At times, though, there exists a tension between the document’s appropriate caution about AI’s risks and its far greater confidence in AI’s potential.  

The “tortoise and hare” metaphor has been regularly referenced to describe a mismatch between the slow-moving pace of legislation and policymaking and the lightspeed pace of AI development. In my view, the Executive’s strategy represents another instance of retrospective policymaking, attempting to catch up with technology adoption that’s already well underway, with the document admitting that both the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs and the Department for Infrastructure had already adopted AI technology prior to the Executive developing its strategy. 

Aside from concerns surrounding pace, difficult questions remain – particularly with respect to the use of AI in the public sector. The strategy claims that AI “does not replace humans”, but instead “supports human decision-making”. That framing is a bit too tidy: AI may not make the final decision, but its use within decision-making processes can still fundamentally shape the outcome. Automation bias, where people are prone to trusting the suggestions and choices of machines over their own judgement, is a well-documented phenomenon within behavioural psychology. In addition, research has suggested that human oversight requirements (like the strategy’s proposal for human oversight teams of “critical thinkers” with “acuity”) not only fail, but can provide false reassurance and legitimacy for algorithmic systems. This approach leaves several vital questions unanswered: Are we able to tell how AI reached a decision? How easy is it to reject that decision? Do rejections have to be justified? Does accepting a decision follow the same process, or is it easier? 

This danger has real consequences for our lives. Public bodies in the UK have already experienced serious failures with automated decision-making: the 2020 A-level algorithm had to be abandoned after it produced “inconsistent and unfair” results; the Home Office has faced legal challenges over “discriminatory” algorithms (in 2020 and 2023) and has faced wider scrutiny of its AI usage (2024 and this year); and a Department for Work and Pensions algorithm wrongly flagged 200,000 people for housing benefit fraud and error. In Northern Ireland, faulty and incomplete data – also a risk the strategy acknowledges – caused HMRC to wrongly target nearly 90% of the NI families flagged during a child benefit crackdown.  

Humans were still involved in these processes, but their presence ultimately didn’t prevent harmful outcomes. With the draft strategy identifying possible applications in healthcare, justice and education, errors and bias could have immense consequences.  

A pressing concern is whether the departments and public bodies expected to procure and manage AI genuinely have the capacity to manage complex technological projects of this kind. The Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) previously found that 14 of 24 (58%) live major IT projects across the NI Civil Service were already experiencing serious delivery problems. Twelve were rated amber, meaning they had significant but potentially resolvable problems, and two were red, meaning that they were unlikely to meet their time, cost and quality objectives and may need to be reconsidered altogether. In almost every case, delays meant that contracts for existing systems had to be extended multiple times simply to keep services running – for almost eight years on average. This raises legitimate questions about whether departments currently have the ability to harness AI safely. 

The strategy, described as a “call to collective action and a guiding framework” rather than a “technical manual or an economic blueprint”, is lacklustre on delivery. It does propose a number of “recommended actions”, such as developing public sector standards for AI risk assessment and establishing an AI Citizens’ Panel. But, in familiar Executive fashion, many of the actions are vague – things to be developed or explored, largely without named owners, budgets, or deadlines.  

By comparison, Scotland’s strategy identifies 10 clear actions for completion by March 2027, while Ireland’s strategy contains 90 individual deliverables, with a timeline and lead department for each. Under the UK Government’s Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard (ATRS), publication of information about the algorithmic tools in use is already mandatory for government departments and some public-facing bodies – with this standard launched over four years ago. Northern Ireland proposes a similar “publicly available AI Register of Systems” but doesn’t specify how it will work, or even when it might exist.  

None of this is an argument for standing still: the strategy identifies several potential use cases for AI, especially within small businesses and the private sector more generally.  Likewise, we should give credit where credit is due – the document displays a clear intent to take ethics and responsible use seriously. However, it’s imperative that the consultation process (open until 7 October) is followed by sustained engagement with not only proponents of AI but those who critically examine its consequences. 

Credibility will ultimately depend on knowing where AI is useful and, more importantly, where it isn’t.

Dr Karli Gibson is a research executive at Chambré. She completed her doctorate through the Leverhulme Interdisciplinary Network on Algorithmic Solutions.

What you need to know

As Ali approached the moment in which he delivered the coup de grâce, he whispered in Foreman’s ear ‘That all you got, George?’. Foreman later attested that those words, as he was running on empty, had a massive psychological impact on him in the closing rounds of the match. He had given all he had and it just wasn’t enough.

Ali’s crafty approach is one of the most famous examples of the ‘rope-a-dope’ strategy. As with all the best strategies, it isn’t limited strictly to boxing either. Cast your eyes, if you will, to the Strait of Hormuz where Donald Trump and the United States remain locked in a stagnating war with the Islamic Republic of Iran to see the rope-a-dope in full flow.

The parallels seem to write themselves, no? The United States stands in for Foreman in this metaphor, a big, massive powerhouse whose doctrine of victory in warfare is overwhelming power delivered as rapidly as possible to crush the enemy. And I guess that would make Iran the Muhammad Ali of this situation, the underdog opponent forced to intelligently plan their response.

The reason I am making the comparison is that I don’t think any one of us expected to be here, over six months after the United States declared war on Iran. Given the state the Iranian regime was in following the January protests and the degradation of the state’s military forces as a result of the Twelve-Day-War, the odds seemed to be in the United States’ favour. If there was ever a moment TO attack, late February was it.

Of course, that presumes that attacking was a good idea. As the past six months have shown, it was probably the stupidest decision Donald Trump has ever made…and this is the man who effectively ceded the green energy revolution to the United States’ greatest geopolitical competitor because he has a personal aversion to windmills so it had some stiff competition.

I have already written about my perspective on how Trump arrived at that decision in a previous post. My original plan was to return to this topic once an outcome had been settled upon which, at the time, seemed faintly plausible given the memorandum of understanding that had been reached. But while that deal has come unstuck it did not lead to the restarting of the shooting war. Instead the two nations have become locked into a holding pattern. The possibility has thus emerged, as with Gaza, that there IS going to be no dramatic resolution to this conflict and that what we are witnessing is the emergence of a new, highly unstable status quo that could endure for years or fracture tomorrow.

To try and break the deadlock the United States has reimposed its blockade on Iranian shipments of oil and it has announced an ‘economic D-Day’ against Iran to be known as Operation Economic Outcast. This is intended to crush the increasingly fragile Iranian economy (which really is in dire straits if you will pardon the phrasing).

In other words, rather than firing missiles, the US administration has returned to the well-worn tool of imposing sanctions on an enemy state to compel a change in that country’s behavior.

It really is hard to know where to start with this given just how flawed an approach it is.

Let’s call this what it plainly is. It is a desperation move. Trump is using sanctions because kinetic warfare has not delivered him the quick victory he clearly thought was in the offing and this is a manifestation of his frustration. And the President is most definitely frustrated; there are reports in multiple outlets, such as ‘the New Republic’ where he was ‘overheard roaring and cursing inside the Oval Office, “unleashing a series of expletives” while referring to Iran’s leadership as “scumbags” and “lunatics”.

