Sam McBride
@SJAMcBride
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Northern Ireland Editor of the Belfast Telegraph & Sunday Independent. Author of Burned: The Inside Story of the Cash-for-Ash Scandal. Any views mine alone.
Belfast
Joined January 2012
đ„"We havenât seen a response like this since the final Harry Potter book," says Waterstones' Belfast manager Emma Southon.đ„DUP man buying Burned: âWe certainly wonât be telling Arlene Fosterâ.đ„Despite legal threat, Foster hasn't taken issue with a comma.
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GB News will tomorrow broadcast a cosy interview with Boris Johnson. The interviewers? None other than two Conservative MPs - Philip Davies & Esther McVey. A PM being interviewed on a supposed news channel by MPs from the governing party is not journalism; it's propaganda.
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John Hume is dead, just 6 months after the death of that other SDLP giant, Seamus Mallon. When others turned to the IRA & violence, Hume turned to politics & throughout the Troubles espoused non-violent nationalism. Ultimately, the Good Friday Agreement was saturated in his ideas
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Even in this political age, there's something rather remarkable about this: Boris Johnson said he'd never agree an Irish Sea border, then agreed it, denied he'd agreed what he'd agreed, then implemented it. & now says there must not be an Irish Sea border.
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Yesterday Dublin-based lockdown sceptic Ivor Cummins sent me a legal threat after I asked him questions in relation to a matter of profound public interest. The threat has not worked & in tomorrow's Belfast Telegraph you can read what Mr Cummins did not want us to publish.
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Arlene Foster tells the BBC that she won't read Burned but may have "somebody reading it for me". It's not the first time that Mrs Foster hasn't read something relevant to her - she didn't read her own RHI legislation either. You can read what she hasn't:
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A Tesco employee has sent me this picture of rotting oranges at Tesco's fresh warehouse in Belfast today. He says that they took so long to arrive in Northern Ireland that by the time they got here they were out of date & went straight to the bin.
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Catholics now outnumber Protestants in Northern Ireland, a country whose boundaries were drawn in 1921 to ensure a hefty Protestant majority - but both are now minorities. Results (including 'religion brought up in') of last year's census: NI is 45.7% Catholic, 43.5% Protestant.
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Four months ago, Boris Johnson told the DUP conference that Theresa May's deal would mean Northern Ireland becoming "an economic semi-colony of the EU. no Conservative British Government could or should sign up to such arrangements". Tonight he says he's voting for her deal.
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There lies a chasm between the generosity of Her late Majesty and the begrudgery of Arlene Foster - not just towards Sinn FĂ©in, but the Irish President. In that chasm lies much of the explanation for NI unionism's shambolic handling of what they cherish.
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Sue Gray leaving Stormont Castle - the place where she'd have worked as Head of the NI Civil Service, had the DUP and SF not blocked her application. Now she's back with the PM in a far more powerful position.
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After learning about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, my seven-year-old daughter looked at the map & said: "But Russia is such a big country - why do they want more?"
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Bashir's Belfast supermarket was burnt to the ground last night. He says Muslim firms were targeted: "All of that happened and the police did nothing, I am telling you the truth. What kind of police are letting the people burn everything down?"
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First day of working from home while two young children sing, shout, fight, dance, extract sweets from me. it's now 2pm and since 9.30am I've done about an hour's work. If my report on Monday night's Assembly debate claims that Jim Allister is a Sinn FĂ©in MLA, please forgive me.
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Arlene Foster's role in the cash for ash scandal has not precluded her from being made Dame Arlene Foster in the Jubilee Honours - a decision all the more striking because her predecessor as First Minister, Peter Robinson, was neither knighted nor elevated to the House of Lords.
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One pro-Brexit DUP member told me of Brexit: âWe didnât think it through; I certainly didnât think it through.â Another member says: âTo me, it was just absurd. There was no real consideration, no debate. Foster just thought sheâd something to prove.â
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Just three weeks after Arlene Foster's denial of the emerging truth, this is such a sudden and profound Brexit U-turn by the DUP that it is struggling to explain it. If David Trimble had done this, the DUP would have crucified him.
