January 2025
Storm before the storm
We had the storm before the storm in Dublin and a dust-up over dress code in Belfast – see below.
Let’s be honest: most voters view politicians with a healthy scepticism, essentially as people who don’t answer direct questions.
In Leinster House last week, on the anniversary of the first Dail sitting in 1919, TDs created a political tornado over what Independent TDs who supported the new Coalition could and could not do. They wanted to form a group that would give them speaking time from their seats in the Opposition side of the House. A bit of heads you win, tails you win, you might say.
Well, the furore delayed the election of the Taoiseach and his Ministerial team. New decibel records were set as angry words like devastating missiles were exchanged. The House was adjourned in disarray.
Eventually, Micheál Martin of Fianna Fail was elected Taoiseach, but it’s fair to say the whole unseemly parliamentary chapter has a bit left in it before it peters out.
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Dress-down Assembly
Meanwhile, High Street clothes shops are applauding the Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly, Edwin Poots.
They’re happy the Speaker told MLAs to smarten up when they’re in the Chamber. Apparently sartorial elegance doesn’t count for much when they turn up to work.
They also disregard the drinks rule. Water is provided, but some MLAs bring in their coffee and soft drinks and that doesn’t go down well with Mr Poots.
There’s a bit of an opportunity here for outfitters. For example, they could do a fashion show in the Long Gallery at Stormont with models selected on a cross-community basis. Just imagine Doug Beattie traipsing down the catwalk hand in hand with Gerry Kelly. Or Ministers Paul Given and Andrew Muir showing off the latest creations from Magee.
As well as an MLA fashion show, outfitters could run a one-off sale for the hard-pressed public reps. Suits (with two pairs of trousers) could have a hard-to-beat price tag along with discounts on jackets and trousers – definitely not jeans – and a bargain corner for shirts and matching ties.
After all that, at least they’d look the part.
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I support Donegal weavers
There, I’ve said it! I’m a big supporter of Magee and the tweeds that go to make some of the finest garments on the market.
Weavers in Donegal are facing unfair competition from textile manufacturers who can produce fabric and label it as ‘Donegal.’ They’re often vastly undercutting the real thing, and that’s not on.
Here’s the science bit: Donegal tweed is a woollen fabric with flecks of distinctive colours spun into the yarn. Thankfully, weavers are fighting back. They are seeking a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) from the European Commission that would mean only Donegal fabric could be labelled Donegal tweed.
The special measure would see non-food and drink products given the same protected cover as champagne and parma ham. The craft industry deserves no less in its battle against cheaper imitations.
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Big-ticket Balls
It was all high fashion, inauguration Balls on swearing-in day in Washington. The oldest ever person elected to the highest office in the land - a sprightly 78 - made his way to three big-ticket Balls after first signing scores of Executive Orders on Day One of his term-in-office.
The world watched with bated breath. Even allies had a wee quake and shudder, not knowing what the convicted felon would do next.
Big questions sit in Donald Trump’s Oval Office in-tray. Peace in Ukraine, peace in the Middle East, immigration, borders, global trade, tariffs, pardons for miscreants and oil exploration.
Closer to home, we wonder if the 47th President of the United States will host a shamrock photo-opp on St Patrick’s Day. Or will he have a stern message for US multi-nationals responsible for turbo-charging the economy across the border.
He said: “Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens.” What does that translate to for Ireland?
From a UK perspective, the Labour Government has installed Lord Mandelson as the Ambassador in Washington. Whoop-de-doo! Mandy, who’s a former Northern Ireland Secretary of State, will oversee what PM Starmer hopes will be lucrative post-Brexit UK-US deals. Dream on!
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Panama, Greenland and everywhere else
Quite how he’s going to do it, no one knows. He may deploy diplomatic arm-twisting or go for broke and send in the Marines.
That’s the Panama Canal issue sorted. Then there’s Greenland. The Donald is on record as saying he wants it too. The Arctic land has a population of just 57,000, about 6,000 more than Lisburn, and has self-governing powers whilst remaining part of Denmark.
President Trump wants to buy it and if that doesn’t work, who knows? Why? Well, Greenland has large deposits of rare earth minerals and other valuable resources and he’d also like to see off the threat from Russia and China.
Denmark and its NATO near-neighbours have given a firm thumbs down. What happens next is anyone’s guess.
We live in interesting times.
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Pesky ETAs
Our tourism bods are doing a jig over the requirement for visitors to these parts to buy Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA).
They say it’ll harm the sector and deter tourists setting foot in Northern Ireland. The cost of the pesky ETA is currently £10 but that’s set to rise to £16. More than two-thirds of tourists enter from the Republic of Ireland and account for tens of millions in revenue.
The ETA’s now in force and the soon-to-be former Economy Minister and presumably soon-to-be member of the Seanad in Dublin, Conor Murphy, is warning the ‘red tape’ could derail plans to develop tourism spending to £2bn.
