CROSSMAGLEN POLE DANCING

The main purpose of free speech, is to fight an authoritarian state peacefully. Currently, there is rampant censorship in Ireland, justified on the basis "that it's only purpose, is to offend." The Orange Order State has the veto on all freedom, so do battle against authoritarianism peacefully often requires the unorthodox. Now metaphorically speaking, the fiefdom of Conor Murphy, MP/Warlord of South Armagh is a good example of this. Everyone knows free speech is not allowed in South Armagh, after the execution of Paul Quinn, who tried to exercise that right, in opposition to the Murphys. 


So an Irish Blog reporter, took a trip over to a secret shebeen in Mullaghbawn, to investigate for himself, what the reality was, in the wake of all of the pole-dancing controversies there. Now as an Irishman from a Lily white background, the moment, he walked in the door, Jesus, Mary and Joseph he was mortified. There was a woman on stage called Orange Lily, pole dancing almost nude in her oily skin. The place was full and it was clear that everyone was from all over Ulster. He was going to to ask them, how many pence on the price of a litre of petrol, people were prepared to pay, in order see Orange Lily but thought better of it.

When she finished her gig, he made an appointment with her for an interview, for which she demanded a hundred pounds sterling, for her services for two hours. Now the place was full of the fumes of the people's duty-free whiskey, as opposed to the British Governments, pricey tainted stuff, which Murphy is currently protecting. It was unavoidable to inhale the ether of the wacky baccy, that engulfed the place. When he mentioned this to a fellow guest, he was reminded, that he did not have the right to demand, that South Armagh, throw away the principles of enlightenment, to kowtow to the outrageous, arrogant and risible demands of British Occupation and was politely asked, if I didn't like freedom of speech and it's practice, why he had I gone there in the first place? Fortunately at that point, Orange Lily arrived for her appointment and they retired to her chambers.


Her boudoir was well perfumed, with a very large bed. She ordered him to strip, shower and basically told him to roll onto his back and expose his genitals. While she worked on his resurrection, h interviewed her. She told him that Orange Lily, was not in fact her real name. It was in fact Lily Frazer, as baptized by the Pentecostal Church and that she had learned her pole-dancing in London's West End. She had been invited to return to South Armagh by Provo politicians, who used her services in London, when they came over to claim expenses, as MPs of the House of Commoners, and she was promised protection. She worked as a professional lobbyist by day and as a part-time pole dancer by night, in both London and South Armagh. She said most of the Provo politicians used her services in their extensive free time as a result of a point of principle, while not attending the House of Commoners, officially. She confided, that after the Queen's banquet for compliant Irish politicians, she had developed many new professional relationships in Ireland.


Asked if Gerry engaged her services, she replied, that he preferred his dog and tree show. When asked, if Marty engaged her services, she replied, that he was inspired by certain fetishes with royalty. So as he continued to ask her specific questions, the picture emerged, that most of theIrish establishment, used her services, which was perfectly legal, in her capacity as a lobbyist. Asked, if the British Secret Services employed her, she refused to comment, other than to say that she had a stick and carrot approach, with regard to the Irish establishment and that they were all feeding from the same trough in London. Lily said most of them were gobshites, who generally paid her for permission to lick her. 


Now at this point, our reporter being a paradigm of virtue, was forthright and asked her, if she had an assistant, explaining he preferred a sandwich. She told him, that unfortunately, she hadn't but she would be travelling up the Sinn Fein Party conference in Derry and would bring her assistant, if he cared to avail of their services, there. At this point, they were rudely interrupted by two heavies, wearing balaclavas, who apparently were listening, with some bugs in the bed. He was told, to pack his bags and fuck off. To which he replied, grow a pair and take off the balaclavas, or words to that effect. Now at this point, I must add, that our friend did not intend offence, to the fascist feminists, for the phrase 'grow a pair,' who regard it as misogynistic,  but our colleague was under stress.


The current situation in South Armagh, for most people, is horrendous and miserable, thanks to a bunch, of vile fascists political administrators, mentored by British Military intelligence, to extend Her Majesty's writ over South Armagh and collect taxes, from the Irish on the artificial, British border, they created. South Armagh today is much the same as it was 50 years ago. The people of South Armagh are regularly beaten, jailed and murdered for daring to express, differing opinions, in what is clearly a pseudo, peace process, environment. 


The majority of decisions in Ireland, whether in Stormont ot Leinster House, are made by a small group of people, who censor the views of large parts of the population. This is how the repressive Stormont Junta administers corrupt law and state-sponsored violence for the British. What protects people’s rights to say things objectionable, are precisely what protects the right to object. The “assassin’s veto, is the ultimate threat of murder, to silence any of those with whom we disagree. The attack and murder of Paul Quinn in South Armagh, was the ultimate censorship, by fascist hands, not republican ones. Censoring all debate, free expression, for one or the other, based on the absence of offence, results, not in less offensive speech, but no speech at all. It is the same intolerant Blueshirt fascism, that murdered more than 80 brave Irish republicans, overtly in the south of Ireland and approximately 50 covertly, in the north, during this phase of Struggle. British heavy weaponry, used by Blueshirts, bombarded the four courts in Dublin, starting the Irish Civil War in the south. Incidents like Loughgall, were used, in what the British term, "to sanitize" the republican movement, which in reality, was eliminating any opposition, to a neoliberal agenda, that facilitates Corporate Fascism.


What The BRICS Plus Germany Are Really Up To?

By Pepe Escobar

March 05, 2015 "ICH" - "RT" - Winston Churchill once said, “I feel lonely without a war.” He also badly missed the loss of empire. Churchill’s successor – the ‘Empire of Chaos’ – now faces the same quandary. Some wars – as in Ukraine, by proxy – are not going so well.

And the loss of empire increasingly manifests itself in myriad moves by selected players aiming towards a multipolar world.

So no wonder US ‘Think Tankland’ is going bonkers, releasing wacky CIA-tinted“forecasts” where Russia is bound to disintegrate, and China is turning into a communist dictatorship. So much (imperial) wishful thinking, so little time to prolong hegemony.

The acronym that all these “forecasts” dare not reveal is BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). BRICS is worse than the plague as far as the ‘Masters of the Universe’ that really control the current - rigged - world system are concerned. True, the BRICS are facing multiple problems. Brazil at the moment is totally paralyzed; a long, complex, self-defeating process, now coupled with intimations of regime change by local ‘Empire of Chaos’ minions. It will take time, but Brazil will rebound.

That leaves the “RIC” – Russia, India and China - in BRICS as the key drivers of change. For all their interlocking discrepancies, they all agree they don’t need to challenge the hegemon directly while aiming for a new multipolar order.

The BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) – a key alternative to the IMF enabling developing nations to get rid of the US dollar as a reserve currency – will be operative by the end of this year. The NDB will finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects not only in the BRICS nations but other developing nations. Forget about the Western-controlled World Bank, whose capital and lending capacity are never increased by the so-called Western “powers.” The NDB will be an open institution. BRICS nations will keep 55 percent of the voting power, and outside their domain no country will be allowed more than 7 percent of votes. But crucially, developing nations may also become partners and receive loans.

Damn those communists

A tripartite entente cordiale is also in the making. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in China next May – and ‘Chindia’ will certainly engage in a breakthrough concerning their bitter territorial disputes. As much as Delhi has a lot to benefit from China’s massive capital investment and exports, Beijing wants to profit from India’s vast market and technology savvy. In parallel, Beijing has already volunteered economic help to Russia – if Moscow asks for it – on top of their evolving strategic partnership.

The US “pivoting to Asia” – launched at the Pentagon – is all dressed up with no place to go. Bullying Southeast Asia, South Asia and, for that matter, East Asia as a whole into becoming mere ‘Empire of Chaos’ vassals – and on top of it confronting China - was always a non-starter. Not to mention believing in the fairy tale of a remilitarized Japan able to “contain” China.

Isolating the “communist dictatorship” won’t fly. Just watch, for instance, the imminent high-speed rail link between Kunming, in Yunnan province, and Singapore, traversing a key chunk of a Southeast Asia which for Washington would never qualify to be more than a bunch of client states. The emerging 21st century Asia is all about interconnection; and the inexorable sun in this galaxy is China.

As China has embarked in an extremely complex tweaking of its economic development model, as I outlined here, China’s monopoly of low-end manufacturing – its previous industrial base – is migrating across the developing world, especially around the Indian Ocean basin. Good news for the Global South – and that includes everyone from African nations such as Kenya and Tanzania to parts of Southeast Asia and Latin America.

Of course the ‘Empire of Chaos’, business-wise, won’t be thrown out of Asia. But its days as an Asian hegemon, or a geopolitical Mob offering “protection”, are over.

The Chinese remix of Go West, Young Man – in fact go everywhere – started as early as 1999. Of the top 10 biggest container ports in the world, no less than 7 are in China (the others are Singapore, Rotterdam, and Pusan in South Korea). As far as the 12th Chinese 5-year plan – whose last year is 2015 – is concerned, most of the goals of the seven technology areas China wanted to be in the leading positions have been achieved, and in some cases even superseded.

The Bank of China will increasingly let the yuan move more freely against the US dollar. It will be dumping a lot of US dollars every once in a while. The 20-year old US dollar peg will gradually fade. The biggest trading nation on the planet, and the second largest economy simply cannot be anchored to a single currency. And Beijing knows very well how a dollar peg magnifies any external shocks to the Chinese economy.

