Shop ‘til you
drop – your planning application that is
WE like shopping (well to be more
precise, our spouses and partners like it). If it means that our “better-halfs”
are in some retail haven, while we watch the football, rugby – in fact
any sport – in peace it has to be a good thing. [Editor’s note: I take it
you’re talking about the male members of the team?]
Apart from the agony, as the
credit card bill drops through the letter box, we also recognise the benefit it
does the economy.
That is why the prospect of a
John Lewis store opening in Norn Iron had us quite over-excited. The better
halfs would spend days, hours, even weeks travelling to it, browsing in it,
leaving us to enjoy the Six Nations, the Barclay’s Premiership and All-Ireland
Senior Football Championship in the company of our own legitimate purchases
from the off-Sales and pizza delivery.
But no, all hope is gone! The
commendable employment practices, the wide range of consumer goods, all gone
now that John Lewis has reluctantly shrugged off the legal fees, dropped their
planning application that has been running for almost nine years.
While Chambers of Commerce, some
small traders, the shopping precincts of Lisburn and Belfast rejoice, one
wonders about the impact of the John Lewis decision. What signal does it send to potential
investors in this time of economic uncertainty?
Unity – it’s
so disunited
ONE has to commend the façade
maintained by some unionists, like the Ulster Unionist Party for instance.
Unity with the United Kingdom may be the stated position, but disunity is the
discord resonating in the media.
By the time you read this, the UUP Star Chamber may very well have delivered its verdict on Basil McCrea,
Should Mr McCrea be exonerated then three Belfast UUP councillors are threatening dark actions. Should Mr McCrea be disciplined then he may well consider his future within the Ulster Unionists.
It’s a lose, lose situation for party leader, Mike Nesbitt, who saw another veteran member and former deputy Chairman, Terry Wright, leave the fold over the closer links with the DUP.
However, one has to wonder who’s ‘fault’ it is that the party has gotten itself into this situation, and how that will disable its already limited influence in Parliament Buildings, Stormont.
Mr Nesbitt’s desire for consistency in his party’s message is admirable, but the ‘fleg’ situation seems to have left him wrong-footed with inconsistency, not only from the protagonists above, but across councils in Northern Ireland.
No matter where the blame is laid, it could be a long journey back to any form of stability and credibility, come the next Assembly election.
Dystopia
looms, but business as usual at Stormont
WHILE the threat of a dystopian
divided Norn Iron is much paraded by a media obsessed by five-minute riots and
random rants from those on the edge of sanity, it is business as usual in
Parliament Buildings.
During next week’s Assembly
plenary sessions, two commendable pieces of private member’s business will be
debated.
One examines the prospect of free
school transport for pupils; the other is a well-intentioned call for better
internet safety for children
The former is a laudable
proposal, worthy of examination by the Education and Skills Authority, if and
when it is established.
While we must applaud all
attempts to protect children, we remind our readers of our parents’ struggles
with video recorders and DVD players. We may think we can administer internet
but the existence of alternative websites, anonymisers, and the dark net may
drive activity out of the public eye. Instead, the use of the very public
evidence bullies may leave should be a weapon that can be used to track them
down, protect the bullied and counsel the bullies to help them desist.
As we say, commendable proposals.
But, on the theme of the
tinterweb, the Assembly will also debate the current bête noire of social
networking sites, no doubt targeting the abusive nature of some pages, calling
on somebody, somewhere to do something.
Of course, anyone who uses public
forums for a discourse of terror or to make threats should and must be
prosecuted, but really Mr and Ms MLA do you think you can control the beast
that is the collective social networking environment.
Only by closing Norn Iron’s
Internet borders to Facebook, Flickr, Twitter et al will achieve that.
Censorship is not an option in a state where we should encourage legal internet
activity and avoid totalitarian gazes into the network.