I know I should be cheerful with the time of year that's in it, but I came across two statements today that have plunged me into serious gloom. Move over, Scrooge.
The first was on the car radio, where I heard RTÉ give a free five-minute plug to the Irish Independent. Apparently that organ is going to go 100% tabloidy as from tomorrow so they had the editor on to say how significant it was. Well, said the editor, people had told them they liked the tabloidy thing - apparently some of the Indo is already in tabloid form - so they responded. The public were happy with the tabloidy news because (and he repeated this at least twice) they looked for a paper, whether online or in hard copy, that was “trusted and authoritative”. Oh, and unbiased. The interviewer didn’t slap the table and tell the Indo editor to get the hell outa here, he was such a joker. Nor did the phone lines to RTÉ, as far as I know, flood with calls from people saying in effect what Jeremy Paxman says he asks himself when confronted with a politician: why is this lying bastard lying to me? No - the interviewer played it straight. Accepted every word from the editor’s lips as gospel truth. That, I thought, is the south’s national broadcaster responding to the Indo. And then I thought of Miriam O’Callaghan and switched off the radio before I plunged in gloom so thick, I’d crash the car.
The other uncheerful statement I read online when I got home. It was an article in the News Letter, headed “Ulster’s drivers urged to join in protest”. Apparently the guardians of the Union flag will be out in force at a place near you this evening at 6.00 pm, and they’ve urged “people that are stuck in traffic instead of sitting in your car get out and join in”. WTF? You expect people who can’t get home or to the shops or to wherever they’re going to abandon their cars and join in with the people who think that blocking roads and issuing death threats is being clever? God give me strength. Adding insult to injury, the flegboys say:
“We would encourage all members of the PUL (Protestant/Unionist/Loyalist) community taking part in Friday’s nationwide protest to do so in a peaceful and dignified manner to ensure that we can portray the right image of unionism/loyalism and gain support from the wider PUL community.”
Now there’s a statement that’s calculated to take us all forward to a reasonable, shared future. PUL the other one, guys. The only consolation I can think of is that I’m not a unionist, which means I don’t have so much as a smidgen of responsibility for these head-bangers intent on chaos.
Jude,it's well over a year since the Presidenial election and you apparently still harbour dark thoughts against Miriam O Callaghan because of her questioning of your favoured candidate,Martin Mc Guinness .Get over it please.I'm sure Martin has!Presumably you will be complaining to R T E about their supine interviewing technique !
ReplyDeleteSee right that right there, that is what f**ks me off.
ReplyDeleteI may be a protestant and I may be a unionist, but by god there is a gulf as wide as the atlantic between where I stand and where those troglodytes are.
Whoever wrote that clearly has no clue what year it is.
Hasn't it occurred to the PUL that the first letter of their acronym excludes, by definition, kethlacks? So much for the much vaunted Union being for all in NI.
ReplyDeleteAnyhoo, I don't really mind this sort of behaviour from gentlemen whose sartorial preference is sportswear, but I DO really mind the Keystone Cops failing to do their job of keeping the Queen's highway open for her subjects. I trust they will be just as softly-softly accomodating at the Ardoyne shops next July 12th lest we somehow get the impression that they share the bias defect of the RUC.
1690 isn't it? Last time I checked it was anyway... Being a Republican I can't remember which King I'm supposed to be cheering on though...
ReplyDeleteIndo... Miriam... I feel nauseous.
These eejits might want to wind their necks in and get off the roads before some drivers do start "joining them", they might be glad of a strong police presence in that scenario. Only a matter of time before the silent overwhelming majority start confronting these nutters directly, mark my words.