Human beings, said Aristotle, are political animals. For a political community to flourish there must at least be agreement on the rules of the game. The notion of politics here is a broad one. It includes the methods for choosing the holders of executive, judicial and legislative power. It covers what they are entitled to do. It also concerns the rights of individuals against the state and fellow citizens. It concerns, in short, both the legitimacy and limits of power.

A society without agreement on these questions will be either repressive or on the verge of civil war. Alas, neither is an abnormal condition: much of Latin America oscillates between one state and the other. The UK, however, is quite different. It has a claim to be the most successful of today's relatively large polities to have evolved from pre-modern times. Its political culture has sparked imitations across the globe, for it is the birthplace of parliamentary democracy.

What then is the contemporary political culture of this polity? First, political authority derives from the people, to whom the government is accountable and by whom it is elected. Second, the law is human, not divine. Third, people accept the outcome of elections as legitimate. Fourth, citizens have an obligation of obedience to legitimately exercised authority. Fifth, individuals not groups, have political rights. Sixth, individuals are free in their political and religious opinions. Seventh, adult citizens, both male and female, have equal political and legal rights.

...there are a few elements to the Belfast Agreement that were not in the Sunningdale agreement - a more robust commitment to human rights and a commitment to devolve policing powers, but did they make such a difference? Or more particularly, did the difference go anywhere near justifying the slaughter of more than 1,000 people, the maiming of thousands of others and the ruination of countless lives?

Gerry Fitt was among the first to protest about nationalists being at the back of the bus and, had more people paid heed to him from the time he went to Westminster in 1965, there might not have been anything like the carnage that followed. Gerry Fitt did protest about the Saracens and the torture and internment, but that is forgotten for he also condemned the barbarity of the IRA.

After a while Gerry Fitt saw only that barbarity and none of the other injustices and, to that extent, was partial. But how about those who now, with the benefit of dispassionate hindsight, remember only the injustices of Stormont and of the viciousness and arbitrariness of the British military response to the IRA campaign, and not at all the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the IRA? Had Gerry Fitt's politics been given time to mobilise, might not thousands of lives been saved?

Rivals unite in tribute to Lord Fitt

Press Association
Wednesday August 31, 2005

Figures from across Northern Ireland's political divide gathered today to pay their respects to former Social Democratic and Labour party (SDLP) leader Lord Fitt.

Among the unionists and nationalists gathered for his funeral at London's Westminster Cathedral were the joint Nobel Peace Prize winners, Ulster Unionist David Trimble and the SDLP's John Hume.

Also present was Mark Durkin, the current leader of the party Lord Fitt once led.

The peer, who died at the age of 79 last week after suffering from a heart condition, helped found the Social Democratic Labour party in 1970 with civil rights and nationalist leaders from the province.

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A fierce opponent of terrorism and social injustice alike, Gerry Fitt served as deputy chief executive of Northern Ireland's first power-sharing executive in 1974.

He continued to lead the party after the executive - formed out of the 1973 Sunningdale agreement - collapsed after just five months, brought down by a loyalist workers' strike.

But in 1979 he dramatically quit his own party after it turned down an offer of talks by the then Conservative government because the agenda did not contain an Irish dimension.

His departure followed a period of growing disillusionment with the party which he accused of becoming "green", moving away from the socialism which was Fitt's guiding influence.

His political low point came in 1983 when, two years after refusing to support IRA hunger strikers, he lost the West Belfast seat at Westminster, which he had held since 1966, to Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams.

Having been wounded by RUC police in a civil rights march in 1968, he found himself burnt-out of his north Belfast home by republicans in 1983.

Today he was honoured both by the party from which he had become estranged and rivals from across the political spectrum.

Mr Durkin was among those who paid tribute to the former party leader.

Speaking just before the service he said: "People who were in the party with him during those years have fond memories of good work together in difficult times.

"Obviously there was subsequent differences but we are here to remember a man who contributed positively, a man of warmth and wit."

The service, filled with Irish music and poetry, opened as hundreds of mourners sang the ancient hymn Be Thou My Vision.

Another hymn, Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace, continued the theme of peace and justice spoken of in the tributes.

Among those in the congregation were representatives of the British and Irish governments, MPs including Ulster-born Kate Hoey, and celebrities including the television presenter Henry Kelly and comedian Frank Carson.

Readings included a passage from the Book of Wisdom, read by his daughter, Eileen, which included the line: "The souls of the virtuous are in the hands of God and no torment will ever touch them."

There was also a reading of The Lake Isle of Innisfree by WB Yates and a violin performance of Danny Boy.

But the lightest moment came during a tribute from the journalist Chris Ryder, a close friend, who told of one incident on a flight from London to Belfast when Lord Fitt managed to persuade the crew to let him take the last available seat - the jump seat in the cockpit.

Mr Ryder told the congregation: "When he emerged through the door in mid-flight to visit the lavatory, there in the front row was an astonished Reverend Ian Paisley.

