Policing & Justice: Three wheels on my wagon.

A song that could reflect our wonderful policing and justice negotiations!


Lets hope it doesn't go the way the song ends up!

the deadline approaches

Hillsborough Castle

Well today is the day.  Maybe.


Really what is going on?


Looks like at the moment the cavalry is riding in.  But here is the thing - i think the deal is already done and dusted.  What this current situation is is just to do with electioneering.


The problem is not getting the parties to agree - i think they do agree and have said publicly that they all want policing and justice to be devolved.


The issue is saving face and not being seen to back down from each other.  Hopefully the 'official' deal can be done today so we can worry about piddly things like affording our homes, electricity, food, education, employment and generally staying alive.

yar nat waring that in here, so yar nat!?!

In more wonderful news, Tesco has banned people from stores if they are wearing their jim-jams.

Admittedly it is only in Cardiff. At the moment.

Northern Ireland has its own fair share of Jimmer Jammers. And to be honest it freaks me out a bit to see people so lazy they can not be bothered to actually change out of their pyjamas and into proper clothes.

The BBC article is genius. Please read it through.

I would like to see the ban applied right across the board.

Every little helps.

Deal or no deal??

As the great Noel Edmunds puts it to the contestant after the Banker has given a financial offer,

'Deal or no deal'

Some cut their losses and take it if it is a reasonable offer. Others go right on to the bitter end. This has resulted in contestants going home with no more than 1p.

Is this how things are being played out in Hillsburough Castle?

Is Brian Cowan playing Noel Edmunds? Gordon Brown playing the banker (i expect lots of sniggers at this one)? Will the two big contestants say 'Deal' or 'No deal'?

Why have we come once more to crisis point in Northern Ireland politics? Are we, more particularly the political parties, addicted to the adrenaline rush of last minute crunch talks where once more 'The hand of history is upon our shoulders'?

Speculation is that there is a deal on the tables with a devolution date for policing and justice on the table. Every so often the prosaic politicians throw a few scraps of information to the hungry hacks huddled outside. The closeness of a deal is tangible, yet just out of full sight.

Both the DUP and Sinn Fein have to play the game just right in order to save both face and the institutions. I don't think either of the parties want a snap election. The DUP could be given a bloody nose by a unionist electorate who have decided to either give up on this voting thing, side with the UUP or side with the TUV. Sinn Fein have an opportunity surely? well there is the child abuse allegations that will not go away and the fig leaf of 'First Minister' as another chance to stick it to the unionist parties.

The big issue of any snap Assembly election then will not be the economy, education, health, social housing, or employment. it will again come down to the sad sectarian head count where the electorate is more motivated to vote someone in to keep the other out.

The DUP and Sinn Fein could both use this as a race to finish first leaving the race track strewn with parties tripped up under the aspect of 'you must vote for us to keep out/put in place Sinn Fein First Minister.

It is politics, i admit. It is a politics that constantly rejuvenates itself under age old threats.

No one said it was ever a nice thing and it has its own electoral strength. But it will place Northern Ireland on the world stage as a place that constantly naval gazes and is obsessed with itself.

Perhaps a deal is possible and Northern Ireland will see another new era.

We live in hope. Maybe, just maybe, our parties will play the game right and get the £800 million jackpot.

ETA wish to complain in the strongest possible manner?

Picture the scene - ETA (Basque terror group) have a genius plan to blow the Spanish Prime Minister out of the sky with a SAM missile.

They source it through the IRA. So far so good.

They find the perfect place and time to fire. Click .... fzzzzzt.

No matter try again. Click .......... fzzzzzzt. Arrgh. Try again.

Click..........fzzzzzzzzzzt.

The Belfast Telegraph wonderfully retell the tale after a suspected ETA member was arrested earlier this month and told Spanish investigators that the Strela missile system, which homes in on a jet's exhaust, was aimed at the Prime Minister's jet plane when he visited the Basque country during a regional election campaign.

The best bit is yet to come. Are you ready for this??

