Mary McAleese has suggested that the end of Ireland’s centuries long political conflict is at hand. This in many ways echoes comments by Bertie Ahern whilst he was in Washington. Of course these sentiments are not confined to RoI politicians or to nationalists and also seem to have some echoes in Dr. Paisley’s latest remarks. I do feel, however, that this is a very difficult conclusion to draw when one considers the history of this island and indeed the history of other conflicts in the world.

The conflicts here have been “solved” with tedious frequency. Ireland has been “pacified” whether by force or by politics on many occasions. By turns Elizabeth I, James I/VI, Cromwell and Gladstone used “pacification” of various forms and the list of rebellions includes so many dates: 1641, 1798, 1916 etc. I would suggest that the nature of our conflict here is somewhat similar to ethnic conflicts, although as with many so called ethnic conflicts, there are no actual ethnic differences, merely cultural ones. The problem is with totally differing political aspirations and that is unlikely to change any time soon.

Looking to other places in the world there are frequent examples of conflicts supposedly solved years ago, which recurred. How many expected the orgy of violence visited on the Balkans? Remember also that the Balkan conflict was “solved” by the creation of Yugoslavia after it had helped precipitate the First World War (of course the above is utterly simplified but there is some truth therein). The horrors of Rwanda were unexpected but had causes and (much milder) precedents in the history of that region.

So maybe we have some form of permanent peace and all subsequent quarrels about Northern Ireland will be solved peacefully. However, this sounds a little like the pronouncement of “The End of History” after the end of the Cold War.

Whilst I agree with Mick that at the moment there (thankfully) seems little likelihood that the dissident terrorists will manage to return us to major violence; I am brought back to that elderly couple at Moane’s Cross with whom I started. I sometimes wonder if the terrorist attacks we are seeing now are a little like the IRA border campaign. At the time I am sure the RUC and the government in Stormont were delighted with how relatively easily they defeated that campaign. Little did they know that massively more violence (initiated let us remember by loyalists) was then less than a decade away.

Of the future, he says: "I believe that we can live together. We’re not going to have a united Ireland within 50 years or maybe 100 years but then I’ll not be here anyway, so it doesn’t matter."

And, regardless of what some might say, unless former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's advice is followed, he's probably not wrong.

"This week we have a policeman blown up with an under-car bomb," [McDonald] said.  "Now the dissidents may not have the same capacity the IRA had but the fact is this has happened and we don't know when it will happen again or who will be the next target.  How can you ask loyalists to decommission when we are sitting here not knowing when the next attack will be?  There are criminal gangs now with more money and weapons at their disposal than paramilitaries on either side ever had.  The police aren't willing or able to deal with them and so we continue to be led by opinion within our own community."

Of course, concern for the police hasn't always been a priority for the UDA. But Jackie might be forgiven for thinking ‘where have all the good times gone..' And there may also be some carotene-withdrawal symptoms involved..

OK, its Friday night, Janet's out with her mum, my younger son's been round, but now I'm reduced to the Smashhits! channel on Sky as I create a marketing brochure (day job) ... and then this comes on. So 90s, but brilliant!

With thanks to the City Council's Economic Development Department, who gave me the CD, here's a glimpse of Dundee's Waterfront of the future. As Planning & Transport Convener of the City Council, I am a member of the Waterfront Board, and am taking a very close interest in developments. You can access the Waterfront website by clicking on the headline above.

These really are his features. I recognised them immediately. It is a new image, with the realism of the period, before the conventional representations of a divine Caesar. He has a long neck, wrinkles showing his age, the prominent Adam's apple, the high and wide forehead and marked baldness.

There is, I suppose, a remote possibility that it does represent Julius Caesar, but no particular reason at all to think that it does - still less to think that it was done from life.

The game of art-historical snap is a risky business, and honestly you could find hundreds of Romans who, with the eye of faith, look pretty much like this. Besides - despite all you get told about the style of the portrait pinning it down to a few years - this style of portraiture lasted for centuries at Rome. There is nothing at all to suggest that it came from 49-46 BC.

We have consulted the most eminent specialists in ancient statuary so as to make sure that this really is a portrait of Julius Caesar. The researchers unanimously confirmed the authenticity of the image. It is typical of realist portraits of the Republican era... Everything points to its being a portrait of the emperor executed during his lifetime.

More data, this time about the provision from primary care trusts in England (Hansard 15 May 2008, columns 1673W-1677W). The data is (or "are" if you prefer) based on social aspects like life expectancy and deprivation and on administrative aspects like the proportion of patients seen within forty eight hours and the proportion able to see a specific GP.