"'Don't worry, I've left it on automatic pilot,' he told his great political rival as he pushed past."

The Times doubts he has the numbers to win. As the Toryleadership blog notes, he's more popular with Labour insiders than Tories.

Being attractive to your main opponents can be a political millstone. But it could also be a singular advantage to a party that has failed to make any substantive electoral appeal beyond its own core support for well over a decade.

Jackie Ashley (hardly a prospective Tory voter), believes he has the capacity to charm and communicate in a similar manner to the late Mo Mowlam. Presumably he can dispense with the services of whoever coached IDS to that appalling performance in his "quiet man is turning up the volume" speech.

Currently the party is split between the modernisers (for whom questions of style are important) and those who believe policy should be the core of their offering. In reality, it's unlikely that the party can have one without the other if it is determined to return to status as Britain's natural party of government.

If the Tories were to put Clarke in the hot seat, they might have a a solution to the problem of style. But he will also need a big idea or two to 1, allow him to unify party, and 2, hit Gordon Brown with something that voters will take note of?

Those ideas will have to come recognisably from the right (the Nixon and China motif) if he's to achieve the former. And they'll have to have something of the post-Blairite about them to do the latter.

See Excerpts from the Mail interview.

Blair backs banned Muslim scholar

Vikram Dodd
Wednesday August 31, 2005
The Guardian

A Muslim scholar accused by critics of sympathising with violence has been appointed to a government taskforce attempting to root out Islamic extremism in Britain, the Guardian has learned.

Professor Tariq Ramadan has been banned from entering the United States and France because of his alleged views supporting violence, allegations he strongly denies.

He faced a campaign of vilification from rightwing British newspapers, and last night some saw his inclusion on the group as evidence of the government's willingness to stand up to the tabloids.

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The taskforce, known as the working group on tackling extremism, is part of the government's response to the July attacks on London, which was announced by Tony Blair.

A source with knowledge of the group's work said its members had been chosen by the Home Office.

The 13-member working party will report to the home secretary and prime minister by late September and make proposals to stop British Muslims turning to violence.

His supporters say he is one of the leading Islamic thinkers and an important voice in improving relations between Muslims and the west.

The academic attended a meeting at the Home Office last week to discuss extremism among British Muslims as part of the group's work.

The group is comprised of Muslims from community groups, academics and the MP Shahid Malik, and is staffed by Home Office civil servants.

Rightwing newspapers have called for the professor to be banned from Britain because of his alleged views justifying terrorism.

Last year he was stopped from taking up a post at a US university after the Bush administration revoked his visa claiming he "endorsed terrorist activity".

Yesterday some hailed the appointment of Prof Ramadan to the committee, saying it showed the government was prepared to stand up to rightwing tabloids that had savaged the academic.

Sadiq Khan, Labour MP for Tooting, said: "It's important for the government to listen to people who have scholarly knowledge of the issues.

"It sends all the right messages that the government is engaged in a real search for answers, rather than pandering to kneejerk elements in the rightwing press and their prejudices."

One source present at last week's meeting told the Guardian that Mr Ramadan's contribution was "progressive" and he said there was a real need for Muslims to confront extremism and accept it exists.

Another source with knowledge of the setting up of the group said: "He brings understanding of Islam that young people respect."

Prof Ramadan has said the French ban on him was successfully challenged in court and he now has an office there. He also says he has been invited to reapply for a US visa.

He is based in Switzerland and has lectured to senior police officers in Britain. He recently was appointed a visit fellow at an Oxford University college. The US-based Time magazine hailed him as one of the 21st century's likely innovators.

A spokesman for the Board of Jewish Deputies said: "We have urged the government to exercise caution and responsibility in selecting participants for the taskforce which has a crucial role in tackling extremism."

Mike Whine, spokesman for the Jewish Community Security Trust which monitors alleged Muslim extremists, said: "It's a strange choice given his past statements which some have viewed as being anti-Jewish. Some of our community view him as extreme.

"He speaks with two voices, one for his European audience which appears moderate, and one for his Arab hinterland where he voices many of the demands of Islamists.

"He is at the soft end of the Islamist extreme spectrum."

Last year Prof Ramadan wrote in the Guardian, defending himself against accusations of extremism, anti-semitism and despising women.

He wrote that he has called on Muslims to reject acts of extremism and added: "What about my statements, issued on September 13 2001, calling on Muslims to condemn the terrorist attacks ... What about the articles in which I condemn anti-semitism."

A Home Office spokesman would not confirm whether Prof Ramadan was part of the group tackling extremism. The membership is scheduled to be announced this week.

The Home Office spokesman said: "It's part of the job of government ministers to talk and consult with people from different communities and that means they will routinely deal with people whose views they do not necessarily agree. The members of the working group are respected members of the Muslim community."

Prof Ramadan is scheduled to appear at a Guardian fringe event at the Labour party conference in Brighton on September 28, and has appeared at past events organised by the Guardian with British Muslim communities.

