Political guide to tourists to the Island of Ireland

Had this drop in my mail box and thought i would share.  A bit of Friday Fun.  Enjoy.

WARNING - THIS MAY BE A JOKE!!

Political guide to tourists to the Island of Ireland

Ireland is an island to the west of Britain but Northern Ireland is just off the mainland - not the Irish mainland, the British mainland.

The capital of Ireland is Dublin . It has a population of a million people, all of whom will be shopping in Newry this afternoon. They travel to Newry because it is in the North, which is not part of Ireland , but still pay in Euros.

Under the Irish constitution, the North used to be in Ireland , but a successful 30-year campaign of violence for Irish unity ensured that it is now definitely in the UK . Had the campaign lasted longer the North might now be in France .

Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland . It has a population of half a million, half of whom have houses in Donegal. Donegal is in the north but not in the North. It is in the South. No, not the south, the South.

There are two parliaments in Ireland . The Dublin parliament is called the Dáil, (pronounced "Doyle"), an Irish word meaning a place where banks receive taxpayers' money. The one in Belfast is called Stormont, an Anglo-Saxon word meaning placebo, or deliberately ineffective drug.

Their respective jurisdictions are defined by the border, an imaginary line on the map to show fuel launderers where to dump chemical waste.

Protestants are in favour of the border, which generates millions of pounds in smuggling for Catholics, who are opposed to it.

Travel between the two states is complicated because Ireland is the only country in the world with two M1 motorways. The one in the North goes west to avoid the south and the one in the South goes north to avoid the price of drink.

We have two types of democracy in Ireland . Dublin democracy works by holding a referendum and then allowing the government to judge the result. If the government thinks the result is wrong, the referendum is held again. Twice in recent years the government decided the people's choice was wrong and ordered a new referendum.

Belfast democracy works differently. It has a parliament with no opposition, so the government is always right. This system generates envy in many world capitals, especially Dublin .

Ireland has three economies - northern, southern and black. Only the black economy is in the black. The other two are in the red.

All versions of the IRA claim to be the real IRA but only one of them is the Real IRA. The North's biggest industry is the production of IRAs. Consequently, we now have the Provisional, Continuity and Real IRA. The Real IRA is by far the most popular among young graffiti writers simply because it is the easiest to spell.

Thank you for all your votes (or how i found out people cared!)

Well.  How can i put this. I am number 15 on Iain Dale's top 20 Northern Irish blogs.

I really can't believe it.

And so i just want to say a big big thank you t you all.  It is weird, wonderful and cheesily humbling.

Weird

Although i keep 'self publishing' it always feels that because a blog can be so detached from real life and chatting face to face, i am almost holding a conversation in my head.  I am quite sure now most people reading this will be quite afraid about what goes on in my head.  With this feel of slight detachment, I always wonder really how many people truly read my meanderings.  Not only that, as i now kind of know with Google integrating its analytics with Blogger, but that people could actually think my blog is worth voting for.

Wonderful

It is absolutely wonderful that people felt interested and motivated enough to take time out to vote. And enough that it was not just a scrape in but landing me at number 15!!

Humbling

No matter where, when or how whenever something you create is recognised by your peers as something of worth, no matter how little or how much, it is a humbling thing.

All I want say then is 'Thank you'.  Thank you for reading.  Thank you for commenting. And thank you for voting. 

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.

Northern Ireland politics: the new electric thingy age

Bob Balls highlights what i believe is just the start of the 'new electric thingy age' for NI politics.

South Belfast Conservative candidate for the General Election, Peter McCann, has put together a facebook group called ‘Peter McCann for Parliament’. And while he seems to be more organised than most, he is not alone in using social media.

One thing though is how our politicians and budding politicians actually use social media.

Peter, like many, is using Facebook to promote themselves to the general public. He has both a private personal profile and the 'open to the public' campaign page.

Both can be used in conjunction to fully engage the public in a conversation.

I would like to pint out though that sometimes there is no point in being a politician on Facebook and just using a personal page. Another issue is the use of the suffix of an elected representative as a username, as during election time politicians are not allowed to use those suffixes (such as MP or MLA).

Some MPs have actively used Facebook to engage with the public, such as Steve Webb, Liberal Democrat MP for Northavon, who held a “drop in surgery” on Facebook.

