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Discrimination, Inequality, Bigotry and All That Jazz
Newtownabbey Borough - AKA The Den of Inequity
I've seen so much ballocks eminating from Sinn Fein lately I don't have time to go through it all but I thought this was funny. On the same day Sinn Fein lambasted the DUP for wasting time lobbying for seats in the Lords instead of focusing on the 'real issues', they've been staging protests in Newtownabbey over Newtownabbey Borough Council's treatment of nationalists as 'second class citizens'. As usual, Sinn Fein's press release has more by way of flamboyant language than hard content.
So what awful things are Newtownabbey Borough Council doing to the poor nationalists in the district? Well I had to read, through paragraph after paragraph of hyperbole and general ballocks, to the end of the article before I could actually find any actual allegations which basically amounted to:
- Flying the Union Flag on council buildings all year round
- Protestant over-representation on the council staff
- Lack of council amenities in nationalist parts of the council such as Glengormley
Follow up:
Now, I have little time for anyone who gets the hump because they see the legitimate flag of the country their district is in flying over government buildings (in Newtownabbey or Lisburn). As far as I know, there's nobody made to take an oath of allegieance or salute the flag on a daily basis.
The council staff is 86.9% Protestant in a council area where the general population is 76.2% Protestant. Is it only me who doesn't find those figures overly shocking (allowing for factors other than discrimination)? Certainly there don't appear to have been any legal challenges mounted against council employment practices - in fact in they were "the first council in Northern Ireland to achieve IIP and [as of September 2004] the only council to run an in-house accredited supervisory management development programme."
As for the lack of 'amenities' in nationalist areas, I can't think of very many council amenities in Newtownabbey at all. Their flagship Valley Leisure Centre is within walking distance of Bawnmore (nationalist estate) and probably not much further from the lower end of Glengormley. There's a council owned park, whose name escapes me, in Glengormley and the council's recycling facilities (or 'dump' if you prefer) is on the Larne Line - a main road not particularly near any residential area, unionist or nationalist.
Despite all this, Sinn Fein felt it was measured and appropriate for over 60 "MLAs, councillors and political activists" from "across the Six Counties" to protest at the council buildings today, to launch a campaign of MOPEry in the borough (or as they called it "putting Newtownabbey under the spotlight"). It would seem the DUP aren't the only ones wasting time and energy. I'll not even start on this.
Shouting about the council's "total disregard for the political mandate for nationalists" of they neglect to mention that nationalists elect a grand total of 2 councillors out of 25.
These Councillors and "political activists" (or professional layabouts if you prefer) clearly have too much time on their hands (and we know the MLAs do). Could it be that MOPEy republicans are just running out of things to feel oppressed by?
I have a suggestion for Sinn Fein's next election slogan, building on the unbridled success of their laughable "Building an Ireland of Equals" from 2005. I'm thinking they should have a crack with "Much Ado About Nothing!"