Meanwhile On Slugger O’Toole…..

Posted on October 26, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

Lovers of Tradition……will welcome the latest Slugger O’Toole contribution from Mr BBC Bore. It is about “Londonerry”. Slugger O’Toole at its worst.

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Obama Votes

Posted on October 25, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

No wonder they have early voting in USA…..just watched Obama vote in Chicago (Sky News)…….and it went on for ever………that would never do in my local polling station where I am in and out in two minutes……..and that includes my traditional argument with the polling clerk, the policewoman intervening and Mrs Fitzjames Horse dragging me out saying “Leave it ………hes not worth it”.

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Meanwhile In Primary One…

Posted on October 25, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

I have in the past referred to sending my sons into different forms of Education.

Son #1 …..Gaelic speaking Nursery, Catholic Primary School, State Primary School (reasons of temporary location), “Integrated” Secondary School (his choice) and Catholic Secondary School (his choice).

Son #2…..Catholic Primary School, State Primary School (reasons of temporary location),  Catholic Grammar School (his choice), Catholic Secondary School (his choice).

I think Mrs FJH and I are glad that we have no more choices to make. There is a lot of choice and/or confusion out there. Our experience is …make the right choices without experimenting.

So visiting my grandsons the other day……….and grandson #2 has now gone into Primary One. Catholic School. He is a …….big boy now and anxious to show me what he made at school in his first week.

Gladdening my Republican and Nationalist heart…….they spent their first week learning about Ireland “cos granda thats our country”. See the cool flag my grandson made.

It will probably give “letsgetalongerists”  the vapours and God knows what serial flag watcher Willie Fraser will make of it……I suppose I could try and assure him that it is Italian.

There is to paraphrase Rev Norman Hamilton (then Presbyterian Moderator at SDLP Conference 2010) no such thing as value-free education. Whatever system ……even the one the “letsgetalongerists” would have us sign up to………..will have some values of its own.

I should of course point out that my grandsons go to a Catholic school. But at the time of the recent Mrs Windsor Jubilee, the local “State” Primary School was be-decked in British flags.

What would an “integrated” school do. Its not really about religion….Catholic schools are instrumental in teaching children a sense of Irishness.

Long may they remain to so do.

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Good Old Norn Iron

Posted on October 25, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

Those of us who love Nostalgia will have enjoyed the cameo performance by an audience member on the Stephen Nolan-Alan Partridge Show tonight. Beneath all the good news “Our Time, Our Place” narrative, it is good to know that the old values have not been forgotten.

I cannot say for sure if the lady in the audience is related to our old friend Newt Emerson but she certainly seems to share his analysis of SDLP.

To be honest, SDLP should welcome this. It is good to know what we are up against. A few years ago, SDLP would have invited her to address its Annual Conference.

And well done to Conall McDevitt MLA for rising above it.

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“Derry-Londonderry”

Posted on October 25, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

Big day in Derry City tomorrow.

Look out for a post on Slugger from Mr BBC or Data about the “UK” City of Culture. The programme will be announced tomorrow.

Although I have a lot of friends up there, I see it as yet another “Bread and Circus” Event. No doubt BBC Norn Iron News and UTV will be live from the North West. A beaming Donna Traynor and a beaming Paul Clark of the Covenant will bring us the latest good news story.

Which brings me to the odd creeping fact that “Derry-Londonderry” is gaining a kinda currency as the semi-official name of the City. At some point, I would expect an official announcement to that effect. There seem to be being prepared for that.

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BBC At War…With BBC

Posted on October 23, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

I am not sure what the current chaos in the BBC proves. No news organisation likes being the story. Sky News looked at times………extremely uncomfortable …when reporting on the Phone Hacking Scandal.

And the BBC has at times looked uncomfortable with the way the BBC has handled the Savile Story.

This culminated last night with “Panorama” (BBC1 10.35pm) investigating the decision by “Newsnight” to spike the Jimmy Savile investigation in November 2011. Meanwhile “Newsnight” (BBC2 10.30pm) was leading on the “Panorama” story………with a very unhappy looking Jeremy Paxman (who volunteered the information that not all “Newsnight” people had even been aware of the “Savile” story.

I do not really want to re-hash the current state of play in the “Savile” story……….in this Blog I am really trying to get at whats going on in the BBC.