He advertised the time in advance, to his 3,867 Facebook friends: “Steve will be online on Facebook Chat tomorrow (Thursday) between 11 and 11.30am. Log on and chat if you want to raise anything with me.” Around 200 of his friends – a mixture of constituents, party members and others – were online for the chat session.

In addition, using a political page also allows a politician to send out updates, including direct messages, to their followers. Political pages can be linked up to other platforms, such as Twitter, to cross post.

This is not an electoral 'panacea', but it does help.

There is also Twitter to consider. I have had a few good interactions with elected representatives through this wondrous little platform. During the Irisgate scandal, Twitter was awash with political hacks letting tit bits filter out. The main culprit for this was @Eamonnmalie. He is still pumping out teasers regarding the ongoing Policing and Justice negotiations.

There are lots of tools at a politicians disposal, even blogs (such as blogger), for them to take the social media bull by the horns. In the recent debate on compulsory voting it was noted by many of the contributors to the debate that there is a serious issue with lack of political engagement. Well, politicians could begin to engage more through the digital media.

We have Web 2.0, which is all about conversations. Politics needs to catch up.

Northern Ireland politicians need to embrace the new electric thingy age

fun at Slugger awards 2009

I had the great pleasure to be at the Slugger Awards 2009. It was really packed in the Black Box, Belfast and the atmosphere was fairly buzzing.

This was the first one i had been at and i was not entirely sure what to expect.

Though it was a wet night, there was recreational rioting, Bob the Builder switching on the Christmas lights, and something going on in the Reform club.

I did not mind the rain getting there to Black Box, recreational rioting is too much like exercise, I prefer Songebob Squarepants, and I wasn't invited to the Reform Club. So Sluggers is was for me!!

Tim McGarry was in fine fettle as compère for the evening and the place was quite packed.

We were all given an electronic voting pad thing that, as with all things technological that you really depend upon to make a good impression, fails miserably! Ah well.

I did really enjoy the night as it was full of bumping into friends and colleagues, but mostly political anoraks. It was a good night all round and many congratulations to Mick fealty and his team.

I see there has been a lot of banter on the issue of who was nominated, shortlisted and who won. But then all awards ceremonies like this can only have one winner in each category and it would probably be a bit silly to apply the D'Hondt system to the Slugger Awards. But then again that would be a bit of fun. Looking at the winners though the DUP, the UUP, and Sinn Fein picked up 'gongs' whilst Dawn Purvis MLA of the PUP picked up the MLA of the Year.

Overall an interesting mix, and it was good to see 'Alan in Belfast' winning Blogger of the Year. Well done Alan!

Looking forward to next years awards already.

Below you will see the list of winners for 2009

• Up-and-Coming Politician of the Year: Simon Hamilton MLA
• Local Newspaper of the Year: Dungannon News & Tyrone Courier
• Local Council of the Year: Down District Council
• Local Councillor of the Year: Cllr Cara McShane
• MLA of the Year: Dawn Purvis MLA
• Campaign of the Year: Employers for Childcare Vouchers campaign
• Participation and Involvement Award: Public Achievement
• Journalist of the Year: Julia Paul
• Political Blogger of the Year: Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast)
• Committee Chair of the Year: Fred Cobain MLA
• Politician of the Year: Martin McGuinness MP MLA

Alan in Belfast picking up his award

Dawn Purvis - MLA of the Year

Shuffling the DUP pack

With the Minister for Finance and Personnel being touted to leave his ministry to focus on his Westminster duties i feel a full DUP shuffle on the agenda.

The DUP ministeries are Enterprise, Trade & Investment; Culture, Arts & Leisure; Environment; and Finance & Personnel. They also have a Junior Minister in the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister.

So who will be where in the next few weeks?  Peter Robinson, our First Minister, will not go anywhere. However, Nigel Dodds is moving out to concentrate on his duties as an MP. Does this also set a precedent for the DUP Junior Minister, Jeffery Donaldson MP? and we all know that Sammy Wilson is biding his time before he leaves DOE.

This would leave three places without 'demoting' anyone as such.

I have heard the name Simon Hamilton,  DUP MLA for Strangford, being touted for a ministry and that Arlene Foster, currently Minister for Enterprise Trade and Investment, will be moved up to the Ministery of Finance and Personnel.

I also expect Edwin Poots, who had been Minister for Culture Arts and Leisure before the Maze Stadium fiasco, to be offered a ministry in the reshuffle.  The is also a possibility of Peter Weir, MLA from North Down, getting a ministry as well.

