excuses at some point over 3,590 days from now, only if I resist the urge to have sex with someone with whom I have same sex attraction for 10 years. Even if I were to only have sex and only safe sex with one man who only has sex with me for that period it won't be good enough for Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (SaBTO).

That is not what I've fought for these last 10 years plus!

Indeed why is a women who has had sex with a man who has sex with men allowed to give blood after a 12 months period? Surely making such a 10 year ban on men is sexist on that measure for a start.

What about those of us who have a traceable blood test history going back 10 years or more? We may well have sex with a condom with other men, and we may well have the blood test results that show we are negative to any STI (including HIV) for that period yet we are not allowed to donate.

What about a couple who were civil partnered for 10 years, yes despite the worries of some Daily Mail readers and columnists not all of the civil partnerships from have been annulled from those early days? They have a commitment to each other as much as any heterosexual couple. Yet we are allowing straight people who sleep around (sometimes without protection look at the unwanted pregnancy figures) to give without any checks on their behaviour except if they have paid for sex.

SaBTO says there is a 5% risk of infection 5 years after having man on man sex, this is reduced to 2.5% after 10 years. Now can we come to some reason as to why there is a 2.5-5% chance of infection? Is that group a set that have been regularly tested? I doubt it. Is that a group that routinely practice safer sex (with men or women)? Again I doubt it. Are we sure that of that 2.5-5% who may well have had sex with women in the interim period that they picked up the infection from a man rather than one of their female partners? Now that is a poser.

As Jae Kay says, I don't care what the advise is as long as it's fair. How about "a gender neutral, sexuality neutral filtering process to replace discrimination with a sensible protection of the quality of the donated blood supply"? Will there be a "day when those who practice safe sex need not fear rejection when offering to donate blood"?

Can we look a bit deeper into the science? How come after a test outside "the window" from when I last had sex the doctors can assure me that I'm not going to be be infected yet the SaBTO think I have to wait 9 years and 9 months longer than that window period?

Why does the blood transfusion service deny men who have sex with other men (oral or anal, with or without using a condom) from having sex, yet doesn't ask the same question about heterosexuals? Is it because of cause heterosexuals are allowed to have sex without a condom, because how else would we get more children? Is it too much to ask if they had sex with someone other than their long term partner without a condom in the past 12 months for example? Is it too much to pass safety of donation on practise, that it is easier to ban any man who has sex with another man (same provisions as before) for up to 10 years? Are they trying to turn all gay men who'd like to give blood celibate?

The Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service Website says:

The Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service (NIBTS) is required, under Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, as a public authority, to have due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity in carrying out its functions between:
  • persons of different religious belief, political opinion, racial group, age, marital status or sexual orientation;
  • men and women generally;
  • persons with a disability and persons without;
  • persons with dependants and persons without.
Moreover, the NIBTS is also required, in carrying out its functions to have due regard to the desirability of promoting good relations between persons of different religious belief, political opinion or racial group.
NIBTS is fully committed to embracing its equality obligations.

Or course elsewhere it says:

Infection is screened for by antibody tests and as it takes the body some time (days to weeks depending on the infection) to form antibodies, there will be a time period when the donor could have the infection but not yet have formed detectable antibodies. This is known as the 'window period'. One way of reducing the window period is to test for direct viral material, called nucleic acid testing. This type of test is available for HIV and HCV. However, in very early HIV or Hepatitis C infection, this test may also be negative.

This is why the donor HealthCheck questionnaire includes important questions on lifestyle, as we cannot rely exclusively on laboratory testing for ensuring the safety of blood.

Of course that HealthCheck questionnaire is not asking equal questions about lifestyle for all the groups covered under section 75 of the Belfast Agreement, signed 13 years ago today. The equality of opportunity from men of a Gay or Bisexual orientation is not the same as everyone else. They are asked a question about sex whether safe or not it makes no difference and there is no similar question asked to men who don't have sex with other men, the paying for sex question is generic, along with tattoos and other needle use (yet all these have a 1 year suspension period).

Saturday 9 April 2011

Party Election Broadcast Watch 4: UUP #AE11

Over here in Northern Ireland we have a different set of parties, with a different set of policies and a different set of priorities to a lot of the rest of the UK. In the run up to the Assembly Election on May 5th they are going to be prodicing a series of election broadcasts. I intend to, if they are easily available (i.e. on YouTube), embed them here so that people outside of Northern Ireland can see what the parties here are saying. I personally won't be passing comment, but feel free to add you own in the comments thread.

