What will happen on November 30th?

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Irish News November 26th 2013
Back in August a group known as Loyal Peaceful Protesters submitted an application to the Parades Commission for a parade on September 21st 2013 from Belfast City Hall to Woodvale, setting off at 2.00 p.m.

September 21st 2013 Application
The Parades Commission permitted the parade but stipulated that it should leave Belfast City Hall no later than 12.30 p.m. and be clear of Royal Avenue by 1.00 p.m.

Parades Commission determination on September 21st 2013 parade
In the event the organisers decided to ignore the Parades Commission determination and actually left the City Hall at approx 1.30 p.m. and made it's way down North Street shortly before 2.00 p.m. 

UTV News report on September 21st 2013 Parade

In the lead up to the parade rumours began circulating on Facebook that a deal had been done with the PSNI to facilitate the original parade time that had been applied for.

We did not believe these rumours and the PSNI were very visible on the day itself in telling those involved that the parade was 'unlawful'.

September 21st 2013 PSNI Warnings

We published a blog to this effect on September 23rd 2013.

TURNS OUT WE WERE WRONG - kind of

We contacted the PSNI regarding the allegations of  'secret deals' and received this reply:

PSNI reply to LAD query on late start time of September 21st 2013 parade

So while the late start time was indeed unlawful, the PSNI had informed the organisers they would not attempt to prevent a later start time, intent on minimising the likelihood of "harm, injury and disorder."

Which is fair enough.

This weekend the same organisers have applied for another "civil rights" parade in Belfast City Centre on Saturday November 30th - one of the busiest pre-Christmas shopping days and incredibly important for local traders.

November 30th 2013 application

Yet again the Parades Commission have placed certain restrictions on the parade, stating that it must leave Belfast City Hall by 12 noon and be clear of Royal Avenue by 12.30 p.m.

Parades Commission determination on November 30th 2013 parade
However, once again it seems that the organisers are sticking by their original plans and encouraging people to attend as originally planned. 

Ignoring the Parades Commission
In addition to Facebook posts, flyers have also been distributed in parts of Belfast today - again emphasising the original start time.


All of this begs a few important questions:
  1. If the PSNI can overturn Parades Commission decisions for 'operational' reasons - what exactly is the function of the Parades Commission?
  2. Has another deal been struck to facilitate a later start time this coming Saturday November 30th?
  3. What the fuck is going on?
Happy Christmas Belfast 

Update:

Looks like Wee Jamie is plugging the unlawful start time as well.

Wee Jamie Bryson plugging unlawful start time on his Facebook page









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Guest post: LAD may not be middle class, but their attitudes are.

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GUEST POST

This is a guest post from a new contributor Ed Simpson

Ed contacted us to request that we post his response to another guest post that previously appeared on our blog entitled 'An Anus Horeebliss'.

Whilst we don't necessarily agree with all of the content of this article, we are happy to feature an alternative point of view.

This is the opening paragraph from a post by a contributor to the Loyalists Against Democracy blog:

“December 3rd 2013 signals the first anniversary of the restrictions placed on the flying of the Union flag at Belfast City Hall, a decision so incredibly benign that the overblown reaction to it could only spring from a place as barking mad as Northern Ireland.”

You can read the rest of the post here and it’s worth a read but, I generally think it’s misguided and ignorant. I could go through it line by line but I think I’ll concentrate on this first paragraph because it is, like much of the content LAD produce (though they didn’t produce this), a good example of the attitude that pervades their work.

They refer to the decision to restrict the flying of the Union Flag to designated days as ‘so incredibly benign.’ To whom is it benign? All the evidence suggests that it was far from benign.

It wasn’t benign to the Loyalist community. Not in the least. As much as people like to apportion blame to the DUP and the UUP for stirring up trouble (and they certainly must take some of the blame), it’s incredibly arrogant to suggest that Loyalists were a) ignorant of the planned vote and b) needed the DUP & the UUP to tell them how much to be upset about it.

It wasn’t benign to the Nationalist/Republican community. Sinn Fein – who LAD quite sincerely claim were defeated on the night – were rumoured to have had a celebration party after the vote. An Phoblacht recorded the flag coming down – keen to capture the significant moment. SF Council Leader at the time, Jim McVeigh said:

“Perhaps more than any other, this symbolises the process of change taking place across the city of Belfast and within the City Hall. Sinn Fein has become the biggest party across Belfast and we have used that strength to push ahead with the equality agenda. This decision is a milestone. This is part of our strategy to make City Hall a City Hall for everyone and every tradition, not least the republican and nationalist tradition.”

Republicans and Nationalists speaking after the flag was taken down talked of how important it was that the city was a shared space for all and that an inequality had been addressed.

That’s not the markings of a benign decision, is it? In fact, is it really even benign to LAD when it seems to be their key reason for marking out the pro-choice, pro-equal marriage PUP as a regressive party? Yes, they are right to point out the change in tune from the PUP over their position on the flag and hold them to account for it. They may well decide that it casts doubts on the PUP claim as a progressive party. But if that’s the case, it’s not really a benign issue is it?

Regardless of whether it was actually benign or not, the attitude that others should see it as benign is what is unsettling. This and other such attitudes – telling Jamie Bryson to get a job – are what I refer to as a ‘middle class attitude.’ An attitude of ‘those beneath me are the problem and the way they stop being a problem is to be like me.’

Why call it a middle class attitude? Because it is most often presented by people who are sitting in a position of relative privilege. The phrase ‘Get a Job’ is almost only ever said by those who are lucky enough to actually have a job. Those desperate for work would never suggest getting a job as an easy solution to a problem. In this climate, it’s not the class you were born into that is relevant, but your circumstances. Having a job and qualifications are pretty much all you need to be in that position of privilege.

That’s not to say LAD are middle class – I have no idea who they are so couldn’t possibly label them as such – but their attitudes certainly are.

I understand that it’s not easy these days to assign class to people and in many ways that’s a good thing, but we’re kidding ourselves if we pretend class groups don’t exist and there’s undeniably a class group that thinks itself superior to Loyalism and the majority of Loyalists. It’s plain to see in the mocking of poor grammar and spelling. In the mocking of the clothes people wear. In the mocking of the accents people talk with. That class group doesn’t need to be made up of people in similar socio-economic circumstances; they just need to display the same attitudes.

To be absolutely clear: there is nothing wrong with being middle class, working class or even upper class, it’s the attitudes I take exception to.

