by Levee
Hanson's Further Lies
4:49 pm in Northern Ireland: Politics by Levee
I asked a few weeks back about new voices in the Northern Irish blogosphere, and got a less than stunning response. One blogger who left a comment was Hanson, who I’ve seen around comment threads on NI blogs for a while now.
Judging by his blog, Hanson appears to take the stance of an anti-Agreement Unionist, though I won’t hold that against him! His writing is very opinion-based, which I like, and he holds a healthy degree of scepticism for Unionists and Nationalists alike.
Of course, I can’t agree with everything he says. Take for instance his comments about political progress:
The other Unionist on the panel, UUP leader Reg Empey, on the other hand did say something interesting:
Remember what this country was like twenty years ago. We were shovelling people into plastic bags.Exactly Sir Reg. Lets remember that Sinn Fein/IRA (and loyalist terrorists for that matter) spent thirty years blowing people to bits. There are precious few public representatives who remind us of that fact.
However, Sir Regs next comment was strange: Lets recognize the progress that has been made.
What progress is that? Putting people who put people in plastic bags into government as a reward for not doing it any more?
I think that’s indicitave of anti-Agreement Unionism, that unforgiving, unflinching attitude of “not putting terrorists in Government”. Always failing to acknowledge that some of the Unionists currently in Government aggitated and helped bring about the Troubles through their bigotted sectarian campaigns.
I think it’s telling that every Unionist leader since Carson has eventually recognised the need for conciliation with Catholics/Nationalists. More telling that Paisley – the great agitator – has joined their ranks.
Anyway, differences aside, Hanson’s blog is highly recommended and helps to blow a good deal of bullshit out the window.
“I think it’s telling that every Unionist leader since Carson has eventually recognised the need for conciliation with Catholics/Nationalists.”
Levee, I hope I’m not being too pedantic to point out that Hanson, based purely on the quotes you’ve made, is not refuting the idea of conciliation with catholics and/or nationalists, but (rightly or wrongly) with republican terrorists.
Sorry, unrepentent republican terrorists.
OK, fair point, but I’d argue that at some point you’ve got to forget about the past and look to the future.
We can’t keep excluding people because of their past, otherwise we’d also be excluding Paisley & Co for being unrepentant bigots. The difference is that to a large extent they still are.
From my point of view this is all pot calling the kettle black-type stuff. It takes two to tango, etc. Choose your own cliche!
What NI blogs are you reading at the minute Beano?
“OK, fair point, but I’d argue that at some point you’ve got to forget about the past and look to the future.”
I wouldn’t necessarily argue that point, I just think there’s a big difference between refusing to deal with catholic and refusing to deal with the IRA.
“What NI blogs are you reading at the minute Beano?”
On a daily basis just Slugger. I’ve my homepage set to this portal so I occasionally spot the odd headline from a local blog in the Northern Irish Blogs feed that diverts my attention for a while.
On the subject of doing a deal with the IRA – I’m equally pissed off at seeing Medieval Bigots like the DUP being in such a position of power. I see them as two sides of the same coin really.
The only consolation I can take is that if/when they go into power sharing, both parties will undermine themselves by political point-scoring. I’m hoping the middle ground can use that to their advantage by proving their worth in real politics.
That’s a neat little aggregator you’ve got there, by the way. What’s it running, Magpie RSS? You should really extend the number of feed on there if you can. Big Ulsterman, Tangled Web, Balrog, etc. Levee goes off topic so much I couldn’t recommend myself!
“We can’t keep excluding people because of their past,”
Failure to condem their past is part of their present and I suspect the hall mark of their future.
“otherwise we’d also be excluding Paisley & Co for being unrepentant bigots. ”
I would to God that the IRA and UVF etc had only committed bigotry not murder.
Bigotry/murder – different coins altoghether
“Bigotry/murder – different coins altoghether”
I completely disagree Aileen. Bigotry was the influence that led to numerous murders across the province.
Let’s put it another way – the voices of bigots gave sanction to the actions of more violent men. And I’m thinking specifically of Paisley here.
I read his biography a few months back and one chapter which struck me especially was about a march he held in the markets area. The ensuing chaos and violence he created led to many young nationalists joining the IRA because they felt the establishment wasn’t listening to them.
I often wonder how the current political landscape would look if Paisley had been taken out of the equation back in the 50′s.
It is still the murder that matters. Give me any non muderous bigot over a non bigoted murderer any day of the week.
Nothing gave sanction to the actions of terrorist!! It is their willingness to commit the actions that is to blame.
Feeling that the establishment is not listening is a poor excuse for murder. I would have a better excuse myself, but it would still not excuse it.
I wonder how the political landscape would look if murderer had been taken out of the equation.
Sorry for going OT, but…
“You should really extend the number of feed on there if you can. Big Ulsterman, Tangled Web, Balrog, etc. Levee goes off topic so much I couldn’t recommend myself!”
The feeds are parsed using LastRSS a PHP class. 3 seemed like the perfect number because it fits well across the screen on a 1024×768 monitor and those three were chosen because: The BBC gives it some “quality” news (ahem), NorthernIrishBlogs aggregates all the ones you mentioned and then some, and of course EverythingUlster for shamless self-promotion.
Ideally I probably would have let users pick their own feeds, but I don’t think enough people would use it to warrant it – and then if I did that it wouldn’t really be any different to google or MyYahoo, would it?
@Aileen: You cannot be serious!!! To paraphrase the Rt Hon Robert Sands MP: “Every person, Republican or otherwise has their part to play”.
Politicians and preachers in Northern Ireland are highly influential people. Their media presence has inflamed tensions in the past, driven hatred and yes – driven people to kill other human beings.
I view this almost completely the opposite to you – I think the organ grinders are much more dangerous the the monkeys!
@beano: I was sort of thinking your page could be like a PopURLS for Northern Irish blogs. I like Northern Irish Blogs, but I suppose I still prefer to view information by site….
Bobby Sands was not a Privy Counsellor!
I have just seen this post.
Thanks for your kind comments.
I stand by my comments about Sir Reg. No one, republican or unionist, should be allowed to hold political office if they are guilty of murder.
LOL @ El Mat – good spot.
Crap, my ignorance of political structures has been exposed! What’s a privy counsellor?
Hanson, thanks for visiting. I know you take an anti-agreement stance, but I wonder how else you propose to resolve the long-standing (and yawn-inducing) Northern Ireland situation?
I’m for total integration with the UK. I don’t think anyone in NI would shed any tears if all 108 MLAs were given their P45s. They sat around doing nothing for 5 years. All politicians are a waste of space and (especially in NI) a scandalous waste of money.
The only people to blame in all this are successive British Governments. When will Republicans and Loyalists stop blaming each other and realise the root cause of all the problems in Ireland, North and South, has been England and Westminster?
Beano,
The past shapes the future. Without the past, there cannot be any future…
Go figure, as the Americans say!