So card son the table. Who will be in or moved in the great DUP reshuffle?

First Minister - Peter Robinson

Junior Minister - Peter Weir

DFP - Arlene Foster

DETI - Maybe Jeffery Donaldson but think more Edwin Poots

DCAL - Nelson McCausland

DOE - Simon Hamilton

I wonder if i should put a bet on? Never been any good at predicting the lotto, so I would not take my stab at who will go where as an absolute. But I think i may be close.

Only time will tell how close i came, but it is always fun speculating. 

New cabinet for Number 10

Direct from Number 10 website

What's your take?? Will this make any difference to Gordon's hold on power? I see Darling still holds the purse strings. Hmmmmm.


Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service
The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP

Leader of the House of Commons and Lord Privy Seal; Minister for Women and Equality (and deputising for the Prime Minister at PMQs)
The Rt Hon Harriet Harman QC MP

First Secretary of State, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and Lord President of the Council
The Rt Hon Lord Mandelson

Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP

Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
The Rt Hon David Miliband MP

Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor
The Rt Hon Jack Straw MP

Secretary of State for the Home Department
The Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP

Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP

Secretary of State for International Development
The Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP

Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
The Rt Hon John Denham MP

Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families
The Rt Hon Ed Balls MP

Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
The Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP

Secretary of State for Health
The Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Rt Hon Shaun Woodward MP * and #

Leader of the House of Lords and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Rt Hon Baroness Royall of Blaisdon

Minister for the Cabinet Office, and for the Olympics and Paymaster General
The Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP

Secretary of State for Scotland
The Rt Hon Jim Murphy MP

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP

Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Rt Hon Liam Byrne MP

Secretary of State for Wales
The Rt Hon Peter Hain MP

Secretary of State for Defence
The Rt Hon Bob Ainsworth MP

Secretary of State for Transport
Lord Adonis

Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Ben Bradshaw MP

Other Cabinet attendees
Chief Whip (Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury)
The Rt Hon Nick Brown MP
Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Rt Hon Lord Malloch-Brown
Minister of State (Housing), Department for Communities and Local Government
The Rt Hon John Healey MP
Minister of State (Business), Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
The Rt Hon Pat McFadden MP
Minister of State (Science and Innovation), Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
The Rt Hon Lord Drayson*
Attend Cabinet when their Ministerial responsibilities are on the agenda
Attorney General
The Rt Hon Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC
Minister of State (Children), Department for Children, Schools and Families
The Rt Hon Dawn Primarolo MP
Minister of State (Employment), Department for Work and Pensions
The Rt Hon Jim Knight MP
Minister of State (Regional Economic Development and Co-ordination) Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
The Rt Hon Rosie Winterton MP

The Queen has accepted the following resignations:
Cabinet resignations
The Rt Hon Hazel Blears MP
The Rt Hon Geoff Hoon MP
The Rt Hon John Hutton MP
The Rt Hon Paul Murphy MP
The Rt Hon James Purnell MP
The Rt Hon Jacqui Smith MP
Other resignations
The Rt Hon Tony McNulty MP**
The Rt Hon Margaret Beckett MP**
The Rt Hon Beverley Hughes MP**

* unpaid ** attended Cabinet
# Provides Ministerial support to the Prime Minister in the Cabinet Office on the coordination of Government Policy and Strategy

Why should i vote today in the EU elections??

Today, 4th June 2009, is the 20th anniversary of Tianamen Square. Even if you are disgusted or disaffected with the political process here and just could not be bothered, remember that ordinary citizens in China were imprisoned, beaten, and killed for the simple act of asking for democratic reform. Something we are so blasé about here in the West.

All round the world people are beaten, imprisoned, and killed for merely speaking out about the idea of having the right to vote.

Voting in the UK is voluntary. You don't have to vote if you don't want to, but then that is an abdication of your civic responsibility of partaking in the system of democracy you live in.

We take this process for granted. Strangely, i think we were more aware of the need to vote during the darker times in Northern Ireland's history, but as we move into a more stable society where ideologies are fought over the debating chambers and not the hedge rows we begin to relax and feel a lesser need to take part.

This is a real danger. People who do not vote will begin to feel cut off from the decision making process and further alienate themselves from democratic activities. Elected politicians have shareholders who they must give a good account to, but to strengthen that accountability process the shareholders (voters) must participate.