Sykes-Picot is us

A parallel process in Southwest Asia will also be developing; the dismantling of the nation-state in the Middle East – as in remixing the Sykes-Picot agreement of a hundred years ago. What a stark contrast to the return of the nation-state in Europe.

There have been rumblings that the remixed Sykes is Obama and the remixed Picot is Putin. Not really. It’s the ‘Empire of Chaos’ that is actually acting as the new Sykes-Picot, directly and indirectly reconfiguring the “Greater Middle East.” Former NATO capo Gen. Wesley Clark has recently “revealed” what everyone already knew; the ISIS/ISIL/Daesh fake Caliphate is financed by “close allies of the United States,” as in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Israel. Compare that with Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon admitting that ISIS “does not represent a threat to Israeli interests.” Daesh does the unraveling of Sykes-Picot for the US.

The ‘Empire of Chaos’ actively sought the disintegration of Iraq, Syria and especially Libya. And now, leading the House of Saud, “our” bastard in charge King Salman is none other than the former, choice jihad recruiter for Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, the Afghan Salafist who was the brains behind both Osama bin Laden and alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad.

This is classic ‘Empire of Chaos’ in motion (exceptionalists don’t do nation building, just nation splintering). And there will be plenty of nasty, nation-shattering sequels, from the Central Asian stans to Xinjiang in China, not to mention festering, Ukraine, a.k.a Nulandistan.

Parts of Af-Pak could well turn into a branch of ISIS/ISIL/Daesh right on the borders of Russia, India, China, and Iran. From an ‘Empire of Chaos’ perspective, this potential bloodbath in the “Eurasian Balkans” – to quote eminent Russophobe Dr. Zbig “Grand Chessboard” Brzezinski – is the famous “offer you can’t refuse.”

Russia and China, meanwhile, will keep betting on Eurasian integration; strengthening the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and their own internal coordination inside the BRICS; and using plenty of intel resources to go after The Caliph’s goons.

And as much as the Obama administration may be desperate for a final nuclear deal with Iran, Russia and China got to Tehran first. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Tehran two weeks ago; stressing Iran is one of China’s “foreign policy priorities” and of great “strategic importance.” Sooner rather than later Iran will be a member of the SCO. China already does plenty of roaring trade with Iran, and so does Russia, selling weapons and building nuclear plants.

Berlin-Moscow-Beijing?

And then there’s the German question.

Germany now exports 50 percent of its GDP. It used to be only 24 percent in 1990. For the past 10 years, half of German growth depended on exports. Translation: this is a giant economy that badly needs global markets to keep expanding. An ailing EU, by definition, does not fit the bill.

German exports are changing their recipient address. Only 40 percent - and going down – now goes to the EU; the real growth is in Asia. So Germany, in practice, is moving away from the eurozone. That does not entail Germany breaking up the euro; that would be interpreted as a nasty betrayal of the much-lauded “European project.”

What the trade picture unveils is the reason for Germany’s hardball with Greece: either you surrender, completely, or you leave the euro. What Germany wants is to keep a partnership with France and dominate Eastern Europe as an economic satellite, relying on Poland. So expect Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy to face a German wall of intransigence. So much for European “integration,” it works as long as Germany dictates all the rules.

The spanner in the works is that the double fiasco Greece + Ukraine has been exposing. Berlin as an extremely flawed European hegemon – and that’s quite an understatement. Berlin suddenly woke up to the real, nightmarish possibility of a full blown, American-instigated war in Europe’s eastern borderlands against Russia. No wonder Angela Merkel had to fly to Moscow in a hurry.

Moscow – diplomatically – was the winner. And Russia won again when Turkey – fed up with trying to join the EU and being constantly blocked by, who else, Germany and France – decided to pivot to Eurasia for good, ignoring NATO and amplifying relations with both Russia and China.

That happened in the framework of a major ‘Pipelineistan’ game-changer. After Moscow cleverly negotiated the realignment of South Stream towards Turk Stream, right up to the Greek border, Putin and Greek Prime Minister Tsipras also agreed to a pipeline extension from the Turkish border across Greece to southern Europe. So Gazprom will be firmly implanted not only in Turkey but also Greece, which in itself will become mightily strategic in European ‘Pipelineistan’.

So Germany, sooner or later, must answer a categorical imperative - how to keep running massive trade surpluses while dumping their euro trade partners. The only possible answer is more trade with Russia, China and East Asia. It will take quite a while, and there will be many bumps on the road, but a Berlin-Moscow-Beijing trade/commercial axis – or the “RC” in BRICS meet Germany - is all but inevitable.

And no, you won’t read that in any wacky US ‘Think Tankland’ “forecast.”Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for Asia Times/Hong Kong, an analyst for RT and TomDispatch, and a frequent contributor to websites and radio shows ranging from the US to East Asia.



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SPOOKY STORMONT JUNTA OF BRITISH DIRTY WAR

The Stormont Junta, located at the former "Protestant Parliament for a Protestant People" by Lord Craigavon, was created  by the Pseudo Peace Process in Ireland. Unlike any democratic regime with a modicum of transparency or with some semblance of an Opposition, the Junta is above inquiry, courtesy of Her Majesty's Service in the interests of secrecy. The DUP and Provisional Sinn Fein leaders of the Junta, spent almost forty years, courtesy of British Intelligence, engaged in a profitable, British Dirty War, with both parties, publicly declaring intent of smashing it as fuel for the very bloody war. Now, they run it exclusively together. The huge scandal, around the rape of young boys, by the British Political Establishment, British Royalty, British Intelligence and British Military, at Kincora Bots Home, has been excluded from an Official Inquiry, into child rape at British foster care homes, without a murmur or a whisper, from any member of the Junta, which does not allow opposition or such questions in it's "Protestant Parliament".

In the last month, Irish people have been mesmerized by the spectacle, of a former Chief Of Staff of the IRA, make a public declaration, that his work, is inspired by Her Majesty the Queen of England. Bearing in mind the core of Republican ideology worldwide, is the removal of Royalty from public life, coupled in this instance of a Chief of Staff of the IRA, who fought in a very bloody British Dirty War, for forty years, with thousands of victims, this was a stunning and revealing declaration, indeed. It has prompted serious questions, both in Britain and Ireland about the integrity and credentials of the former Chief of Staff of the Provisional IRA and the extent of the contrived British Dirty War using Occupied Ireland, as a test laboratory, for practices, since used in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan and the subsequent creation of puppet regimes.

This question was further enforced last month, by another public declaration, of the IRA enforcer of the pseudo, peace process, Gerry Kelly, another member of the Stormont Junta, who called on all Irish people, to become informers to British Intelligence and Occupation forces, on all political activity by Republican activists in Ireland. Now the vast majority of activity by Irish republicans, is perfectly, transparent, legitimate, political activity, such as the Republican Party in the U.S., which has now been criminalized by the Stormont Junta. In fact, scores of these legitimate politicos are currently, politically interned and tortured, without trial in Maghaberry Prison, overseen by the Stormont Junta. and British Viceroyal, who answer only to the Queen of England. Now this further declaration, had many Republicans, including the few who are left in Provisional Sinn Fein, reaching for their medicine cabinets, in astonishment.

However, the final coup de gras of any republican credentials, being attached to Provisional Sinn Fein, partner in the Stormont Junta, came last week. The President of the Party, Gerry Adams, who grew up in a home, where his father raped his children, while his brother is currently serving a long prison sentence, for also raping his daughter, was a bizarre, dog revelation.These child rape practices started to be tolerated within the Provisionals, after Mr. Adams became President, where previously, there was very serious consequence within his organization, for such activity. Now as anyone who is familiar with large dogs will tell you, they do have some very embarrassing habits and devious sexual practices, that can be very unhygienic, to say the least. This behavior, is often aroused by intimate human contact, particularly if the human is overtly displaying, full frontal nudity. This sexual arousal is, further aroused physically, by high octane fun and games, coupled with the intimacy. Well, what do you think, the political public of Ireland were disseminating last week. Mr Adams, Mr Gerry Adams, President of provisional Sinn Fein, declared to the world, that his free time, was consumed, in full nudity, bouncing up and down on his trampoline in his garden, consistently, with his dog who is also naked.

Now as anyone who knows this writer will attest, I myself have a particularly, liberated outlook on nudity, in fact, skinny dipping is one of my favourite pastimes and like Mr Adams, I have been known, to hug the odd tree or two but this intimate activity, is beyond the Pale. I have just spent a couple of months berating Wille Frazer along with the Orange Order, for their practice of "Riding the Goat' and decided I had enough of it and to give it a rest but Gerry Adams and his dog both naked, jumping up and down on a trampoline in private, is something else. The matter so disturbed me, that I decided to go and do some serious research on the matter. I have been assured by experts, that the practice is often used by therapists, to counter pedophile tendencies. Now I am not, for one moment suggesting Mr Adams'activity, falls under these criteria. However, the experts have confirmed for me, that the intimate practice of a naked tall man and his dog, both jumping up and down together, on a trampoline, does indeed create considerable sexual passion and arousal. So much so in fact, that as the both the dog and man, fall down regularly often in 69 positions, that premature ejaculations often occurs on the face and head of both parties, indeed in the many Kamasutra positions, thus created, a dog may ejaculate up to twenty times on the head of a human playmate. This, dear reader, is not political bias, it is the hard fact and reality, resulting from this activity. Now I have always tried to be sensitive, when writing about these matters, in relation to the Adams family but hey, I do have a responsibility to be frank with readers to whom I post. So seeing as it was suggested by the Orange Goat of the Chinese New Year, to Give Willie a Hug, I suppose I am obliged to extend the same empathy to Mr. Adams. Is there anybody out there who would like to give Gerry Adams a Hug, in  a hot shower, if he disinfects himself after a session of intimate trampolining, with his naked dog?

