They're coming from all sides today.

O'Neill's ever-watchful eye has picked up that Wales's GVA per head is only 77% of the UK average, (down from 79% when the Assembly was set up in 1999 and 84% back in 1991) despite receiving more than £1bn of EU aid to boost economic activity, placing them firmly at the bottom of the UK league table. Never mind, as long as the Bank of England, the Olympic Delivery Authority and the Carbon Trust have to "deliver services" in Welsh, what does wealth matter?

Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland where the GVA is 81% of the UK average (that figure is unchanged since 1997 and currently sees us tying with north-east England for second-last spot), devolution seems to be having similar levels of success. According to a MORI poll conducted last month (spotted by Chekov in a report in the Belfast Telegraph):

• 21% of people polled think the Executive has done a good job in the last year since it was reinstated while 28% rated their collective performance as poor.
• 72% of people asked thought devolution had failed to make any difference on their lives.
• 46% thought devolution had had no impact on Ulster's economy and 10% thought it had made it worse.
• The Health Service fared even worse: 67% thought devolution had had no impact, while 16% thought devolution had improved it and another 16% thought it had made it worse.

The BBC's Mark Devenport claims the "most obvious achievement of the current executive is that it is still in existence" and our own First Minister yesterday extolled the current setup as "not perfect and not wholly democratic, but the best [he] could get for the people of Northern Ireland" - not exactly glowing recommendations, are they?

Perhaps now would be a good time to reflect on the bill for devolution.

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.

The Patten Commission was not a pleasant experience for Unionists. The abandonment of the historic name and symbols of the RUC GC was needless, insensitive, and damaging to Unionist confidence in the political process of the time. While this was not the only negative experience to come out of Patten, what we can say is a great many of the recommendations (PDF) in the report were good ones that have improved the already high standard of policing in Northern Ireland. One of these proposals, detailed at pages 62 and 63 of the Patten report, was the civilianisation of many tasks that were being undertaken by fully trained Police Officers. Police Officers are expensive to train and retain, this training is extensive and produces an excellent public servant for the betterment of the community. It is therefore demeaning to the officers, as well as a massive waste of public resources to have uniformed police officers manning reception desks of stations, and other such basic administrative tasks.

Despite the poor way in which the report was handled, the handful of appalling recommendations which were insensitively implemented, and the bad taste left by it in Northern Ireland, it has had a positive net effect on day to day policing. Therefore it is of note that the former Chief Constable of the RUC GC, who himself was "hurt" by the Patten report, has used his experience to implement Patten best practise across forces in England and Wales. The DPPs, the Ombudsman’s Office (which I think may have predated Patten slightly, but the point nevertheless stands), as well as civilianisation of administrative functions are positive developments in the policing of Northern Ireland, and the rest of the country can learn from our positive, if in places painful, example.

Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are catching up to England for levels of broadband uptake according to figures released by Ofcom this week.

In 2005 England was leading the way with 36% of homes connected to broadband. Scotland followed with 31% while Wales and Northern Ireland brought up the rear with 25% and 24% respectively. In 2006 though, England was just in front with 45% while Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were all just behind on 42%. The Republic was still lagging well behind with just 13% of homes connected to broadband.

The UK average of 44% is just above mid-table for European countries which is led by Holland with 66% and propped up by Greece with just 4%.

Government research on the mainland is indicating that providing public services in foreign languages for non-English speakers is not only costing upwards of £100m a year (including £55m in the NHS), but isolating communities from each other. Meanwhile, Sinn Fein and their new MOPE poster-girl "Maire Nic An Bhaird" are continuing their efforts to create language barriers where none presently exist.

Remember, these millions are being spent on translating for people who can't speak English; by pushing for the new Irish Language Act to be rights-based one, republicans are demanding that the government spend proportionally similar sums on translations for people who can!

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Something of an alarming (or alarmist) poll in the Sunday Telegraph today (coinciding with the discussion here at EU about the various nationalisms in the UK) stating that 68% of voters in England want Scotland to leave the Union while 48% want to see England break away from Wales and Northern Ireland as well.

I won't go into the details because you can read the rest yourselves, but I thought I'd highlight one response in particular.

The union between England, Scotland and Wales is good for us all and we are stronger together than we are apart. The last thing we need is yet another parliament with separate elections and more politicians spending more money.
David Cameron, Conservative Leader

The union between who Dave? I'll be interested to see if the Northern Ireland Conservatives have an explanation for and/or response to this.

MPs from the DUP and UUP have joined with the SDLP and Sinn Fein in urging the Minister for Social Development, David Hanson, not to repeal Northern Ireland's antiquated licensing laws by bringing the licensing procedures inline with those in England and Wales.

According to the UTV report the politicians warned "pressing ahead with liberalisation proposals could result in every corner shop being able to sell drink." and we could never have that (among other things, on the mainland, you can buy alcohol at your local corner shops with your groceries).

Among the outrageous proposals being put forward by the DSD were such destructive ideas as:

• New powers for police to enforce licensing laws (including temporary closure or restricted hours for offending premises)
• A penalty points system for licensees
• Dedicated liquor licensing officers
• Test purchasing powers to allow the police to catch out vendors selling to underage drinkers
• Extension of opening hours by an entire hour to 2AM (except on Sundays) by mid 2007

"There is no need to tamper with a system that has worked well for the people of Northern Ireland for decades just so he can say he has brought our legislation into line with that of the rest of the UK."
Jeffrey Donaldson, DUP MP & MLA, Lagan Valley

Wee Jeff knows best. I hope the irony of a Unionist arguing so hard against legalising something that is perfectly normal in the rest of the UK wasn't lost on him. Thank goodness that we have enlightened fresh-thinking politicians like these to save Ulster from the horrifying prospect of picking up a well-earned six-pack from the Co-Op at the end of a hard day's work.

The usual suspects have been having a whinge at Slugger (and I'm sure on plenty of Celtic supporters websites too) about how "sectarian" Northern Ireland fans are after yesterday's match with Wales. Perhaps they prefer to focus on Northern Ireland's match because the Republic's victory over Cyprus was (apparently) so unconvincing - anyway: I can't help but wonder about something.

What evidence have they for accusations that Northern Ireland fans are anti-catholic? Well.. erm... some of them booed the Welsh anthem (legitimately IMHO) in retaliation for Welsh booing over God Save the Queen in Cardiff. Oh and they booed John Hartson, a man who has been described as "A thug masquerading as a footballer," and who gets booed in many more grounds than just Windsor Park for just that reason.

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Northern Ireland are set to play Wales at Windsor Park tomorrow and the fans are planning on taking a convoy of open-top buses from the city centre up to the ground. The buses will set off from Custom House Square at 12:45 and travel past the City Hall, along the Dublin Road, past Shaftsbury Square and up the Lisburn Road to the ground.

It all sounds like great crack and hopefully I won't miss it (don't ask - fascist slavedrivers at work). If I catch it I'll be sure to post photos here.

The match starts at 2:00pm with coverage on BBC Northern Ireland. If Northern Ireland somehow win both their remaining games (the other is Austria on Wednesday) they could finish 3rd in the group.

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A tribute to over 4,000 UK police officers killed in the line of duty is being held in Cardiff today. Around 1,000 people from around the country are expected to gather in St. David's Hall today and will be joined by Home Office Minister Hazel Blears and the Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan.

This is the second annual memorial service after last year's inaugural event, which took place in St. Paul's Cathedral in London and was attended by members of the Royal Family as well as politicians and families of the officers being remembered. Since that event, 14 police officers have been killed in the line of duty.

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