Thursday's offering came from the Ulster Unionist Party.

Thursday 7 April 2011

Party Election Broadcast Watch 3: SDLP #AE11

Over here in Northern Ireland we have a different set of parties, with a different set of policies and a different set of priorities to a lot of the rest of the UK. In the run up to the Assembly Election on May 5th they are going to be prodicing a series of election broadcasts. I intend to, if they are easily available (i.e. on YouTube), embed them here so that people outside of Northern Ireland can see what the parties here are saying. I personally won't be passing comment, but feel free to add you own in the comments thread.


Yesterday's offering came from the Social Democratic and Labour Party


Wednesday 6 April 2011

Gerry Adams Statement on Ronan Kerr

It's not everyday that I link to a video clip of Gerry Adams, but having listened to his statement in the Dáil Éireann yesterday, I am moved to do so.

He talks about the feelings in the North as a result of the murder on Saturday. He talks about the need to take things forward in a democratic matter and through the peace process.

One thing I am shocked by the the emptiness of the majority of the chamber with only the Sinn Féin benches being full. This is something that does affect all of Ireland and I praise Sinn Féin for actually bringing this to the floor of the Dáil, but the lack of support from the rest of the elected representatives is shocking, I hope it was not political point scoring at Sinn Féin without thinking about the wider consequences of a peace together. Sadly it did look like Sinn Féin were themselves largely alone at a time when they were actually reaching out for the good of the many.

Party Election Broadcast Watch 2: Sinn Féin #AE11

Over here in Northern Ireland we have a different set of parties, with a different set of policies and a different set of priorities to a lot of the rest of the UK. In the run up to the Assembly Election on May 5th they are going to be prodicing a series of election broadcasts. I intend to, if they are easily available (i.e. on YouTube), embed them here so that people outside of Northern Ireland can see what the parties here are saying. I personally won't be passing comment, but feel free to add you own in the comments thread.

Yesterday's offering came from Sinn Féin (there are two lines in Gaeilge which I might see about translating later if I have the time).


Gather for Peace, Democracy and Justice 1pm Belfast City Hall

 Later at 1pm I'll have made my way into Belfast City centre and hope many of you who are able will do likewise and those who are elsewhere will take a moment to bow you head with the people of Ireland (yes all of it) to pay respect to Constable Ronan Kerr and to stand with us as we proclaim "Not in Our Name". Here is a statement from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Northern Ireland (ICTU NI)

Dear Colleagues

Following the brutal murder of Constable Ronan Kerr, Congress will be providing an opportunity for Trade Union members and the greater public to assemble at Belfast City Hall, at 1pm on Wednesday 6th April, to show our abhorrence of the murder of PSNI Constable Ronan Kerr.

At this event a short statement will be read by the Vice Chair of the Northern Ireland Committee and no other Speeches will take place. The event will finish at 1.15pm.

We would urge you to encourage as many people as possible to attend this brief event in support of democracy, peace and justice across Northern Ireland.

Peter Bunting
Assistant General Secretary
ICTU NI


Further Statement from ICTU
--

Peter Bunting, Assistant General Secretary of the ICTU, said: 

“The murder of Police Officer Ronan Kerr in Omagh was an attack on a brave public servant and therefore an attack on every worker who serves the community and works towards a better future.

“The assassins targeted Constable Kerr because he was Catholic, and that makes this a sectarian murder, deliberately aimed at intimidating one section of the community.

“All citizens must stand together to show that we will not be intimidated by violence or threats from armed groups who should now publicly disband

“This public event being organised by the Trade Union Movement is open to all citizens, the vast majority of whom support the democracy we have achieved in this region. We all depend upon the maintenance of peace, democracy and justice.


“We urge all people who can attend the short event at Belfast City Hall at 1pm on Wednesday 6th April to do so.”

http://www.ictuni.org/

Tuesday 5 April 2011

Conor sets the Irish Daily Fail Right on Civil Partnerships

Today Ireland finally allowed same-sex civil partnerships. One thing that the Daily Fail, even its Irish edition doesn't fail to do is live up to the fail element that us of a liberal nature constantly find it to do. This morning it was the case of Richard Waghorne who seems to neglect the need for it simply because he doesn't want to be civilly partnered or married as a gay man. I'm allergic to cats so don't want to have one of them if I can help it, hardly an argument to prevent others who love cats to keep one for live now is it?