Now some readers have questioned, why I occasionally use humour, with regard to Irish politics, Well dear reader, I can tell you, in no uncertain terms, that if you do not have a sense of humour, with regard to the British Occupation of my country, you will either be driven to drink, drugs, religion or revolution but you will not stay around for the long haul, otherwise. To return to the serious implications of all of this, Ireland is trying to come to terms with the fact that there has been serious "systemic" child rape on the island, as declared by a very expensive Official Inquiry. This has involved thousands upon thousands of innocent young children, both girls and boys, with immense cruelty. Young children were taken from the Irish Free Sate, to Belfast, to be prostituted to British Royalty. Both the British and Roman Empire, have been engaged in the practice of cultivating Child Rape, as a cultural norm for centuries. It has been used as an instrument of blackmail, by British Intelligence, to acquire political, military and judicial compliance, from much of the Irish establishment, and is currently very much alive and operating, in all arms of both scum states, that the British have artificially created. It's vile nature and practice, has fuelled Irish revolutionaries, to go out and give their lives, in their thousands, to resist British Occupation. This vile perversion, is practiced, in the torture of Irish POWs, with strip searches and anal cavity probes, that are designed to degrade, dehumanize and criminalize some of Ireland's bravest women and men, who are interned and incarcerated. It has forced 23 of Ireland's bravest, to give their lives on hunger strikes, rather than tolerate this perverse, criminal, cruel torture on their bodies. The whole of both political systems on the island, have become morally bankrupt as a result. The sad result of this practice, is that like the Stormont Junta and the Leinster House establishment, the British have infected some of their victims, with the heartless, immoral practices and blackmailed many of these who formerly resisted. The Adams family are the testament of how this sickness is passed on to the next generation, in both parts of Ireland, which as a result, is as sick, as it's numerous, dark secrets, that will require some benign, outside help, in order to recover from such endemic sickness. I appeal to anyone in a position of influence worldwide, to try and help change this, without considerable more bloodshed being inflicted on the island, which is inevitable otherwise. I demand, that the British Occupation, leave the island of my birth immediately and leave us alone to recover in peace. This article will remain largely secret, without your help to share it, if you agree.




Kincora victim Richard Kerr in explosive new claims as he returns to horror house 30 years on

Child abuse survivor demands UK-wide inquiry

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Richard Kerr (53), who now lives in the US, visited the site of the former care home as he returned to Northern Ireland to launch legal action so the truth about Kincora can finally be told

BY LIAM CLARKE – 20 FEBRUARY 2015
A former resident of Kincora has made a poignant return to the notorious care home where he was abused decades ago.

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Richard Kerr (53), who now lives in Dallas, visited Belfast this week to support a legal challenge against the Government's refusal to include Kincora in its forthcoming child abuse inquiry.

While he was here Mr Kerr went to the east Belfast site for the first time in more than three decades.

Kincora was the subject of a high-profile child sex abuse scandal in the 1980s. Three senior staff were jailed in 1981 for abusing 11 boys in their care at the home. Those convicted were the warden Joseph Mains, his assistant Raymond Semple, and Kincora's housefather William McGrath.

Mr Kerr was among the young residents who were abused. He was sent to live there in 1975 when he was just 14. Mr Kerr's evidence about Kincora is potentially explosive because he claims he was taken out of the care home and introduced to other men for sex at hotels. He also alleges MI5 involvement in the abuse at the home. This contradicts previous police investigations and a public inquiry into the scandal, which found there was no evidence of a paedophile ring connected to Kincora. Mr Kerr choked back tears as he walked through the grounds of the locked-up building.

He pointed out where abusers and victims had their rooms, where abuse took place and where abusers had parked. The visit jogged his memory. He pointed to a nearby building where he said boys were taken for sexual encounters. He also described a shed or hut in what is now a yard behind Kincora which was used for sex. "It had a chair and a mattress in it, that's about all," he said.

Mr Kerr was in Belfast High Court this week to support the application of Gary Hoy, another Kincora resident, to have the issue examined by the UK-wide institutional child abuse inquiry in England rather than the local one chaired by Anthony Hart QC.

On Thursday they were granted leave to appeal after a statement by Mr Kerr was presented to the court. He gave further statements to his solicitor, Kevin Winters, about sexual abuse which happened in London, Manchester and other parts of Britain. Some may have occurred on a weekend trip from Kincora, where he lived most of the time between 1975 and 1978.


Other abuse occurred after he was sent to live in England. One of Mr Kerr's most explosive allegations is that Joseph Mains used to send him to collect other men. Although some met him in the city centre, often near the Europa where he worked for a while, he called at some of their homes.

"One on the Shore Road seemed like he might be an Army captain, he had loads of medals," he said. He is making a list of the names, at least one of whom was a well-known loyalist.

Kevin Winters said: "My clients include three Kincora inmates - the other two are Gary Hoy and Clint Massey. I have put their names in to the Police Ombudsman who is investigating. All of these people are bringing civil litigation as well and I have another solicitor dealing with the compensation claims."

COMETH THE CENSOR - I feel Like a Rant

Some say opinions are like arseholes, everyone has got one. Nevertheless without arseholes, we would be all full of shit. So for once, at great risk of causing division and some passionate reaction, I will give my opinion. Perception is a very subjective matter, and that is why, to attempt objectivity, I strongly believe in the Dialectic, which requires Free Speech, without censorship. In other words, there are at least two sides to every story and we cannot see or hear both sides, with censorship, which prevents informed debate, which is an essential element of fascism, and an enemy of freedom and Free Speech, the fundamental of any Republic.

As an example, let's take the town of Newry, which traditionally has had, up to eighty percent unemployment because of Stormont. Perception causes great division in the struggle for liberation in this town. Wholesale intergenerational unemployment, was calculatedly caused by the Orange Statelet, and replicated all across the north of Ireland, in nationalist towns. Stormont built excellent infrastructure, with funding from British taxpayers, across the north of Ireland, but excluded towns like the Newry. They made certain an excellent motorway in the north, extended past Banbridge, but considerably short of Newry, to ensure that no international entrepreneurs, would ever build factories in places like Newry, with a large nationalist population. The Provo junta in the Stormont Agreement with the Tories and the Orange Order, have just signed up for savage cuts, to be implemented, after the next election, the extent of which is censored from the public, which will decimate living standards in that part of Ireland. The only nationalist people, who could traditionally make a living in the area, were the smugglers in south Armagh and the privileged Orange Order.This is just one example of cultivated divisions in Ireland.

Now a free liberated people, should not be fighting among themselves over scraps, they would be self-supporting and have control over their own resources. However human nature being what it is, it is difficult to blame the thousands in Newry, without a pot to piss in, from being jealous of the many strong farmers in south Armagh, with thoroughbreds cantering in their fields, while the Orange Order and the Tories sit back laughing at local squabbles. The liberation struggle in Newry split between the Workers Party and the Provos. As both elements decided to change from revolution to electoral-reformism, the careerists started to join both parties and out-numbered the original revolutionaries. The orifice lickers, with their manipulative skills, climbed to the top, resulting in Eamon Gilmore who also, once called himself a republican, becoming deputy Prime Minister, with the fascist Blueshirts in the south, while the local Provos, are well on their way, to replace the soon to be vacated seat, of Martin McGuinness, when he joins the House of Lords or some other Pie in the Sky, while the poor people of Newry, still haven't a pot to piss in.

Now-of-course, this is great craic for the Provo/Orange Order junta in Stormont, with big expense accounts and even fatter bank accounts, inspired by the Queen's shilling. The perverse irony of all of this is, that the "Remarkable Agreement", of post-election cuts of savagery, that McGuinness boasted about recently, under the structure of Lord Craigavon at the entrance to Stormont, was the culmination of two parties, originally campaigning on a platform of smashing the traditional Unionist Stormont. What was actually remarkable, was the Chuckle brothers of Provo/DUP fought a bloody duel for decades, using their volunteers as cannon fodder, in willing partnership, with Britain's ongoing test laboratory of ongoing Dirty War in Ireland, without any lessons being learned by the suffering people of no property. 

The current fascist, Provo/Orange Order junta maintain their contrived monopoly, enabling the low-intensity British Dirty War, as it  perverts the course of justice, in secret courts, that maintains a conveyor belt system, that interns without a proper trial or by remand, any uppity Taig or odd Flegger, that wants to organize any 'no property' protest, about all of this. This is the pig in the poke, sold as a peace process, which serves British Imperial interests so well, in Ireland, which will become evident, after both elections in Ireland in the near future, with a Provo/Blueshirt junta also established in the south, to do the same. This has  already been well choreographed by the British secret state, under the cover of censorship, prejudice, bigotry, keeping the natives, dumb, hungry and squabbling among themselves, as the Piss-pot Process of ruling by fooling continues. As the Provos follow, Her Majesty's gravy trail today, they collaborate in the same torture of Irish POWs, meted out by the same sectarian thugs in riot gear, to the ten Hunger Strikers, by sectarian British riot squads in captivity. Even British Sinn Fein's neanderthal political cousins, the fascist Blueshirts,  treat Irish POWs better. 