It seems he genuinely didn’t believe it would be this hard and that all it would take to enforce American will was the application of American power. Except Iran has figuratively leant into the ropes and absorbed the punishment America dispensed. The United States may have the world’s mightiest military but even its capacities are not infinite. According to US Secretary of War (an affectation whose performative machismo tells you all you need to know about this administration really) Pete Hegseth, the war has cost the United States some $37.5 billion as of late July 2026. Not only that, the US has exhausted a considerable amount of its munition stockpiles in this conflict as this article from the Council on Foreign Relations makes clear. As that report says…

“Stories that Operation Epic Fury has depleted U.S. weapons stocks have dominated the headlines in recent weeks. Things have gotten so bad that the Pentagon has transferred weapons stored in Asia and Europe to replenish stockpiles in the Middle East. Even then, a shortage of missile interceptors reportedly persuaded President Donald Trump last month to call off plans for a major attack on Iran.”

This has had real world consequences.

The reason we are hearing more about successful Russian ballistic missile strikes in Ukraine leading to mass casualties (including a strike on a warehouse outside Kyiv that has killed at least 37 people that occurred as I was writing this piece)? Because Ukraine has run out of many of the advanced interceptors Washington (begrudgingly) supplied and Washington cannot resupply them because they can’t, too many have been used in the Middle East and Washington needs to husband its remaining stockpiles and spend years replenishing what has been expended.

Or what about the curtailment of the joint US-South Korean military exercises during September? Partly it is down to Trump once again desiring to rebuild his relationship with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un but it is also partly because the US military likely cannot afford to use the munitions required for the exercises. Critical defences have also been moved from East Asia to the Middle East to shore up defence for both American bases and American allies. Both China and Russia have noticed this, and that is deeply worrying given Russia seems to be up something.

And then we had the entire farrago over the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln which spent over 250 days at sea, utterly exhausting the crew and flooding the US with stories of deplorable living standards and mental health crises on board. Trump of course dismissed the reports from the families of those serving, indicating he thought that the vessel hadn’t been deployed ‘not nearly long enough’. That is has finally been rotated out with another carrier taking its place seems to be in response to the anger back in the States, but the President will be loathe to admit fault.

Which is why we come back to Operation Economic Outcast. The reason Trump is returning to sanctions over resuming the war at the tempo he inflicted at the onset of the conflict is because the costs of maintaining that pace are increasingly exceeding the United States’ ability to sustain it. He has, Foreman-like, exhausted himself and his country against an opponent willing to absorb the damage. Sanctions are therefore used, not because they are likely to cause the Iranian regime to capitulate, but because they are the most attractive tool he has left in the box.

The problem is as a coercive tool sanctions don’t work in producing quick outcomes. As this report from the Hoover institution (written all the way back in 1998) makes clear …

When governments impose sanctions, the officials implementing the policy want to harm the dictator or bad guy heading the other country’s government. That’s the goal. What they do to achieve it is intentionally harm many innocent people in those countries by cutting them off… They are yanking innocent people’s tails so that those people…will lash out at whoever’s face is right in front of them. They want those people to see their own government as the enemy and to try to overthrow it…  Although governments in embargoed countries like Iran, Iraq, and Cuba strictly control what newspapers, radio, and television report, one piece of information that is sure not to be censored is the role of outside governments in the country’s economic distress.

Sanctions rarely work as a coercive tool because that is not what their purpose is. Sanctions are best employed to degrade the economy of states that threaten their neighbours and to contain those states until such times as internal events produce changes that leave the regimes so sanctioned more amenable to compromise. THIS is the purpose of the comprehensive sanctions that Iran is already under that were enacted by previous American administrations.

Hoping they will produce a quick win in a foolish war of choice is wilful naivety unworthy of the office of the Presidency, whose occupant SHOULD know better. They are for the long game, a game of containment and strategic patience and a tool Trump demonstrated absolute contempt for in the past precisely because they don’t produce the quick wins he craves.

Iran meanwhile is playing its cards well. They are adapting to the Drone Age of Warfare in ways their American opponents are not. This is driven by necessity given the overall weakness of the Iranian military vis-à-vis its American counterparts. Pivoting to cheap drones in which they are now global experts…with their Shahed models seemingly doing for drones what the AK-47 did for assault rifles…they have managed to wreak havoc on American assets within the Middle East. Remember the basis of rope-a-dope, make an enemy expend enormous amounts of effort whilst you absorb it and efficiently strike back as you can. The economic effectiveness of using inexpensive drones against expensive American counter-measures and destroying even more expensive assets is likely to force an evolution in defensive warfare to identify an appropriate counter-measure but at the moment the imbalance is producing meaningful results for the Iranians.

Barry McCaffrey, a retired US General and journalist, tweeted on X that…

In my judgement, the US Armed Forces have probably permanently lost access to 15 Persian Gulf bases. Iran now poised to control access the Gulf States. US will have to negotiate new access in western Saudi Arabia, Israel, southern Europe.

Whether McCaffrey is accurate or not is almost beside the point; immense damage that was not expected has been suffered to vital American military infrastructure in the Middle East.

Trump’s incompetence and the economic impact of the war are providing ample fodder for his critics back in the States in the run-up to the mid-term elections. Should Trump and the Republican party receive the ‘shellacking’ the polls are indicating, the empowered Democrats can be expected to interfere in the conduct of the war. The Iranian regime, keenly aware of these dynamics, is in no rush to let Trump out of the corner he has trapped himself as the election date moves forward. They are happy to help inflict whatever political damage they can on him.

This is not to say Iran is emerging unscathed of course. In this article I have referenced the Islamic Republic ‘absorbing the damage’ as a metaphor, but in practical terms that has meant the destruction of military and economic assets that has badly degraded the regime’s forces and many thousands of deaths, both civilian and experienced military and governmental personnel.

And Operation Economic Outcast as well as the blockade on one of their primary sources of revenue cannot just be laughed off with bravado. Whatever the US does manage to cut off, the people of Iran will most definitely feel the impact. They may not rage at their government for that suffering, but suffer they will.

Even the trump card they gained in this war, their control of the Strait of Hormuz, is recognised as a ‘wasting asset’ in that the reason the waterway has such value is because the countries that used it treat it as having such value. The more Iran strangles the waterway, the less value it has as those countries seek to find ways around it including building new pipelines and using other methods of getting oil to the global market. It may take years for those new methods to come online, but it means that the moment of maximum Iranian leverage is right here and right now. After a time, that leverage will degrade.

Ultimately, we don’t know where this will go. To return to my boxing metaphor we have to recall that Foreman wasn’t inflicting NO pain on Ali during the Rumble in the Jungle. Ali surely felt every blow that landed on him.