The famous quote, and thread title, was reportedly said by Galileo, on 22 June 1633, after he was formally sentenced to life imprisonment [in reality house-arrest] by the Inquistion at the end of his trial for the heresy of holding, defending or teaching that the Earth moves around the Sun - the translation is "yet it moves" [and, incidentially, the heresy related to a book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican, which went on sale in March 1632.. two years after its completion, during which time the official censors in Rome only requested some minor changes before they actually approved the text before it went to print]. Three of the ten cardinals present refused to sign the sentence and it was passed on a majority verdict.

Galileo was also the first astronomer to note that there was something unusual about the appearance of Saturn, around the time of the publication of The Starry Messenger in 1610, translated extract here.. using a telescope he constructed with a magnifying power of around 20 to 30 times.. although that observational puzzle didn't start to be solved until 1655, when the Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens realised that it was the result of Saturn having a ring system.

ANYway... To today's notes..

The Huygens part of the Cassini-Huygens probe has already done its part, landing on Titan back in January, and the data from then is still being processed.

Meanwhile the Cassini orbiter continues to observe and transmit back to Earth. The latest results are from a fly-by of Enceladus in July. Nasa has a collection of the latest images

On Monday the orbiter passed Titan again. More information here

But the image that would delight Galileo, possibly even more than the others, may be this one of Saturn's ring system in detail, complete with shepherd moon Pan - Pan is only 26 kilometers (16 miles) across - a ring system that has its own atmosphere

As for where this leads us.. looking back to see the [possible] future

The BBC report is based on the images of two colliding galaxies, approximately 100 million light years away, from the Gemini Observatory - which consists of twin 8-meter optical/infrared telescopes, one located ona mountain, in the Chilean Andes, called Cerro Pachón and the other on Hawaii's Mauna Kea

The observatory site has a much better image of the colliding galaxies here.. with a couple of even better images available here

That should sort out the science quota for the next week - Ed.

By Newton Emerson:

Last November I spent five days in Louisville, Kentucky, a city of a quarter of a million people – and there wasn’t a soul to be seen. The sprawling centre was utterly deserted, with whole buildings simply missing, bizarrely reminiscent of an early-evening control zone in 1980s Belfast. This is the legacy of ‘busing’, the forced racial integration of Louisville’s schools.

Since 1975 white children have been sent to black schools and vice versa, by bus and by quota, regardless of the child or the school. As a result everyone who can afford it – black and white - lives outside the city boundaries. At the downtown offices of the Louisville Courier-Journal busing was the first thing the editor explained to us - the key to understanding his city.

At the offices of Mayor Jerry Abramson we learned of his campaign to extend those boundaries out beyond the ‘white flight’ suburbs in an attempt at reintegration. Nobody knows if it will work. No ideology, creed or policy yet devised has ever stopped people trying to do the best for their children at a purely individual level.

This is the fact that must be acknowledged now in Northern Ireland as our own education system faces imminent change. The cosy consensus of the present arrangement is coming to an end, exposed by early moves towards comprehensive schooling in the Catholic sector.

The paradox that has emerged is this: we are told that it is wrong for schools to select children by academic ability. At the same time, we are told that it is right for schools to select children by religious belief.

As both these moral arguments are based entirely on the advantages or disadvantages of selection, both cannot simultaneously be true. Where tribal integrity is at stake the people of Northern Ireland will generally accept contradictory positions - but where education is at stake, even the people of Northern Ireland will break rank in numbers.

The recent upsurge in Catholic enrolment at state grammar schools proves it, but this may only be the start of our own ‘white flight’. In Britain it has long been considered normal to move house to be near a good school, even if it means less space for more money. This will happen here. In much of England it is normal for families on average incomes to pay for private schooling, even if it means no money for anything else at all. This will happen here too.

The Department of Education, the maintained and controlled sectors, the churches, the political parties and the teaching unions can believe, say and do whatever they like. Everyone else will do everything they can to get their children into the best school possible – even if they have to build it themselves.

In Louisville people would be amazed to learn that our authorities plan to resolve the selection paradox by abolishing state grammar schools. Coerced integration wouldn’t work in Northern Ireland any better than it worked in America but coerced segregation won’t work either – because the issue for most parents is not integration or segregation, but coercion itself. Vested interests in the present system are already struggling to maintain their agendas.

Disgracefully, schools have been exempted from fair employment legislation. The Catholic church actively lobbies against the voluntary integrated sector. Clerics and councillors stuff the boards of state schools, terrified that mixed enrolment will dilute their unofficial ‘Protestant ethos’. Politicians who shamelessly compare themselves to Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela promote segregation and hiring practices straight from Wallace’s Alabama and de Klerk’s South Africa.

Asking parents to accept all this and a failed comprehensive model as well is an ideological step too far - and how ironic that the maintained sector should be the first to feel the squeeze, having single-handedly created the Catholic middle class whose aspirations it now scorns.