The Provos in Stormont are old wine in new bottles, that you will find in the dregs of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Labour in the south, whose pockets, have been well lined by the corporate lobbyists round Leinster House. In all probability, they have already cut a deal with the international banksters, and in all likelihood, will go into Coalition, with their political cousins the Blueshirts, with whom they have more in common, rather than Fianna Fail. Tweedledee, Tweedledum, funded by the National Australia Bank and organized by Britain's secret state.

Cometh the Censor

By Fred Reed


February 15, 2015 "ICH" - I see with no surprise that Washington is stepping up its campaign to censor the internet. It had to come, and will succeed. It will put paid forever to America’s flirtation with freedom.

The country was never really a democracy, meaning a polity in which final power rested with the people. The voters have always been too remote from the levers of power to have much influence. Yet for a brief window of time there actually was freedom of a sort. With the censorship of the net—it will be called “regulation”—the last hope of retaining former liberty will expire.

Over the years freedom has declined in inverse proportion to the reach of the central government. (Robert E. Lee: “I consider the constitutional power of the General Government as the chief source of stability to our political system, whereas the consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all those that have preceded it.” Yep.)

Through most of the country’s history, Washington lacked the ability to meddle, control, micromanage, and punish. In 1850, it had precious little knowledge of events in lands such as Wyoming, Tennessee, or West Virginia, no capacity to do much about them, and not a great deal of interest. People on remote farms and in small towns governed themselves as they chose, not always well but without rule by distant bureaucracies and moneyed interests.

For a sunny few years, local freedom rested substantially on principle, a notion inconceivable now. The Thomas Jeffersons, George Washingtons, and Robert E. Lees genuinely believed in freedom, and worried about the coming of tyranny. Justices of the Supreme Court often upheld the tenets of the Bill of Rights. As human affairs go—poorly, as a rule—it was impressive.

As time went by, however, it became clear that incapacity, not principle, was the only reliable brake on the rise of dictatorship. In 1950, the government could put a mail cover on anyone, quite possibly illegally if the FBI were involved, but steaming envelopes open required time, effort, and manpower. Mass surveillance was impossible, and so didn’t happen. Without surveillance, there can be no control.

Fora long time it was due to principle that freedom of the press remained, no matter how much the government hated it. During the war in Vietnam, “underground” papers, which of course published openly, were virulently critical of the government. The mainstream media of the time published shocking photographs of the war, much to the fury of the Pentagon. The courts allowed it.

Today, that has changed. Washington has learned to avoid dissent from its wars by using a volunteer army of men about whom no one of influence cares. The use of “drones” further reduces public interest, and today the major media, owned by corporations aligned with arms manufacturers and manned by intimidated reporters, hide the results on the battlefield. For practical purposes, today’s press is an arm of government.

The old checks and balances, however modest in their effects, have withered. The Supreme Court is now a branch office of Madame Tussaud’s, Congress a two-headed corpse, the Constitution a scrap of moldering parchment remembered only by hopeless romantics, and Washington a sandbox of unaccountable hacks inbred to the point of hemophilia. Obama has discovered that he can do almost anything, calling it an executive order, and no one will dare challenge him.

In its rare waking moments, the Supreme Court has shown little inclination to protect the Bill of Rights, which Washington regards as quaint at best and, usually, an annoyance to be overcome by executive order and judicial somnolence. The obvious reality that having the government read every email, record every telephone conversation, monitor every financial transaction and so on is a gross violation of the Fourth Amendment bothers neither the Supremes nor, heaven knows, the President. It is clearly unconstitutional, but we do not live in constitutional times. Governments aggregate power. They do not relinquish it, short of revolution.

Today the internet is the only free press we have, all that stands against total control of information. Consider how relentlessly the media impose political correctness, how the slightest offense to the protected groups—we all know who they are—or to sacred policies leads to firing of reporters and groveling by politicians. The wars are buried and serious criticism of Washington suppressed. That leaves the net, only the net, without which we would know nothing.

Which is why it must be and will be censored, sooner if Washington can get away with it and later if not. The tactics are predictable. First, “hate speech” will be banned. The government will tell us whom we can hate and whom we cannot. “Hatred” will be vaguely defined so that one will never be sure when one is engaging in it and, since it will be prosecutable, one will have to be very careful. Disapproval of favored groups, or of their behavior, will be defined as hatred. National security will be invoked, silencing whistle-blowers or, eventually, anything that might make the public uneasy with Washington’s wars.

The next step probably will be to block links to foreign sites deemed to transgress. China is good at this. The most likely avenue will be executive orders of increasingly Draconian nature, about which Congress and the Dead—the Supreme Court, I meant to say—will do nothing.

At that point, coming soon to a theater near you, the United States as it was intended to be, and to an extent was, will be over. Our increasingly characterless young, raised to ignorance and Appropriate Thought by government schools, will question nothing. They will have no way of knowing that there is anything to question.

I suppose it can be debated whether the current enstupidation of the rising generations is deliberate or merely the consequence of a return to peasantry inescapable in a democracy. The petulance and immaturity running through so much of society may be inevitable in a spoiled people who have never had to do anything and have never been told “no.” Certainly things today resemble the end games of other once-dominant cultures.

Mental darkness facilitates authoritarianism, and darkness we have. Many college graduates can barely read. Their ignorance of history, politics, and geography (and practically everything else) is profound, and they see no reason why they should know anything. They seem not to suspect that there might be things worth knowing.

I am hard pressed to think of a society in such internal decline that has turned itself around, and I cannot imagine how ours might do so. One sure thing is that, once the internet is gelded, there will be no hope at all. And the assault has begun.

Fred's Biography - As He Tells It

Fred, a keyboard mercenary with a disorganized past, has worked on staff for Army Times, The Washingtonian, Soldier of Fortune, Federal Computer Week, and The Washington Times. http://www.fredoneverything.net

GENOCIDE BLOODY GENO0CIDE

British administration of Palestine ended in 1948. During Britain's colonial rule, it was simply known as Palestine. During British rule, Palestine experienced the ascent of the British mentored Zionists, which caused the competing interests of Arabs and Jews against each other. After the Arab Revolt of 1936–1939 to remove the British, a Civil War ensued in 1947–1948. The consequence of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, led to a 1949 cease-fire agreement, with the partition of Palestine, between the new state of Israel with a Jewish majority, the West Bank was annexed by Jordan and a Palestinian Government set up in the Gaza Strip. Further confusing the issue, was the British Balfour Declaration, promising support for a Jewish "national home" in Palestine.

The Irish Free State, was created on the 6th of December 1922 and was a Dominion of the British Commonwealth, under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by British and Irish representatives, twelve months before. On the day the Irish Free State was established, it comprised the entire island of Ireland but, as expected, northern Ireland removed itself from the new state. The Irish Free State effectively replaced both the self-proclaimed Irish Republic, founded on 21 January 1919, after an overwhelming vote for it's creation, by all of the island's people. However the British mentored the Orange Order, in the north of the island, to create a British junta, they call northern Ireland. Thus two juntas were politically manipulated by the British, to run Ireland from Leinster House in the south, and  Stormont in the north.

Aa any child of history can observe, both Palestine and Ireland are mirror images of each other, and reflect a covert British post colonial policy, which was an extension of their centuries old divide and rule overt colonial policy. Now in the realm of international governance, students of history might argue, such is the way of the world, despite their legacy of immense international bloodshed. However there are two particularly genocidal events, that deserve close attention, because of the sheer scale of the genocide involved, including the Jewish Holocaust by Nazi Germany, which claimed up to six million, Jewish lives, according to many historians. The Nazi war Criminals were put on trial at the International Military Tribunal, which started on November 19, 1945, in the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg.The indictments were a)Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of a crime against peace. b) Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace. c)War crimes. d) Crimes against humanity. The judges were predominantly British. Most of the war criminals were hanged. As a result, the Nuremburg Principles, became the basis of International Law, the Jews were awarded 100 million compensation and the process became the foundation, and of the International Criminal Court in the Hague, to adjudicate such crimes.

Strangely, Britain and it's Commonwealth, was one of the few exceptions, who refused to become members. Perhaps their own genocide in Ireland was a factor? Not a very good example to their American and African cousins or it's former colonies in Asia, where they left a trail of bloody war crimes, upon which which the Sun never sets, (see video right column). However there is one genocide, that exceeds all, one Holocaust that exceeds in numbers, even the Jewish Holocaust, and that is the Irish Holocaust of 1845. The preliminary evidence, has already been carefully researched and gathered, by international friends of Ireland and can be found at this site; www.irishholocaust.org  The Palestiians have already made their application to join the ICC. I look forward to all war crimes  in Palestine being prosecuted with justice and proper compensation being made, to all the victims, whoever they may be. This is obviously the civilzed way, to put matters to rest and to prevent further genocide. I demand the same for Ireland and any enabler of war crimes, who would try prevent it. Rulings would then have to be taken, to the International Arbitration Court for restitution in the same way as Jewish restitution, to enable forgiveness. Below is an article, on the Palestinian application. The British Queen, is Commander in Chief of British forces in Ireland, I look forward to seeing her dangling from a rope, in the same way, they enabled Saddam Hussein was hanged. If you care to join me, sign the bloody petition in the righthand column of this page.

