Archive for the ‘British State (aka UK)’ Category
English Soccer Manager, an Irish citizen, won’t sing “God Save the King” – Daily Mail leads racist tabloid mob – English FA should sack Lee Carsley!
Lee Carsley solidarity campaign starts now!
The former Irish international might accept an offer to co-manage Ireland with the Icelander Heimir Hallgrímsson.
Has far-right racist poison infected English sporting journalism again?
That’s like asking if the Pope is a Catholic.
From the Irish Times, September 7 2024
Lee Carsley might have thought that an inquiry about anthem-singing at his pre-match press conference on Friday was harmless enough. “I fully respect both anthems and understand how much they mean to both countries,” he said. But he has never joined in on the crooning either as a player for Ireland or as manager of the England under-21s because he is “in a zone at that point”, he wants to focus on the match ahead, being “wary” of his mind “wandering off”.
Grand. Moving along … ooooooh, hold it.
Never mind asking God to save the King, it’s Carsley who needs saving from that section of the English press that lost its tiny mind on hearing his comments. It was the lead story – the lead! – on the front page – the front! – of the Telegraph and the Daily Mail, there was a deluge of incandescent opinion pieces, it featured on the news on BBC Radio and LBC and … you get the drift.
Read the rest of this entry »Nell McCafferty’s Funeral from Derry was broadcast late on RIP.IE – Minus an Eamonn McCann Eulogy, Gay Rainbow Flags, or any personal memories of a woman who “changed Ireland for the better”
Many people who knew Nell McCafferty could not get to her funeral in St. Columb’s Cathedral, Derry. An alternative was offered on RIP.IE – a live broadcast starting at 12.30pm. When interested viewers tuned in, they were mystified, seeing only a blank screen. The livestream did not start until after 1.00pm, as a priest shared the altar with three men conducting a religious ceremony containing no stories about one of Derry’s most talented writers, Nell McCafferty. At one screening venue a small group of Nell’s fans – including Máirín Johnson who travelled on the legendary Dublin-Belfast contraceptive train with Nell in 1971 – were not impressed. We learned later that Eamonn McCann delivered a eulogy in front of the altar – A report is below. Source :
Nell McCafferty “Changed Ireland for the Better”
Eamonn McCann delivers a eulogy for Nell McCafferty, St Columb’s Cathedral Derry, August 23 2024
Nell McCafferty ‘changed Ireland for the better’, mourners at her funeral in Derry’s Bogside told
Campaigning journalist and author, who focused on women’s rights, poverty and social injustice, died on Wednesday aged 80
Nell McCafferty “changed Ireland for the better”, mourners at her funeral have been told.
Delivering an elegy in advance of her funeral Mass in Derry’s Bogside on Friday, the veteran civil rights campaigner and journalist Eamonn McCann said it was “given to very few of us to actually change the world”.
Read the rest of this entry »Irish Times Tribute to Nell McCafferty, March 28 1944 – August 21 2024 – Hold the Front Page – Nell has a story
An excellent tribute : Web Link :
Nell McCafferty Obituary – Journalist and Feminist Campaigner
Update, Dublin Gathering, Friday August 23, The Teachers’ Club, 36 Parnell Square West, at 12.30. Nell McCafferty’s funeral will be livestreamed.
RIP.IE Notice :
https://rip.ie/death-notice/nell-mccafferty-derry-derry-city-566175
- Born: March 28th, 1944
- Died: August 21st, 2024
- Nell got to the front page in the end :
“Nell”, she called her autobiography, and that was how she was known.
Small, fierce and feisty. That mop of curls, the waft of cigarette smoke, the tongue in cheek smile and her distinctive walk, like a sailor ashore. Everyone soon knew her smoky Derry voice, laconic, challenging, always ready to break into laughter. You never knew what Nell was going to say next. It was often outrageous. She was a character, and she loved to play herself to the hilt. She was also one of the most important Irish journalists of the latter half of the twentieth century. She listened. She paid attention. She told the truth.
She was, wrote her friend, the historian Margaret Mac Curtain, “unequalled in the extraordinary breadth and fearless candour she has brought to bear on controversial subjects.” Her journalistic career started in The Irish Times in 1970, when the paper’s late Northern editor and editor, Fergus Pyle, commissioned her to write about the new bathroom in her family home in Beechwood Street in Derry’s Bogside.
Home was her touchstone. She vaunted her street-cred. She was part of a Bogside aristocracy that included Martin McGuinness, Eamonn McCann, Seamus Deane, Paddy Doherty, John Hume, Dana and Phil Coulter. Her mother was her biggest fan and harshest critic.
McCafferty was born in 1944. Her father, Hugh, was a clerk for the British admiralty by day and a bookie’s clerk at the dog track at night. Her mother, Lily, reared six children. Another daughter died at birth.
