Are the UDA preparing for peace or milking the media? Just what are the UDA actually doing, I wonder. Today saw two more high profile expulsions in the form of the Shoukri brothers (even though the courts didn't have enough evidence to convict them of m… more »

Dermot Ahern and the Republic's Foreign Ministry may have grabbed the initial headlines on FIFA's reversal of an earlier decision to require Northern Ireland players to carry UK passports, but the IFA have said that their negotiations with FIFA were resp… more »

The Chancellor is in Belfast today and will meet with the local political parties (lucky guy) as well as business leaders (I wasn't aware we had any). This quote stuck out to me: "The first message to him has to be that you can't penalise people now for… more »

Just what is a good distance to stay from a bonfire? If you're adorned in paramilitary regalia, I'd suggest as far away as possible. If we are ever to see widespread public acceptance and/or support for bonfires then the paramilitary connection, particul… more »

I wasn't sure whether to be amused or angry when I first learned of the government giving consideration to taxing rubbish collections as part of council tax reforms for England and Wales (and Scotland?). In principle, it would be a good incentive for peo… more »

I've been saying from I began blogging just over a year ago that I'd like to see the Conservatives perform better in Northern Ireland elections, so you'd naturally expect that I'd be happy at the prospect of UUP members defecting to the Tories. Well you… more »

This is one for the fans of loyalist paramilitaries out there. On Saturday, the Mount Vernon UVF sent an 8-man gang into Rathcoole to torture Robert McCord for information he didn't have - ie the location of his estranged cousin, Raymond. Paramilitari… more »

Yes folks, another prominent republican has been involved in an altercation with the police - and of course you know what that means. Yes, another whinge about police "heavy handedness". Now that they've accepted claims of 'brutality' were taking the pis… more »

Another twist in the shacking up of the UUP and PUP in Stormont has seen 25 year old Ulster Unionist party officer and Down councillor Peter Bowles is defecting to the Conservatives in protest over the party's new links to the UVF. As well as becoming th… more »

I'm not sure which of these amused me more - the verdict being returned that the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition are not the most oppressed people ever, or the fact that Sinn Fein's very own "No!" men are likely to appeal to Britain's highest court - t… more »