Will Netanyahu End Up At The Hague?

The Palestinian application to the ICC has set in motion a series of events with potentially dramatic consequences for both Israel and the Palestinians

By Jonathan CookJanuary 08, 2015 "ICH" - (Al-Araby ) - At the weekend, Fatah posted an image on its Facebook page of Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu next to a hangman’s noose, alongside the words ‘coming soon’ and the scales-of-justice logo of the International Criminal Court in the Hague.This is certainly how many Palestinians would like to view Netanyahu’s fate over the coming months.
Last week, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, reluctantly signed on to the Rome Statute, paving the way for ICC membership, after he failed to win a vote at the UN Security Council on a resolution to end the occupation by 2017.
The loyalists of Abbas’ Fatah party are likely to be disappointed, however. There are many obstacles to be cleared before anyone in Israel, let alone the prime minister, reaches the dock in the Hague accused of war crimes.
The first test will be whether Abbas’ nerve holds. It will be 60 days before the application to join the ICC takes effect. In the meantime, Israel and the US – neither of which has ratified the Rome Statute – will exert as much pressure on him as possible to change course.
At Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Netanyahu announced that Israel would withhold the monthly tax revenues it collects on behalf of Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA) and which it is obligated to pass on.
Given the PA’s precarious finances, that is a blow that will be quickly felt. Abbas dismissed the move, dressing up his diplomatic desperation as cavalier disregard. “Now there are sanctions – that’s fine. There’s an escalation – that’s fine … but we’re pushing forward,” he said.
Israel is threatening to pile on additional punishments this week. Or as a senior foreign ministry official put it: “Israel is about to switch from defense to attack mode.”
Included is a plan to recruit Israel’s powerful lobbies in Washington to ensure the enforcement of legislation requiring the US Congress to halt some $400 million in annual aid to the PA in the event that the Palestinians actually initiate any actions at the Hague to investigate Israelis for war crimes.

Implicating Abbas

Further, Israel is threatening to use its own undoubtedly formidable intelligence-gathering against Abbas and his PA officials, implicating them in war crimes too.
Israel could try to pursue Palestinian officials, including Abbas, through the US courts, which have in the past shown a willingness to back terror-related claims against Palestinians.
In September a New York jury found against the Jordan-based Arab Bank for channelling charitable money into the occupied territories to help poor families, agreeing that this had helped support “terror”.
At the weekly Israeli cabinet meeting, Netanyahu warned: “Those who need to answer before a criminal court are the heads of the Palestinian Authority, who have forged an alliance with the war criminals of Hamas.” One of his officials similarly noted that they had “quite a bit of ammunition” to use against Abbas.
An Israeli analyst, Barak Ravid, suggested that the goal might be to “create a balance of terror”, reviving the Cold War principle of mutually assured destruction: “Each side would bombard the other with complaints until they can no longer breathe.”
One course of action Netanyahu is reported to be loath to pursue on this occasion is a glut of settlement building. This was Israel’s response back in 2012 when the Palestinians won a vote at the UN upgrading their status.
But the diplomatic fall-out then is said to have taught Israel a lesson, and it will not specifically characterise settlement expansion as part of its retaliation.

Persuading the ICC

The next obstacle will be persuading the ICC to investigate Israel. So far the Palestinians have had little success with the ICC, but previous justifications from the court for inaction are no longer valid.
In early 2012, the ICC dropped an investigation into Palestinian claims of war crimes committed during Israel’s attack on Gaza in 2008-09 on the grounds that Palestine was not a recognised state. That changed with the Palestinians’ change of UN status later the same year.
And in November the ICC’s prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, halted an investigation into an Israeli commando operation against the Mavi Marmara aid ship in 2010 that killed nine humanitarian activists. The case had been made possible only because the ship was registered in Comoros, which had signed the Rome Statute.
Bensouda argued that the deaths of the activists were not of “sufficient gravity” to justify the ICC’s intervention.
But now – with a much wider range of examples to choose from as a member of the ICC, including the attack on Gaza last summer that left more than 500 children dead – the Palestinians should be able to find cases that better qualify.
Nevertheless, such investigations, if they take place, will be laborious and time-consuming, especially as Israel will be actively uncooperative, just as it has been in blocking access to Gaza for UN inquiries into war crimes.
In the meantime, the US will be certain to put pressure behind the scenes on the Hague court to reject cases brought by the Palestinians. It can be expected to threaten the finances of the ICC and arm-twist it in other ways, just as it did Security Council members last week to ensure that a Palestinian resolution to end the occupation failed to win the necessary majority.
The politicised nature of the ICC should not be under-estimated. Its cases so far have targeted only African leaders, and ones that are seen as enemies of the US and the west.
International law experts note that it will be extremely difficult for the ICC to press cases against the leaders of a state widely seen in the US and Europe as a western-style democracy.
That might, for example, encourage uncomfortable comparisons between Israel’s behaviour and that of the US and Britain in the Middle East. If Netanyahu or Tzipi Livni are to stand trial, why not Barack Obama or his predecessor, George W Bush? US leaders are just as culpable for their part in Washington’s extra-judicial executions by drones over Yemen and Pakistan or its rendition and torture programmes.

Immunity from prosecution

Nonetheless, Israel has good reason to be worried.
Whether or not cases are ultimately brought against Israelis, the threat of war crimes charges is likely to act as a restraint, creating an atmosphere of doubt, caution and fear on the ground among the Israeli security forces.
That is not something Israel, driven by a military tradition of creating deterrence by terrifying its Arab neighbours into submission, can afford to be complacent about.
As Tel Aviv law professor Aeyal Gross observed, the ICC threat hangs more heavily over Israelis than Palestinians. Palestinian fighters are unlikely to fear an ICC prosecution given that “they are already at risk of assassination by Israel or long prison terms if caught. In contrast, Israelis have enjoyed de facto immunity from prosecution for Israel’s actions.”
Adding to this problem, Israel will have to demonstrate – if it is to be sure of pre-empting an ICC investigation – that it has carried out its own credible investigations and is prepared to prosecute its own soldiers, including commanders, with serious charges.
Until now, even lowly Israeli soldiers have enjoyed almost complete immunity for their actions, and Israel has refused to cooperate with independent investigations.
When Israel announced a handful of criminal inquiries into its attack on Gaza last summer, which left more than 2,000 Palestinians dead, most of them civilians, it washarshly criticised by local human rights NGOs. The two most respected, B’Tselem and Yesh Din, refused to cooperate, arguing that the investigations were a “whitewash”.
Israeli authorities have so far approved 13 investigations into the summer’s events but most relate to minor or isolated incidents, usually committed by junior soldiers. Five of the investigations are into allegations of looting: soldiers stealing money or items from Palestinian homes.

Double-edged sword

That will now need to change, even if only for appearances’ sake.
Similarly, the threats Netanyahu and others Israeli officials have been making against Abbas are a double-edged sword. While Israeli officials have warned that the Palestinian application to join the ICC opens up a “Pandora’s box”, it may be that any damage to Abbas and the PA ultimately rebounds on Israel.
There have long been suggestions that Abbas has been actively conspiring with Israel against Hamas – including rumours that he was closely consulted on Israel’s attack on Gaza in 2008-09. Exposing such collaboration could simply deepen Israel’s troubles.
In any case, weakening the PA – whether by implicating it in war crimes or pulling the plug on its finances – risks its collapse and Israel’s being forced once again to bear the full military and financial costs of the occupation.
That was why the US State Department on Monday expressed its opposition to Israel’s refusal to transfer tax revenues to the Palestinians, saying it threatened “stability” in the region.
The Palestinians joining the Hague court might also serve as a fillip to groups trying to use the principle of universal jurisdiction in their own countries, including several major European ones that have already incorporated such legislation. That would be even more likely were the ICC to appear to be submitting to pressure to avoid prosecuting Israeli officials.
It would leave senior Israelis even more fearful of visiting such states for fear of arrest.
And maybe not least, the Palestinians’ move to the Hague will exhaust yet more US goodwill as it is forced publicly to rescue Israel from the consequences of its own worst military excesses.

Jonathan Cook is a Nazareth- based journalist and winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism - See more at: http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2015-01-07/will-netanyahu-end-up-at-the-hague/#sthash.SJ7zt3yr.dpuf

Jonathan Cook is a Nazareth- based journalist and winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism http://www.jonathan-cook.net
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LOONDERRY SUBSIDIZED IN A NAZI STATE?

An amalgamator for the British commoner, as a token of thanks, on how their hard earned taxes are spent, subsidizing British Occupied Ireland, to the tune of 10 Billion Pounds Sterling, annually.

  FASCISM DEFINITION LINK

BY LIAM CLARKE – 07 NOVEMBER 2014

This may be the last time we get the sustained attention of the British, Irish and - to some extent - American governments. We should make the most of it. There won't be a better moment to do business with the three of them.

Before looking at the future we need a view of the present and to decide how we want things to change. We need to know what sort of place this is, what our choices are and what sort of future we want as a society.