My issue is that I think those attitudes are detrimental to society. We won’t get anywhere by alienating people. We need to make people feel equal within society, people need to know that what’s important to them is for them to decide and for us to respect, with the obvious caveat that it shouldn’t be detrimental for others. There’s no doubt that the approach by some factors in Loyalism aren’t meeting that criteria and it’s right that they’re criticised, but that criticism needs to be measured and it needs to offer solutions beyond telling them to ‘wise up’.

LAD will say, and have said, that that is not their responsibility and so be it. But they shouldn’t condemn others for trying. They have said on occasions that some of the behaviour and actions of some who claim to represent Loyalism would have David Irvine spinning in his grave. They might well do, but I’d wager he’d have a bigger problem with the way LAD conduct themselves.

I didn’t want this to be an attack piece on LAD – I’m not immune to their humour, and it’s right that the likes of Jamie Bryson and Willie Frazer are held up as the backward and dangerous idiots that they are, but for all the good LAD can do on that particular score, it is undone by the way they apply that same approach to anyone who disagrees with their view on things.

We like to try and pretend our problems are unique in Northern Ireland but that’s self-indulgent nonsense. Our problems are rooted in class warfare, as are most countries, and they’re best addressed by attacking the systems that perpetuate them – the fallacy of Grammar school social mobility, being one – not the people who suffer under it.

For the record, I pretty much agree with LAD on the fact that the flag not being flown every day doesn’t represent an attack on the civil rights of Loyalists. I don’t support the reasons for the ‘civil rights’ camp at Twaddell, though I do support their right to protest. The flag protests are not the cause of our problems, they are a symptom and we will never get anywhere by attacking the symptoms, while ignoring the underlying causes.

I’m glad LAD exists. Satire and parody are important, provided the right targets are engaged. Too often though, I feel that LAD have the wrong targets in their sights (though they’re bang on the money with Poots) and while the PUP may be an easy target, I don’t see anyone else trying to bring Loyalists along the right path.

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Guest post: An Anus Horeebliss

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GUEST POST

This post was originally published here and used with kind permission


December 3rd 2013 signals the first anniversary of the restrictions placed on the flying of the Union flag at Belfast City Hall, a decision so incredibly benign that the overblown reaction to it could only spring from a place as barking mad as Northern Ireland.

Anti-Alliance leaflets distributed by UUP/DUP - the spark that lit the flame?

It was all the fault of the Alliance Party - apparently
In the time since that day, it is hard to imagine ‘Ulster’ loyalism damaging itself any more than it already has. Over the course of 12 months, a community already bereft of leadership and direction has been reduced to the role of noisy toddler; red-faced, incomprehensibly angry and completely unrepentant. A tantrum of epic proportions, played out all year, has served to leave loyalists, once again, on the outside looking in. Winter in that caravan will be cold. Very cold.

Unable to articulate an argument about why the ‘fleg’ restrictions were so heinous, loyalists simply ignored all the obvious points in their column. That Sinn Féin had been defeated in its mission to remove this symbol of British influence on the island was irrelevant apparently. So too was the fact that Belfast was now on a par with cities as solidly British as Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield. Even Buckingham Palace manages to survive without the flag rippling from its roof every day, a fact conveniently ignored by those throwing their toys from the pram.

No, instead rank and file loyalists went off half-cocked, as they often do. Fuelled by misinformation and manipulated by nefarious elements within their own communities, they placed faith not in reason, nor mastery of the facts, but in gut instinct and predictable levels of fevered paranoia. 

In the eyes of many, these new flag provisions represented a further step forward, not to Irish unification - something most loyalists never tire of dismissing - but towards the shared future most of us truly desire.

It is a future which those hurling rocks at the police certainly do not wish to be part of.

Castlereagh Road, Belfast
It didn’t matter that Sinn Féin’s true goal had been thwarted. They still scored political points from the subsequent loyalist meltdown, brought on by the horrifying suspicion that the taigs had got one over on them. To see any restriction on this totem of dominance in the country’s largest city was simply too much to bear.

By July, loyalism’s perpetual cycle of protesting and not surrendering was slowing, as it always does. In refusing the Orange Order (along with its paramilitary bands and swaggering followers) permission to return to Ligoniel via the Crumlin Road and the lower Ardoyne, the Parades Commission gave Loyalism 2013 a new self-pitying drum to beat.

The resulting mob violence (‘peaceful protesting’ if one wishes to be euphemistic) and predictably petulant reaction to a situation which was, at its very core, a compromise, couldn’t have have dealt more of a blow to the loyalist cause. Loyalism frequently gives off about the republican advantage in the image war and while Sinn Féin does possess skill in this regard, it is aided in no small part by its opponents being so monumentally bad at the game.

July 12th, Belfast "peaceful" protest
The farce of the Twaddell ‘civil rights’ camp is too silly to fully address but needless to say it has failed to strike a chord with anyone beyond the usual narrow collection of sympathisers. As to the cornucopia of wider, mostly imagined, loyalist political grievances the silence from the broader unionist community has been deafening. Support from those across the Irish sea - government, monarch, the man in the street - has been just as conspicuous by its absence.

Twaddell "Civil Rights" Camp
On a more human level, yet another generation of disaffected working-class Protestant youths now exists. Unemployable thanks to criminal records earned in the heat of yet another nothing-else-to-do ‘peaceful protest’, they believe more than ever that the whole system is rigged against them and in favour of the other side. It is these people who will swell the ranks of the paramilitaries orchestrating the disorder.

A cynic might suggest that this was the point all along…

Unionism does possess reasonable voices but as a whole they have been outflanked and suffocated by the ravenous extremism of those who have gained prominence since December 2012. In this vacuum, a veritable circus now holds court, if not sway. Willie Frazer has always been a pathetic figure more than anything else, a cartoon character never fully in step with the joke. He has, nevertheless, gained a second wind during the period in question, though the none of us, Willie included, have any idea of his endgame.

Wee Willie Frazer - he's not well you know
Fellow traveller Jamie Bryson - Ulster’s very own Walter Mitty - possesses far more sinister motivations, summed up best by Brian Spencer. Given Bryson’s almost comical regard for the UVF (a designated terrorist group in the UK) one shudders to think of his ideal alternative to the institutions he wishes, naively, to do away with. Those in the relative mainstream of local politics continue to cede ground to Northern Ireland’s idiot fringe and Spencer’s assertion that feeding the fanatics is far from conducive to progress is a sound one.

Jamie Bryson - The 'saviour' of Ulster?
For all the noise emanating from the Bryson end of the loyalist maw, it remains to be seen just how influential, or wide-reaching, this kind of rhetoric really is. While the established sectarianism of our electoral process is maddening on the one hand, it also equates to a shrunken voting base for each side of the toxic divide. The unionist electorate has rejected the various iterations of far-right loyalism before, tacking closer to the middle than anything else. To most in the unionist-Protestant community self-promoting whingers like Frazer, Bryson et al are an embarrassment, plain and simple, and people to whom they will be ever unresponsive.