We get a little insight into how a “newsroom” works. November 2011….The reporter is Liz McKean. Her producer is Merrion Jones. They are working on a story that Jimmy Savile, recently deceased was a paedophile. Its explosive stuff. One of the BBCs stars in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s. A harmless but self-publicising eccentric ….Britain’s favourite uncle.

The Newsnight Editor is Peter Rippon. He gives the go ahead to transmit. But then re-considers. He himself has seemingly reported to his own bosses the Deputy Director of News and the Director of News. He spikes the story.

Meanwhile the Director of News has a ten second conversation with George Entwistle Head of BBC1 and tells him Newsnight are investigating Savile and he might want to re-consider a series of gushing tributes in the Christmas schedules. Entwistle asks no questions. The “Newsnight” story is spiked and the tributes go ahead.

And all is blown apart by the exposure of Savile by……….ITV. This creates a firestorm and a blog by Peter Rippon explains the decision was based on editorial reasons. And the BBC Director General goes with this version of events. Unfortunately the new BBC Director General is the same George Entwistle who asked nothing back in November last year. But the information in Rippon’s blog was lacking in “accuracy and honesty” (as Entwistle told the House of Commons Select Committee today). But the BBC held the “Rippon line for two weeks.

It looks bad……very bad. But yet the BBC deserves a lot of credit for investigating itself. Liz McKean and Merrion Jones were interviewees on “Panorama”……whistle-blowing their own employer “Newsnight”. And BBC News presenters (like Jon Sopel and correspondents like Norman Smith and Nick Higham)  casually talk about “Peter”, “George” and the rest of the cast. Indeed Jon Sopel made the point that the Director of BBC News (her name is Helen Boaden) should perhaps make a statement clarifying what she knew in November last year.

Yes BBC deserves credit for how it is dealing with the NEWS aspect……..but there is an uncomfortable feeling that these are people who know each other and have in some cases (good and bad) “History”.

 

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Conrad Black

Posted on October 23, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

There is absolutely no point to this Blog Entry….except it is a kinda “journal” entry.

Normally I would not have been interested in an interview with Conrad Black, the multi-millionaire fraudster, recently released from an American prison.

But I was at the dentists today. Arrived home at 1.50pm and switched on Sky News, fully expecting an update on the “Savile” story. And there was Conrad Black being interviewed by Adam Boulton. I parapharase.

Boulton: “But why are you allowing yourself to become a figure of ridicule”

Black: “Because I have a book to sell”.

Boulton: “But you are allowing yourself to be ridiculed”.

Black: “I am selling this book……I did not come here to enjoy your very predictable questions”.

Boulton: “Have I Got News For You…the guests are ridiculed…..”

Black: “Who will be ridiculing? Who will be ridiculed?………I can usually hold my own in acerbic exchanges”

Ooops Car Crash Television. I saw this for all of ten seconds and switched over. I hate confrontational interviews. I get……embarrassed. Black was grumpy and obviously not enjoying the experience. Few will sympathise.

But that is the downside of Live 24 Hour News. There have been some moments which just simply embarrass me.

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Margaret Thatcher And Her Legacy

Posted on October 22, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

There was some controversy a few weeks ago when it was revealed that margaret Thatcher Party Packs….were on sale at the Trades Union Congress. The party packs, included balloons, fireworks and most controversially a Tshirt with the legend “Ding Dong…Thatcher’s Gone”.

Margaret Thatcher is 87 years old and is frail. She suffers from Dementia.

It would inhuman not to feel a degree of sympathy for her. There is a long standing joke about how Argentinians, the Irish and Yorkshire miners will find a use for her grave. The Margaret Thatcher Memorial Dance Floor has been mentioned. The Margaret Thatcher Memorial Urinal has also been mentioned.

We have had “hate-speak” (or is it “hate-tweet”?” on Twitter and Facebook about all kinds of tragedy. Most recently we have had a man jailed in Manchester for celebrating the murder of two local policewomen on a homemade Tshirt.

Which kinda begs the question about the legality of wearing a “Ding Dong…Thatcher’s Gone” Tshirt on the London tube. Or indeed the advisability of wearing one in Tunbridge Wells.

Where is the line drawn? Murdered policewomen….clearly offensive. Osama Bin Ladin? Hmmmm. Margaret Thatcher?

Imagine the day of Thatcher’s death on ….Twitter, Facebook, Have I Got News For You and Mock The Week. Are there enough prison cells to hold the offenders?

And yet by the day, Thatcher’s legacy becomes worse. Police who dealt with the miners strike have seemingly  fabricated evidence…nearly thirty years ago. Jimmy Savile was a house guest at her country home for ELEVEN Christmas seasons.