Do we want British Occupied Ireland to be a place divided into two main local communities who are educated separately and tend to live separately too? Or do we want a more shared society where we may have to accept cultural symbols, like Orange or nationalist regalia, which we don't feel entirely comfortable with.

Do we want a society where we put resources into shared cultural experiences like Belfast's Culture night? Or are we a society which places a higher priority on translating turgid departmental papers, which nobody may ever read, into Irish and Ulster-Scots, or providing rates relief to Orange halls rather than funding flagship cultural products like the Ulster Orchestra, the cross-community Mela festival hosted by the Indian community and Culture Night in Belfast.

Are we going to be about commemorating and treasuring past division and suffering or will we wear all that a little more lightly as we move forward into a global future?

Do we prefer spending millions policing protests or getting to the bottom of communal disagreements and sorting them out.

It's usual to hear British Ocupied Ireland's problems explained in terms of historic division, the legacy of conflict which makes us a place apart. In a sense, though, these divisions and tragedies are just the local colour. Everywhere has things like that, a special layer of difficulty laid on top of the normal struggles that face people everywhere as they attempt to get by and get ahead.

A Treasury consultation document in 2011 summed up the situation: "Northern Ireland is one of the UK's most disadvantaged regions on many measures. It has the lowest wages and one of the lowest labour productivity rates. It has a weak private sector, with strong dependence on the public sector. These weaknesses reflect a number of unique factors, not least the legacy of 30 years of conflict, the demographic structure and the peripheral location of Northern Ireland, as well as issues surrounding deprivation and rurality."

There you have it: we are a backward region with a weak economy. The best paid, and skilled, part of it is the public sector. As last year's Peace Monitoring Report, published by the Community Relations Council, points out "its dependence on the low pay/low skills equilibrium and its highest rate of economic inactivity mean that it has never been able to generate sufficient income to cover its expenditure".

Put in plain terms, November 2012 figures show us spending £23.2bn while taking in only £12.7bn in taxes. The balance, £10.5bn that year, is our subvention from London. That is nearly as much as it cost to stage the Olympics and the British are looking for a way to reduce the outflow.

Next year we face a cut of 1.6%. We also have "accumulated pressures" of around £850m and we face a major hit, £114m next year alone, for failing to implement UK-wide welfare reform measures which are intended to slow the level of increase in welfare spending here. Since we have so far refused to make the changes, London sees us as running a more expensive welfare system without having the income to pay for it and they deduct what they consider the overspend to be.

This shouldn't really be happening now. The time to have put it right was in 2007-2008 when devolution was being negotiated with SDLP and UUP as the main parties. The international conditions for devolution were far more favourable then - the Celtic Tiger was still roaring and the world economy was booming. Tony Blair was fully engaged as British Prime Minister and didn't count the cost when it came to bedding down the peace process.

President Clinton was fully committed and, like Blair, spent far more time on British occupied Ireland, Ireland than his successor.

That opportunity was largely missed because a deal could not be made to stick. The IRA played hard ball on decommissioning, leaving David Trimble to die a death of a thousand cuts as his support to lead the Ulster Unionists haemorrhaged away.

Provisional Sinn Fein and the DUP harried the SDLP and UUP, who lacked the resolve to proceed.

Now that things are getting out of control everybody expects British Occupied Ireland to sink back into violence, and with so much ethnic conflict elsewhere it is less of a special case.

People wonder what we are still arguing about after they thought everything was settled.

That is why we are so fortunate to have got the attention of the British, Irish and Americans at this moment of crisis. They even agreed to wrap a discussion of our economic problems into a talks programme on the future of the peace process, flags, parading, and the past.

This gives our politicians a chance to engage directly with the main decision takers and to trade one issue for another to try and get something that we can all live with. We shouldn't overplay our hand - but we do have a hand to play.

The three governments are very reluctant to allow the Northern Ireland peace process to move into danger. It is still the foreign policy success of the Obama Presidency and the present British Government, but it is something which both administrations inherited.

The current crop of British, Irish and American players didn't create the peace process and if they allow it to fall apart on their watch then that will reflect very badly on them. That gives us something to work with; showing a success here is of geopolitical value to Britain and America and they may yet be prepped to make concessions to do so.

Getting the most out of the situation won't be easy, especially in the poisonous atmosphere of distrust which has grown up in Stormont.

To convince the governments that Stormont is worth rescuing our politicians will need to show that they are up to the task of taking decisions. They need to show that they are prepared to put new things on the table and to slaughter sacred cows if necessary.

Above all they need to show they are capable of making compromises and delivering on them.

The record for the two big parties on that hasn't been great.

The DUP promised Provisional Sinn Fein, and the EU for that matter, that a peace centre could be constructed at the Maze, but pulled out at the last moment.

Sinn Fein has thrashed around since then, for instance blocking other projects on the Maze site.

Spats like this, which can fester and become toxic, should be sorted out.

Anything which gives the impression of instability or panic should be avoided. I recently attended a business dinner where a number of investors from outside the province discussed their holdings and their plans here.

The majority opinion was that, compared to other parts of the UK, this was a bad place to invest. These weren't stupid people, they knew the situation on the ground. They didn't think we were going back to war.

But, they pointed out, investment decisions had to be made five, 10 or more years in advance.

British Occupied Ireland scored badly on energy costs, which are amongst the highest in Europe. It is also a problem which we seem reluctant to tackle. Stormont will have to look at issues like fracking, onshore wind and anaerobic digesters to meet the shortfall.

Another factor alarming the group I met was the smash and grab 'Tesco tax' on big out-of-town supermarkets which Sammy Wilson, the then Finance Minister, used to raise £100m in 2011. The fear is that the same sort of "make do and mend" attitudes to filling fiscal black holes kick in again.

Businesses like to be able to plan ahead without being hit by unexpected costs and, if they have a choice, they will prefer to invest in a place where that doesn't happen.

Protests were another worry. Head offices outside British Occupied Ireland did not like roads suddenly being blocked or premises forced to close.

That is the area in which flags, parading and the past intersect most directly with our economic prospects. When people are considering where to invest millions, they do tend to notice little things.

Colin Powell, the former US Secretary of State, put this well. "Capital is a coward. It flees from corruption and bad policies, conflict and unpredictability. It shuns ignorance, disease and illiteracy. Capital goes where it is welcomed and where investors can be confident of a return on the resources they have put at risk. It goes to countries where women can work, children can read, and entrepreneurs can dream."

Our politicians are taking a big gamble on building up the private sector and if it is to succeed it will need high-end foreign investment to boost wage and skill levels here. This is about general image; we need to present ourselves as a reasonable, stable place that doesn't bring every problem over a local parade or a civic flag to meltdown.

We will have to make choices. The past is an issue which not only comes back to haunt us but also threatens to overturn our peace settlement and drain our law and order budget of resources.

Protests like Camp Twaddell, which the Chief Constable estimates costs £40,000 a day to police, need to be tackled and resolved in a way which can allow everyone to save face. Hiving the issue off to a special panel which can report back next year is the easiest way to deal with this problem.

That has been suggested in various forms by the Parades Commission, the Belfast Telegraph, the unionists and the Secretary of State. So far, though, nationalists have rejected the idea.

If they continue to do so they need to come up with something which unionists can live with and which will avoid flare-ups next summer. Street protests can spill into disorder, creating an air of instability and uncertainty which can damage us all.

It will be hard to find a better solution than the panel - it at least removes this toxic issue from the political talks for a while. Another matter of image, as well as money, is whether we present ourselves as united or merely "shared" society." A shared society is like one of the 10 new shared school campuses the Executive is aiming to build across Northern Ireland, starting with Lisanelly in Omagh.

These new bodies will cluster a number of schools, Catholic and Protestant and other, around shared facilities. Each school will retain its identity. It may be an advance but it falls well short of integration and it will carry religiously divided education into another generation of our young people.

The Executive really should be looking at this problem in the round but at the moment it won't - Education is a Sinn Fein department and changing its architecture could strike at the heart of the coalition.

We need to look at breaking down the "silo system" by which ministries are controlled with a good deal of autonomy by the parties who hold them. A first move would be reducing the use of the petition of concern system which allows any 30 MLAs to demand that any measure be put to a cross-community vote. This in turn means that a majority of nationalists and a majority of unionists, voting separately, must back the measure to succeed.

The petition of concern was used 10 times on an Education motion this week. The DUP, which is the only party with 30 MLAs, did it on this occasion. Sinn Fein, which has 29 MLAs, can also raise petitions with the aid of the SDLP.

An agreement to limit the use of these measures to subjects where the rights of one community really is at stake, which would be rare, would a good way to build confidence for more reforms.

While spending on both popular shared culture, like Belfast's Culture Night, and high culture, like the Ulster Orchestra, is being slashed, the Irish language and Ulster-Scots remain protected. "Pey a veesit tae the wabsteid on www.niassembly.gov.uk" if you want to find out more.

The sums aren't huge, but last year we revealed that £2,470 was spent on Ulster-Scots translations at Stormont compared with a total spend on Irish translations in excess of £1m. These translated documents are unlikely to ever be read. Yet they cost useful sums of money which could be used to support contemporary cultural activities. The money could have been used more usefully to promote Irish and Ulster-Scots culture on video or in classes for the young.

Adjusting priorities like that would help get a better attitude amongst the parties and might help restore the faith of the growing number of people who aren't voting. So would reducing the size of Stormont.