Most ironic of all is that Northern Ireland already has a working compromise between Catholic, Protestant, grammar and comprehensive in Craigavon’s Dixon Plan. For over 30 years the children of Craigavon, Portadown, Lurgan and Banbridge have been selected by subject-based examination at the age of 14 after three years in comprehensive junior high schools. This ideologically impure system is successful and hugely popular – but only with parents, so during the Costello Report consultation the Department of Education completely ignored it.

Alas for those unable to buy their way out of the coming catastrophe, the Department of Education is about to learn that it is only what parents want that matters.

First published in the Irish News.

Fitt chose Bell's Hill in the County of Down as his title in the Lords. It's a small and, otherwise obscure, townland not far from Crossgar. He was evacuated there in the early part of the war, before he was old enough to join the Merchant Navy. It was his first foray outside his own working class Belfast, and perhaps represented a calm before a storm that seemed to stay with him throughout his often tumultuous political career.

His former colleague and eventual SDLP successor to his West Belfast, Joe Hendron, compared him in stature to the Nationalist MP Joe Devlin, although Fitt's first pre-occupations upon entering politics revolved more around issues of social justice, rather than Devlin's traditional Nationalism per se.

Ruth Dudley Edwards knew the man, and recalls with a typical warts and all account of how they first met in the midst of one the most menancing and dangerous years of the troubles, 1972.

Don Anderson in today's Belfast Telegraph probably has the most comprehensive sets of anecdotes, including a possibly mischievious accusation that the apparently teetotal Ian Paisley enjoys a quiet tipple every now and then.

Official Republican reaction has been muted for the most part, but much of the resentment emanating from that political quarter centres on Fitt's stand against the Hunger Strikes of 1981 - a stand (also at vairance with his own party) that many believe cost him his West Belfast seat in 1983. However most of the press coverage, focuses on his earlier career and his pivotal role in raising the issue of Civil Rights in Northern Ireland with a wider audience.

Even the Newsletter yesterday devoted its leader to an affectionate valedictory to the co-founder and first leader of that alliance of often competing and fractious nationalist interests, the SDLP.

His funeral Mass will be in Westminster Cathedral tomorrow at 10.30am. His family have suggested that everyone is welcome. We can't be there, but would respectfully welcome the thoughtful contributions of any of you in a position to attend. There's also a memorial service in Crossgar at 9.30am.

Read also: Brian Walker (who reported him most of Fitt's career); the Daily Telegraph's obit recalling the murder of his election agent in 1972; Alasdair Steven (reg needed) on Fitt's middle of the road self diagnosis.

The News Letter reported John McVicar of the Shankill Mirror, one of the chief organisers, saying that the paramilitaries could not be ignored. "The reality is that loyalist paramilitaries are part of the Protestant community," he stressed.

"They along with a lot of other people were part of the conflict we have been involved in and they need to be part of the resolution. We have come out of 35 years of violence, things aren't going to change overnight and we need to influence everyone in our community positively and that includes loyalist paramilitaries."

Great. Now we have another loyalist Gerry Adams.

Of course, it's better that loyalists unloaded a paper cargo and not a metal one, but frankly, no-one would believe any paramilitary who said this was indicative of the direction loyalism is heading in. Evidence on the ground tends to suggest the exact opposite. There is no question of UVF or UDA decommissioning at present, even when both present a much greater threat to both unionists and nationalists than any republican grouping at this time.

By heaving bundles of newspapers off a Larne boat, UDA leader Jackie McDonald was perhaps attempting to demonstrate to loyalists that there was now an alternative means of pursuing their political ambitions, other than through violence. Whether loyalist paramilitaries actually have any political pretensions these days is another matter - hard, honest work may not appeal very much to someone dealing drugs or living easily on extorted money, ostensibly in the name of Ulster.

The ultimate irony is, of course, that McDonald's UDA is currently going around newsagents' shops every Sunday morning stealing and burning copies of the Sunday World tabloid paper, which lambasts and lampoons loyalist terrorism. So much for supporting a free press Jackie - the campaign should end now if you don't want to look like a completely hypocritical chancer of the first order.

Nevertheless, the campaign's deep symbolism seems to amount to an attempt to shift the conflict onto a different level. In a sense, this is simply following the example of the republican movement, which moved the theatre of conflict to other arenas, such as culture, through opposition to Orange marches, for example, or the establishment of Daily Ireland as a means to disseminate republican ideas to a wider audience.

Some of the symbolism used in the 'Love Ulster' campaign propaganda is more knowing and historically conscious than most current unionist/loyalist cultural representations, which veers between the arcane quasi-Masonic symbolism of the loyal orders at one end, and the brutal glorification of loyalist violence in murals at the other.

For example, the professionally designed 'Love Ulster' poster entitled 'Evil happens when good people do nothing' takes its cue from Edmund Burke, a conservative Anglo-Irish philosopher.