The new electronic permit applies to international visitors coming into Northern Ireland from the Republic and, so far, pleas for an exemption have fallen on deaf ears.
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Christmas tree needles and flavoured butter
We’ve all been there, left wondering what to do with our dead Christmas trees.
What you must not do is strip the needles, blanch and dry them and then use them to flavour butter.
Yes, I know, it’s bonkers, but apparently the well-intended city of Ghent in Belgium posted the idea online as a tip for recycling your conifer. It prompted the Belgium food agency to issue a public health warning to do nothing of the sort.
Pesticides make it a big no-no. They should not be allowed to enter the food chain.
So, note for next Christmas: when you’re done with the tree, keep the needles well away from the food mixer and, pain though it is, take the poor thing to the re-cycling centre.
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Santa gaffe
There is a Santa, but not if you were to believe a hapless Vicar in Hampshire.
The good Reverend told kids aged 10 and 11 that the man in the big red suit wasn’t real. Not surprisingly, children were left distraught and parents fuming at the gaffe.
The Diocese said the cleric accepted it was an ‘error of judgement’ and had apologised unreservedly.
The North Pole has written a stern rebuke with the Vicar off next year’s Christmas card list.
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Clocking out
It took eight hours to sell the lot, and we know that because of the flawless time-keeping of a bracelet watch worn by French war-time hero Charles de Gaulle.
The watch was an eye-catching item in a sale of de Gaulle’s personal items which fetched a reported total of €5.6 million. The watch itself sold for more than €500,000.
Happily, several French institutions were buyers at the sale which also featured a school report. We don’t know who bought the watch or the school report, but we can expect all will be revealed in the fullness of time.
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Tut-tut!
He was a powerful Church figure who rose to dizzying heights in the Papal Curia. He followed events of world significance, but could also be parochial and a bit petty.
Back in Armagh, Archbishop John Swayne (1418-1438) harboured a strong dislike of women wearing pointy hats. We know this because of the fascinating restoration work being done on priceless medieval documents by the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI).
The Archbishop looked askance on the pointy hat fashionable item of the period. Such as his scorn that he referred to the hats as women’s horns.
Tut-tut!
Work’s continuing conserving and digitising some of the all too few paper documents which date back to the fourteen and fifteen hundreds. Preserving some of Ireland’s most important historical texts is painstaking, time-consuming and exacting work.
So, whether it’s a hat of the pointy variety or something a bit more contemporary, it’s hats off to the experts from PRONI.
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Policing and crime
It’s welcome news that the crime rate fell to its lowest since lockdown in 2020/2021.
The figure to November 2024 was down 10,657 or almost 10%. Recorded crime stood at 97,310.
There’s a difficult backdrop here. Officer numbers are below 6,300, the lowest since the PSNI came into existence, and that impacts negatively on response times, general resilience and investigative prowess.
Pamela McCreedy, is the PSNI Chief Operating Officer and former Chair of Chartered Accountants Ulster Society. In a Submission, she told the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee at Westminster, that analysis indicated that if resourcing had kept pace with UK Police Services since 2010, officer totals here would be between 8,005 – 8,540.
We lost 79 Neighbourhood Policing officers in the past 12 months and since 2014, the number has declined by 305.
Non-emergency calls are taking longer to answer…a ‘significant decline’ to answer 90% of non-emergency calls. Last April, it took 2 minutes 12 seconds to answer these calls, but that has since jumped to 9 minutes 7 seconds.
The Chief Operating Officer didn’t stop there. She said the PSNI’s capacity to investigate crime was being reduced and slowed. Major Investigation Teams (MITs) are dealing with an average of 20 cases per team when the national guidance recommends a maximum of 6.
If the Service is being denied the financial wherewithal to do the job, it’s just as well recorded crime is down.
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Almost good, bad and really ugly
MOT backlogs could be eased considerably under a suggestion to move thousands of cars from annual tests to every two years. This would apply to cars between 4 and 10 years old. Mind you, the Department for Infrastructure is also looking at hiking up MOT fees.
Meanwhile Etsy, the online marketplace that sells the likes of handmade items, is to make it easier for GB sellers to reject orders from Northern Ireland. Etsy joins eBay in giving sellers the ability to give us the thumbs down. In the case of the platform, Folksy, the UK now excludes Northern Ireland and instead moves to an EU classification.
It’s all because of the Windsor Framework which places the region in the EU’s single market.
What a mess!
To cap it off, a cash-strapped Stormont is facing a £100 million hit as a result of the increase in National insurance contributions.
The Finance Minister, Caoimhe Archibald, made the case for ‘fair and stable funding’ but it was her prediction that increased NICs would set Departments and agencies back about £200 million. The Chancellor is promising support for Public Sector employers, possibly amounting to £100 million, which would add massive pressure to already badly stretched and wholly inadequate financial resources.
There you have it: the almost good, the bad and the really ugly rolled into one.
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