It was a race. Would Foreman be drained by Ali’s tactics before Ali himself crumbled under the assault? In 1974, Ali triumphed as he called it right that he could outlast the champion’s assault. The Iranian regime is making a similar bet, that they can exhaust the mighty United States using the same principles.

Can they accomplish that in spite of the massive tactical losses they have suffered, the very real pain inflicted upon them? The US may have badly miscalculated but they still maintain a considerable amount of resources to wage this war, and if they chose to do it they can escalate to levels Iran is unprepared for.

Iran is making the bet that the US won’t because to bring forces to bear against the Islamic Republic, they would leave themselves dangerously exposed in other areas, particularly East Asia.

They are also betting that Trump after the Mid-Terms will be Trump chastened when it is hypothetically possible that with no other election to ever concern him again, it could be Trump unleashed.

Instead, Iran thinks they have the rope with the Strait of Hormuz. And I am sorry to say the United States has presented the dope in the form of their unfit President, all too eager to keep walking into the jabs.

Just two rules. Keep it civil and no man/woman playing.

Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday.

So discuss what you like here, but no politics.

Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday.

Rooks caw-call the hours to roost. Light seeps a little. Tired leaves set for a fall. As our tilted world spins through the void on its sun circuit. Its angular balance enabling seasons. Too far and it’s chaos.

On one of the last days of summer, swallows coast the currents. Where a kite might fly.

Our swallows will soon soar south, from our occasional steeples of local difficulty, through Spain and Sahara to Southern Africa, whilst their Eurasian cousins will navigate a land bridge commencing in Lebanon and Israel/Palestine, a Rift Valley where Europe, Asia and Africa meet; where wings in Autumn and Spring weave through colour-blazed, kite-shivered skies. Where a child’s eyes raise high. In elation. In a moment’s respite. When, like uncaged birds, all is wild and free. The kites are mostly Diamond-shaped. Their frames like little crosses lifted up to sky—thousands of them.

Strange how the emblem of Empire’s power to torture and humiliate came to symbolise sacrifice, forgiveness, and refusal of the myth of redemptive violence. A symbol resounding still through time, as judgement on the Bronze-Age literalism of origin texts, where our love of violence, projected onto deity, is marshalled to permit impunity, still. No coincidence that textual literalism is always the weapon of Religio-Ethnic Nationalism.

On the penultimate day of Belfast’s Fleadh, a small gathering heard Peace Activist Mercy Aiken recount how, two Millennia ago, people may have reacted to the spectacle of an itinerant teacher on a cross. Some mourned the cruelty; others passing by perhaps showed some sympathy and stood to watch for a while, thinking that the violence was excessive, but moved on to daily routines in preparation for the Sabbath. Others preferred to point, laugh and mock this unlicensed Rabbi.

She then asked a question. ‘Who, today, is on the cross?’ On the Lynching Tree? The Olive Tree?

Perhaps one people amongst many might be found where the Rift Valley begins.

‘And what is the reaction of the many watching who now wear crosses clasped round their necks?’

In a tragic conflict of competing rights, it’s been said that the victors become the guilty and must make amends to the defeated. But this secular truth requires both the will and a means of enforcement. No such alignment as yet exists, which might hasten the fortunate circumstances we here enjoyed in the 1990s.

We know that as far back as 1948, Hannah Arendt foretold that an addiction to militarism would see the newly minted State of Israel descend into a Sparta – eventually producing its own imitative (as she would later term it) ‘Banality of evil.’

Perhaps we saw a glimpse of it this week in the cartoon villain-ish scowl of Defence Minister Israel Katz, announcing his Jihad on paper, string, and Gazan children. The ones who might unleash Terror Kites towards adjacent Israeli settlements. In deadly threat to a nuclear-armed, regional super-state.

Their flight anywhere in the shrunken 30% of Gaza behind the yellow line will now be punishable by missile or drone strike. It seems 20,000 plus (and counting) dead children aren’t enough. No number may ever be. But, as Youval Noah Harari recently observed, ‘You can’t rely only on force. If you see others only as a threat, then someday you have to conquer the whole world.’

Well, step by step then.

But when the baseline of a moral order is shredded, even our attention-deficit world (apart from its cloth-eared elites) begins to tilt and turn away from such a project, from such a hyper-vigilant forever war Joshua State. Growing numbers are now sceptical of a framing, that, as Daniel Klein recently pointed out, ‘whilst two thousand years of ancient memory supposedly gives Zionists an absolute right to return to a sovereign state on an ancestral homeland… 2000 years of continuously rooted presence gives Palestinians no such right to remain on theirs.’

Such Bronze Age ethics repurposed for the 21st-century were again exposed this week; where, in one of many actions by groups such as ‘Rabbis for Humanity’, whilst offering a ‘protective presence’ to besieged Palestinians in their West Bank homes, were pepper sprayed and beaten by masked, formerly ‘at risk’ Hilltop Youth – repurposed for Pogromist activity, accompanied and protected by the world’s ‘Most Moral Army.’ Where the pain of the ‘Lost Boys’ is repurposed and displaced onto the ‘lesser souls’ of the ‘unchosen.’ Those today pinned to an Empire’s cross.

But tonight, overlooking Strangford Lough, the light suddenly leaches. A sepia-tinged, single swallow soars high. A curlew’s echoing cry. The only ‘murder’ is a mob of crows beneath gold-washed sky.

Here, midst stone ruined only by time, I imagine a multicoloured kite flown high and remember a portion of a Joy Davidman poem (wife of a certain Mister Lewis).

‘May they see with unwounded eye, for once a gentle thing fall from the sky.’

This place inherited the first draft of belief, etched also in stone, when, with Empire in retreat, and the Legions withdrawn to Rome, a Celtic church blossomed throughout the four corners of our archipelago. In places like Lindisfarne, Iona, Bangor, Nendrum. Places and people that refused to look away from the cross – that sought freedom for the enslaved, and cherished, especially, the image of the Beloved disciple John, leaning against the breast of his Rabbi on their final evening, listening for the heartbeat of God. That pulsed into life the first non-violent, non-tribal Way, emerging from Judaic roots but spreading out to encompass all.

We live in a land that, like a palimpsest, contains multiple drafts. Where the stories of the past can be overwritten, yet never fully erased. Invariably, traces are left behind, ground deep into its fibres. All are part of its story. For no land can ever be owned by any particular ‘us’, but rather, we by it.

For Musab Sami Salim Qasim, who will always be nine.

In 2011, Gazan children set a world record, flying 12,350 kites simultaneously.

For information on local Parishes’ ‘Twinning’ initiatives with the West Bank, please visit christians4palestine.org

Gearóid always spoke in whispers and started his conversations with yes and finished with honestly or I swear on the bible. Every conversation.

Yes, George Best is dead.

Yes, your stock result is bad, honestly it is.

Yes, Alex Higgins is dead, I swear on the bible.

Yes, any holidays?

Yes, it’s not raining.