In all honesty, it is not the wider unionist community with which loyalism need be concerned. A fissure has always existed between the two sections of the broadly Protestant populace and there is little common ground to excite either. As is clear to anyone willing to see it, moderate, middle-class unionism continues to prosper as much as it can in the current economic climate. If anything, it is the corrosive, flailing influence of madcap extremism that unionism must be wary of going forward. That said, when has this ever not been the case?

Bad puns aside, it is up to the loyalist community to arrest their slide into irrelevance if they are not at that point already. There may well come a time when they no longer count and when nobody else cares.

While usurping her law and order, and the democratic processes she has always promoted, grassroots loyalists remain blindly devoted to the Queen - or at least some sepia-tinged version of her. It is perhaps apt then to describe the past year as an ‘annus horribilis' for loyalism. Discounting the chaos that engulfed Northern Ireland for 30 years, it is difficult to see how things could have been worse.

(Originally published here and used with kind permission)
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Ceasefire? What Ceasefire?

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In the 12 months since the democratic decision to limit the flying of the Union Flag to designated days, much has happened on the streets and it has been well publicised. However, underneath the ocean of 'civil rights' and 'respect our culture' bullshit, runs an entirely more sinister current. One which is being whipped up by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).

On the 3rd May 2007 the UVF made a statement saying that they had become a 'non-military, civilianised' organisation. Although they had officially been on a ceasefire since 1994, this date can be interpreted as the date when all criminal activity should have concluded. Following two years of discussions about the decommissioning of weapons the UVF put a substantial amount of its guns and explosives beyond use in June 2009. All good?

The 'peace' never materialised 
Well, no. Not even a year had passed when Bobby Moffett, a member of the Red Hand Commando, was shot dead on the Shankill Road (30th May 2010) in broad daylight for everyone in the area to see. It is believed the UVF carried out the killing. Which would beg the question, what ceasefire? Fast forward to the 20th June 2011 and a riot involving 500 people took place in the Short Strand. The PSNI laid the blame firmly at the door of the UVF who orchestrated a night of violence which saw homes attacked and where UVF guns had been used to try to kill police officers. So, it appears the UVF have form when it comes to organising full scale riots and attempting to kill police officers.

On the 7th January 2013, Chief Constable of the PSNI, Matt Baggott said that
“Senior members of the UVF in east Belfast as individuals have been increasingly orchestrating some of this violence”. The violence he speaks of is the violence that erupted after the democratic decision to reduce the number of days the Union flag was to fly over Belfast City Hall.

Peaceful Protesters 
To this date (18th November 2013) Matt Baggott insists the the UVF ceasefire remains intact but in the last week we have seen two gun attacks one of a 21 year old man in Portrush and one of a 15 year old boy in Coleraine, the two were shot in both legs. These two attacks have been blamed on loyalists paramilitaries, widely believed to be the UVF. Today, however the Police Federation of Northern Ireland (the organisation which represents PSNI officers) released a statement saying that the UVF is no longer on ceasefire after these recent attacks. Did Matt Baggott not get the memo?

Meanwhile at Twaddell Avenue on the 16th November 2013, during a peaceful protest by the Orange Order, local DUP MP Nigel Dodds could be seen sharing the stage with an alleged commander within the UVF. You may be forgiven for thinking this was an honest mistake given the high possibility for a cretin of this nature to be at such an event. However, it is not the first time this has happened and Nigel Dodds MP has not been the only senior politician to share the stage with this alleged UVF commander for Nelson McCausland MLA has also done the same thing.

Alleged UVF Commander

One must question what the PSNI's definition of a "ceasefire" is. Perhaps those who determine such things are content that as long as the UVF are no longer doing "spray jobs" on Catholic pubs, then all is well. But all is not well. The UVF appear to be violently tightening their grip on organised crime, while the attacks on Short Strand show that old habits die hard.  When a police force continues to stretch the definition of ceasefire, and when senior MLAs and, even more shockingly, MPs can share a stage with an alleged UVF commander, it suggests deep problems in our country's leadership. Not only do such instances happen but they also pass by as if it is the norm.

Yes it happened... More than once

Why are the PSNI not willing to say the UVF are no longer on a ceasefire? Is it the easy option? Would it be too much hard work to revoke the Good Friday Agreement licenses of UVF members? Are they worried about another violent reaction from the "PUL" community? 

Why do our politicians seem intent on putting themselves in situations where it divides and alienates people? Is it simply about votes? Are the DUP so desperate now for votes that they're willing to court the extreme right wing, just to cling on to power for a few more years?


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Remember, remember the 3rd of December

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Christmas in Belfast 2012 will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.



Roads were blocked, businesses destroyed, lives ruined and  family life disrupted due to the 'peaceful protests' resulting from the democratic decision to fly the Union Flag on Belfast City Hall on designated days only; a policy in keeping with UK government recommendations and followed by all other major cities in the UK.

The wording of the proposal was:

Flying of the Union Flag at the Belfast City Hall
That the decision of the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee of 23rdNovember under the heading “Flying of the Union Flag at the Belfast City Hall” be amended to provide that this Council should adopt the practice of flying the Union Flag on designated days, as applied at Parliament Buildings. This reflects the agreed sovereignty of Northern Ireland confirmed in the Good Friday Agreement and accepted by all its signatories.  By doing it regularly and with dignity, we recognise that we live in a society and City made up of people who are British, Irish and both.  The designated days’ solution does justice to these principles; the agreement by all on British sovereignty; the fact of a shared society; and the need for respect and avoiding all triumphalism and the arrangements currently operating at Stormont.It also reflects the preferred determination of the Equality Commission.
(emphasis: LAD)

The vote was democratically carried by a majority of 29 to 21.

It would appear that some cunts can't read.

Meet Ian McCrory



McCrory is a leader of a shadowy group called Ulster Protestant Voice (UPV) who called loyalists unto the streets to protest last December. A family member Sam is the chairman of the Protestant Coalition.


This week he put online his justification for protests:

"Why loyalists decided to protest

In December 3rd 2012 a vote was taken at a council meeting in a capital city this vote was in reference to the flag policy which has stood unbroken for over 100 years.

The policy was challenged four years previous by Sinn Fein but failed because they wouldn't accept an alliance proposal to support designated days, Sinn Fein and republicanism wanted the flag removed permanently. 

