The scandal of children’s safety in Northern Ireland

As in the rest of the UK and probably elsewhere, the landscape is littered with organisations , some Quangos, some charities , on the face of it, concerned about children.

In Northern Ireland , to mention a few, there is Barnados, the NSPCC, the NICCY and the Safeguarding Board NI.

You might think, Dear Reader, that one body could protect our children.

Not so. All these bodies and more, receive public money , our pennies, when in the street, with the aim of protecting children from physical violence , emotional violence, sexual abuse and other discrimination.

Since I became aware of this problem, in the early 1980s, I have wondered what the government was doing to protect children.

Sadly, I have come to the view, articulated in the song “I’d like to help you son but you’re too young to vote”.

Some time ago , the government decided that an overarching body should protect children. The clue is in the title of this body…the Safeguarding Board for NI.

It has a chairman, three non executive directors [which means that OFMDFM appoints them] and at least 16 other members.

It has five regional panels , a case management review panel  and other panels.

It has a number of other committees, including a “policies and procedures” committee , an “interfaith sub group” [ god help us] and an “education and training” group.

Alexis Jay’s report [suppressed since February of this year] makes for shocking reading. Essentially it says that nobody has got a grip of the disparate bodies who turn up and say that they are concerned about children.

Essentially, it says that the Safeguarding  Board is fuck all use. That’s not language that is  deployed  but to the parents of affected children that’s what it amounts to.

Children continue to die and children are still abused while this hopeless organisation carries on.

You have probably heard lots of “experts” talk about children on Good Morning Ulster, Nolan and other media. Not one has raised this issue.

It begs the question, common in Northern Ireland, are they slave to the fee , the establishment or to the truth? Perhaps they will let us know, particularly where the safety of children is at stake.

Meanwhile, all these fat ladies and pale men continue to draw their gross salaries and the talking heads ignore the problem.

Willie Frazer to go to the moon.

Victims’ campaigner and non sectarian astronaut , Willie Frazer has revealed that he is planning to go to the moon.

Speaking from the Markethill Cosmodrome, Frazer , who previously travelled as far as North Derry, said that it was time to introduce religious balance into space exploration.

“It is striking that most astronauts have been either Catholics or communists. It’s time that the voice of the Loyalist people was heard on the moon.”

Frazer has been in rigorous training for this attempt since  July.

“I have been simulating weightlessness by carry a Lambeg drum around the garden for an hour every evening”, he revealed.

Frazer is angry at the planting of flags on the moon. “the moon should be a shared space, like my museum in Markethill”, he said; “it is wrong that some flags fly there and not others”.

He is also angry at the one-sided portrayal of space exploration.  “why was there a film about the thirteenth  Apollo? What was wrong with the Twelfth?”

Asked how the moonshot was  funded, Frazer was vague. “there is sufficient slack in the community funding programs for us to carry out R and D”, he said.

Our reporter put it to him that this might be seen as another in a long line of broken promises, such as suing Martin McGuinness, Slab Murphy and various councils. Also his promises to go to Libya, Dublin, and any park named after a republican.

We understand that only Frazer will set foot on the moon. He will plant an Ulster Fleg and leave a collarette, establishing LOL Lunar 1.

Pastor Barrie Halliday will be in orbit around the moon in the earth module, named Mountjoy.

“We are deadly serious about this” , said Frazer, “there have been too many thramps, scumbags and monkeys in space. The time has come for a Loyalist Spaceman”.

Jim Shannon and the wheel of death

DUP MP Jim Shannon represents a constituency with more than its fair share of victims of SF/IRA violence. His party paid scant attention to them in their recent election manifestos.

Fifty million pounds is going to be spent by the DUP along with their terrorist buddies in trying to pay off paramilitaries that should have gone years ago. That is on top of a similar amount spent over the last five years on victims’ organisations, like those associated with that bigot Willie Frazer.

I have lobbied Foster, Donaldson and Mrs Dodds in the past about the plight of victims and their legitimate expectations. All to no avail.

But Jim has a pressing issue. Funfairs. Yes, funfairs and amusement parks. He is concerned about their safety. Why has Jim such an interest?

