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.