The numpti kept documents in his home showing the faulty missile launcher was supplied by the IRA. AND the authorities also found a letter of complaint addressed to the IRA giving off stink about the sale of the defective missile launcher.

You can just imagine it now

Dear Mr O'Neil,

I wish to complain in the strongest possible manner.

The missile launcher i purchased from your establishment has utterly failed to fulfil its purpose. When selling me this implement you gave me the impression that I would be able to strike a great blow against the Spanish oppressor. You convinced me that this was the tool for the job, and most importantly there were no previous owners. I now find this statement suspect as I found the remains of some SOCO dust under the trigger.

I must take serious issue with your promises, as the implement completely failed to function. We have built up a long term professional relationship and i find this incident of wrongfully selling me a dud very disappointing indeed.

I also find in the small print on the purchase receipt that once it is used it is immediately out of guarantee and warranty. I find this most unsatisfactory.

I shall be contacting the General Consumer Council and the Stephen Nolan show to find a resolution.

I am now changing our Facebook relationship to 'its complicated'. I'm sorry but i feel very strongly about how you miss-sold me this product.

Yours sincerely

Carlos

I wonder if it might have been revenge on ETA for trying to sell the IRA some time share appartments?

Sit down, down, down, sit down next to me.....

Lots has been happening on the Unionist front with much made of the 'Pan-Unionist Front', and while sounds slightly better than UCU-NF, it still has a ring of 'Monty Python's Life of Brian' about it.

There is a lot of debate on what this means, and has been linked to the three Conservative nominees stepping down (this has been covered on Bob Balls and very nicely on Ian Parsley's blogpost)

Eamonn Mallie in a slugger post has highlighted a possible Conservative attitude towards the DUP -

"They want blood from the DUP not handshakes".

Yet many others on slugger are reading many different aspects on the future of Unionism.

The whole 'Unionist unity' thing is becoming rather silly. It would necessitate major compromise between the UUP and DUP, and would not now send out a positive message to the growing number of the electorate just giving up on politics altogether. Maybe thisspeculation would have been very welcome 15 to 30 years ago, but the whole political environment has gone global and we seem to be left behind again.

Whatever happens next, I think the unionist electorate will punish Unionist parties in general if there is no 'product' (clichés haven't gone away you know!) for them to see. The 'grass roots' are trying to cope with lack of employment, rising costs and keeping a roof over their head.

Maybe if we were given the option of signing a promise not to break the law and dividing up the £800 Policing and Justice budget between us all (about £470,000 each). If we break the law, that money is taken away and divided up amongst the rest.

What do you think?

guns, bombs, policing and justice

Well, again we are on the cusp of a crisis. I am surprised more people have not keeled over because of the excitement.

As of now, the two premiers (that's Gordon and Brian, not Peter and Martin) are trying to help resolve the policing and justice catastrophe currently brewing like a country woman's cup of tea. Though there is definitely no way to read the tea leaves and what the future holds.

There are so many options, and really - how much more important do people think Northern Ireland is than a General Election that could see the current Prime Minister picking up his P45. Yeah, he is far more worried about us than running the whole of the UK.

All this with the back drop of rising dissident activity. There is a lot more going on than we hear about in the media. A policeman is still very ill in hospital after terrorists put a bomb under his car causing him to lose his right leg. Reason? PSNI Constable Peadar Heffron is a 33-year-old Catholic, an Irish language specialist and is also the captain of its GAA team.

Dissidents have been trying to blow up the Policing Board HQ, keep attacking police stations, creating disruption with bomb alerts. The BBC have a nice little timeline for 2009 on their activity.

What we need really is all of the parties to be involved in the discussion for policing and justice and a positive resolution as soon as possible. Or else the community confidence question won't be in relation to unionist confidence, but in relation to whether or not we have confidence in our politicians to be able to actually do the job at all.

Perhaps another referendum would be appropriate. Put it to the vote of the community to resolve the question of community confidence once and for all.