This really pissed me off. I heard on Radio 5's Drive programme in the car on the way home from work today that Prince Harry has been in Afghanistan, fighting on the front line, for 10 weeks. The media knew this and said nothing. Obviously this was necessary to protect Harry and the other soldiers working with him from becoming walking bullseyes for the Taliban.

There were complaints about the media doing a deal with the government to keep this secret. The deal was they get fairly up-close and personal to Harry in exchange for not reporting it until after he's back home. I'm not one to praise the media very often, but the fact that the whole of the British media kept this secret, I think, demonstrates that they do actually have the ability to recognise that there are one or two things more important than circulation.

Sadly an American web site seems to have blown the whole deal, showing blatant and selfish disregard for the safety of the Prince and the other soldiers of a supposedly allied nation. By reporting on Harry's whereabouts, they have, I'm sure, guaranteed that the Prince is forced to return home early to ensure his own safety and that of his colleagues.

Apparently two smaller sites had published this previously but the story hadn't hit the mainstream. With a larger US web site, publishing the story today (originally crediting Australian and German magazines but later dropping those references and calling it a 'world exclusive' over 7 weeks later - that's integrity!), it's now common knowledge. It's very unlikely that multi-millionaire Matt Drudge will ever read this, but I'd like to take this opportunity to send him a big FUCK YOU anyway.

It really is time to put a stop to the nonsense going on at the Bill of Rights Forum. This bunch of professional do-gooders, whose job seems to be to advise those who will advise the government on a Bill of Rights, seem to want to allow anyone under the age of 18 to escape prosecution when they commit a crime.

I'm sure you're all familiar with stories about violent and disruptive youngsters who proudly proclaim "I know my rights" when teachers attempt to discipline them. They must be having a good laugh at this. This is not what a Bill of Rights is supposed to be about!

There is an age under which children aren't held criminally responsible for their actions because they aren't mature enough to understand right and wrong. At the moment, that age is set as 10. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child don't like it being that low (the BORF seem happy enough to let us all know that bit) saying anything below 12 is not acceptable. What the BORF aren't so quick to talk about is The BORF do admit that they (the UN) view ages between 14-16 as "high" (though they deem this commendable), and yet they want the age raised to 18. So the offender, in the worst cases possibly a 17 year old who has abused a child or raped a woman, will be treated with kid-gloves and emerge with no criminal record.

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There's nothing like seeing a criminal, particularly a violent one, get their comeuppance. Those last couple of pictures are doozies.

What can I say? It seemed relevant.

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I'm sure it didn't take anyone long to notice the tweaks made to Everything Ulster over the weekend. The blog software was updated to a new version with lots of funky new features, most of which will make life easier for me rather than affect the front-end too much (though the green links should be easier to distinguish from the black text than the navy ones were).

The upgrade would have meant a major re-work of the previous skin, so instead I decided to start from scratch a default skin and build a new one around that. There may be one or two finishing touches to come, but hopefully you're looking at a relatively finished product.

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Given Sinn Fein's serious, and not at all opportunistic, commitment to creating "neutral working environments" I'm shocked, nay stunned, to find them taking advantage of International Women's Day to celebrate a convicted bomber, Mairead Farrell. Surely the Equality Commission would have something to say on this, no?

"We have a right to hold the celebration there. I would never, ever say to unionists or loyalists that they should or should not be doing something."
Jennifer McCann MLA, organiser of the event

It's lucky then, Jennifer, that Unionist politicians wouldn't be so sick as to arrange an event dedicated to the Shankill Butchers right under your noses (actually I'd be disgusted if they organised one at all, but that's neither here nor there at the moment). There are plenty of places in west Belfast and South Armagh where I'm sure there would have been less fuss, but this is all about Sinn Fein showing how far they can push their luck in sticking two-fingers up at unionists.

The DUP has, co-incidentally I'm sure, decided to hold an event commemorating the role of the SAS in defending Ulster from Farrell and her semtex-happy buddies. The SAS shot dead Farrell and 2 other IRA members who were on "active service" in Gibraltar, attempting to blow up the band at the weekly Changing of the Guard at the Governor's residence.

Hat-tip Big Ulsterman, who points out that stunts like this appear to be the tit-for-tat in the new dispensation.