In the early nineties we both worked for a major Irish retailer that launched an expansion programme. The man originally earmarked for a position on the development team left the company unexpectedly. Consequently, Gearóid filled this position by default, rewarded with a brand new car.

Gearóid stared at his tea.

Yes it’s a Ford Granada, honestly.

What is Gearóid?

My new company car. It’s diesel, honestly it’s a diesel

That’s nice Gearóid’.

Yes, it has alloy wheels, honestly.

People steal them Gearóid be careful.

Yes, I know Houdi, but it has security nuts on the wheels.

Theft won’t happen, honestly.

Is there much talk about me?

He assumed everyone in the building knew that he had been promoted, had his own office above my branch and supplied with a car. A diesel car. A Ford Granada. I swear on the bible. Most people didn’t know, but those that did, knew he was going to be a veritable haemorrhoid traipsing around my branch annoying everyone.

Yes, I have asked Mr Mc Birney to give you a step up, honestly.

I’m not interested in it Gearóid as I have my own store to run, I’m too busy.

Mr Mc Birney, the provincial General Manager was a dead ringer for Sergeant Bilko from the 1950s TV series The Phil Silvers Show. Gearóid was that far up Bilko’s rectum he could have been cast in the show himself.

Gearóid was an incongruous individual possessing oversized arms like Popeye. A feature that rendered him not unlike a human crab in his five foot two inch frame, but paradoxically unlike a crab, he didn’t walk sideways. In fact he was more reminiscent of the motorised miniature robots in the Duracell battery adverts. Strutting about the shop-floor swiftly turning at ninety degree angles, sometimes walking backwards, shoulders moving upward as if satisfying an itch. Consequently, his colleagues called him Herr Flick after the Gestapo officer character from the TV sitcom ‘Allo ‘Allo.

In the years I worked with him I never once saw him eat anything. Not even a biscuit with his bottomless cups of tea or a single chip for his lunch. He was however, an inveterate smoker, devouring four Rothmans per morning break. Twelve on his dinner hour. Honestly. One cigarette lasted only three drags as his face turned puce, his jugular vein pulsating as if a gerbil had violated his neck. I swear on the bible.

In addition to speaking in whispers, Herr Flick used only monosyllabic phrases or tiny closed sentences. A mixture of natural shyness in tandem with his Machiavellian nature in trying to create the illusion that he was an oracle of the business decision making process. Some colleagues believed his personality disorder was the upshot of a lack of formal education which he cleverly disguised with a Pseudo posh accent. He tried twice as hard as every other executive to be an irritant. He succeeded with distinction. Honestly.

Months passed. Every week I watched him strutting around the workplace like a peacock. Clipboard in his left hand, Parker pen in his right which he held nib facing downward towards his chest and the clicker end outwards, moving it deliberately like a surgeon. I thought I was in a chapel confession box as he gave me my penance:

Boneless chicken wings. None. Unacceptable.

250g Cooked wings. None. Unacceptable

Family pack sirloin. None. Unacceptable

Houdi. Today’s delivery received – yes or no?

No

Actions please?

(Actions!! Actions!! Was this a statement or a question? Maybe it was an invitation to do handstands on the shop floor or perhaps trapeze across the checkouts).

I rang their head office Gearóid.

Who did you speak to?

Some girl on the desk.

Some girl is unacceptable.

Pardon?

I need facts, Houdi facts. Sales are being lost. Honestly.

I know.

Is this acceptable?

No.

Correct. It is not.

Houdi, honestly, right is right. Wrong is wrong.

For the previous five years I was Herr Flick’s boss. I would walk him around the supermarket pointing out areas for improvement, illustrating potential sales opportunities, where he lacked the coaching skills to reduce absenteeism. Even back then he was an automaton. On the Nixdorf computer he used one finger on the keypad to type his department orders. When he was ready to send the order into cyberspace he would raise his right forefinger in the air like Eric Bristow after scoring 180, straightening his torso proprietorially in the chair looking at me as if waiting for a thumbs up or down like I was Julius Caesar. He would hit SEND removing his forefinger immediately as if suffering an electric shock, or having just launched a missile attack on the head office of Stewart’s Supermarkets Ltd.

When working in areas a good distance away he would arrive back in my store not his usual officious self, using his time with me as an unwinder, regaling me with stories of the sales potential of thick T-Bone steaks. If only the company would follow his lead.

Prepackaged meat is the way forward Houdi. Honestly.

The gerbil now scurrying around his neck, as he sucked the dying breath from a Rothmans. I feigned complete interest is this discourse despite feeling my eyes glaze over. Steering the conversation on to TV series or movies was futile. His only interest was retailing, the important role he had in it and his Ford Granada. Yes, it was a diesel. It had security nuts on the wheels. I swear on the bible. He told me that a new store was opening the following week across the border. All branch managers were expected to attend the official opening. He was travelling with Bilko. That’s how important he was. I’d have to travel in my own car. Honestly.

The new store opened very successfully, with all branch managers present. In fact all company senior personnel were in attendance. Executives, buyers along with their assistants and of course Herr Flick’s mate Bilko.

Yes, everyone was there.

Everyone except Herr Flick.

Who arrived at the store four hours late, his hands black with car oil, crisp white shirt blotched in tar like a psychiatrist’s Rorschach ink blot test card. He approached Bilko, his head bowed in shame like a mendicant monk. Before he could speak, the passenger who replaced Herr Flick in Bilko’s car, an obnoxious female sycophant wannabe executive started laughing

Oh Gearóid, was that you we saw on the dual carriageway trying to change your wheel? Did you not see us waving at you?

Bilko’s face grew more crimson as Herr Flick turned the colour of chalk.

The next day back in my own branch Herr Flick practically camped in the canteen, the smoke circling the air like an Apache wigwam as he inhaled unfiltered John Players cigarettes.

Honestly, Houdi, I got a flat tyre.

Yes, I tried to change it.

But the locking wheel nut wouldn’t budge.

I swear on the bible.

I couldn’t get it off.

I thought you were travelling with Mc Birney Gearóid?

He should have stopped to help you.

Perhaps his eyes were on other things in that car?

Making no comment, he mercilessly sucked the death out of poor John Player, as the gerbil metamorphosed into a python in his throat. I don’t know if his silence was out of embarrassment of Bilko leaving him stranded on a dual carriageway or his personal shame over unrequited loyalty for his boss.

A year later, the arrival of Sainsbury’s, Safeway and Tesco sounded the death knell for the store development team. It wasn’t about expansion now. It was about survival. For the next year Herr Flick was following me around my store, except now, I was holding the clipboard. I had the Parker pen. I was his boss again. He needed to step up. Honestly. No more cuppas. No more John Players unfiltered. No more mind numbing conversations.

He had to give the car back to the company.

I swear on the bible.

Did you know it was a Ford Granada?

A diesel model.

Nuts, isn’t it?

Donald Trump stepped up his war of words with Ottawa on Thursday, ordering his government to change the name of Lake Ontario, which sits between Canada and the US, to “Lake America”.