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Green Party leader Clare Bailey's statement on Theresa May's resignation stands out because it lacks the usual perfunctory warm words for a departing leader. She says: "My only hope is that when Theresa May departs, she takes Secretary of State Karen Bradley with her.".
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You know that Northern Ireland's international image is taking a battering when Iraqi TV want to do an interview about the rioting.
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Tory veteran Ken Clarke on Sky News: "[May's]still going back to the DUP, trying to satisfy their unbelievably silly points on the Irish backstop. she spends all her time on party management, trying to keep hardline Brexiteers & this sectarian Protestant party in Ireland onside"
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In a sea of whataboutery over the last 24 hours, the most distasteful is the attempt to use the funeral of schoolboy Noah Donohoe to shift the focus from what Michelle O'Neill did yesterday. Noah's family are not government ministers; they did not draw up advice & then break it.
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Incredibly awkward revelation for the DUP: Edwin Poots wrote to the Government to say that NI's farmers were better off keeping part of the NI Protocol. The DUP has opposed it as a constitutional outrage - but Poots seemed more worried here about cash for farmers (he's a farmer).
đšđš EXC: Unionist politician Edwin Poots tried to dilute UK bill aimed at Northern Ireland protocol via @FT my latest with âŠ@jude_webberâ© .
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To say the DUP has done "extremely well" in an election where it has secured its worst Assembly result since 1998 and has lost decisively to Sinn FĂ©in is at best delusional. #ae22.
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson says his party has done extremely well in the Stormont Assembly election, and claimed there has been a lot of spin around results.
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Breaking News: After more than five turbulent years as DUP leader, Arlene Fosterâs time at the helm of Northern Irelandâs biggest party appears to be coming to an end after 75% of her MLAs signed a letter calling for a leadership contest.
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Boris Johnson is the only person about whom I've written where when describing him as a liar (a word rarely used for sound legal reasons) we didn't even run it past our lawyers. And I've written about politicians for 16 years. .
Immediate scepticism from some MPs backing others â saying itâs âhogwashâ and âabsolute garbageâ â given public declarations are so much lower
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Burned was mistakenly reduced to 99p on the Amazon Kindle store. Apparently it takes up to 24 hours to update, so, given that it's the time of year for sharing, in the (alleged) words of Arlene Foster's spad Andrew Crawford: "Fill your boots"!
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Calamitous night for the DUP:.đ„King-making Westminster role gone & Irish Sea border coming.đ„Commons leader & key strategist Nigel Dodds defeated by Sinn Fein in N Belfast.đ„Lost unionist safe seat of N Down, having expected to win.đ„Lost South Belfast.đ„Brexit key to defeats.
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Although there are lots of people in Northern Ireland who are concerned about the future under Boris Johnson, his decision to sack Karen Bradley will be universally welcomed. It is rare to achieve such widespread cross-community consensus on anything in Northern Ireland.
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I am pleased that Ian Paisley has tonight published this retraction. We all make mistakes - I've certainly made plenty. I thank Mr Paisley for accepting that there was never any truth in his claims & the matter is now closed. Thanks again to all those who have expressed support.
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Paul Hamill, 46, was a disciple of covid sceptic Ivor Cummins. The father-of-two promoted him with religious zeal. Last month he got covid & was hospitalised; now he's dead. A tragic story of mistrust, misinformation, & money - lots of it for Cummins.
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After almost 14 years, I will soon be leaving the News Letter to write for the Belfast Telegraph and the Sunday Independent as their Northern Ireland Editor, a wide-ranging role which will allow me to write extensively & in depth about topics beyond politics. 1/3
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Dumbfounded that Burned is number 4 in The Sunday Times' UK-wide bestseller list. Several publishers (understandably) turned down the proposal, saying that books about NI politics don't sell well. Thanks therefore to all of you who've bought it & to all who helped make it happen.
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The vulgarity of this segment is astounding. Political debate has been coarsening for years, but there's not even a pretence at 'debate' here, just squalor which wouldn't be out of place in a slurry tank. And a supposedly regulated TV channel monetising the whole thing.
Laurence Fox just did a whole speech on GB News on why men apparently wonât shag me ?