Is Ards the funfair capital of Europe?

Was he once a clown in an amusement park?

Was he  once ejected from the wheel of death, on to his head? That’s possible I suppose.

Does he propose a DUP motion to ban funfairs because people are having too much fun?

He has learned that in 2014/2015, 489 members of the public reported injuries from these fun palaces. Soon the figures will rise and outstrip the 3,000 plus dead from the Troubles.

Jim believes that I should be shocked.

I am.

How did the people of Strangford get such a nitwit?

Wee Jeffrey and the arabs

Jeffrey Donaldson was appointed Her Majesty’s Trade envoy to Egypt in November 2015. According to the press reports at the time he was gushing about the opportunities for NI trade. He said ” I have already been in touch with Invest NI about taking a NI trade delegation to Egypt next year.”

Invest NI tell me that they have had no contact with the Egyptian authorities nor do they have any plans for a trade mission to Egypt.

Egypt is a country with dubious attitudes to FGM , homosexuality and other human rights

Subsequently, Cameron gave wee Jeff a knighthood  as well, probably for , as chief whip of the DUP, delivering the party to the Tories when it mattered.

The DUP general election manifesto had assured the faithful that the DUP would not align itself with any Westminster party.

It is said that the people get the politicians they deserve.

It is certainly true in Jeffrey’s case.

 

 

 

 

 

The Crumlin Road Canteen

In the series “Life on Mars’ the boss calls a meeting. The shock is that his colleagues are smoking, drinking, , eating pies and generally behaving in a way that nobody under 55 could remember.

I have read the Police Ombudsman’s report into the Loughinisland killings and , hopefully, I will write about it. But the point which is missed by him is the historical context. It is as if two men went into a pub in leafy Surrey and carried out an atrocity and the local Bobbies, with time on their hands, screwed up.

Let me describe the Crumlin Road courthouse in the 1980s. I do this  for two reasons. First , because, as a matter of policy, anyone associated with prosecuting for the Crown in those days has been erased from history as part of the deal with SF/IRA and secondly to explain what life was really like.

As one approached the courthouse from the city direction, there was frequently a RUC or army road stop. Only the bold prosecutor approached from the Ardoyne direction. This I did occasionally. More frequently I drove my GTI Golf at 90 mph down the M2 and then came up from the city centre.

At the entrance to the courthouse there was a security team who wanted to inspect your car, including boot and engine compartment.

This team was covered both from the open ground and from the heavily armed sangar.

Once inside the grounds, a further check might be carried out.

The Director of Public Prosecutions had its offices on the top floor of the building. Not a problem when one is fit.

More important was the canteen, to be found on the left hand side of the ground floor. Here was a microcosm of the Troubles. It was a small room, a counter at the far end and a number of tables. Behind the counter Etta presided. She had been at school with my Dad. She and her staff produced a wide array of food. From the black coffee and a possible scone for the barrister to the fry for the constable.

Why is this story important?

Because each morning the fug in that room had to be seen to be believed. There was no ban on smoking. Officers who had been out all night on duty and who were now required to attend court to give evidence in a terrorist trial , were trying to dry off their uniforms while having a fag and an fry. Later they would try to get home for a few hours sleep before another spell of duty.

Sometimes it was hard to see across the room. I recall chatting to colleges about how nice it would be to get away to the Med. One said, “isn’t it great to walk down to the local shop and buy croissants and yesterday’s paper and come back and read them in the sun?” Another described how beads of water ran down the outside of a bottle of white wine, placed on your table.

That was just escapism. On a day when the great and the good have joined together to mark the first day of the Somme, it is important that we do not wait one hundred years to mark what ordinary men did to protect society in Northern Ireland.

As , Dear Reader, you judge the acts and omissions of policemen and lawyers and read the Police Ombudsman’s report, prepared at length, in a non smoking environment, reflect on what life was really like and how the Crumlin Road canteen, shared with police officers, prosecutors, witnesses, paramilitaries ,Patrick Finucane, Paddy McGrory, Oliver Kelly and Seamus Tracey was a microcosm of how the troubles was really played  out.