Fast forward four years and the matter was again raised, republican councillors cited equality and shared space as reasons for its proposed removal despite the fact the equality commission only found 7 registered complaints in the previous 10 years in regards to city halls symbols which included the union flag. This time around Sinn Fein backed by the SDLP once again tried to have the union flag removed permanently but quickly realised that without the support of the alliance party their proposal was again doomed to fail.

So nationalist councillors took the decision to accept the amendment by the party with the swinging vote (Alliance) which opted for designated flag days. This proposal was brought before the equality commission who decided to ignore the signed petitions of over 40,000 Belfast citizens and it was decided the matter would be put before council for voting. 

December 3rd 2012 seen thousands of Protestants gather at Belfast's city hall in protest at the impending vote to remove the union flag from the capital city of Northern Ireland Belfast's city hall. As thousands gathered speeches were read and messages relayed from inside the council chamber as to what was going on. The mood was defiant yet completely peaceful even after the vote had been taken, up until a Sinn Fein councillor uttered the words "This must be seen as a victory for republicanism and it's just another step in our ultimate aims of removing all symbols relating to Britishness from this chamber and this city".

(This is total and utter bollocks: here is the video from the entire Council meeting. We have watched the entire meeting and at no point is the line "This must be seen as a victory for republicanism and it's just another step in our ultimate aims of removing all symbols relating to Britishness from this chamber and this city" used.)


"After that the protest quickly turned violent and sparked street protests that spanned the length of our country and further afield. 

Since 1906 the union flag has flown from Belfast city hall, through all the bombing shooting and trauma of the troubles, that little symbol of Britishness reminded people that despite the bloodshed the pain the horrors of war, our nationality remained unbroken and untouched by terrorists fingers. The protests soon made world news with media outlets focussing on the trouble that accompanied a small number of street protests, none mentioned that these scenes of trouble flared at interfaces with nationalist who celebrated, goaded and taunted people that they "had won" 

None focused on the overzealous way the security forces treated the peaceful protests often disregarding their own rules to conduct a "political operation at all costs" Men Women and kids beaten, photographed and later arrested for attending protests that had never seen any public disorder. People kept on remand in jail for crimes including "waving a flag provocatively" and "obstructively sitting". It is the view held by many that the police service acted with a blank canvass to do what they could to quell the protests. 

Violence cannot be justified nor condoned but the right of peaceful protest and lawful assembly is the basic fabric of a democratic society, yet in Northern Ireland 2012/13 this right was denied. With the threat of injury or arrest numbers dropped protests ceased to be a countrywide occurrence yet pockets remain defiant. The protests transformed from road blocks to white line to cultural marches in an attempt to counteract the robust way the police treated the protests. 

Despite the fact protests, be they white line or cultural marches, were totally peaceful the police remained determined to demonise, demoralise and criminalise anyone who partook in open objection to the removal of the national flag. Working alongside the police operation to dispel the protests were the mainstream media who printed story after story detailing the few violent events on a near daily occurrence they printed or published images of innocent protesters wanted by police, the term "flegger" soon emerged to humiliate protesters. They run stories of business's who lost trade who had to close or lay off staff as a result of protests, city center traders soon called for rate relief from council because get were adversely affected. Despite the fact only one instance of public order was recorded in or around the city center connected to protests (the night of December 3rd). Business's who were situated far from any protest point were calling for council rate relief again blaming protesters and again media used this as a means to demonise protesters. 

Despite all of this the protest has continued albeit on a smaller scale every week at Belfast city hall, politicians, police and media outlets all claim we are wasting our time and that protests will not get our flag back up, The protesters know this they know that the only way to overturn that decision is by a re-vote by council and for that, unionists need to regain the majority in Belfast city council. That is why these protests have remained a weekly occurrence for now on approaching a year. The protesters have engaged in a campaign to raise awareness around the voting apathy within our communities we've actively sought to convince unionists to register to vote and to use that vote This has proved somewhat successful given the fact that the electoral commission released figures showing a rise in registration returns from the unionist community against the fall in nationalists communities.

The protest at city hall remain's as a reminder to people what can happen when you waste your vote. And through actively encouraging people to vote we believe we can achieve a satisfactory end to the protests which will see the flag be reinstated to our capital city hall. In December 2012 republicans proposed removal as part of their political objective, the alliance party amended it as part of their objective to create a better more inclusive society, in short both have brought about the total opposite. Community Relations in Belfast in 2013 are at depleted levels not seen since the peace process began. Cross community activities have suffered. Sectarian attacks have increased. Interface peace walls are being added to. The process be it republicans political aims or the alliance party's equality aims have failed and failed miserably for all the citizens of Belfast".

Tonight we asked a member of the PUP why they are supporting the protest.

So since the PUP don't know what they are supporting, lets see what one of the organisers has to say:


Perhaps we should refer back to a comment McCrory himself posted on Facebook back in February for the real reason for the protest:

 


This year Ian and his cohorts in Loyalist Peaceful Protesters (LPP) are at it again. 

Ian - fuck away off. 

Belfast doesn't want your protests.

#BelfastSaysNO


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Guest post: Stop Appeasing Fanaticism

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GUEST POST

This post has been written by regular contributor Brian John Spencer



The creed-crazed fanatic has made Northern Ireland a byword for backwardness. Mad-men and the violent crowd have been long-nurtured, indulged and never checked in their ways of hate. And that is where Jamie Bryson has been very, very wrong - it is he, and the barking-mad like him, who have been "appeased."

Northern Ireland is simultaneously exceptionally progressive and incredibly regressive. The real scandal is that regressive fanatics have for so long got away with their summer temper tantrums and their sectarian babbling, at the cost of ruining the economy and stability of the country for everyone else.

Where in England, Scotland and Wales, authorities have managed to isolate and contain the sweatiest fanatics, our politicians have acted as aiders, abettors, enablers and apologists for barbaric vandals. And this is the comparison that's never made: that Jamie Bryson, loyalist "civil rights" protesters and their surreptitious republican counterparts practice the same strain of marooned, racist politics as the BNP, White Pride the EDL, the Golden shower in Greece and every other xenophobic populist party in Europe.

The Bryson babble that masks for political philosophy is a cheap plagiarism of 1980s Paisley. A clean lift from BNP and EDL press releases. The Bryson babble is a re-run of Enoch Powell and his 'Rivers of Blood' nonsense as he divines a day where "the [republican] man will have the whip over the [loyalist] man." The Bryson babble is the same hysterical wing-nuttery of the 1970's - "taking our jobs", "taking our women" and "eroding our culture" - National Front vomit that caused race riots in England.