It is certainly a more modern, imaginative and subtle effort at propaganda than yesterday's Shankill Mirror front page - 'Ulster at crisis point' - which is such a tired old expression that it has become a worn-out cliche. What surprise lies in store for us next week: 'Ulster at the brink'?

The poster also appropriates Martin Niemoeller's poem:

First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist - so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat - so I did nothing. Then they came for the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew - so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left who could stand up for me.

However, this time the 'victims' are the B-Specials, the UDR, the RUC and now the RIR. Helpfully, unionists aren't asked whether they did anything when 'they' came for others, reinforcing the notion that the State acted solely in defence or was reactive to others' violence. Happily, Niemoeller was a Lutheran and unionists tend to sympathise with Israel in the Middle-East conflict (whereas republicans show solidarity with the Palestinian cause). Remember all the Israeli and Palestinian flags that popped up in Belfast a few years ago?

(Unionist icon Carson also appears on the poster, extending a red hand in an angry 'stop' gesture, adding historical authority to the international solidarity. The pose is adapted from his statue outside Stormont's Parliament Buildings, with the original gesture being an upturned hand.)

Claiming these culturally iconographic words and appropriating them for the unionist cause, while simultaneously seeking international common cause is perhaps an unexpected move from a unionism that long seemed only capable of being inward-looking. Although there has long been an underlying sympathy and fascination with Israel within Ulster Protestantism, 'Love Ulster' looks like it is extending that remit.

The news that unionists are off to Colombia to bring back civilian victims of FARC activity is perhaps another indicator that unionism's real international objective is to cultivate new support in America. Unionists are big fans of George Dubya and his foreign policy, and perhaps see the potential of mining as much 'anti-terror', pro-Israel sentiment in the States as they can while he's in charge.

Well if it worked for republicans when Clinton was in power, it must be worth a bash, eh?

Getting some decent signs to the National Trust's Divis and Black Mountain walks would help augment the offering. The views over Belfast Lough and Lagan Valley are stunning, but you'd need to be local to find them without risking a massive detour - via Glenavy, or even worse, the International Airport!

An extract from the Irish Times article, since so many can't access it through the subscription barrier -

Take the early 20th century myth: how an oppressed Ireland rose up against its British oppressor in 1916. Not exactly. In reality only a tiny fringe rose. Far from having the country behind them, they needed protection from Dublin mobs, while nationalist newspapers called for the execution of Pearse, Connolly and the rest of the leaders.

Roll on a couple of years to the triumph of republicanism in the 1918 general election, and many of its critics jumped on the 1916 bandwagon, with far more claiming to have been in the GPO than physically would have fitted in the building. And yet, somehow Ireland was neither as anti-British nor as pro-Sinn Féin as the later spin suggested.

Throughout the 1920s Remembrance Sunday wreath-layings at the temporary cenotaph in College Green drew crowds in their tens of thousands. Catholic churches and the Pro-Cathedral were packed for High Masses for the Great War dead. Even more amazingly, only five years after a bloody Anglo-Irish war and Civil War, the king's daughter, Princess Mary, could come and holiday in the west of Ireland, with minimal security, and be warmly welcomed.

But that side of history was airbrushed out of the official narrative. Out went the Great War dead, Redmond, or indeed those who supported Cosgrave in the 1920s. Instead came the 1916 story, with all the awkward bits edited out.

Then the reverse happened. Turned away from republicanism by the antics of the Provisional IRA, nationalists later in the century abandoned their ritualised celebrations of 1916, their Easter parades and naming everything that moved (or had a train running into it) after Rising leaders. Instead the focus was on the forgotten Irish of the Great War. Out went E Company and in came the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. The Orange Order had a plaque erected in Dublin to commemorate its founding, while long forgotten statues to royalty (those the IRA had not already managed to blow up), got cleaned up.

This line, from later in the article, which is worth reading in full, probably best sums up his argument -

The irony is that modern Ireland, in its conviction that it is pluralist, plays the same games with its history as it accuses past generations of doing.

Sammy Wilson of the DUP said:

"To be honest, that issue was raised by one member of the board, who suggested that, if we wanted to police the estates effectively, we would have to recruit from those estates, and that might mean considering recruiting some people with terrorist convictions.

"I doubt whether any unionist or SDLP MPs would support Tony Blair, if he introduced a Bill at Westminster to try to bring that about."

This has never stopped Tony Blair before, and - if he so chooses - the law won't stop this time either, as he'll just change it to suit his situation. Nor will the fact that it would appear to be opposed to the holy grail that is the Patten report.

The most relevant passage from the Patten report is this one (my emphasis):

The second point is that the RUC has stricter eligibility criteria than other police services in that relatively minor police records can disqualify a candidate from further consideration. Young people from communities alienated from the police are more likely than others to have had minor run-ins with the police, and those communities are precisely the ones from which more recruits are needed.

We also recommend that there should be a procedure for appeal to the Police Ombudsman against disqualification of candidates. There must be no predisposition to exclude candidates from republican backgrounds.