Her parents had to work hard to keep poverty at bay. She was fascinated and frightened by the poverty of the tenements where her father was raised. One of his brothers had died as a British soldier at the Somme. Her mother’s parents were Sergeant Duffy, a Catholic RUC man, and his wife Sarah, a Protestant who “turned”.
Read the rest of this entry »British General Election 2024 – Highlights and Lowlights – Loveless Landslide, Sandcastle Majority. Far-Right Hiding in Plain Sight, House of Paisley Falls in Antrim – and a Message of Hope from new MP Shockat Adam, Leicester South
Let’s start with positive news :
Shockat Adam MP, Leicester South – “This is for the people of Gaza”.
When you listen to this June 25 car-crash interview with former Leicester South Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth, you would be forgiven for thinking he was a member of the far-right racist party, Reform.
Shockat Adam was not alone. Five pro-Gaza independent candidates (including former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in Islington North) are members of the new Westminster parliament :
Read the rest of this entry »Major Donor to Nigel Farage’s Reform Party Owns Russian Assets
Link :
Major Donor to Nigel Farage’s Reform Party Owns Russian Assets
We thank Councillor John Lyons (Dublin City, Artane-Whitehall) [Independent Left] for this story.
Major Donor to Nigel Farage’s Reform Party Owns Russian Assets
Reform’s leader has been criticised in recent days for claiming the west provoked Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
By Adam Barnett and Sam Bright
Jun 26, 2024
One of the biggest donors to Nigel Farage’s anti-net zero Reform UK during the general election campaign has significant Russian business interests, DeSmog can report.
Natural resources investor David Lilley donated £100,000 to Reform on 10 June – a week after Farage announced that he was returning as the party’s leader. Lilley’s donation was the third largest to Reform during the campaign so far.
As revealed by The Mirror and Good Law Project in the former’s print edition, Lilley controls a series of companies that own 12,000 hectares of farmland in the Stavropol region of Russia, in the south west of the country, used to produce cereals and oilseeds.
Lilley confirmed to DeSmog that he still owns this land, saying that “I have never made a secret of my assets in Russia.” He said that he had made no profit on these assets since February 2022 and that he had been prevented from selling them by the Russian state.
Farage has come under fire in recent days for suggesting that Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine was provoked by the west, and for calling on Ukraine to enter peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Good Law Project executive director Jolyon Maugham told DeSmog that Reform is “starting to feel a bit like Russia’s unofficial British Embassy.”
Read the rest of this entry »Jeffrey Donaldson Abuse Case : Journalist Sam McBride highlights a key fact
Political journalist Sam McBride points out :
“It has been widely reported that Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said in a letter to the DUP that he will strenuously contest the serious charges against him. However, he has said nothing yet in public. Now we know when he will have to enter a plea: September 10.”
British General Election 2024, GE2024 : The Scottish National party may be gaining ground on Starmer’s Unionist Labour Outfit – Election Expert John Curtice Crunches new numbers
Sometimes, a campaign alters the balance of forces in a significant manner. We can compare this fresh statistical evidence from Scotland with the real result which will appear in the early hours of Friday July 5 2024. Has British Unionist Sir Keir Starmer snatched defeat from victory in Scotland?
Link :
How John Swinney has helped repair SNP’s battered reputation – John Curtice
Sir John Curtice on how John Swinney has helped repair SNP’s ‘battered reputation’
Sir John Curtice delivers his assessment of the latest poll results from Savanta, for The Scotsman
Labour look set to make significant gains north of the border. And the SNP are at risk of falling short of their target of winning at least half of Scotland’s seats at Westminster.
However, the battle between them now looks as though it could be significantly closer than Labour had hoped and the SNP feared when Mr Sunak called the election six weeks ago.
At that point Savanta reckoned that Labour were on 37 per cent, four points ahead of the SNP. Their lead was even slightly bigger, five points, in the middle of June. Yet in today’s poll support for Labour is, at 31 per cent, six points down on the beginning of the campaign, and seven points short of the middle of June.
Read the rest of this entry »GE2024 Forecast: Final Predictions and Analysis; British General Election
Ell’s final calls for GE2024.
My final forecast for #GE2024
In the early hours of July 5 2024 we will know if this Stats for Lefties forecast is accurate. It covers Wales, Scotland, and England.
Comparing the real result with the forecast will be interesting.
Six County Statelet (Northern Ireland) predictions are here :
Six County Seat Predictions, Electoral Calculus
A Stormont law said it’s a criminal offence to say “Jimmy Savile was a paedophile” – Judge ruled this is perverse, Minister Naomi Long launches appeal
On the face of it this is political loony-land – and so much for the liberal reputation of Alliance Party leader Naomi Long, currently trying to take the East Belfast Westminster seat of DUP leader Gavin Robinson – the result will be known in the early hours of Friday July 5.
Political Journalist Sam McBride explains the background in two articles below.
One correspondent asked McBride a relevant question, straining to give Long the benefit of the doubt :
Read the rest of this entry »
Tomás Ó Flatharta 