Political parties and elected representatives also has a responsibility to engage with their constituents and voters to maintain a connection. Just like web 2.0 is about a two way communication process, rather than web 1.0 which was about a one way movement of information, so too we must move away from Politics 1.0 and into a more discursive Politics 2.0 where there is more of a two way relationship between the elected representative and the constituent. But that can be a debate for another day.

What i would really love to see on the ballot papers would be an option, clearly marked, at the bottom of the paper as 'None of the above'. At least then we would give those disaffected people an option to actively give their views in a way that can be quantified whilst getting them into the way of going to vote.

All i can do is ask you all to go and vote, remember those who have given their all for the right to vote, and be an active citizen holding our elected representatives to account.

Oh, and bring your photographic identification as well.

Pi Camp and rate you politican - new ways to engage with politics

Check out the Political Innovations Camp initiative as well as the Rate Your Politician social platform. I was unable to get to this being in sunny Castlerock at the time. Gutted i missed it but hope it happens again.

Check out the PiCamp and the R8yourpolitician websites

And they thought was all over... Well, not quite

Expenses, expenses, expenses. That's the name of the game.

According to the Parliament website, a backbench MP has a basic pay of £64,766 as of 1 April 2009. Not bad if you can get it in the first place. Many of the UK's 2.1 million (7.1%) unemployed would probably be very happy with this.

Northern Ireland has an unemployment percentage of around 5.7% with almost 43,900 unemployed. Not too bad in the wider scheme of things and much lower than the UK wide figure.

Now it should be pointed out that these figures are only for those able to be employed are are currently not employed. This means that a lot of the population is not working because they are house mothers or fathers, retired people, children, those too disabled to be taken on in employment.

You should also think about the context of actual employment. Of the 756,000 people who are employed how many are only part time? How many are on temporary or short term contracts? The average median gross weekly salary in Northern Ireland is £418. An MPs salary, after tax, is £1204 per week. Food for thought.

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, an MP, without expenses and only drawing on their basic pay of £64,766, would have a higher income than around 92% of the population - equivalent to about 55.1 million individuals in the UK. I calculated this under the parameters of the MP being married, the only earner, council tax of £2,000 and with 2 children under 13 years of age.

Now I don't begrudge the MPs, or indeed any elected representative, earning a good wage. It is a career, much like a doctor, a lawyer, a nurse, or any other profession. I think it actually is a good enough wage for an MP. I also don't have a huge angst against expenses either. It is always a perk of any job many of us enjoy. Not all, but many.

So, where did it all go wrong?? The soon to be ex-speaker of the house seems to have tried to cover up, and failed in the high court, the release of expenses into the public domain. This is possibly the biggest indictment on the Rt Hon Michael Martin MP. MPs are paid, just like the civil servants they are trying to make redundant, from the public purse.

I wonder what George Orwell would have made of all of this? Animal Farm 2: Napoleon's expenses?

According to the Member of Parliaments Code of Conduct, MPs must observe the general principles of conduct identified by the Committee on Standards in Public Life as applying to holders of public office. These are,

Selflessness

Holders of public office should take decisions solely in terms of the public interest. They should not do so in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends.

Integrity

Holders of public office should not place themselves under any financial or other obligation to outside individuals or organisations that might influence them in the performance of their official duties.

Objectivity

In carrying out public business, including making public appointments, awarding contracts, or recommending individuals for rewards and benefits, holders of public office should make choices on merit.

Accountability

Holders of public office are accountable for their decisions and actions to the public and must submit themselves to whatever scrutiny is appropriate to their office.

Openness

Holders of public office should be as open as possible about all the decisions and actions that they take. They should give reasons for their decisions and restrict information only when the wider public interest clearly demands.

Honesty

Holders of public office have a duty to declare any private interests relating to their public duties and to take steps to resolve any conflicts arising in a way that protects the public interest.

Leadership

Holders of public office should promote and support these principles by leadership and example.

MPs must base their conduct on a consideration of the public interest, avoid conflict between personal interest and the public interest and resolve any conflict between the two, at once, and in favour of the public interest.

Hmmmm. How many can truly stand up and say they have adhered to these Snowball like commandments?

We shall see how this sorry saga ends up and hopefully we will not cave in to pure cynicism that could undermine our democratic society.

MPs have a lot to do to win back our trust - but i am hopeful this will be sooner rather than later.

the best one for the job

I have been mostly working on my garden this weekend, as i have been in previous weekends and i got me thinking about how we do things in our work life.

