Friday, July 21, 2006

BELFAST

I was watching the TV tonight (21/07/2006) and caught some of the Billy Connolly's tour of England, Ireland and Wales, tonight he is in Belfast and having been there last year on holiday I recognised not only some of the buildings but a lot of the murals on the buildings.

I didn't really know until I came back that the painting of these murals are illegal, the reason I didn't know? The murals are so beautiful so powerful and sometimes so angry. They convey the emotions of a community in struggle, a community who feels oppressed and feels that they have to fight back, I am speaking of course about both Catholics and Protestants. When my friends took me down the Shankhill Road I was not scared but amazed that the people here feel so strongly about their history, their ancestors and their struggle. I was never so touched as having seen the Holy Cross Primary and it's counterpart literally across a six foot wide road, the difference in the security of these buildings is chalk and cheese, the most touching part for me is the mural at the bottom of the road in which these two education establishments lie the mural depicts in black and white two scenes one where black children are being attacked for going to school in Alabamma and one where the children of Holy Cross are attacked for going to school.

Regardless of your political or religious affiliation, no one should think that attacking primary school children on their way to school! I have no doubt that the Protestant community could identify similar situations, and to me that it extremely sad.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Sheridan Trial

Tommy Sheridan Liar?

Is is just me or is anyone else concerned that the SSP convenor yesterday in court admitted that he was pretty much OK with Sheridan lying to the nation and the court about claims made in newspapers, and the fact that Mr Sheridan himself advised today that he would lie for political reasons? Does this raise the question of what he would actually lie about? And what has he lied about? It also begs the question can you actually trust the SSP?

I have been following the case a little in the papers and online and over the past week have been somewhat increasingly interested in the proceedings and the way that it is presented in the media. Two close relatives were in Edinburgh this week and decided to go and try and sit in court to hear some of the evidence, far from being the biggest trial of the political decade as it has been described the court room has eighteen seats and the SSP are camping out in force to get in, my relatives were somewhat surprised at the attitude of some of the spectators who believed it was their right to access the court so instead of queuing like everyone else the individual in question (a relative of Mr Sheridan) allegedly pushed passed the queue and suggested that she was entitled to entry, one can only imagine that Mr Sheridan's arrogance is in fact a family trait when you hear about this type of behavior.

The attitude of the SSP towards honesty is a little unsettling from a party who constantly attacks the Labour Party for what they say are lies! The issue of the minute and testimony already given raises questions about the other MSP's who have given evidence, are they like Mr Fox the current convenor of the party happy to let their members openly lie about themselves for political gain. I have not and never will lie about my personal life to get elected to political office it is not how I have been brought up, and contrary to my political allies in the SSP I have never and will never lie about a political opponent for political gain.

It would be interesting to see what the readers of this blog think about the SSP?

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