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Asked by me if the government accepts it was profoundly dishonest when denying that it had agreed to an Irish Sea border, Lord Frost says they were "always clear" that trade was only unfettered from NI-GB. Not true: Here's PM saying no barriers either way:.
"There's no question of there being checks on goods going NI/GB or GB/NI.". @BorisJohnson tells #Ridge a leaked Treasury document that talks about "checks both ways" on the N Ireland border is "wrong". đ Read more đ± Watch more
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It rather sums up the rudderless state of unionism & helps explain why DUP votes are going to Alliance that in the middle of the Irish Sea border & covid crises a DUP MP is spending his time getting exercised about there being too many black people on Songs of Praise.
DUP MP Gregory Campbell says he won't apologise after commenting on the number of black people featured in an episode of Songs of Praise .
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A DUP member just texted: "Short of drowning puppies live on stage, it's hard to imagine how the first hour of the conference could have been worse". #DUP22.
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Having listened to Paul Givan's speech & Sir Jeffrey Donaldson's statement, I'm still not clear why DUP is walking out of Stormont at this moment. What changed from yesterday afternoon? Or last week? No link made to Poots stopping checks - & failing because officials said no.
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đ· Baroness for hire:.After discovering that Arlene Foster has been trying to make money for talking about renewable energy, I posed as a corporate fixer wanting to book her and established that she wants ÂŁ10,000 a day. without a mention of RHI.
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Arlene Foster today denied to @williamcrawley that she issued a legal threat around the publication of Burned: "There was no legal threat. I don't see it as a legal threat. it's just an advisory piece." That's wrong. She did issue a legal threat & here's her solicitor's letter
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Once Upon A Time in Northern Ireland is a stunning documentary. If there's a better film about the Troubles, I haven't seen it. Painstaking archive research, finding outstanding interviewees, brilliant questions, and empathy without glib moral relativism.
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Liz Truss departed Downing Street as she inhabited it: Weakly, woodenly, arrogantly, incoherently, unrepentantly, reeking of incompetence, pathetically deluded & without an ounce of personal insight. The 3rd PM backed by the DUP has again hurt the Union.
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Belfast High Court has just granted an interim injunction freezing DUP minister Edwin Poots' instruction to his officials (which they hadn't followed anyway) to stop Irish Sea border SPS checks. Mr Justice Colton's order is temporary until the case is heard in full.
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The Executive Michelle O'Neill jointly leads still tells the public there should be no more than 10 people at a funeral. In April, she said "no one is exempt" from that funeral guidance. Today she's present with hundreds, many SF members, at top IRA man Bobby Storey's funeral.
Hundreds line the Andersonstown Road here in west Belfast as the hearse carrying Bobby Storey arrives at St Agnes church for prayers. @BelTel
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For a man spoken of alongside O'Connell & Parnell, John Hume's simple funeral was incommensurate with his political stature. But that painful adherence to public health advice was a powerful final act of leadership by those to whom he imparted his values.
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More news about Ian Paisley Jr & money. The DUP MP billed a charity almost ÂŁ6,000 for a luxury flight to New York. Travelling to the same event, Tanaiste Simon Coveney flew economy class - 90% cheaper, reports @brendanhughes64 .
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Senior DUP figures including Arlene Foster, her former special adviser Andrew Crawford & the DUPâs most powerful backroom figure, Timothy Johnston, have threatened legal proceedings over the publication of Burned. Full details are contained in the book:
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Loyalists are killing & maiming themselves out of a perverse belief that higher & higher bonfires - a phenomenon not rooted in history - are central to their culture. This is the definition of stupidity, but few unionist politicians are prepared to say so.
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The heart of the DUPâs manifesto launch was a message of fear. This is a party telling unionist voters they must vote for it to stop Sinn Fein. That message is 50 years out of date. Rather than this being about principle, this is about DUP protectionism.
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Thereâs an end of days feel to Northern Ireland right now. A sort of half-hearted anarchy pervades as swathes of what society takes for granted are breaking down. The scale and nature of the crises now unfolding will have profound political consequences.
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The system for getting supplies to Northern Ireland may be 5 days from collapse due to the Irish Sea border & will result in empty shelves, hauliers have warned Michael Gove in a grimly explicit 11-page haulage industry report seen by the News Letter.