Bryson and his type are making tremendous claims. This is the recrudescence of something very sinister, very hostile and very nasty. This needs challenged don't you think? We can look at his two most dangerous and sinister articles.

The first on the QUB blog (here) by the title, 'The way I see it...... [sic]'. In this instance Bryson outlines his opposition to the current power-sharing settlement under the Good Friday Agreement.

Bryson employs the most hyper-inflated, conspiracist and alarmist language to paint a picture of the rise of republicanism to the demise of unionism and loyalism. Using words like "culture war" and offering the solution as "unarmed resistance", loyalistspeak for despicable thuggery.

Bryson is living in an age of amnesia. He has resurrected, reheated and regurgitated the hideous mob-inciting political gruel that not long ago was handed out by the most destructive British-Irish politician in living memory and his minions. Now Bryson is purveying the politics of clinical intransigence that destroyed power-sharing in the 1970s and oversaw three decades of death. The politics that ran this country into beggary, bankruptcy and misery.

Sinn Fein is not in government by some dreadful accident. They were put there by the public. The elementary rule of the democratic model is compromise and of being governed by those you don't like. The all-party Stormont coalition is not perfect but it gives us the platform to drive home real change. Its downfall would be all of our downfall.

It's OK to be against Sinn Fein. By all means take take them on and challenge their views through good process and reasoned argument. Present an alternative vision to the electorate and let them decide. But don't call for the dissolution of the agreement which was endorsed by the people of Northern Ireland. Unfortunately this isn't possible. You can't have a sensible debate when Bryson and his type cannot even accept the good faith of their opponents.

The irony is that Bryson is the vice-versa of the republican freaks who oppose the Good Friday Agreement and who hate Sinn Fein for their "appeasement" and for being "administrators of the "occupying British state". The babble on both sides is breathtaking.

This is the recrudescence of something very sinister. This needs challenged don't you think?

On the second back-of-the-envelope-stuff article (here), Bryson sets out his vision for loyalism: the rebirth of a religiously Protestant British nationalism. In these days of enlightenment it stands as hideous degeneration of a terrific order.

With a little retrospective awareness you would think that people would understand that the fusion of religion with politics and nationalism is the perfect recipe for death. The perfect recipe for stripping minorities of their civil rights. The perfect recipe for taking Northern Ireland to hell in a handcart.

The whole world is opening and Bryson wants to slam the door. Bryson is a hardline Christianist with a single world view, and he cannot rest until his fundamental Christianist view of the world is adopted by society. We know by now that when you run society out of a holy book society grinds to a halt. His type have done us an tremendous harm by this type of demagogy. Incubating more mad-men and encouraging them not to give an inch of what they have because they have a god-given, messianic license and warrant to do so.

We know by now that we cannot give any religion a privileged position in society. We know by now that we need to protect and defend religious freedom, but as a private matter of faith, not a matter of public policy. I have every compassion for loyalism. Loyalists need help. But we cannot allow a fanatical bombastic preacher of hate, division and nonsense to lead loyalism astray.

Bryson and his type are making wild claims. This is the recrudescence of something very sinister. This needs challenged don't you think?

To conclude. On both points, opposition to power-sharing and religiously-inspired-nationalist-politics, the experiment has been tried before. Are you going to let them repeat it on you? It's quite clear that Jamie Bryson and similar loyalists and republicans suffer from a very horrible disease, a type of paranoia known better as sectarianism. It's impossible to mentally and morally well if you suffer from this disorder.

These men are is just the latest in the long line of religious frauds and rip-off artists who share a great tradition of intolerance. Now they're trying to build a career as sponsors and purveyors of bigotry, hysteria, suspicion, superstition and flat out non-sense. They should be shouting from the side of the street, calling the end of the earth and selling pencils from a cup, not standing in front of TV cameras and making headline news.

The whole charade is fraudulent and it has to stop right now. It has to be repudiated. It has to be vanquished. It has to be put to an end with good argument and good sense. We are witnessing loyalism's descent into madness at the hand of religious-political nut-cases. You cannot afford to be a spectator of stupidity. You have to stand up and speak up. You cannot afford to be ignorant or indifferent when there's a clash between fundamentalism and civil society.

The ravings are incompatible with modern Northern Ireland. The ideas must be heard but they must not be left unopposed. They must be challenged and countered with better ideas. Like the Quilliam Foundation on mainland Britain, we need to listen to the young people (including Bryson) who hold radical, reactionary views and debate with them calmly, show them that the current arrangement is actually an incredible achievement and that they can participate in this new society and that they can protect their culture but in a open, shared and inclusive way.

These radical views cannot go unchallenged. On this line we will take a stand and fight.
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LAD's Christmas Charity Song

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***** UPDATE ******

 Thanks to everyone who got in touch, we've had an overwhelming response. We're not looking for any extra contributors, but if you think you can make something REALLY special for the video and do it REALLY quickly then send a PM to our Facebook page.

 ********************

WANT TO BE PART OF SOMETHING BIG?

LAD exists because of you. You are LAD and you have helped it grow into something that we never dreamt possible. We’re soon to celebrate our first birthday and with your continued support have massive things planned for our second year.

As you may know we’re releasing a charity single soon and LAD want you to be a part of it. We already have the track recorded but we need some footage for use in the video. If you want to be a part of LAD’s bid for the UK charts then here’s a rough idea of what we’re after:

  • We need people aged 18+ only
  • You need to have the facility to record HD footage (can be mobile phone, webcam, video camera or whatever, so long as footage is at least 720p HD quality)
  • You have to be able to send the footage to us digitally (by email, Dropbox, Yousendit, or by whatever means you can)
  • You don’t need to be able to sing, we’ll not be using the audio from submitted videos
  • We will only require a few seconds of footage from you

Please share this post to help LAD out!

We Are The People Now
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Bryson's Folly

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Wee Jamie Bryson has thrown his hat in the ring for the 2014 European elections - so the failed hunger striker tells Alex Kane.


All at the LAD bunker wish him every success, we really do.  If he does get elected, he may learn how the real world works and also how insignificant Are Wee Country is in the grand scheme of Europe.  Unfortunately, it probably won't bestow upon him some grown up views.

It would seem Bryson thinks the European parliament is a bit like a council chamber and that he can bring about wholesale change for the Pravince of Ulster's Pradisdent Unionist Loyalist People (PULP), that well known ethnic minority which is denied access to basic human rights such as free health care, free speech, free education and clean drinking water. The list goes on and on but the most basic of those human rights, the right to march anywhere and anytime, is being denied Mr Bryson and the PULP, just as it is being to denied millions across the world.  LAD has discovered the UN itself is looking into the matter (meanwhile, North Korea publicly executes 80 people for allegedly watching TV).