If I wanted to be as vindictive as McCann I would suggest a ceremony to honour the Parachute Regiment be held at the Guildhall in Londonderry. Thankfully, I'm not.

Is it any wonder unionists feel like their culture and identity is constantly under attack? It's all very well for people in Northern Ireland who are familiar with the bullshit emanating from the likes of the Andytown News group and the various interest groups to just switch off when the latest MOPE appears in the media, and most will. Unfortunately those without such a familiarity of the situation here actually believe some of it and that can lead to situations where, for example, the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam ranks Orangeism up there with Nazism and advocates of apartheid in South Africa.

I've said before, and anyone who knows me would testify, as an atheist I'm no particular fan of the Orange Order and they often do themselves no favours. Sometimes it surprises me how much the bullshit slander (they eat babies and rape women, didn't you know?) against them annoys me, but the fact is that the Orange Order is just a 'legitimate target' for the sectarian bile and hatred the perpetrators clearly feel towards unionists and/or Protestants generally.

Why does all this matter? Because once these hateful liars have successfully demonised unionism and the majority population of Northern Ireland they can use these fictitious and/or exaggerated 'evil acts' to justify the extremely real and extremely vicious murders and bombings carried out by the IRA - by pretending they were fighting a dangerous, bigoted, violent group of oppressors rather than an innocent civilian population.

Donegal: northernmost of the Three Counties (red)

OK, maybe not, but following recent speculation about the transfer of Cavan to Northern Ireland, those who hear the word Ulster and think of the historic province, whose boundaries were set on the authority of Queen Elizabeth I way back when, may well have cause to be pleased.

Apparently the University of Ulster is considering an expansion over the border into Co. Donegal by way of a merger with the Letterkenny Institute of Technology.

£1.3 million is being spent on a study investigating options that might "improve links between the institute and the University of Ulster's Magee campus" in Londonderry, of which a merger is one. Further detail from the UU itself confirms that the funding comes as part of measures in the Republic's National Development Plan aimed at increasing the capacity of higher education in "the North West [sic] and the border region".

The Saville Inquiry was established in 1998 to re-examine the events of 30th January 1972, AKA "Bloody Sunday". We knew then that soldiers shot dead 14 people in the Bogside in Londonderry's. 10 years and £181 million later and that's still about all we know and Secretary of State Shaun Woodward said he still doesn't think we're going to see the report any time soon.

From the beginning I've been of the opinion that this enquiry is a waste of money given that people have already made up their minds on what happened. If it's proved that the army were in the wrong, it will be seen in some quarters as a sop to Sinn Fein. If it's proved that the army were in the right, Sinn Fein will argue that there's been a cover up (as was claimed of the original tribunal). Whatever happens, the only people laughing at the end of it all will be the lawyers and anyone seeking to exploit what happened to demonise either the soldiers (and by extension the British government) or the deceased (and by extension, republicans).

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

The Assembly has rejected any suggestion that the IRA's sectarian murder campaign was a war. A good thing, and fairly unsurprising.

I've always liked Danny Kennedy, but his performance since devolution has impressed me, and he is clearly im proving as time goes on. I enjoyed this contribution during the debate:

Mr McCartney: The Member made an intervention and stated that Ireland was only ever united under the British Crown. Is that an acceptance that uniting Ireland is a worthy cause?

Mr Kennedy: Yes — under the British Crown. If the Republic wants to rejoin the British Commonwealth and renegotiate the terms and conditions for the union, I would withhold any objection.

Here here. Unionism should never be afraid to espouse Irish unity, it should probably be Unionism's objective - under the Crown within the devolutionary settlement for the Union. In today's world, Unionists have none of the reasons to fear Irish Home Rule that existed 100 years ago, and we should declare our willingness to enter an all Ireland legislature in Dublin, so long as all of Ireland sends its representatives to the national Parliament in London.

I've stated before on this blog that I don't like the legacy of James Craig. I think that he partly caused the insular, anti-Irish Unionism that is everything Carson stood against. Unionism should roll back the fear of it's Irish identity, and not allow the IRA's attempts to rob us of our British identity, to rob us of our Irish identity.

Well said Danny Kennedy.

Finally, he jumps. Take a look at his (graceless) resignation statement on the BBC website. He states that more important than the government, is his party's reputation. I don't like that much. Guido points out the obvious point. Nothing screams "he's innocent!" like a resignation.