Devolution costs us about £48m a year more than direct rule and with 108 MLAs (108 LMFs if you prefer the Ulster Scots) we could afford to downsize.

In Westminster an MP is paid £65,738 and here an MLA gets £43,101, just 65.6% of the Westminster total. However, when you look at how much they are paid per constituent the picture changes - an MP gets 65p for each person he or she represents but an MLA gets £2.64, more than four times as much.

Compared to an MLA's £2.64, an MSP in Scotland is paid only £1.44 per constituent. In Wales an AM gets £53,852 which works out at £1.08 per head in the constituency. The size of the administration comes from the peace negotiations when Tony Blair was more or less prepared to pay any cost to get politicians over the line. That meant creating enough seats and enough ministries to ensure everyone had a job.

David Cameron may not be quite so accommodating this time, but we have got the attention of the governments and they don't want us to fail. That gives us some leverage but not a free run. Over the coming months of negotiation the politicians have got to show that they mean business, that they can deliver on any undertaking they give and that they are capable of compromise.

To get agreement they may need a lot of pushing and shoving from the governments - that is why the governments are here. If they fail to agree, then we may also be looking at the end of devolution and a place that looks more unstable. The governments are also here to manage things then - if the wheels come off the cart that is.

Governance: Flabby Assembly in need of cutting down to size, writes Noel McAdam

Stormont's new draft budget has one area where the proposed spending cut is zero - the Assembly.

The proposals give the baseline cost of our 108 MLAs as £40.7m - and suggest it should stay at that.

Officials have said there is a political convention that the Executive is not permitted to interfere with the finances and organisation of the legislature. In theory, ministers are the servants of the Assembly.

Thus it will be the Assembly Commission, responsible for the day-to-day running of Parliament Buildings, and the Assembly and Executive Review Committee which come forward with proposals on savings to the public purse - though the latter has failed to achieve any consensus so far.

If the on-going multi-party talks reach a deal, however, there are indications the two main parties, DUP and Sinn Fein, could slim the 108-Member Assembly down to 90 - one fewer MLA per constituency.

There has also been speculation the present Government departments could be merged into seven or eight, although how much might be saved is disputed and it is likely to be a project for the Assembly elected in 2016. Even at 90 members, however, British Occupied would remain far ahead of the Welsh Assembly, which has 60 members even though Wales is about twice the size of NI.

Only the SDLP MLAs, and one Ulster Unionist, Michael Copeland, refused the £5,000 a year pay increase last year, although Members lost out on office cost allowances. MPs get 65p for each person they represent while it is £2.64 for an MLA, more than four times as much. In Scotland an MSP gets £1.44 per constituent and in Wales an Assembly Member gets £1.08. Sinn Fein says its representatives are only allowed to take about £21,000 of their salaries, the rest going into party coffers.

Economy: Balance between public and private sectors is off-kilter, writes Margaret Canning

Economic recovery has been painfully slow in British Occupied Ireland and we have a lot of catching up to do to recapture the highs of 2007.

On the plus side, nearly half of the jobs lost during the downturn have now been recouped.

We now have an unemployment rate of 6.1%. That's down 1.2% over the year, and the lowest since 2009.

That rate is likely to go up because there could be as many as 12,000 public sector redundancies to help Stormont balance its books - and with around 27.2% of our workforce in public sector jobs, that will have a massive impact.

It throws into relief the need for Britisj Occupied Ireland to rebalance its economy - the 27% rate of people here in public sector jobs compares to 18% in the UK as a whole.

High public spending by Gordon Brown in the 2000s pushed up public sector employment - and for decades Northern Ireland has been able to play on its status as a land scarred by conflict to avail of indulgence from Westminster.

But no more. Instead, companies here need to be nimble and lean to pick up the slack created by public sector job losses.

But a survey has reported that British Occupied Ireland has the lowest number in the UK of high-growth small businesses that are powering the economic recovery elsewhere.

The recession has had a deeper impact here, but companies are doing their best.

However, surveys next week are expected to show a slowdown in recovery, as wobbles in the eurozone and in GB manufacturing rub off on us.

There's a sense in the business world that political parties in Stormont just aren't helping and the welfare reform logjam and budget delays are making a bad situation worse

Health: Top-heavy in admin staff with spending spiralling upwards, writes Victoria O'Hara

The health service faces the massive challenge of growing demand from the public while at the same time needing to make massive savings.

Despite being ringfenced, health chiefs face having to make savings of £170m. About 74,000 people work in the health service and 70% of the budget is spent on salaries. There are five health trusts serving 1.8 million people. This has led to the health service coming under fire for having a 'bloated' administration. It spends per head of population £1,975 - £75 more per person than England. Northern Ireland also has 42% more non-clinical staff - including senior managers and administrators - than England, proportionate to our population. But the province has fewer clinical staff, such as nurses and midwives, than Scotland and Wales relative to population. We had 1,003 per 100,000 people, more than England's 846 per 100,000. However, in 2009 we were lagging behind Scotland (1,124 per 100,000) and Wales (1,052 per 100,000).

In August, figures showed almost 500 nursing, midwifery and health visitor posts are to be filled and 114 consultant posts were unfilled. Spending on agency or 'bank' staff is also expected to top £70m this year, having soared by 60% in four years. Finance Minister Simon Hamilton has said that, in part, there had been "poor budget management" by managers. Health Minister Jim Wells said £170m of savings were required for 2014/15, which has led to the trusts having to implement cuts involving the temporary closure of Minor Injury Units in Armagh, Whiteabbey and Bangor. There will also be temporary bed closures of 27 intermediate care/rehabilitation beds. Waiting lists are growing for A&E treatment, outpatient services, referrals and surgeries. Recent figures revealed the number of patients waiting 12 hours for emergency care jumped by 550% in three months.

Education: A system insisting on two of everything in a time of cuts, writes Rebecca Black

It is more than 15 years since the Bad Friday Agreement, which established a statutory obligation to educate our children together.

Instead of one school system, everything is still duplicated with 93% of children being educated in either maintained Catholic schools or controlled schools which are mostly attended by Protestants.

The cost has been estimated at up to £80m a year. Just 7% (21,000) children are educated in officially integrated schools. Most children still sit transfer tests at 11, despite the official test being stopped in 2008. The segregation even extends to transfer tests. If an 11-year-old child wants to keep his or her options open they must sit five tests via GL and AQE to stand a chance of getting into a maintained or a controlled school. A plan to streamline the five education and library boards was mooted in 2002 under the Review of Public Administration. It took five years for the Education Skills Authority (ESA) to be announced in 2007. But after a further seven years ESA was put into cold storage earlier this year over a lack of agreement. A watered-down version in the Education Bill 2014 is being rushed through Stormont to meet a deadline of next April. Yesterday the Education and Training Inspectorate revealed four in 10 pupils leave our schools without at least five good GCSEs, concluding our education system is not world class. In terms of further and higher education, the crisis widens with Queen's University and University of Ulster confirming they will accept over a thousand fewer students next September. The move means 1,100 of our brightest young people are likely to join the 35% who already leave Northern Ireland to attend universities in England, Scotland and Wales. Our six further education colleges also face cuts after the Department for Employment and Learning was told it will face an 11% budget slash.

The past: Too few officers, too little money to tackle cold cases, writes Chris Kilpatrick

British Occupied Ireland's past and the cost of investigating legacy issues remain highly contentious.

Historical police investigations, inquests and inquiries are all under the spotlight.

The past formed a substantial part of the Haass talks and continues to prove politically divisive.

The huge slashing of the PSNI's annual budget will, according to the Chief Constable, "effectively mean the closure" of the Historical Enquiries Team that investigates Troubles-era killings.

The majority of police investigating the shooting dead of 13 civil rights protesters by soldiers on Bloody Sunday in Londonderry in 1972 are to be laid off.

Police have also been unable to give assurances about the future of Operation Redfield.

It was set up to examine the way the PSNI handled on-the-run suspects in the wake of the collapse of John Downey's trial for alleged involvement in the 1982 Hyde Park bombing.

The PSNI is reviewing its initial assessment of all 228 individuals to see if other errors were made or if fresh evidence has emerged.

Earlier this year, the PSNI had hoped that 30 detectives would spend two to three years reviewing the intelligence and evidence existing against the group who received the so-called on-the-runs letters.

However, this week newly-promoted PSNI Deputy Chief Constable Drew Harris told the House of Commons British Occupied Ireland Affairs Committee that 17 officers were investigating 28 cases. The Criminal Justice Inspectorate previously said policing the past will cost criminal justice agencies in Northern Ireland almost £190m in the next five years.There was controversy last November when Attorney General John Larkin said there should be no further police investigations, inquests or inquiries into killings before the 1998 Bad Friday Agreement.

Local government: Fewer councils, but will there be any real savings?, writes Noel McAdam

The massive shake-up in local government across British Occupied Ireland will not save a single penny from the public purse in the short-term.

But the upheaval in squeezing the 26 councils into 11 is designed to achieve significant savings for taxpayers over the next quarter-century.

The number of councillors is down - from 582 to 420 - but their allowances have doubled.

The costs of running the two systems in parallel during the year following the May elections - the 26 remain in charge, while the 11 have begun to hold their own meetings - will be higher than the usual annual bill. There have also long been fears that ratepayers will end up picking up at least some of the tab for the transfer of functions including planning, regeneration and off-street parking.