I have been trying to get a garden for the past number of years, yes that's right years, and kept doing a little here and a little there and trying my best to turn the lump of soil that was Mount Kilimanjaro into a nice flat lawn. One thing after another #happened#.

As ever problems kept occurring - those horrible snags that ruin a well laid plan. I did have quotes from builders from over a year ago now that brought tears to my eyes, and not in laughter. so DIY R us was the apparently the thing for me.

I'm not bad at the old DIY, but not brilliant either as i don't do it every day.

As things went, i messed about, made probably basic mistakes to a professional, and goodness knows how much money i really wasted in trying to save money.

Yesterday, i helped finish off the last of the foundations for the last parts of the wall for my new garden. It felt good, and it is still feeling very very sore. I'm am simply not as fit as i thought i was, nor was i as used to physical labour as i thought i was.

Then the epiphany that brought me to type all these words out. Always get the professional in to do a job that you might be able to do with lots of time to spare and resources.

Yes there is usually lots of teeth sucking once prices and quotes are being discussed, but in the long term you want things done right. A key is building a good relationship with your 'sub-contractor'.  If you don't feel you can work with them, then don't.

The builder i am working with is a wonderful guy and easy enough on the pocket. As soon as i started talking to him i felt i was talking to someone who knew what they were doing and what the job would take. I had of course been chatting to a few other builders, but Raymond, my builder, explained what he would do and why it would have to done that way. He was honest in his talk and his walk. I trust him.

And here is my point, the same goes for public affairs or public relations. Businesses and organisations need to build relationships. Normally this is viewed as building relationships with their customers or clients or whatever. Yet we all work in a legislative context, which is decided upon our government.

We all need to look at how we are doing things in creating and building that constructive relationship with government, with the Departments, and with politicians - from MEPs, to MPs, to MLAs to local councillors. They are creators, facilitators and implementers of legislation- the primary function of governmental structures.

Now if an organisation wants to influence the right people at the right time with the right information they are really going to need to plan in lobbying activities, or, for the more politically correct, political communications.

No organisation is the same. Different issues, different modus operandi, different budgets, different sizes ...... you get the picture.

Many organisations have in-house public affairs teams, many do not. Those that do not either run ad hoc public affairs posts to simply muck through while others engage the services of a public affairs agency.

A public affairs agency will simply do what any organisation can do in the lobbying field. The only difference is that they will do it, in the words of Daft Punk, harder, better, faster, stronger. This also allows the organisation to focus on the thing they do best while still getting their messages through to government. It is that simple.

Yes i could have built my own wall, put in the founds, put up my own fence.  I guarantee though that it would be finished in about 2025 and still not look right. Plus who do i go to if it falls over?

With an outside professional you have peace of mind and are still in control of the overall project. The same is true for beginning a public affairs campaign. A professional has the where-with-all to know what to do if things go right and if things go wrong. they are people that the organisation can call on to fix the situation if it is not the one the organisation was wanting to happen. 

Yes, i work in a public affairs company. Yes, if you are an organisation looking for a public affairs solution i would love your custom. Yes, i would say Chambre PA is the best - but then i would, wouldn't i?

What is really important is that organisations understand what they want to achieve and that they feel the public affairs company gets it. Understanding, clarity and trust, i think are the main points of approval organisations should tick box against.  Price does come into it, and  although it could be said 'you get what you pay for', it does not mean that the most expensive is the best. An organisation should look at the overall package and be happy with it.

I am really happy with my builder and i hope to have the whole thing finished, weather permitting, in a couple of weeks. I brought in a professional to do a professional job.

Tweet Tweet

This year more than any other i have begun to notice how many politicos, politicians and political parties are using new social media technologies.

I blame Stephen Fry for this. Who would really have heard of twitter if it were not for the unofficial king/president/patron of twitter, Mr Fry himself? Indeed, many celebs are on the thing, helping to create its own viral hype without spending a penny of expensive adverts. Web 2.0+ is here.

Apparently according to Twittercounter the person in the number one spot of followers is Ashton Kutcher with around 1.7 million followers. Maybe all those gossip magazines should be worried. Instead of waiting a week to see what hot juicy bits of infantile gossip there is with shock horror angle, people can actually follow the celeb in question and get it direct instead. This should appeal to many people as it is more immediate and feels more personal.