An awful woman.

And yet I fear she may yet influence events. For Good or Bad. Can you imagine the announcement of her death during (for example) a Election Campaign?

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Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, Newton Emerson…And SDLP

Posted on October 22, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

Oscar Wilde had a way with words. So did Mark Twain. So …in his own way….does Newton Emerson.

Oscar Wilde said something about us lying in the gutter but some of us are looking up at the stars. Newton Emerson said nothing quite as inspirational.

I see Newt’s Wikipedia entry states that he describes himself as a “liberal unionist”. I see that someone is trying to update his wikipedia entry (21st October 2012)…hmmm.

“Liberal unionist” is a category of people who have achieved little in fifty odd years. Ultimately they are all have to make a choice. Liberalism or Unionism. And usually the issue is Civil Rights. Newt wont be the first self-described liberal unionist to have a crisis of conscience.

Which road will he choose? Well the bullish response to his brush with the headlines suggests he will bluff it out as a victim. An unlikely victim of “political correctness gone maaaaaaaaaaaad”. And that suggests that he might choose Unionism over Liberalism. To retain any credibility as a “liberal”, Newt would have to don some sackcloth and ashes and mumble a few “mea culpsa” (if he soesnt find the term objectionable).

A third course of action might be to learn to play the flute and apply to a Portadown band.

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde..it is better to be talked about than to not be talked about. So in an odd way the SDLP can take some satisfaction that Newton Emerson has been talking about them. And Peter Robinson too for that matter. The story of the past few weeks is that the SDLP is actually being talked about….it has made itself relevant. Whether its Parades, Nelson McCausland, Welfare Reform…..the SDLP is now much more part of the narrative.

Which brings me to Mark Twain……..who said that reports of his death were greatly exaggerated.

Reports of SDLPs terminal decline seem a bit exaggerated too.

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Alas Poor Newt

Posted on October 19, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

Seemingly the latest victim of Tinternet is Newton Emerson. Something he said on Facebook apparently. SDLP reported it to the BBC where he has a regular Freelance gig….and the Beeb sacked him.

There wasa time when Newton Emerson was a kinda enfant terrible…..an anti-journalist who ran a satirical webthingy called The Portadown News. How we laughed.

Nowadays Newt is a fully paid up liberal unionist/lets get alongerist. On the rare occasions I buy the Irish News, he is writing in it. I dunno what he said on Facebook but seemingly he took Andrew Mitchell-style verbage at a Dungannon Council resolution to support unrepentant IRA prisoner, Gerry McGeough. Seemingly SDLP vote on the issue did not follow Newton Emerson’s conscience.

That seems to be a problem for “letsgetalongerist” journalists recently. The SDLP is not following their script.

Basically Newton Emerson is far too old to be the enfant terrible and far too young to bea  smart-arse liberated old geezer like…..me. But I daresay that with about two decades of journalism behind him, Emerson has rubbed several people up the wrong way. I suppose that can be said of most journos. I daresay there is…..History.

So the SDLP makes a complaint andNewton loses his freelance gig on The View, BBCs flagship current affairs programme……a flagship which appears to be sinking. But lets make this clear the SDLP did not sack Emerson. The BBC sacked him. And over what seems a trivial offence…now thats odd. And Id guess that just maybe there was more to it.

Last week, SDLP (and UUP) were not included in a Spotlight Panel Discussion. The narrative is DUP-SF-Alliance. Certainly SDLP might have cause for complaint. And maybe several causes for complaint. And the best reaction of BBC might be to do nothing……then sack a freelance. It gets SDLP off their backs for a while.

The reaction of local journalists is “Shame on BBC…poor Newt”. But rather like watching football managers complain that somebody has been sacked. “He did not deserve it”, the same managers will happily apply for the sacked managers job.

So let it be with Newton Emerson. There are too many journalists and too few pay cheques. Sympathy with Newt wont extend to Solidarity with Newt….is any journalist who “supports” him going to go so far as to turn down BBC gigs. No…..I dont think so either.

Newton himself seems to think the problem is social media…..what can and cant be said. That people are too censorious. I dont have sympathy. Sorry Newt….you made your name on Tinternet. Live by the sword…….and all that.

Yet popular people can get away with just about anything. Unpopular people (Ashley Cole for example) cant. Newton Emerson’s biggest mistake was thinking he is popular.

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