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As @williamcrawley has said, limit your intake of news right now. As a journalist, during the week I can't & it becomes overwhelming. Likewise with social media because so much of it is vicious & from those lacking expertise. May you & your loved ones survive this darkness.
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On Saturday, I analysed the possibility of devolution returning (. In response, DUP MP Ian Paisley has published a series of untrue allegations about me & brought into it my character & my school. A DUP Cllr has widened it to my apolitical elderly parents.
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This is extraordinary: The latest polls put Sinn Fein nine points clear as the largest party in Northern Ireland and ten points clear as the largest party in the Republic of Ireland.
.@sinnfeinireland go ten points clear of @FineGael who slip to within two points of @fiannafailparty in the @SunTimesIreland @banda_ie #poll after #merriongate
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Orangemen are still banned from marrying Catholics. But kill your wife and it wonât stop you joining or rising through the ranks â at least not until the media find out, writes @SuzyJourno.
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No one swaggered like Ian Paisley Jr. When he had power, he boasted, insulted, and loved money. Yet with more discipline and maturity, he could have been DUP leader. Instead, his downfall is a Biblical tale of pride and greed going before a fall.
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It will confuse many people in Brussels & London to hear that there are now (and have been, long before Brexit) checks at the Irish border - enforced by the Irish Government.
My bus has been stopped by Garda who demanded ID from all passengers. One passenger asked why they were doing a check in the middle of Ireland. Garda told her â you have just crossed the borderâ.I kept my British passport in pocket & flashed my Irish one . #nolanswingsbothways
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An insight into the new GAA president's approach to unionism, which echoes what a staunch loyalist from South Down once told me about the sincerity of Jarlath Burns's welcoming of the Orange Order into his school to encourage understanding, tolerance of difference & respect.
This is really powerful from Jarlath Burns. Unionist participation in Gaelic games can be a sensitive issue- but itâs an important one. This is a clip from the award winning GAA Social podcast. Iâd encourage anyone to listen #TheGAASocial . đïžlisten here:
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Lough Neagh is now so dangerously polluted that its lifeboat crews cannot enter the water unless it is a life and death situation. The coxswain of one lifeboat says the position into which government has allowed NI's great lake to sink is âhorrendousâ.
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With 27 days to go, the Government is absurdly denying an Irish Sea Border is coming - even as it is building it. As taxpayers, we're paying for a government working against itself â & in NI we will suffer if Boris Johnson's dishonesty ends in disaster.
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I've written about Northern Irish politics for 15 years & inevitably that brings some abuse. But I've never got anything like what's come in the hours since writing about Ivor Cummins. This is just a fraction of it. That makes me more interested in what's going on here, not less.
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BBC Spotlight will tonight reveal that Willie Frazer - a prominent campaigner for IRA victims - was secretly supplying UDA boss Johnny Adair with guns smuggled in by DUP-linked Ulster Resistance. Those guns were then used in massacres of innocent Catholics.
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My final article for the News Letter: Over the last 14 years I have encountered politicians who are dastards & ought to be jailed - but fine ones too. If democracy is to meaningfully survive, it needs more good politicians, and more good journalism.
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I'll be talking to @StephenNolan tonight on BBC1 about the events of recent days & then hopefully getting back to doing my job. Sincere thanks again for all the support for myself & my family - it's come from members of all parties & from people from across the tribal divide.
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MPs have voted 383-73 to legalise same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland: A very significant moment, both for those campaigning for same-sex marriage & because by stepping in with an act of direct rule Westminster is signalling a wider impatience over failure to restore Stormont.
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Toxic bacteria poisoning Lough Neagh is now killing swans, foxes, & dogs â but those seeking to raise awareness of the crisis say senior civil servants wonât even sit down to discuss whatâs unfolding, despite the lough supplying 40% of NI's drinking water.
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The petty one-upmanship encapsulated in this parliamentary motion from Gregory Campbell sums up many of the reasons for unionism's decline under the DUP. Here you have the local MP incapable of recognising the anniversary of Seamus Heaney's death without a tribal jibe.