Jamie's BFF (that's the kids speak these days) Wullie Frazer will be assisting in Bryson's Euro campaign while standing for election himself in Newtownards.  Frazer and Bryson will be drawing on considerable collective experience in seeking a mandate which has failed to bring anything close to success thus far. Residents of Newtownards will be thrilled to learn that Markethill man Frazer, wants to represent them.

Bryson-Frazer Campaign Bus
LAD wonders if Bryson will be funding his own £5000 deposit for the election?  We're not sure what the going rate is for a PULP mouthpiece these days or the type of funding an independent candidate can accumulate.  Given that previous turnouts in Euro elections in Are Wee Country fall between five and six hundred thousand, if that is repeated in 2014 Bryson will need to poll over 13,000 votes to avoid losing his deposit.  Are Bryson's academic friends helping out as part of some bizarre experiment in validity?  One website offering advice to would be independent EU candidates, states that the cost of running a campaign are huge, spending limits ranging from £270,000 - £360,000.

Maybe with Are Glorious Loyal Pravince operating outwith the boundaries of rational politics, this figure can be ignored.  One thing that can't be though, is that an independent candidate has never been directly elected to the European parliament from the UK.  So it may be more worthwhile sticking a tenner on an accumulator picked by Willie Frazer's nasal hair.

All at LAD, as do many others across Are Pravince, look forward to seeing Jamie's manifesto.  It will undoubtedly cover the Common Agricultural Policy fairly comprehensively, given how pivotal farming is to the local economy. Other highlights we'd expect to see must surely be Horizon 2020, UK government opt out of EU justice and home affairs decisions, and PEACE funding.  Won't it?

LAD are also interested to know which of the seven political groupings within the European parliament Mr Bryson plans on affiliating with, or would he do the righteous thing and become a (Non-Inscrit) NI, literally?

Who exactly does Bryson expect to vote  for him?

No doubt he can draw support from his friends in "legal circles" having acted as 'legal adviser' to disgraced former BNP fund raiser and ousted Protestant Coalition chief  Jim (Dodgy) Dowson back in July.

Bryson's legal speciality is of course in dealing with civil rights abuses and surely he can count on support from Northern Ireland's Jewish community thanks to his in depth knowledge of 1930's Nazi persecution.

Perhaps Bryson is hoping for support from members and former members of the UVF having claimed on Twitter that the outlawed organisation were not terrorists.

 As Alex Kane rightly commented "Try telling that to their victims and the families of their victims."

So what is Bryson's raison d'être; He doesn't seriously expect to get elected so is this just another  shameless self-publicity stunt? 

What do you think?

Jamie Bryson flanked by members of the Protestant Coalition (l-r: Sam (So It Is) McCrory, baldy bloke1, baldy bloke 2, Wee Willie Frazer, Bill (Umbrellas) Hill, Bryson and Jim (Dodgy) Dowson (retired)



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New Belfast, Old Attitudes

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A little bit of history was made on Monday when Máirtín Ó Muilleoir became the first Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Belfast to attend an Armistice Day commemoration.


Ó Muilleoir stood alongside the DUP Deputy Mayor, Christopher Stalford, during the two-minute silence for the war dead at Belfast City Hall and described his decision to attend as "difficult for Belfast’s republicans ... because of the experiences we have had with the British army over the last three decades, and more, to accept that a mayor who comes from a Sinn Fein tradition would be at the cenotaph."
However Ó Muilleoir said he was fulfilling a pledge he made on taking office to be a mayor "for all the people of Belfast".
"Part of that means reaching out to unionism and today really was about peacemaking towards unionism,"
"I think it's the most difficult decision I have made in 30 years in politics and community activism. It is a challenge and I think that it had to be done. I think building the peace and building a better Belfast demands that we have to move ourselves into places where we are uncomfortable, which challenge us and which move us into new positions of peacemaking." 
The Deputy Lord Mayor welcomed Ó Muilleoir's attendance and Ulster Unionist Leader Mike Nesbitt commented: 
 "I consider these gestures important at a time when a generosity of spirit will be required from all political leaders, if we are to succeed in our current efforts to reach agreement on the difficult issues under consideration in the Haass talks process."
On the same day an exhibition covering the period from 1912-1914 'Home Rule Crisis... the unionist response', opened in Dublin. It brings together the largest collection of UVF memorabilia ever gathered together in one place. The Ulster Volunteer Force was formed to resist plans to make Ireland self-governing, but many members went on to fight in the First World War. It was officially opened by the Irish Minister for Arts and Heritage Jimmy Deenihan. A priest read prayers before people in UVF costumes laid wreaths at the War Graves Commission memorial to those from the Republic who died fighting for the allies in the two world wars.
Jonny Harvey, who this time last year was chairman of Ulster Protestant Voice (one of the main organisers of last year's flag protests) and now a member of the PUP tweeted:

Sadly on a day of progress, some in the 'Unionist Family' could not find it in themselves to suppress petty begrudgery, led as ever by everyone's favourite shit stirrer, unelectable wannabe European M.P. Wee Jamie Bryson (a former colleague of Harvey in the UPV)
 Bryson's lack of equanimity was echoed elsewhere on Twitter:

Perhaps 'The Purple Standard' is unaware that Máirtín Ó Muilleoir's great-grandfather was a British Army soldier who died in 1916 while training troops at the Somme and his funeral was one of the last British military funerals to take place on the Falls Road in 1916.
As one might expect views on Facebook were even more scathing:


Written attacks on social media are a reminder of events in August when the Lord Mayor was attacked by loyalist 'peaceful' protesters on a visit to open a park in Woodvale, near the now infamous Twaddell 'civil rights camp' and dogging site.

These people speak for a tiny minority of Unionists (the fictitious "PUL" community) as evidenced by their pitiful electoral showing in the past. The protests at City Hall and Twaddell are dying a slow lingering death and only the threat of further 'peaceful' protests, and the potential for further street violence as we approach the anniversary of the democratic decision to fly the Union Flag at Belfast City Hall on designated days only, can give these trouble makers any sort of voice.

Whilst recent statements by Nesbitt et al in calling for the cancellation of the loyalist protest on November 30th are to be welcomed, isn't it time the entire mainstream 'Unionist Family' spoke out as one against the likes of Bryson, Frazer and their apologists in the so-called Protestant Coalition?
The leaders of Unionism must now show genuine leadership and condemn the sort of rampant sectarian bigotry displayed by Bryson & Co. and tell them "enough is enough," or perhaps more appropriately say...

