Balrog doesn't get any better
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Celtic fans are not, never were and never will be sectarian.

Really?

Nuff said really.

Slugger O'Toole is running an award for political bloggers and the nominations (votes?) are flying in. Mick's done a brief recap of some of the early nominees (yes, I am there somehow ) which serves as a useful reminder of just what Northern Irish blogs are out there.

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A couple of posts at Slugger have witnessed criticism for going off topic in the comments zone. This in itself is not an altogether irregular occurrence, but something about it got me thinking.

Slugger is a great source of news and views on Northern Ireland (and a bit further afield) but I wonder if it's sheer volume of posts, something that no doubt keeps readers interested and gives them an incentive to regularly check the site, is partially to blame for the poor quality and/or off-topicness of many of the comments. Don't get me wrong, some of them are truly informative, but the majority are either rehashes of old arguments or petty tribal/party point-scoring.

Going Off-Topic

The two threads in question are by Mark McGregor and Pete Baker. Mark highlights upcoming protests from socialist, republican microgroup Eirigi while Pete warns that there are actually folk out there who seriously want creationism taught as a scientific "theory".

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There's an interesting discussion over at Slugger centred around the Holylands blogger (who was today exonerated of all, apparently trumped up, charges of "harassment"). He recently republished an article by Suzanne Breen describing the terror inflicted on on the few remaining residents in the Holylands by the "slack-jawed bog-trash from west of the Bann" (not his quote).

According to reports the police have been even more inept and useless than we've come to expect; multiple commenters claim the police in south Belfast are happy to ignore the whole area, refuse to take statements (or occasionally even turn up) when violent assaults are reported, and I'm sure I remember reading one comment that claimed officers in other parts of the country describe their south Belfast colleagues as lazy bastards (or words to that effect) and that's saying something [that comment seems to have been removed]. It's been suggested by multiple commenters that the police are reluctant to alienate significant numbers of middle-class Catholics, but one would question whether it's any worse being seen as an enemy than a joke.

The more I read into it the more depressed I get. Comments suggest the culprits seem to be disproportionately University of Ulster students (though I'm sure Queen's has it's fair share), culchie and (according to a republican former prisoner, up until recently resident in the Holylands) Catholic, but the blame goes much wider than the students themselves. On top of the police refusing to do anything about it, the universities don't seem to be doing enough either. Sure there are a few posters around the Student's Union every now and again but the "punishments" for those identified as behaving anti-socially amount to no more than a strongly worded letter or a small fine. There is also something fundamentally wrong when students are able to repeat first year practically as many times as they like and universities.

There needs to be an end to the idea that university is a place to go solely to drink and doss on free money, so here's what I suggest (just for starters).

1. End bursaries for students from "low-income" families immediately. Loans should bypass students altogether and go straight to the universities for tuition fees, with an extra £3k or so on top to go towards living expenses.
2. Put serious effort into identifying anti-social students and actually take some action, e.g. expel repeat offenders.
3. Put a limit on the number of times students can repeat first year/transfer after failing so if you fuck up there are actually some consequences.
4. Universities should make more of an effort to stop students from east of the Bann leaving for universities on the mainland. The extra competition for places would raise the entrance requirements overall and remove the extreme morons from the equation.

Other suggestions welcome.

I bet you thought this only happened in China and Zimbabwe. It could never happen in Britain...

Belfast blogger Alan Murray has apparently been cautioned by police twice last year and then arrested over for content posted on his blog, Holylands Warzone, in which he criticised a public figure. The blog documents the "raping of the Holylands" by greedy landlords letting out houses of multiple occupancy to the scummiest students.

He also received a beating from the boyfriend of an Andersonstown News Group reporter he had criticised and had a public row with. He alleges that the reporter's father, a Sinn Fein member, was present when the kicking was dispensed and intimidated witnesses who were videoing the incident.

Malachi O'Doherty has a synopsis from the horse's mouth.

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"Citizen journalism", as it's been dubbed, is not perfect and nor is it always presented in an appealing format. There are numerous outlets for news both in print media and online, so why bother blogging?

The answer to this question is illustrated perfectly by Ed Curran, editor of the NIO rag, the Belfast Telegraph (which, I believe, is Northern Ireland's biggest-selling daily). While the Tele is making big noises about how it's holding Stormont to account (which, to some degree, is a fair claim), Curran's newspaper has not only ignored potentially the biggest waste of money in local politics recently, but actively participated in it as a cheerleader.

This is a trend that Curran continued on Monday when he penned a cringe-worthy Won't Somebody Think of the Children style "letter", ostensibly to David Healy, in Monday's paper bemoaning the death throes of the Maze stadium as if they were a bad thing instead of the reprieve we've been waiting for. This column was so bad it could only appear in a paper where the author is the editor (then again it's nothing new, he has form in that regard).

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I just wanted to apologise to some local bloggers for my lack of presence on their blogs recently. Unfortunately, while I can still read the blogs, I can no longer respond to posts on the Blogger/Blogspot platform during office hours. I'm not ignoring you guys, honest. Keep up the good work.

Colm Bradley has outlined some ways he thinks the GAA can remove the barriers to Unionists joining. Just over a year ago I outlined that the GAA has a de facto ban in Unionists joining. Unfortunately Google hasn't cached it, so some of the substantive points are below the fold. The main contention I have though, is that the GAA is explicitly a political organisation, and should not be treated as a sporting organisation unless and until it sheds the vestiges of a political pressure group.

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Nearly two years ago I wrote a piece outlining why I believe that the House of Lords is undemocratic and untenable in a modern democracy. I'd be interested to hear what EU's readers think. Rather unfortunately, Charter88's Elect the Lords campaign seems to have stalled last August.

Seems a novel (to say the least) way of recruiting electoral candidates, but the Northern Ireland Conservatives have a message on their blog requesting that:

"people - from all backgrounds - who might like to put themselves forward for the next Westminster election... Please, please contact us if you have the time, aptitude and interest to take on a campaign for a seat in Westminster"
Seeking Candidates - ConservativesNI.com

I can't decide if this is a bit desperate or a good way of taking advantage of new technology to reach out to like-minded individuals. Maybe it's both.