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood withdraws his signature from DUP MP Gregory Campbell's early day motion on Seamus Heaney, which starts by paying tribute to the poet . and ends by recalling his 2013 remarks that there's "never going to be a united Ireland".
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Huge: DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr likely to be suspended from the Commons for 30 sitting days at a time of knife-edge Brexit votes after being found to have got lavish gifts from a foreign government which he didn't declare. before lobbying for that government.
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One of Europe's largest lakes is an ecological disaster zone of biblical proportions. Where Moses turned the Nile to blood with a staff, Stormont turned Lough Neagh to toxic green paint with stupid policies - & 40% of NI's drinking water comes from here.
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The leaders of the DUP, Sinn FĂ©in, Ulster Unionist Party, SDLP, Alliance Party and the Green Party have issued a rare joint statement in condemnation of the murder of the journalist Lyra McKee last night.
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Despite several powerful people having made clear in robust terms that they do not want parts of this book published, today the first bound proof of BURNED arrived from @IAP_MERRION, who have been excellent throughout. Pre-order discount & publication date details below âŹïž
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Boris Johnson has denounced as âludicrousâ the checks which he said would not happen at the Irish Sea border which he said would not exist. But he has admitted that when he said there wouldn't be checks, he knew there would be checks.
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The death of Prince Philip is likely to be far more significant in curtailing violence on Northern Ireland's streets than all the many words of condemnation from NI's politicians & others. For loyalists to attack police in these circumstances would be especially crass.
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A small section of the abuse - much of it sectarian - after my Sunday Independent column yesterday criticised Sinn FĂ©in: "colonial planter", "bitter orange w****r", "sour-faced c**t", "bigot", "c*****h journalist", and on and on. This is now routine when SF are criticised.
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Another story about Ian Paisley Jr & money: @ciarano71 spots that the DUP MP has given his wife an inflation-busting ÂŁ20,000 pay rise in one year using taxpayers' money. Mr Paisley declines to explain why.
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Burned has been selling out before reviews, but now the first review is in today's Irish Times: "A magnificent book. an absolute page-turner. a devastating exposé of the political dynamics & moral culture of the regime at Stormont". Thanks, @SusanMcKay15
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This is easily the craziest academic article (published by RTE) that I've ever read: A QUB prof floating the idea that the UK might invade the Republic of Ireland because it dislikes Sinn FĂ©in. A conspiracy theory even conspiracy theorists would baulk at.
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Ex-journalist Boris Johnson will not be holding a press conference in Belfast to answer journalists' questions. I understood yesterday that consideration was being given to a press conference. Even when under enormous pressure, Theresa May took media questions in NI. .
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Turns out she really hasn't read Burned after all.
Arlene Fosterâs biggest financial regret? Shoes
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The Irish Sea border starts in 69 days. Already it is leading to GB items not even being sold in NI, it is likely to see prices rise, & in the worst scenario, some supermarkets could pull out. In its centennial year, NI will become more of a place apart.
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It may not be a coincidence that this unusually personal & public attack on me comes less than a month before the publication of Burned: The Inside Story of the 'Cash-for-Ash' Scandal and Northern Ireland's Secretive New Elite which you can pre-order here:
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After his Sri Lankan free holidays, DUP MP Ian Paisley is revealed to have benefited from an ultra-luxurious holiday in the Maldives. He denies the Maldivian regime funded it & says it was paid for by a mystery friend who he won't name. #bbcspotlight
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In the report sent to Michael Gove, a named haulage firm told him: "It is currently easier to ship a container to China than a trailer from Cairnryan to Larne.â Yet NI Secretary of State Brandon Lewis still publicly says "there is no Irish Sea border". We live in surreal times.
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Jamie Bryson has emerged as the DUP's de facto director of policy. That's extraordinary, not least because he's entirely open about wanting to destroy the Good Friday Agreement, while the DUP now endorses the (amended) Agreement.
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Bruce Springsteen, utter genius. Three hours non-stop on stage in Belfast at 74 - and at the end, he apologises for his voice because he's got the cold.