Canadian Geese have also been renamed to Donald Ducks. This may or may not be true but frankly it’s getting hard to tell what’s real anymore anyway.

As per the article…

The UVF has been keen to see their organisation transition to that of being a veterans’ organisation, still bearing their name and allowed to parade as the UVF at commemorations and other ceremonial occasions. Progress has been slow given the UVF leadership seeking assurances over potential historical prosecutions. Now it has emerged the process risks being further bogged down as paramilitary chiefs are seeking to include younger members in any deal.

That includes members who were not even born when the UVF declared its ceasefire in 1994.

Sources say the leadership remain fixed on protecting people from prosecution. Given the UVF has murdered more than 30 people since declaring their ceasefire – all of them Protestants – they are looking to extend the amnesty of Troubles era crimes.

Fleur Ravensbergen was appointed last year by both the British and Irish governments to determine if there is ‘merit in, and support for, a formal process of engagement to bring about paramilitary group transition to disbandment’.

She is due to issue a report on the matter in the coming days.

Why write? For most writers the answer is simple, they have something to say and they want people to hear it, it may be simply the desire to entertain or it can be something more profound, a desire to influence others or change the world in some way.

Literacy is at the core of civilisation, what separates humans from animals is not using tools, not awareness of death, not fighting wars, nor is it killing for fun, there are examples of animals doing all those things. Humans are the only creatures that can record and pass on their thoughts to others across distance and time. No other form of life can do that. Writing is also an art and like all art it should touch others in some way, the reader should be informed but also, in the case of fiction, feel something.

Why write? In my case, I enjoyed writing at an early stage. I enjoyed the challenge of being given a random subject by a teacher and then creating a story from it. I make no claim to genius but if I wasn’t the best in class then I’d at least be in the best two or three. Also, it has to said, when the words come, and they don’t always do, it can be fun to put thoughts onto a page, especially when the words come easily in a stream page after page .

I have now written three books, one factual and two fiction. The history book was self-published and the two novels have both been published, the first twice by two different publishing houses. Each was a challenge I set myself, the first was simply to see if I could actually write a book.

They say ‘write what you know’ which is certainly sound advice, at least for a beginner. My first novel, Nights in Armour, was the story of a group of RUC officers in a fictional town during the Republican Hunger Strike of 1981. I intended to write something different to the prevailing nature of Troubles fiction which tended to be of the love across the barricades variety, thrillers or from a pro-IRA slant. The book was initially published by David Trimble under the auspices of the Ulster Society in 1993. He was not yet leader of the UUP at the time but was becoming more prominent within Unionism and I had some reservations about the book being perceived as propaganda. I couldn’t have had a conventional launch at the time and it was published under the nom de plume of Blair McMahon. I remember David saying at the private launch it brought home the true horror of the Troubles. I like to think it might have influenced him a little for the need for peace. Trimble also gave President Clinton a selection of Ulster Society books and I hope mine was among them. Again, I have no definitive evidence that was the case but it is nice to think a president of the United States might have at least glanced through it.

Nights in Armour is a more sympathetic portrayal of the men and women in bottle green than was usually the case but the characters are no angels. The public are no fools, no one is going to buy a Dixon of Dock Green type yarn. I was pleased with the reviews and the comments of one reader, if I paraphrase him correctly was, ‘I almost felt sorry for the RUC men’ made me laugh.

The book was reprised by Mercier Press, a Cork based publisher in 2019, which introduced it to a different, southern-based audience. I had to make some minor changes for the second edition and bring the ending up to date but 95% of the book is the same as the first edition. The process was interesting as there was no electronic copy of the original so I had to photograph all the pages and email them to a virtual office in the Philippines that typed them into a Word document. I had some interesting exchanges with the office manager as her typists struggled with the vernacular of the dialogue – ‘You have referred to this characters as a boy but he is clearly a man’ was typical of the questions, but she said the women enjoyed typing something different from the usual business documents.

The current book, The Birthday Boys, was a departure from the rules. Once more, I set a challenge for myself. I wanted to try my hand at literary fiction, a book about ordinary life and about subjects and situations I know next to nothing about. I therefore invented four main characters in totally different walks of life. They are old school friends who know each other by nicknames and call themselves the Birthday Boys because they kept in touch by meeting up on their birthdays.

The first Birthday Boy, Marine Boy is a former Royal Marine haunted by his experiences in the Falklands. To compound his PTSD, he has a disastrous personal life and is crushingly lonely. CARP is an acronym of the initials of his three forenames and surname, he is fairly successful career but feels his family, particularly his teenage daughters are drifting away from him. No matter how he tries, they are moving into their own worlds. The third, Fabulous Fred is a former professional footballer who has had to struggle with his latent homosexuality, coming out, and the desire to be treated as an equal in the eyes of the law as his straight friends. Finally, we have Dodgy Doug, a successful second-hand car salesman who seems to be winning at life until he has the type of conversation with a doctor none of us ever want to. He faces the biggest challenge of his life and the Birthday Boys support each other as they all seek their own redemption.

The book examines middle-age angst and what masculinity means in the 2020s. there are themes of reconciliation, friendship and other topical issues, including the pressures on teenagers and young women, it is a story about the curve balls life throws at us and how we handle them. I hope you will read it and that it touches you in some way.

You are invited to the launch of the Birthday Boys book tomorrow night (Thursday) upstairs in the Duke Of York Pub at 7:30pm. All welcome, free to attend  

Sam Thompson’s books are as follows.

Nights in Armour

https://www.mercierpress.ie/books/nights-in-armour/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nights-Armour-Samuel-Thompson/dp/178117699X

The Lesser Evil: A Political and Military History of the Second World War 1937-45

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lesser-Evil-Political-Military-History-ebook/dp/B00KLC8KX6

The Birthday Boys

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/BIRTHDAY-BOYS-THOMPSON-SAMUEL-Greenisland-Press/32493630671/bd

Also available at the usual on-lines outlets and bookshops.

As the Northern Ireland Assembly returns from summer recess, Ministers and MLAs have an opportunity to make a fundamental shift in how we respond to homelessness.

The change is simple in principle but transformational in practice: stop waiting for people to become homeless before we act.

Northern Ireland is facing a homelessness crisis. Rising demand is placing increasing pressure on individuals, families and public services, while spending on temporary accommodation continues to grow. Yet too many people still reach crisis point before meaningful support becomes available.

The problem is not a lack of understanding about what works. There is broad agreement that prevention is better than crisis response. However, our current legal framework remains focused on responding to homelessness once it has happened. Public authorities have statutory duties to deal with homelessness, but no equivalent duty to prevent it.

As a result, resources are often directed towards managing emergencies rather than stopping those emergencies from arising.

Northern Ireland is now falling behind the rest of the UK and Ireland. Scotland, Wales and England have all introduced reforms to strengthen homelessness prevention and encourage earlier intervention.