I don't know if the presumed Sinn Fein demand for terrorist convictions to be wiped clean is a 'deal breaker'. The Policing Board would collapse, as even the SDLP might consider it a resigning matter, given their hostility to the idea. Unionists certainly won't buy it, even if they do have to accept the inevitability of active republicans joining the PSNI.

I see the most likely outcome at this early stage as an opportunity for a classic piece of Blairism - sidestep the problem and clabber your solution in spin.

In this case, Blair will seek a quick-fix compromise. It will likely be in the guise of somthing like the neighbourhood policing units which are being rolled out across the rest of the UK. Unionists can hardly complain about a republican agenda, if they're getting the same kind of policing as Yorkshire, can they?

Well, they can, but Blair will insist there will be 'safeguards'.

(Perhaps a clue to the community policing recruitment criteria regarding previous convictions can be found here (Column 658), in a statement by the previous Secretary of State.)

While events may or may not pan out like this, I have a feeling that the jungle of obstacles blocking Sinn Fein's path towards the Policing Board will be cleared by neighbourhood police from nationalist communities. They won't all have the powers of a full officer, but will probably be able to arrest and detain, and issue fixed penalties.

The IRA is not able to properly police crimes in the community it is part of - kneecapping never stopped joyriding, and its offer to shoot the killers of Robert McCartney shows just how far removed the IRA was in March from dealing with crime in an democratically acceptable manner. Perhaps the wording of the statement was meant to demonstrate just that. Neither can any republican agency can effectively deal with crimes like rape, where beating or shooting the alleged perpetrator (if they can even be identified) is probably of little comfort to a traumatised victim. Despite this, Sinn Fein does not recommend that victims of sexual assaults talk to the police, if they want to. I suspect that SF would like to be able to, in order to avoid accusations of denying victims justice.

Like everywhere else, areas where the IRA exerts control need proper policing (although it would be nice to see it in some loyalist areas right now). Neighbourhood policing, restorative justice and other community-based schemes will be the vehicles towards acceptance of the PSNI - anything one step removed from the State, but still closer to it than at any time in living memory.

Unfortunately, the pay-off may be that by effectively setting up another tier of policing at a localised level, we are creating seperate 'Balkanised' community police forces - one for us'uns and one for themmuns.

Could the price for policing be a more segregated Northern Ireland?

The Channel 4 description of the programme is as follows -

Told through documentary, drama and first-hand accounts, this feature-length history special is a unique account of the most ruthless IRA bombing campaign ever to hit mainland Britain.

Although The Sunday Business Post took a different line in its review of the programme when it was shown on RTÉ, complaining that -

The Year London Blew Up was a powerful reminder of a dark and terrible time. But it came nowhere near explaining why or how individuals could attune themselves mentally to leaving a car bomb in a city street, knowing the consequences.

The Sunday Business Post also helpfully reminds us that the Balcombe Street gang, whose activities the programme covers - including the murder of Ross McWhirter - were led by Martin O'Connell and included Glasgow-born Hugh Doherty, brother of Sinn Féin vice-president Pat Doherty. They were released temporarily for a 1998 Sinn Féin ard fheis - before being granted early release on licence, under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

O'Neill writes:

The obituaries treated Mowlam as if she were someone's (perhaps everyone's) mum rather than a politician. But, in a sense, this was entirely fitting. For all the claims that Mowlam was the anti-Blair, she, like Blair, played on the personal touch. Today, in the absence of political principles and ideology we are left with the empty politics of personality and good character.

Mowlam, Cook and others were not spearheading an independent challenge against Blairism but rather were fallen Blairites kicking against the party. The response to their tragic deaths - where various politicos and commentators have complained about the dire state of the democratic left and said 'we now know exactly how bad things are' - reveals the paucity of today's critique of New Labour (12). If you want a new 'passionate politics' and an opposition to the Labour government, then a first step would be to look outside of the Labour camp.

The BBC reports that Mohammed Deif warned Palestinian officials against ending what he calls the armed struggle, but urges them to resolve internal differences through dialogue.

And to the Palestinian Authority he suggests: "We should keep the arms of resistance raised side by side with the political work and we warn against harming this weapon that liberated Gaza.

"Let it continue to be active and operational to liberate the rest of our homeland".

And, in seeking to justify his own armed struggle, he said: "Without this jihad and this steadfastness, we did not achieve the liberation of the Gaza Strip."

It all sounds too familiar...

The Tele report:

The Government has since said there is confusion over the laws and that its legal advice has suggested forms may be legally completed even if the names of individuals were not submitted.

"I find myself in the middle of an experiment between two wings of Government who had different views on how a piece of paper should be filled in."

Kinnock said:

"What continues to concern me is not decentralisation of effective administrative and executive power but the fear, and the fear still exists, of the fragmentation of the United Kingdom and the possibility of enmity growing out of it."