So are our great and the good using social media to socialise or propagandise?

A few tweeters have had their hackles raised about this as they found that all that happened was politicians were using their twitter accounts to publicise press releases.

I can understand the exasperation, but on reflection why not? Politicians, though i half suspect a number of them do not actually tweet themselves, are beginning to put up not only press release material, but what they are doing  - indeed the actual function of twitter.

Having a twitter account i have also seem swathes of abuse/spam through people asking for retweets [put up better posts!] to people trawling their large number of followers and doing a #followfriday* with them all. 

Also, as someone who likes follow all that really sad political rubbish is it not a good thing that we are informed toot sweet about new online publications??? They are not all going to be new headlines but the flow of information is a politico anorak's lifeblood.

Plus twitter is a new phenomenon for us all - we are all getting to grips with its own etiquette and language codes. Not too long ago I only really sussed the #hashtag thing, though still not totally 100% on this.

The real issue in this and i include not just twitter but blogs, websites, facebook, myspace, flickr, tumblr etc is that they are social media. A new way to interact, discuss and receive feedback.

Politicos and political activists are probably more 'with it' on social media and its potential to connect with the audiences they want to engage with. Potential problems, though, are issues surrounding its geekiness, what target publics are actually accessing social media as a communication  tool and it could just all end up with most just dipping their toes into social media then ignoring it and leaving it to a hardcore bunch who, while getting the issue of social media, because there are so few in the end just talk in circles.

Social media is a tool and we do have to keep up with it but i think in the end what really needs to happen is that each method of communication is assessed is it nice? yes.  Is it cutting edge? yes. Is it on the rise in popularity? yes. Does it reach our target publics? Ahhhh, maybe.

Many organisations selling things see it as a great marketing tool. It could indeed be a real political marketing and discussion tool, and i think it is moving that way. It just really needs properly assessed.  Just because Barak Obama used it does not mean we can use all his methods in our own context.

Many of our politicians in this Euro election for 2009 and all scrabbling to be the most relevant, the most up to date, the most switched on in terms of social media and all of its wonderful shiny gadgets.

Me? I would just like to see them face to face on my door step!

* #followfriday seems to be a twitter cultural phenomenon where followers are essentially given a bit of promotion to reward them for being loyal followers. I have had some experience of looking at a full page of tweets that had nothing but said #followfriday - mostly useless to me. I have however given in to doing this myself, but restricting myself to one #followfriday with no more than five followers included. I think this is more effective and will produce more interest than spamming everyone with hundreds of names. 

I have to put this in, a really nice 'social media in plain English' vid. Enjoy.

Beginnings......

Well, i am starting on the journey of blogging about grown up things, as opposed to my erratic blogging on toy soldiers and mindless distractions.

A lot has happened since 1998, when Tony made his bizarre 'I feel the hand of history' statement - hence the name of the blog.

Many things have happened in the 11 years since that statement, i got married and had kids for one. But Northern Ireland has also changed more than i could have ever imagined, being one of the generation that was born during the height of the Troubles. Perhaps the boul' Tony was not that off the mark after all.

We now have our own Northern Ireland Assembly, and after being such a yo-yo institution has settled down a bit since May 2007 when images were beamed around the world that i never thought would happen. Ian 'the big Doc' Paisley sitting next to Martin 'the apprentice' McGuinness smiling and joking, along with numerous others from the DUP and Sinn Fein.

Paisley & Adams at the press call in May 2007

How we all had to pinch ourselves.

The stabilisation of the Assembly was just in time for the big economic crisis to hit our wee shores and provide us plebs with more than enough excuses to shout 'what are they actually doing for us'. Recently this has also moved into overdrive with the Telegraph reveling that our MPs have been having a great time claiming the likes of yogurt, chandeliers and moat cleaning on their expenes.

Has our politicians, MEPs, MPs, MLAs and even Councillors, behaviour affected our perception of politics as a whole? Is it an unfair perception or completely justfied?

I think much of it still stems from the Major years and the much criticised 'back to basics' campaign that was viewed as politicians telling the country that family values and morals are the way forward, no major disagreement from my own views, but became synonymous with sleaze and corruption as MP after MP became caught up in very un-family value and immoral scandels.
The people do not trust politicians to be the moral compasses they should be. Some are. But the perception is that the vast swathe of politicians are not. Sad, but there you go.

Perhaps someone out there can provide an answer?