Scotland and Wales, in particular, have recognised that homelessness is not simply a housing issue but one that requires coordinated action across health, justice, social care and other public services. In ROI, a Homeless Prevention Framework is being developed to coordinate cross-departmental efforts and integrate services across the public sector.

That matters because homelessness rarely begins with housing alone. Relationship breakdown, domestic abuse, poor health, financial difficulties, leaving care or leaving prison can all increase the risk of homelessness. Preventing homelessness often depends on agencies working together before a crisis occurs.

Evidence from our work at Housing Rights signals that a statutory duty to prevent homelessness could help drive that change. Such a duty could require public authorities to identify risks earlier, take reasonable steps to intervene and work collaboratively to prevent homelessness wherever possible. Crucially, it would make prevention a shared responsibility across government rather than leaving housing services to pick up the pieces after crisis occurs.

Homelessness prevention doesn’t just make good sense in societal terms, it is also about making best use of (often limited) public resources. We need to start this transformation now, so that we can move from short term costly responses to more sustainable solutions.

Preventing homelessness is already recognised within the current Programme for Government. As parties look ahead to the 2027 Assembly election, the opportunity now is to build on that commitment and ensure prevention becomes a clear priority in the next mandate, connected to wider Executive ambitions including tackling poverty, improving wellbeing, reducing health inequalities and reducing reoffending.
That is why the next Programme for Government should make preventing homelessness an explicit priority and commit to progressing proposals for a statutory prevention duty.

These issues will be explored at Housing Rights’ Stormont event, Transforming Prevention Together: Improving Lives and Making the Best Use of Resources, on 14 September. The event will bring together policymakers, practitioners, academics and people with lived experience to examine how Northern Ireland can build a more effective prevention system.

At the event we will be joined by Professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick, who helped shape homelessness prevention reforms in Scotland and Wales, and will share lessons from those jurisdictions.

We know that intervening earlier can prevent people reaching crisis and reduce the pressure that homelessness places on individuals, families and public services. The challenge now is to turn that principle into a system that consistently acts before homelessness occurs.

As a new Assembly term begins, there is an opportunity to start that work.

Who were the Ulster Presbyterians?

Ferguson opened the historical discussion by asking the panel and audience to think carefully about what “Presbyterian” actually meant in the 18th century. Between 250,000 and 300,000 people emigrated from Ireland to America during that period, the majority Presbyterian and from the north of Ireland. He claimed that before the 1770s, the Presbyterian organisational network was “one of the few institutions that actually brought the colonies together”. 

But Holmes cautioned against treating “Presbyterian” as a fixed category. He said that a third and three-quarters of those who identified as Presbyterian did not attend church regularly. Many who arrived in America as Presbyterians became Methodists or Baptists as they moved to the frontier and lost access to a formal church structure. “The Southern Baptist Association today probably has more Scots-Irish in it than the Presbyterian communities,” he observed. And while Presbyterians could be thought of as naturally loyal and respectable — the tradition of Viscount Brookeborough and James Craig — they could equally be seen as radical and rebellious, as in the Society of the United Irishmen, founded in Belfast in 1791. What mattered, he suggested, was whether it was the lived experience of exclusion or the theological and philosophical principles of Presbyterianism that drove their involvement in the American rebellion: “Is it because they are Presbyterians or is it because of their Presbyterianism?”

Callan, speaking from the perspective of the Roe Valley and northwest Ulster, emphasised the material drivers of emigration. Land was the central issue. The Anglican establishment controlled most of the land in Ireland; Presbyterian tenant farmers, who had fought in the Williamite Wars and felt the promises made to them had not been kept, faced increasing economic pressure. When the British Crown, following the Seven Years’ War, blocked further expansion beyond the Appalachian Mountains, the same frustrations that had driven people to leave Ireland were now being replicated in the colonies. Figures such as Reverend William Martin, who took five shiploads of his congregation from the Roe Valley to the Carolinas, and Colonel William Preston of Virginia, who signed the Fincastle Resolutions, were driven, Callan argued, as much by economic necessity and the politics of land as by theological principle. “It’s all driven by economics and land for a lot of them,” he said, “and wanting to get prosperity.”

Telling the story on screen

McGuigan described how his film for RTÉ came about. In 2017, Ancestry.com produced an advertising campaign using a modern, multi-ethnic recreation of the famous Trumbull painting of the signing of the Declaration, planting the idea that the document’s legacy was inseparable from migration. By late 2024, with the USA 250 commemorations approaching and the BBC already working on a sweeping two-part series, McGuigan was looking for a different angle.

His wife, a former professional genealogist, suggested approaching the story from the Irish perspective — specifically through the descendants of the signers. McGuigan was initially sceptical: “There’s not a snowball’s chance in hell of you finding anyone today that goes back to 1776 from here.” Two weeks later, she produced a book called Suspected of Independence by David McKean, opening at page fourteen: “My family emigrated from Ballymoney.” McKean, it transpired, was a former US ambassador to Luxembourg and chief of staff to John Kerry — and a direct descendant of Thomas McKean, the last signer of the Declaration. 

The film, “Freedom Founder: Thomas McKean and the American Revolution”, was commissioned by RTÉ in November 2025 and shot in January 2026, partly in a snowstorm at the historical sites in Delaware and New Jersey. “You get a tingle up your spine sometimes,” McGuigan said of standing at Thomas McKean’s grave in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, snow falling, while David McKean stood bookending the story. 

Broadcasting, education, and the curriculum

McAlpin gave an overview of the Ulster Scots Broadcast Fund’s contribution to the USA 250 commemorations, noting that the sheer scale of the Ulster-American connection “bowls me over — even just touching the surface of this story, how big it is, how seismic, how important and how relevant it is today”. She asked the room whether any of them had learned this history in school. The answer, she said, was the same as her own: “No. And it’s to our shame.”

The USBF’s slate for USA 250 included McGuigan’s RTÉ film; “Declaration”, a two-part deep-dive series on BBC Northern Ireland by Double Band Films; the ongoing “Mahon’s Way” series with presenter Joe Mahon on UTV, which devotes several episodes to USA 250 connections across Northern Ireland and into Donegal and Monaghan; a two-part series by GB News presenter Dougie Beattie on “Architects of America”; and “America’s Ulster Story”, the Nerve Centre’s multimedia educational resource developed with historian Mark Thompson. 

McAlpin highlighted the significance of the moment for education policy. The Northern Ireland curriculum is currently being redrafted, and with the new Ulster-Scots and Ulster British Commissioner Lee Reynolds and Irish Language Commissioner Pól Deeds in post, there is now a legal requirement for Ulster Scots content to be embedded across all key stages: “It is now legal to have these stories embedded in our curriculum”. She gave examples of projects in Saintfield and Magherafelt that are working with Francis Hutcheson and Charles Thompson connections in the US. 

Questions and discussion

The discussion was opened to the floor with questions that pushed at some of the less comfortable aspects of the Ulster-American story.