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John Kyle will not be ignorant of the risk to all medical staff, but particularly those in his age group. What a brave, publicly-spirited man & someone who has never been a partisan ideologue. A confutation of the lazy 'all politicians are in it for themselves' narrative.
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Appealing for people to stay at home over Easter, Stormont Health Minister Robin Swann says bluntly: "Donât be a hypocrite tonight by applauding care workers and then letting them down by your actions.".
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Even by the sewer-like standards of social media, the number of vile comments here about Carla Lockhart's appearance is unusually depressing. Ironically, most of those responsible have spared us from gazing at their no doubt Adonisian features by hiding behind fake names & photos.
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A dishonest Prime Minister has knowingly imposed on Northern Ireland a breathtakingly anti-democratic form of government which he would never accept for England. Boris Johnson's own words condemn him - and those who enabled him to do what he has done.
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Just extraordinary: Days after DUP deputy leader Gavin Robinson indignantly told the Commons the DUP was totally united, the party is so thoroughly divided that Donaldson's arch-rival Jamie Bryson has a live feed of tonight's secretive party executive meeting.
NEW: DUP Party Exec meeting live: . JD just began speaking: . Says negotiations are over, and DUP arenât going to get anymore. Says we have reached moment of decision 1/.
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Ex-journalist Boris Johnson, fired by The Times for making up a quote, says journalists are "always abusing" people & "sometimes you feel a bit guilty". Speak for yourself, Prime Minister. I don't abuse people & I therefore don't feel any guilt about reporting the truth.
Gosh. The full quotes . Journalists âare always abusing peopleâ. Not sure thatâs the line at a careers fair
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Morally, this is outrageous - although moral considerations are unlikely to trouble hooligans. However, the sheer stupidity of this is also quite something. Loyalists have been complaining about not being heard in the media. Here when a journalist arrives, he's attacked.
So much for peaceful - I have just been jumped from behind by two males, masked on Cupar Way. One pulled me to the ground and smashed @BelTel cameras. As I fought this one off I was told to fu*k off back to your own area you fenian cu*t by the other. Police informed
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Harland & Wolff workers will tonight sound the historic shipyard's horn at 8pm to honour NHS workers & others battling the pandemic. Trade union Unite says the horn hasn't been sounded properly for 20 years & is Belfast's loudest siren, heard all over the city. Pic: @KelvinBoyes
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Some form of ânew Irelandâ is inevitable, a founding member of the DUP has said â and he is willing to discuss it with nationalists. Influential Paisleyite Wallace Thompson said the Union was probably always doomed & unionism has been in "constant denial".
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Here it is: I've obtained a copy of the new restrictions which Arlene Foster & Michelle O'Neill will announced in the Assembly at 10.30. They come into force on Friday & will last for four weeks. Any extension or amendment needs Executive agreement.
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More news on Ian Paisley Jr & money: Bookies William Hill last month gave the MP two fancy Premier League tickets & hospitality worth ÂŁ1,000 (which he registered in the Commons). His father denounced gambling as something which "strikes at the heart of the well-being of mankind".
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Seamus Mallon was one of the biggest beasts of NI politics throughout & after the Troubles. But away from politics, this 2015 comment by him is profound: "The way in which we have been able to look after Gertrude at home is worth any political position".
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A gripping 1,500-word court report: Gardai bugged ex-Sinn FĂ©in councillor Jonathan Dowdall; recordings show him claiming Mary Lou McDonald used a major Dublin gang for money & votes, he talks about the "army council" & referred to "your mate. Mr Murray".
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Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill doubles down by telling the Irish News that Bobby Storey's funeral âwas all done in accordance with the guidelines". If she really believes that, she has less understanding of her own guidelines than does my three-year-old son.
This image of Michelle O'Neill today (posted by Lucan SF) is breathtaking in its smiling disregard for what she tells us to do to save lives. Yesterday she said mourners "should observe the public health advice". How is this any different to Dominic Cummings' eyesight expedition?
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Sinn FĂ©in MP Barry McElduff chose to post a light-hearted video by putting something on his head:.Of the thousands of items in a shop, he chose bread;.Of all bread brands, he chose Kingsmills; .Of all days to do it, it was the anniversary of the Kingsmills Massacre. What odds?
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