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Invasion of the Teafleggers

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There is a tendency amongst some in Northern Ireland, and certainly on its fringes, to view the happenings in our wee pravince as utterly central to the existence of the universe.

First it’s dissident ‘republicans’ attempting to strike a blow against the twin evils of free-flowing traffic and gainful employment by screwing with decent people’s morning commutes and firebombing shops. Then it’s the ever embarrassing ‘civil rights’ camp currently eroding Protestant property prices in north Belfast and attracting trouble to an otherwise respectable area. Either way the participants quite clearly believe themselves to be at the forefront of planet Earth’s affairs.

This is untrue of course. Political extremists the world over suffer from the kind of delusions that would otherwise lead to a robust mental health intervention: jihadist dickheads in the Middle East; Ugandan sodomy obsessives; those Golden Shower tits in Greece. Each exhibits an unrivalled level of narcissistic belief in the righteousness of their fucked-up cause.

Yet, for all their biblical twittery, they persist with the mewling refrain that they - rather than the people whose lives they’re trying to destroy - are the true victims. They’re only standing up for themselves and what they believe in.

Whatever.
It’s a theme that was all too evident in the past month as America’s know-nothing, far-right obstructionist fringe attempted to strangle the American economy and with it the economic well-being of the rest of the Western world.

The Teabaggers represent a hugely annoying, gleefully destructive barrier to the march of civilisation. Given the centrality of US fiscal health to global economics, these morons signify a very real threat to financial progress.

Aaron Sorkin’s takedown of the Tea Party might be to liberals what a Chinese buffet is to a fat chap, but he’s fairly on point - and mercifully concise - when he describes them as the ‘American Taliban’. While on the subject of Sorkin, his classic riposte to those who hide their preoccupation with homosexuality behind scripture (topical, perhaps, in light of Edwin Poots’s recent profligacy with the public purse) has yet to grow old.

But let’s be honest, all this talk of international finance and stuff is a bit highfalutin considering the below normal intelli attention span of your generic Tea Partier.


In coming, finally, to the point, one dedicating even a moderate level of attention to the madness stateside could not have failed to notice the striking similarities between the angry, slavering crowds proudly endorsing the dismantlement of a country they claim to love and Ulster’s own besieged patriot, the humble Flegger.
Yes indeed, the Teabaggers are amongst us here in Norn Iron. Like most things in this part of the world of course they are a milder, watered-down version of a higher grade equivalent. Like a Opel cars. Or a United shirt purchased at a Thai market stall.

You may work with a Flegger. You might play football with another. Perhaps one services your car or cuts your hair. You may even have a crowd of them camping in your back garden, staging a protest against the nefariously green hue of your grass.

Whatever guise they make take, paranoid, recalcitrant, disruptive dumbasses are something of a national product here in the 6/9ths. Think Yellowman. Only worse.

Admittedly, Tea Partier and Flegger are not entirely analogous. In spite of the Ulster-Scots origins of the American hillbilly (one of Teabaggerism’s constituent parts) there is little common social or cultural ground. Geographically there is nothing to bind them and some of their core outlooks diverge wildly. Teabaggers hate socialism even while relying almost entirely on the fruits of such a system: Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security, free education… (well, maybe not). Fleggers don’t like socialist principles either apart from the ones they do like, those that give them (and everyone else) stuff for nothing.

Tea Partiers love the shit out of guns. The bigger the better, the more the merrier. Fleggers on the other hand, in spite of their apparent eagerness to ‘kill all taigs’, have yet to resort to that strain of balls-to-the-wall lunacy.

On the other hand, while the Tea Party is “vaguely threatening but incoherent” [Rachel Maddow] Fleggers have proved quick to anger and are prone to outbursts of genuine violence. They whinge constantly about the victimisation suffered at the hands of the police yet commit blatant public order offences in full view of the authorities, later bragging about them on social media. It’s almost as if they believe the rules don’t apply to them…
There remains, however, commonality between the two groups - and, by extension, extremist fools everywhere.

Bill Maher has often spoken of ‘the bubble' in which the American hard-right exists with impunity. In this echo chamber their toxic brew of misinformation, ignorance and fevered bigotry bounces around with wild abandon. Rumour becomes fact, obvious fiction is immovable reality.
One only needs to scan the virtual open sewer that is the Flegosphere to discern just how divorced from reality and sense the Fleggers truly are. And it is in this hothouse that the seeds of their misbehaviour in the real world take root.

That much of what is pumped out in this particular version of ‘the bubble’ is repellent should be taken as read. It is, however, fairly exhausting and beyond the motivation of this writer to look at it in detail. Other entities, most notably the champions of normality over at LAD, have done a superior job in subverting the poison many seem to regard as their birthright.

Suffice to say that hypocrisy and a startling level of inconsistency are elements neither Teabagger nor Flegger appear to be uncomfortable with.

While he was attempting to wreck the full faith and credit of the United States, Tea Partier-in-chief Senator Ted Cruz (Republican, obv. Of Texas, natch) attended the Value Voters Summit, one of American conservatism’s biggest dates, to promote his ongoing campaign. While not strictly a Teabagger event, it is undoubtedly coming from the evangelical, pray-away-the-gay corner of the same cesspool and is comprised of more than enough batshit crazy, paranoid babbling to put it on a par with your average Tea Party cookout.
In taking his victory lap Cruz, who appears to believe that providing poor people with affordable healthcare will induce the Apocalypse, received 42% of the votes in the presidential straw poll.

Fair enough. Cruz may be dick but he’s just as entitled for consideration as anyone else right?

What’s that you say? He was born in Canada? To an American mother? This must be a lie, a clever fabrication by the 'lamestream media' to discredit a doyen of the right.

Sure, if Cruz was born in Canada then that means he’d be ineligible for a presidential run - going by the same standard every Tea Partier, ‘values voter’ and sundry other racist crackpots have been applying to Barack Obama. If, as they claim, Obama was born in Kenya to an American mother, how then does Cruz qualify given that his real story is exactly the same as Obama’s fictional one? On a single note of fairness to the distinguished gentleman from Texas, he has been fairly silent on the non-issue of Obama’s heritage, considering the obvious similarities of that particular fairytale to his own background.

It is a quandary alright. Plus, you know what Canada has don’t you? Socialised medicine. And snow. Fucking Soviets.
The Fleggers too have their own issues with saying one thing while doing the other.