An audience member raised the Paxton Boys — a group of Scots-Irish frontier settlers responsible for the massacre of Conestoga Native Americans in 1763 — and asked whether this was a negative legacy that the commemorations were adequately acknowledging. Ferguson was direct: the programming had consciously sought to engage with those difficult histories. “We’re not running away from or hiding any of those elements,” he said, while acknowledging that there had historically been a tendency to romanticise the frontier. Holmes added his characteristic caution: “I am uncomfortable with heroic narratives and interpretations of the past that divide people into good things and bad things.” What mattered was asking why particular stories were being told from particular perspectives — and recognising that the choice of emphasis was always a dialogue between the present and the past.

A second questioner raised the complexity of the Ulster-Scots category itself, claiming that: up to 40% of those who emigrated were not Presbyterian; many were Scots who had spent only a few years in Ulster before moving on; and almost all of the educated and moneyed emigrés had owned enslaved people. Holmes and Callan both acknowledged these points, with Callan noting that figures such as Hercules Mulligan — a Scots-Irish spy for George Washington — had owned enslaved people while fighting for liberty. “There’s a lot of context, a lot of grey,” he said. “And you take the frontier, for example — the relationship between the Native Americans and the Ulster-Scots group, it fluctuates over time.”

I shared my American emigration story, having lived in Northern Ireland for over 30 years, and described how my own family genealogy first drew me towards the Ulster Protestant dimension of American history — a bloodline I was able to trace back to Thomas McKean’s mother, Letitia Finney. I noted that the Scots-Irish contribution to American history is simply not taught in the United States. I asked McAlpin and McGuigan how the learning gathered through these productions might be reflected back into education on both sides of the Atlantic.

McAlpin responded with cautious optimism. While she acknowledged it was “above my pay grade” to prescribe curriculum reform in the United States, she pointed to the more tractable opportunity in Northern Ireland. With the curriculum redraft under way, the new commissioners in place, and a legal requirement to embed these stories across key stages, “It’s all here to be told.” The approach, she emphasised, had to be nuanced rather than didactic: “It’s not gonna be told as like a propaganda machine. It’s not gonna be told as like this is what happened, and that is that. Because all things are being discovered all the time.” She described the Education Authority as having “a work on its hands” to unpick the politicisation that had allowed certain historical voids to grow — but expressed confidence that the collective will, the resources, and the academic network now existed to make it happen. “It’s an exciting time.”

Ferguson closed with a reminder of the library’s own role in the story, founded as it was during the same era of Enlightenment ideas flowing across the Atlantic. He thanked the panel, noting that the event could easily have continued for several hours. A further session on the same topic was scheduled at the Linen Hall on 27 August.

Cross-published at Mr Ulster.

Rather than being delighted by the end of the IRA terrorist campaign, many conservative unionists were disturbed that the old certainties were crumbling. Famously the leader of the Ulster Unionists, James Molyneaux, described the IRA ceasefire as one of the most “destabilising events since partition.”

In 1995 the Garvaghy residents held a sit-down protest, but eventually the march was allowed to proceed. It was celebrated by a triumphant Paisley and Trimble.  It should also be remembered that Drumcree 1995 was where a fresh-faced Jeffrey Donaldson came to prominence, giving high profile media interviews and attacking the residents of the Garvaghy Road for being intolerant. He was selected as a replacement candidate in Jim Molyneaux’s Lagan Valley constituency the following year.

In 1996 the standoff was much worse, lasting from 5–11 July with rioting across much of N. Ireland. On the night of 7 July, Catholic taxi-driver Michael McGoldrick was killed in a murder associated with Billy Wright of the LVF.  During this time Wright was frequently seen at Drumcree in the company of Harold Gracey, head of the Portadown Orange Lodge, with Gracey thanking Wright for his role in supporting the Orangemen. At this time the law governing parade decisions was the Public Order (NI) Order of 1987, which allowed the RUC to ban or reroute parades based on the effect on public peace.  (Unfortunately, this legislation had the unintended effect of forcing police to respond primarily based on which side would cause most damage if they did not get their way.)  A decision was taken to allow the Drumcree Parade to continue

In 1997, Mo Mowlam made a decision that the parade would be allowed and a sit-down protest was forcibly removed.

In 1998, Northern Ireland had voted in May to overwhelmingly to accept the Good Friday Agreement (71.1%) and decades of violence were over, or so we thought.  A Parades Commission had been set up to rule on contentious parades and decided to ban the Drumcree Parade.  On Sunday 5^th July the Orangemen marched to Drumcree Church and stated they would remain there until they were allowed to proceed down the Garvaghy Road.  Thousands of unionist protestors began to gather and as expected, loyalist violence broke out across N. Ireland.

On Sunday 12 July, loyalists threw a petrol bomb through the window of a house in Ballymoney.  Inside were three young children – Jason (aged 8), Mark (aged 9) and Richard Quinn (aged 10) – all were killed.

The Orange Order has not paraded down the Garvaghy Road since that time, but has continued to protest about the Garvaghy Road march and about other marches in Belfast.

Why Does the Orange Order want to Reopen This?

In theory, the Orange Order is a Christian (Protestant) organisation but much of its behaviour around Drumcree seems the complete opposite.  Partly, this is because they fear that Republicans have outmanoeuvred them over parading – one Loyalist commentator is fond of saying “Unionism must give and Nationalism must get”, and the instinctive reaction is that we must halt the slide and stop giving in to nationalists.

Unionism has long had a conservative culture of opposing change; we closed the gates at Derry, our slogans are ‘Stand Firm’, ‘No Surrender’, ‘Not an Inch’ and ‘Ulster Says No’.  When the singer Cher sang “If I Could Turn Back Time”, it could have been our theme tune.

Laughably, one Loyalist commentator in a recent book declared that ‘Drumcree is seared on the soul of every unionist’ and appears to suggest that we need to go on an endless ‘culture war’ with Irish nationalists.

As someone who was teaching in a secondary school during the Drumcree years, I thought it was a poisonous dispute that was damaging to unionism and was leading our children into the arms of the paramilitaries.  Some of the Portadown Orangemen were so caught up in their own bitterness and anger that they were indifferent to complaints about this. On 7^th July 2000, Harold Gracey of the Orange Order refused to condemn the violence linked to the Drumcree protests, saying “Gerry Adams doesn’t condemn violence, so I’ll not”.

What would Jesus do?

The Orange Order tell us they are a Christian organisation and so it is reasonable to ask them, ‘What would Jesus do?’

Personally, I believe that when Michael McGoldrick was shot dead to force a Drumcree Parade, the Christian thing for the Orange Order to have done would have been to walk away from that dispute. When the Quinn children were murdered the Orange Order should have turned away in disgust.

I don’t believe there will ever be an Orange Parade down the Garvaghy Road.  The sensible thing for the Orange Order to do if they eventually get permission, is to apologise to all those who suffered during the Drumcree years and to voluntarily give up this route.

I am a big country music fan myself and Dolly Parton was perfect in every way. I particularly liked the more traditional bluegrass songs she sang. Her duet with Steve Martin is a particular gem.