Fortunately my friend Conor has put a rather excellent counterpoint blog post together looking from the point of view of the children of same sex couples, a group that is often overlooked. It is an excellent written post taking on some of the stupidity of the arguments that Waghorne tried to bring to the debate. I urge to go take a read of it yourself.

Of course I'm still hoping to maybe some day get married in a ceremony that allows my God to be part of proceedings rather than an afterthought or a prequel which is what I'd still have to do even if civil partnerships could be held in a religious building. I'd still need to have two distinct parts of a ceremony, not intertwined as my heterosexual friends are able to do. I'd still be treated as a second class person of faith, simply because I'd want to get married to someone of the same sex.

Party Election Broadcast Watch 1: DUP #AE11

Over here in Northern Ireland we have a different set of parties, with a different set of policies and a different set of priorities to a lot of the rest of the UK. In the run up to the Assembly Election on May 5th they are going to be prodicing a series of election broadcasts. I intend to, if they are easily available (i.e. on YouTube), embed them here so that people outside of Northern Ireland can see what the parties here are saying. I personally won't be passing comment, but feel free to add you own in the comments thread.

Yesterday to get the ball rolling it was the Democratic Unionist Party




Next up will be Sinn Féin which is airing this evening.

Monday 4 April 2011

Omagh a Tale of Two Bombings

Inspired by Michael's post about the last time Omagh made all the wrong headlines I thought I'd look at what my memories where of that day back then and the differences with now.

It was a glorious afternoon on 15 August 1998. I was wearing just by polo shirt as I was playing on the NICS bowling green, on the Stormont Estate, in a Junior Irish Cup Semi-Final match. That afternoon I first suspected something was wrong by an increase in traffic heading into the estate and up towards the Castle and the Office of the Secretary of State.

Later on near the end of the match some of the spectators were huddled inside the club house, they then told us at the end that something had happened in Omagh, so the celebrations of reaching my first Irish Cup Final were somewhat muted as we headed back to Bangor to catch up on the news.

Saturday the 2 April 2011 was a mixed day. At time the sun was bursting out of the heavens at others it was overcast and even raining. The news this time, as my friend Phil wrote, was spreading via Twitter. I'd read the first reports on the train on my way back to Bangor after being part of the banner drop for the Yes! to Fairer Votes.

But this time within hours there was grass roots condemnation appearing from all sides (well almost) across Twitter, the hashtag #NotinMyName was trending late on Saturday. We didn't have Twitter back in 1998, people found out in their own time through car radios, portables at football games, or when they got back in after the afternoon shopping or gardening. Now many of us found out as we were going about what we were doing and we able to comment our own feelings to a few or many. We could also follow the views of others through the #Omagh #NotinMyName #PSNI etc hashtags.

As Phil said in his Tweet we could also see the disgusting side of a very small number of individuals who felt that the loss of a 25 year old's life at the start of a career in a role he was looking forward to was right. Thankfully that is only a small handful, overwhelmingly people are outraged at what has happened and never want to revisit those dark days again.

Looking around us today, life is going on in Northern Ireland. Some of the political parties postponed press conferences until tomorrow, Sinn Féin pushed theirs back so as not to clash with the FM and dFM statement. there are a couple of security alerts and suspect devices, so we are being vigilant once again (but then those of us brought up in the troubles have never really ceased to be). But overwhelmingly the people here want peace, we've tasted it and want it to continue. "Not in my name" is the cry of many this weekend and going forward will remain the message to those who want to drag us back into a era of fear and uncertainty.

Sunday 3 April 2011

Not in My Name: In Memoriam to Constable Ronan Kerr 2 April 2011

Not again poor Omagh
Not more young life wiped out.
Not in our name most people say
Except some who don't see what we're all about.
We don't want this continuity
We want a shared future, we want it now
What we want is normality.
Is that too much to for our children to know?

There are those standing side by side
They’ve stretched their hands across the divide
They are working together for the peace of all
They rise up today, together appalled
At a life so young, so fresh in his new job
Wiped up by the undemocratic opinion of the yobs
Who don’t care for peace but only live for war
In a Norn Iron we don't want anymore.

Not in my name did they kill Ronan Kerr.
Not in the name of the many standing here
Catholic and Protestant, native born or elsewhere,
Or whatever community we wish to declare.
Were standing together demanding this peace.
So Neanderthal eejits, stop this war! Hold yer weest!
Catch yerself on and get in on the act
We're all looking forward so stop looking back.

© Stephen Glenn 2 April 2011