"Unless there is a general pattern of decentralisation throughout the whole of the United Kingdom, the possibility of tensions, misunderstandings, even antagonisms between the different parts of the United Kingdom, continues."

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Love is in the air
The sap is stirring in the men of Co Clare, where this week's matchmaking festival awaits hordes of single women. By Katy Guest
26 August 2005

It has been a quiet week at the beef farms on the Burren. An occasional crow calls out over the fairy fort near Ennis, and a harsh Atlantic wind is blowing up at the Cliffs of Moher where two local craftsmen will hammer your name in ancient script on a tiny piece of tin. But all around Lisdoonvarna, the farmers are listening out for a different sound.

From today, this small spa town in County Clare is going to be transfigured. The first coaches will roll in, the boats will dock and the planes will roar down the runway at Shannon airport, with a thousand Irish ears attuned to the sounds of their engines. Because tomorrow will bring women, by the coach, plane and boat-load, and they will all be looking for love among the lucky menfolk of Lisdoonvarna.

The town's 150-year-old matchmaking festival is the subject of folklore. It inspired Christy Moore to sing about "hairy chests and milk-white thighs", and Brendan Shine to write a song called "Catch Me If You Can". "I'm awful shifty," he said, "for a man of 50. I'm off for the craic, the women and the beer". Things have changed in the world of dating since landowners used to bring their daughters into town and haggle over dowries of cows.

Speed-dating and chat rooms have replaced the annual ceilidh for maids looking for a partner. But Lisdoonvarna's matchmaker, Willie Daly, is still doing things the traditional way.

"I've been a matchmaker for close on 40 years now," he says. "My father and grandfather had done it before me, and I wasn't planning on doing it, but I could see there was a need for it in the area." The lot of men has not been an easy one of late. "Women in the last 20 years have become considerably more independent. Psychologically, their mind dwells in other places. The grass is always greener. Women travel to the cities and men stay at home. It is very difficult for them."

This year, though, the bachelors can afford to be optimistic. "There has been quite a lot of interest in Irish men from women in eastern countries: Thailand, the Philippines and the like," says Daly. "These are sensitive women and very, very beautiful. They do make marvellous wives."

He does not mean to be controversial but Willie Daly is a champion of the Irish male. "These women were trained from the day they were born to totally love a man. When he gets up in the morning they would be happy to put his shoes on for him.

But Irish girls with careers can buy their own homes and some feel they don't need a man at all." He is also an admirer of the colleen, of course: "Irish girls are very winsome and very beautiful, and they've got a lovely charm," he insists with a faraway look in his eye. But his latest successes have been with Asian women. "Three of them have married fellas around here and people have realised these girls have such a very nice, gentle, sweet nature. Now we have had lots of bachelors actually coming forward and specifically asking for Asian girls."

Much else has changed since Daly matched his first couple. He has been invited to weddings and christenings, and disinvited from others because the couple don't want everyone to know how they met.

When he started, "nearly 100%" of the people on his books were young single men and women, with a few people who had buried a spouse. "There are much more separated and widowed now," he observes. "Nearly a third each way."

The Americans, too, have come to Lisdoonvarna. "American women get on very well with Irish men. Many of them might have been married a couple of times, well a few times, and they're looking for a bit of a character. They'll be well-off financially and they seem to fall in love very quickly.

English women get on very well here, too. They might have to drink a few extra drinks to get into the Irish ways, but if you don't, well you might as well not come, eh?"

Daly is sure that Irish men are "the most romantic in the world". He is, himself, a charmer. With snow-white hair and forget-me-not eyes, he gives the impression he could butter up three women at once and still have time to write a book on the subject. But his efforts are entirely on behalf of his clients. "A woman came last year who had only one leg, and she said she'd been to lots of dances and nobody had even asked her to dance," he says, shaking his head. "By the end of the festival, she had four proposals of marriage." He later admits that one of the betrothed had to be run to ground in another pub, after leaving his new sweetheart with the information that he had a cow to calf back at the farm, and slipping next door for a post-engagement pint of Guinness.

There are some locals who suspect that the young folk are hijacking the festival, using it as an excuse for drinking in the street with not a thought for marriage or a long-term, mutually satisfactory, match.

"There are four sisters who come to the festival every year from England," says Pat O'Connor, who lives in Limerick. "They're all married. But then I have a cousin in Cork who's in her 40s and she's not married. She'll be coming again. I think she might find someone this time."

They believe in magic around here. That's why they diverted the dual carriageway from the airport to avoid disturbing the fairy fort. It is why they have founded a pub dedicated to Biddy Early, a local witch who was run out of town for putting a curse on the entire hurling team. And maybe it is why they claim Guinness is an aphrodisiac, an aid to fertility and a cure for insomnia, too. Whatever, it certainly keeps them coming back.

As well as the happy convergence of Ireland and eastern Asia, the festival has received another unexpected fillip in recent years. "Some of the men who were coming in the 60s were saying they were getting too old for it all," explains Mr Daly.