Born on 19 January 1946 in Sevier County, Tennessee, Dolly grew up as one of twelve children in a humble one-room cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains. This rustic upbringing deeply influenced her artistry, inspiring timeless storytelling songs such as “Coat of Many Colours.” Her passion for music surfaced early; she began performing on local radio and television as a young child and made her debut at the Grand Ole Opry at just thirteen years old, introduced by Johnny Cash. Demonstrating remarkable resolve, she packed her bags and moved to Nashville the day after graduating high school in 1964. Her career gained significant momentum when she joined The Porter Wagoner Show in 1967 as a regular performer, establishing a foundation that soon launched her into international solo stardom.

Over a career spanning more than six decades, Parton has established herself as one of history’s most prolific songwriters, composing an estimated 3,000 songs. Remarkably, she wrote two of her most enduring masterpieces “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You” on the very same day in 1973. The latter would go on to become a global phenomenon once again when recorded by Whitney Houston in 1992. Parton’s remarkable chart presence includes 25 Billboard country number one singles and total record sales exceeding 100 million worldwide. She successfully crossed over into pop stardom and embraced Hollywood acting, earning acclaim for starring roles in hit films such as 9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias. Her contributions have earned her eleven Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award, alongside inductions into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Beyond her entertainment achievements, Parton’s legacy is deeply defined by her extraordinary philanthropy and entrepreneurial vision. In 1995, she established Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a literacy organisation that has gifted more than 200 million free books to children around the globe. Her generosity extended to medical science when she donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, helping to fund the critical early research behind the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. Furthermore, her enterprise as co-owner of The Dollywood Company, which operates the Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee continues to provide vital economic support and tourism to the region where she was raised.

I will leave you with her beautiful cover of the Neil Young classic “After the Gold Rush”. May she rest in peace.

A decision to bar the Orange Order from part of the flashpoint Drumcree marching route is to be quashed, a High Court judge declared today.The outcome was reached after the Parades Commission conceded a procedural error in how it dealt with an annual application for permission to walk along the nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown…The Orange Order is now expected to make a fresh application for permission to parade on the contentious route for the first time in a generation.

Posting on Facebook, DUP MP Carla Lockhart wrote the following

Today is a massive moment for Portadown District, for unionism and for loyalism. I couldn’t be prouder to stand with them. The next chapter of Drumcree is about to be written. There is no rational or legal basis for the continued prohibition of this traditional church parade.

It’s a technicality. The Parades Commission will merely need to show greater care in how they draft future rulings. The ruling does *not* mean a loyalist parade will happen any more than it means a Republican parade in Edgarstown or down the Shankill Road will happen.

From the FT:

Donald Trump has said he will increase tariffs on Canadian cars and automotive parts to 50 per cent as a new trade war erupts between the North American neighbours following the collapse of crunch talks over the weekend.

“Canada will be treated like a State no longer!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “On Trade, and in other ways, also, they are among the worst Nations in the World to deal with. They feel entitled, and yet, WE DON’T NEED CANADA, THEY NEED US!”

Canadian officials, meanwhile, demanded Ottawa hit back. Doug Ford, premier of Ontario, said Trump “can kiss my ass” and called for the government to take sweeping retaliatory measures.

Canada is the US’s second-largest trading partner, after Mexico. It already pays 50 per cent tariffs on steel. Ottawa had sought to have these slashed to 25 per cent as part of the recent negotiations.

Mark Carney has the backing of the Canadian electorate, who are pretty annoyed at the American regime.

What you need to know

So, where does the money come from? While the Treasury’s Open-Book Review estimated that measures within the Assembly’s remit could generate in excess of £3.3bn in spending power, several options appear counterintuitive, and the remainder would create significant political risk and opposition from unions and the public. 
 
The introduction of prescription charges would generate approximately £24m annually but with prescribing rates consistently higher than in Britain, such a move may risk exacerbating poor health outcomes by disincentivising patients to undergo treatment, generating higher long-term costs in return for a relatively modest financial uplift. 

Likewise, charging air passenger duty (APD) on long-haul flights would pocket £3m annually but would be unwise given the risk of route cancellations and reduced connectivity arising from Belfast’s competition with Dublin Airport, the major airport on the island which also does not charge APD. A UK Treasury suggestion of raising the criteria for the Concessionary Fares Scheme by five years to over-65s (netting £13m annually), is now likely to have a minimal revenue-raising footprint given Translink’s projected £47m loss for 2025-26. Indeed, this shortfall can itself be seen as a consequence of the Department for Infrastructure’s failure to revenue-raise appropriately (E.G by reversing fare freezes) to ensure service viability.

Regardless, these choices are insignificant in comparison to the Executive’s £400m black hole — I would argue that only three revenue-raising levers can realistically claw back the funds necessary: water charges (£357m) tuition fees (£237m), and the abandoning of pay parity (£200m if based on this year’s expenditure). These measures, all deeply unpalatable to the public, would require clear communication and rationale for their implementation, likely by making a direct link between the additional cost and the consequential benefit in service delivery made possible by the increased funding.

Taking water charges as an example, research indicates that our inadequate wastewater infrastructure is preventing the construction of 50,000 social homes, squandering 2,500 jobs and £270m investment in the local economy. Rather than imposing water charges as an additional form of taxation, the Executive should instead take the initiative and frame the public burden as a ‘cost of transformation’, which, according to a report by the Wastewater Infrastructure Group (WIG), could be lower in the long-term than the cost of inaction, with the economy estimated to be £10.9bn smaller by 2040 (£2,750 less per household), if we fail to take action now. If Stormont ringfenced a portion of the income from water charges to address our wastewater crisis, it could unlock housing, jobs and boost the local economy, whilst simultaneously easing budgetary pressures in the short-term. 
 
I suggest that a similar approach be applied to tuition fees and pay parity, using a section of the investment to fund Ulster University’s stalled Magee campus in the former case, and to address pressures within the health service in the latter, with the remainder used to fill the current financial vacuum. Of course, these choices have real consequences for families, and there is a case to be made for the Assembly availing from additional fiscal powers under a Burnham Government flirting with greater devolution: particularly taxation and borrowing powers for the NI Housing Executive. However, this argument is somewhat impaired by the Executive’s unwillingness to use the powers currently available. This aside, if ministers can show intent towards ensuring Stormont operates within its means, Westminster might be more willing to provide additional funding to partially reduce the current budget deficit, particularly in the event that parties agree to institutional reform.
 
Finally, with schools and public infrastructure frequently duplicated to serve individual community designations instead of population need, ministers should now work together to grasp the enormous economic opportunity to tackle the cost of division in our society, estimated at over £400-800m per year, the entire size of the current budget shortfall.  
 
If we want to transform public services and escape our death spiral of budget instability, there is only one solution: our politicians on the hill must admit that we have to foot the bill.

Matthew Taylor is an Account Executive at Chambré.