They rightly jump up and down about republicans glorifying their dead and trampling on the memories of those they murdered. Yet, before you know it, rank and file loyalism is proudly parading in honour of some other dead murderer, most recently on the Shankill in memory of Brian Robinson. Robinson’s bravery peaked the moment he killed the first Catholic he came across. Minutes later he’d be gunned down himself by agents of a state to which he was, presumably, ‘loyal’ up to that point.

Fleggers react to every occurrence of dissident activity like it’s a newly discovered solar system, stunning new proof that ‘themuns’ have no interest in a shared future that they don’t want either. The fact that dissident republicanism has never been on a ceasefire, has never subscribed to the majority desire for a quiet life and is responsible for bombing Omagh 15 years ago, appears to matter little.

In this alternate universe you have to have balls to get ahead and nobody can accuse the Tea Party of lacking cojones. Invoking and then co-opting the legacy of the civil rights movement - while at the same time being fuelled in their anger by the freedoms and privileges it facilitated - reveals a mendacious cynicism, quite stunning to behold.

There was a chord of familiarity, however, when one of the Tea Party’s many ‘founders’ rocked up at the World War II memorial in Washington D.C. to protest about the fact that the site had been closed in a government shutdown caused by Cruz (smugly in attendance) and supported by, amongst others, the queen of knows-nothing-about-nothing obstructionism Sarah Palin (also there).
Larry Klayman’s call to practice 'civil disobedience' in the face of a progressive government plan was laughable. It reeked of the melodrama and complete lack of perspective exhibited so consistently by NI's own Teabaggers; Teafleggers if you will.

These magic words echoed those of faceless Orangeman William Mawhinney as he addressed the ‘civil rights’ squat at Twaddell and Woodvale. That’s right, a section of the community once vehemently opposed to the goals of an actual civil rights movement is now resurrecting the tactics - if not the spirit - of that era because it is no longer allowed to parade and offend to its heart’s content.

And then they start comparing themselves to Jews during the Holocaust… Irony, at least, is not a burden these poor people have to bear.
It would be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic. 

Perhaps most insidious is the tone-deaf insistence of each group that they represent something other than simple extremism. The Tea Party ignores the hefty electoral mandates twice handed to their anti-Christ Obama and claims to speak for an American populace that neither polls nor elections can ever properly locate. They wax lyrical about ‘America’ and ‘real Americans’; code for gullible, frightened white people living outside of California, the east coast and big cities. In short, the only people who truly count.

Equally, Fleggers never tire of the refrain that ‘We Are The People’ (whatever that means). By ‘people’ they really refer to likeminded loyalists, inhabitants of estates, towns and villages throughout the country where flegs, bonfires and parades are the only thing worthy of respect and deference. Everything else is foreign, dangerous and unwanted.

Yeah, they’ll put on a show every now and again, rolling out the ‘P’ and the ‘U’ to go with the ‘L’, presuming to speak on behalf of a community as varied as it is large. Yet they know, deep down, that most unionists, most Protestants and, maddeningly, their fellow Britons on ‘the mainland’ despise them and want nothing to do with their bizarre adherence to violence, hatred and victimhood.
To be honest all extremists are capable of functioning in the face of opposition, of keeping their shit together, if it is only they who form part of the equation, if they exist in a vacuum. What makes them cut loose from this dimension entirely, however, is the perceived advancement of those they hate, those whose existence defines their own: blacks, liberals, gays, foreigners, socialists, Catholics. It is here that they let their slips show.

The Tea Party claims to have been present in American politics prior to the Obama presidency though nobody seems to remember them, funnily enough. Considering the composition of the average Teabagger convention it isn’t difficult to discern the reasons for the increased noise since January 2009. On more than one occasion, Maher has mused, with no little sarcasm: “What is it about Obama that makes them so crazy? I don’t know. I just can’t put put my finger on it…”
As Chris Matthews so lucidly suggests the efforts of the Tea Party right, from birtherism to the near biblical opposition to Obama’s agenda, represent a determined crusade to relegate this guy’s tenure to an asterisk.

Most recently one prick turned up at the White House, following the World War II memorial event, bearing a confederate flag. A redneck waving the Stars and Bars outside an African-American family’s house. Nice.
In assuming that a zero-sum game is afoot (‘Usuns: naffin. Themuns: every hing’ in Northern Irish) the extremist will find justification for increased hostility towards those perceived as the enemy. Witness, for instance, the scattergun approach of Fleggerism’s leading brain in a jar Jamie Bryson whose only response to encountering Catholics in positions of authority - inconceivable up to that point apparently - was to label them republicans and imply all sorts of underhandedness. Naturally.

To people like Bryson and others like him - in a Northern Ireland context at least - Catholics, for the most part, live in Ardoyne, the Falls, Short Strand or the Bogside. They are invariably republican (or nationalist depending on how fond you are of conflating the two), terrorist-loving wastrels intent on tearing down everything British and Pradesant. Their elevation to powerful posts can be explained only by wild-eyed theories and grubby innuendo. It most certainly has nothing to do with that community’s long-standing attitude to education and self-improvement.

Yep, sounds legit alright.

While these idiots have their political representatives bent over the table, feet apart, there is little chance that they’ll piss off any time soon. Congressional Republicans will continue to act like morons while the threat of a primary challenge from some Tea Party-backed lunatic exists. They hate their government but not the generous government salary their elected position affords them. Obama has another three years on his term and his plan to remain black during that time is unchanged.

Closer to home, the sectarian-based, consociationalist hive mind up at ‘Stormount’ ensures that both sides - unionists most conspicuously - will continue to appeal to their core voting block, or at least those who can be bothered to turn up at the polling station.

Jim Allister might be the Fleggers’ favourite currently but a whiff of compromise, a hint of impurity and they’ll be casting about for another blowhard to lead them further into the abyss.
With the first anniversary of Belfast’s transition to the status of ‘most other UK cities’ only a few weeks away, the civilised people will no doubt be exposed once more to the epic levels of stupidity lurking beneath the surface of our society. If the Fleggers have their way, Christmas will once again be hassle for shoppers and ruined for traders. The drain on public expenditure will continue unabated.

The cost of policing this 12 month loyalist tantrum is jaw-dropping. The perpetrators are, for some reason, quick to equate their own behaviour with dissident violence, something which requires an entirely different security response. The silliness of this argument aside, one wonders why they are so keen to add to the waste of time and treasure.

This naive attitude to the taxpayer’s money has a distinct smell of tea about it.

With the sinister and increased meddling of dissident ‘republicans’ disrupting daily life in Northern Ireland, the threat to normality and decency appears grave.

Fortunately, we are well used to tolerating and ignoring the fuckwits. 

 originally posted here and used with permission















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