"And then they made this Viagra, and they're all back again. A couple of years ago there was a man from the village selling blue Smarties to the men. And the men were coming back saying: 'This Viagra is the best, you'd better sell me some more.' He bought all the Smarties they had, because you only get one or two blue ones in each packet, you see. It was all right because I have lots of grandchildren and they all lived on Smarties for the rest of that summer."

Lisdoonvarna is moving with the times. A Lisdoonvarna matchmaking festival web-site, matchmakerireland.com, even offers speed-dating to modern farmers. It calls it "the latest craze" with "the possibility of meeting 50 dates for three minutes!"

But Daly still does things the old-fashioned way. "My matchmaking business is better than ever," he confirms. "There is a lot of madness out there and people can't be themselves too easily. Girls want to be introduced to somebody to know he's an OK kind of fella and he's not married." With modern computer dating, he says, women have to be a bit careful. "I charge a fee to the men and very little to the women. That helps to get rid of the messers." And, it is true, the matchmaker's book is bulging with hopeful singles. "Get the pretty ones at the top," he says as he poses in the window of The Matchmaker pub for a photograph, the Polaroids spilling out from the pages of names and particulars.

To bring his service up to date, Daly has introduced one new innovation: horseback "love trails" around the rocky local land they call the Burren. He runs them with his daughter Marie, and a mass of grandchildren scamper around the horses and beguile the American ladies who swear they have only come to admire the view.

"You can go for three days or for six days on the love trails, and 'tis a very romantic landscape," says Daly, wistfully. "If there is love in you, you can guarantee Lisdoonvarna will ignite it."

Population of England exceeds 50 million for the first time
By Laura Elston
Published: 26 August 2005

The population of England has risen above 50 million for the first time, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
They show that the total in mid-2004 was up 238,000 on mid-2003 - a rise of 0.5 per cent. That total for June last year was estimated at 50.1 million. In the United Kingdom overall, the population last year was 59.8 million - a rise of 0.5 per cent, or 281,200 people. This means the UK total will probably reach 60 million this year.
The population of Wales in 2004 was 2.9 million and Northern Ireland 1.7 million - both representing rises of 0.5 per cent. Scotland's total was estimated at 5.1 million - an increase of 0.4 per cent. The ONS research also revealed that the United Kingdom's elderly population was still growing. The number 85 and over rose from 873,300 to 1,111,600 between 1991 and 2004.
This group accounts for 1.9 per cent of the total population - and it is made up mostly of women. In 2004, there were 322,800 males and 788,800 females in the category.
The population of England has risen above 50 million for the first time, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
They show that the total in mid-2004 was up 238,000 on mid-2003 - a rise of 0.5 per cent. That total for June last year was estimated at 50.1 million. In the United Kingdom overall, the population last year was 59.8 million - a rise of 0.5 per cent, or 281,200 people. This means the UK total will probably reach 60 million this year.
The population of Wales in 2004 was 2.9 million and Northern Ireland 1.7 million - both representing rises of 0.5 per cent. Scotland's total was estimated at 5.1 million - an increase of 0.4 per cent. The ONS research also revealed that the United Kingdom's elderly population was still growing. The number 85 and over rose from 873,300 to 1,111,600 between 1991 and 2004.
This group accounts for 1.9 per cent of the total population - and it is made up mostly of women. In 2004, there were 322,800 males and 788,800 females in the category.

The Tele reported:

The DRD said that they had arranged a meeting with the Limavady police chief for next week.

"This is generally done through consultation with local councillors, other public representatives and the PSNI."

The PSNI Divisional Commander for Limavady pointed out a problem in the system that was brushed under the carpet a while ago, in the hope that no-one would notice - the police are powerless to use anti-terror legislation to remove non-paramilitary flags.

So much for a joined-up approach!

From Liam O'Rourke

The situation re YR is that we have the product in wide distribution here in ROI it is listed in every major store and most minor stores also. We purchased YR from Unilever in 2002 as part of Gooodalls.

We have been seeking a good reliable Distributor for the Brand in the UK and NI so far without success,though we believe we are close !! It is a brand we believe in and one which we would like to "fire up". We will do this when we get a strong distribution position in NI and UK. At present we support the brand in the Republic with promotional activity and it is as popular as ever here.

Rumours of its death are greatly exaggerated in the case of ROI. I accept that it is difficult to get north of the border and impossible to get in GB.

It is available as you know through Sawyers but also if you and others were to ask your local stores whoever they may be to stock it and contact us we will make every effort to supply as quickly as possible.

I believe that occasionally through such requests by consumers it is stocked by Musgrave SuperValu stores in NI.

Trade union NIPSA has revealed that many lollipop staff may be forced to consider quitting their posts because of the dramatic impact new reduced hours are having on their income.

The BELB threw out plans to reduce dozens of lollipop patrols following the successful “Save the Lollipop Service” campaign by the Belfast Telegraph.

It seems that the September return to school will not be a happy one for many of the staff affected by the cuts.