As Slugger O’Toole’s over-eager contributor Doctor David McCann has initiated a thread on the letsgeralongerist message board, where he (and a committee) grade the recent Party Political Broadcasts…guess what Alliance is best and SDLP worst, I have assembled a committee composed of FORTY THREE fair and impartial members of SDLP…to grade the leading Slugger contributors.

Mick Fealty…Mr Slugger, now resident in England is to be congratulated on establishing the best of the Norn Iron blogs. Obviously it is letsgetalongerist in tone but this is not in itself Micks fault. He certainly needs contributions from Sinn Fein, SDLP and DUP people but steadfastly they dont play ball…presumably because it would give too much credibility to the site.
Mick certainly has his blind spots…Gerry Adams. And really no excuse for the omission of a blog commemorating the life of James Kelly, veteran journalist who died a few years ago.
Yet establishing the Blog of Record, is no mean feat.

Pete Baker…forensic if obsessive and contrarian. We didnt think it fair to grade him because I just dont like him. He publishes vanity pieces on Outer Space…or the Zodiac. Personally I dont know or care if theres a difference between Astronomy or Astrology.

Brian Walker…ex BBC Political Reporter in Norn Iron. Now also resident in England. Thinks he is living in 1968 and we all should have listened to Terence O’Neill. Liberal Unionist who is obsessive about Scottish Referendum (hes not Scottish) and the Catholic Church (hes not Catholic). Bit of a bore.

“Alan in Belfast”….serial letsgetalongerist but in a sincere churchy kinda way. Also a political anorak, he is seen at most of our local conferences. Also a bit of a whizz on new media and technology.

“Turgon”….atypical of Slugger, he writes from a traditional if independent unionist point of view. Skeptical of letsgetalongerists and Conflict Resolutionists.

David McCann…some PhDs wear the title lightly. Others cant wait to mention it.
His analysis hardly lives up to the academic expertise. Has a tendency to blog everything he knows…and has not yet worked out that Blogging is as much about intelligence-gathering. Never ever reveal all you know until the time is opportune. Possibly handicapped by his inability to analyse the South Belfast SDLP Selection Meeting at the end of last year.

On balance the Committee of fair and impartial SDLP members rated the contributions of Mick, Alan and “Turgon” rather more than they rated the contributions of Baker, Walker and McCann.