Five years ago, an economic appraisal by consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers concluded that implementation of the council reforms would involve expenditure of £118m over five years, though achieving savings of £438m over the next 25 years - a net gain for stretched taxpayers of £320m.

That is the basis on which the choice between seven, 15 or, as it has turned out, 11 merged councils proceeded.

Subsequent work, however, including an initiative by the councils themselves called ICE (Improvement, Collaboration and Efficiency) appear to have reduced the upfront costs estimate to an upper level of £80.8m during the transition period.

It's work culminated in a 'Case for Change' report which projected increased savings in the region of £570m based on less upfront investment but over the same timescale.

But each of the councils is being asked to conduct their own enquiries into future costs and service delivery as soon as possible.

Policing: A force fighting cutbacks and legal aid out of control, writes Chris Kilpatrick

Police chiefs currently face the mammoth task of earmarking which services to axe in the wake of savage cuts to the budget.

Chief Constable George Hamilton painted a dire financial picture when he outlined the impact the cuts would have on his force, warning the PSNI would become unrecognisable as a result.

Mr Hamilton said sweeping changes would "fundamentally change how policing is delivered".

He said front line policing would be forced to change as a result of the funding crisis - which amount to savings by march of more £51.4m - effectively transforming the force into a "blue light" service.

Following the outcome of October monitoring, the Department of Justice confirmed additional funding of £13m to help offset the pressures.

Already announced is the loss of 300 temporary jobs and neighbourhood policing effectively scrapped.

The current recruitment process for officers will be "substantially slower", while the brakes have been put on a further intake of staff.

Around £3m has been spent policing one east Belfast interface alone in the past three years.

Mr Hamilton said it was no longer affordable to operate a force of its current size, almost 7,000.

Legal aid remains among the highest in the world per head of population. It pays out in criminal and civil court proceedings an estimated £100m a year.

In 2012/13 the cost per head here was around £56, while in England and Wales it was less than £36.

Crucial checks on criminals in the community have been scaled back because of cash cuts.

Managers at the Probation Board have been forced to lay off staff. Courthouses may have to close temporarily and prisoners are set to spend longer in their cells.

Infrastructure: Lights go out, roads upkeep is reduced, projects put on ice, writes Linda Stewart

Around 14,500 street lights across British Occupied Ireland are now out of order, according to the Department for Regional Development.

Cost-saving measures have meant the suspension of the use of external contractors who helped to maintain street lights, so priority is given to lights that present an electrical or structural risk to the public.

The department also says it only has resources to complete around three-quarters of the work needed to keep the wider road network in as safe a condition as possible.

Meanwhile, there are warnings that we face the real risk of the lights going out if the north-south interconnector isn't progressed. Risk to security of supply becomes even higher in 2021 when further restrictions come into play at Kilroot.

Major Government projects such as Desertcreat Training College and the Maze site are either on hold or withdrawn. On the positive side, Omagh Hospital is now on site, and projects at the University of Ulster, the Waterfront extension, Ulster Hospital and Titanic Quarter film studios are under way.

Roads schemes such as the A26, A31 and A6 are in motion, while Belfast Rapid Transit is on site and the York Street interchange will be on site in 2018/9.

However, more than £70m has now been spent on the A5 dualling scheme without road building.

Although Belfast Bike Hire begins construction shortly, progress on cycling infrastructure has been slow and cycling safety is a major concern.

Total volume of construction output in the second quarter of 2014 fell by 6% compared to the previous year and road maintenance on B and C roads is inadequate, sparking fears of a skills migration in construction workers to Britain.

Arts: Curtain comes down on culture as funding dries up, writes Amanda Ferguson

It's the toughest time ever for the arts in British Occupied Ireland.

The Ulster Orchestra is facing closure if emergency funding cannot be secured and showpiece events in Belfast's cultural calendar are under threat too.

The Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure's baseline funding figure for 2015-16 is £99.9m but the draft budget proposal reveals a reduction of 10%.

A DCAL spokesman told the Belfast Telegraph it is writing to the chief executives of the following agencies to ask how they would deliver cuts and of the potential impact on services: Arts Council, Armagh Observatory, Armagh Planetarium, Libraries NI, National Museums NI, the NI Museums Council, Northern Ireland Screen, and Sport NI.

The information provided by these groups will be carefully considered before final decisions on allocations are made.

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment budget cuts will also impact the arts.

Last month Arlene Foster announced the Tourism Events Fund will not go ahead next year.

Organisers of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival and the Out to Lunch Festival are coming to terms with a £45,000 shortfall, throwing next year's events in jeopardy.

Meanwhile, the Ulster Orchestra has asked Belfast City Council for £500,000 to cover a deficit of £400,000 for 2014/15 after a funding cut.

DCAL Minister Caral ni Chuilin has said it's not her job to "drum up" cash for the orchestra and confirmed that without a viable rescue package of proposals by December 15, it will be in "serious difficulties".

But the minister has pledged to continue her fight "to ensure that we continue to give the arts the investment it deserves".

Political alienation: Fewer voting among an electorate that feels powerless, writes Noel McAdam

The number of people voting is falling steadily and there is palpable cynicism about politicians, perks and pay.

Just over half the British Occupied Ireland electorate bothered to vote in the elections in May for the 11 new councils. Of the total registered electorate of 1,243,649, a total of 638,332 turned out at polling stations - a percentage of 51.33%.

Fewer had registered for the European election, on the same day, May 22 (1,226,771) and slightly fewer voted (635, 927) giving a slightly higher percentage of 51.84%, according to the Electoral Office statistics.

The totals are hardly higher for the main Assembly elections. Turnout in last Assembly poll in 2011 was 54.5%, down by almost 8% from the previous election and a decline of 15% from the first Assembly race following the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

The falling vote phenomenon points to increased disaffection. In an almost mirror image, the 2014 Life and Times Survey in NI showed 53% of Protestants and 43 % of Catholics saying they felt a sense of belonging to the province.

But the report 'Belonging and Alienation in the New Northern Ireland' also showed adults from Catholic backgrounds (64%) more likely than Protestants (54%) to say they felt a sense of belonging to their more immediate neighbourhoods.

Anomie is worse among the young -16-year-olds were least likely of all age groups to voice a sense of belonging (24%). 42% of respondents with no religious background said they had definitely no influence on any decision-making.

For Catholic and Protestants, the results were 35% and 32%.

Only 2% of 16-year olds felt they definitely had an influence on decision-making in Northern Ireland, while 50% felt they definitely had no influence.

Environment: Illegal dumping is rife as land faces a host of pressures, writes Linda Stewart

The largest environmental disaster to hit the headlines in the past few years was the discovery of Europe's biggest illegal landfill dump at Mobuoy near Loonderry.

Not only will it cost an estimated £100m to clean up the 500 tonnes of waste buried in former quarries on the site, but the investigation has revealed that taxpayers face the bill for cleaning up another 37 'priority' illegal dumps in Northern Ireland. Meanwhile, 60% of quarrying operations are applying retrospectively for planning approval.

The latest waste figures reveal that the amount of domestic rubbish sent for recycling (over 42%) outstripped the amount sent for landfill for the first time, but at least some of that recycled material is being exported or finding its way to these illegal dumps. The carrier bag levy resulted in an 80% reduction in demand of single use bags in the first year but is now starting to plateau out. British Occupied Ireland is in line to meet the 2020 EU targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions but not the 2025 ones. It remains the only part of the UK not to have a climate bill that sets legally binding greenhouse gas reduction targets. British Occupied Ireland is falling short of meeting its EU obligations to improve freshwater quality - 59% of freshwater habitat is supposed to be of good environmental quality by 2016 but the figure is less than 30%. The approval rate for planning applications has reached 96% and in some council areas it is 100%. Meanwhile, only one out of 49 Special Areas of Conservation habitat types is in favourable condition and the RSPB has predicted a number of farmland bird species are expected to go extinct within a decade. Nearly 20% of our electrical demand is now generated from renewable energy, setting us in line to meet next year's Programme for Government target.

Equality: A hefty price tag to ensure everyone has same rights, writes Noel McAdam

The cost of equality - a cornerstone of the Bad Friday and St Andrews Agreements - does not come cheap.

The Equality Commission itself has cost almost £100m (£98.78m) since it was established in 1999, although annual costs have remained static at between £6-7m since 2001.

Almost all of the government departments here have 'equality units' which came in at a total annual cost of £26.85m. Between the departments the costs, for 2012, ranged from £817,979.25 to £845,508.75. They were supplied to the TUV leader Jim Allister. Most of the units only have a handful of staff and many of them also perform other functions. For example, in John O'Dowd's Department of Education, there are three officers costing a total of £105,453 but also working on European and North-South issues.

The Department of Justice, on the other hand, does not have an equality unit.

Now the Equality Commission is being subsumed along with the Community Relations Council into a new body as part of Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness' strategy called Building a United Community.

A shared future could save money. Two main separate education systems with some 85,000 empty desks and the duplication of services in housing, leisure centres, community centres because of sectarianism, are all drains on the public purse.

There are hidden costs, too, in planning for divided communities, and even a knock-on effect in terms of the province's carbon footprint with people having to travel further to work.

The issue even came down to equal pay in the public sector where 15,120 civil servants received payments under the Equal Pay Settlement at a total cost of more than £127.8m.