Each trust is ranked against the average for all trusts in England. Average is undefined but presumably is the mean average.

Here comes the teaser. There are 152 trusts in the published Hansard table in rank order. If 1 is best and 152 is worst, whereabouts is Cornwall and Isles of Scilly primary care trust (CIOSPCT)? Near the best or the worst? 32nd, 99th, 151st?

I'm sure you've guessed right, having read my previous posts.

Yes, it's 32nd.

Of course I repeat my comment on all Cornwall data: to look at aggregated data for the whole county, or an entire trust, is not particularly helpful. What counts is the position on the ground for individuals and parcels within those areas. For people who live here Cornwall is not one place but many places and the circumstances of life vary vastly.

Let me end with another teaser. Do you think this favourable trust data will figure on any nationalist or Libdem Cornwall website?

This week on Sunday Live, Adam will be speaking to Gordon Brown's key lieutenant, Cabinet Minister Ed Miliband.

Last year he was charged with drawing up the party's manifesto for a snap election - given the current state of the polls, should Gordon have gone for it?

The papers will be reviewed by Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin and former Number 10 adviser to Tony Blair, David Hill.

You can also see an exclusive interview with the President of the Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko. And the former Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf speaks about the state of the criminal justice system and ethics at BAE.

One of the original 'Angry Young Men' - Alan Sillitoe - discusses turning 80 and the enduring popularity of works like 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' and 'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner'.

Plenty to talk about with the FA Cup and Champions' League Final in the pipeline, and showbiz is provided by Graham Goulden of 10cc, and the singer who broke out of the internet and into the mainstream Sandi Thom:

That's Sunday Live at 1000 this Sunday.

Day 1: If you vote for a political party because a dead soap opera character told you to, you will lose your vote. And your prefrontal cortex.

A bit of a must-see this one.

Appearing at Tower Bridge Magistrates Court the blogger, real name Paul Staines, was told the curfew would operate between the hours of 9pm and 6am. Staines, 41, will also have to wear an electronic tag.

The judge also handed down an 18-month supervision order and a three year driving ban. Staines will be required to retake his driving test when the driving ban has elapsed. He was also ordered to pay the prosecution's £60 costs.

(Additional reporting by Tim Ireland)

Tags: disintermediation

Update 16/5: Our court reporter Tim Ireland adds further details.

I think this is a really valuable tool to assist patients in allowing them to make an informed decision about where best to get treatment.

[N]othing terrifies a repressive regime quite like a natural disaster. Authoritarian states rule by fear and by projecting an aura of total control. When they suddenly seem short-staffed, absent or disorganized, their subjects can become dangerously emboldened. It's something to keep in mind as two of the most repressive regimes on the planet -- China and Burma -- struggle to respond to devastating disasters: the Sichuan earthquake and Cyclone Nargis. In both cases, the disasters have exposed grave political weaknesses within the regimes -- and both crises have the potential to ignite levels of public rage that would be difficult to control.2

Who will rebuild Tabas today? Who will rebuild Iran after the earthquake of Friday, September 8 [Black Friday, when the army massacred hundreds of protesters in Djaleh Square of Tehran], right under the treads of the tanks? The fragile political edifice has not yet fallen to the ground, but it is irreparably cracked from top to bottom.

In the torrid heat, under the only palm trees still standing, the last survivors of Tabas work away at the rubble. The dead are still stretching their arms to hold up walls that no longer exist. Men, their faces turned toward the ground, curse the Shah. The bulldozers have arrived, accompanied by the empress; she was ill received. However, mullahs rush in from the entire region; and young people in Tehran go discreetly from one friendly house to another, collecting funds before leaving for Tabas. "Help your brothers, but nothing through the government, nothing for it," is the call that Ayatollah Khomeini has just issued from exile in Iraq.3

In a recent lessons-learned meeting on the Bam earthquake in Iran, a polite and respectful colleague from the Iranian Ministry of Health related his frustration at international NGO coordination in the early days of the emergency. He said that, at the same time as he was desperately trying to set up field hospitals and bury the dead, representatives from over 100 international NGOs had individually requested meetings with him. He appreciated their help, he said, but some organisations wanted to ask him about the siting of rural clinics when he was still trying to arrange emergency medical evacuations. Was there no way, he asked, that these agencies could organise themselves better in the early days of a disaster?5

And thank you for your kind comments about the new baby. I think she may have my appetite

Mr Brown made a terse and perfectly judged statement. For all its brevity, it conveyed the essential message of calm resolution and national unity: "I know that the British people will stand together, united, resolute and strong.'' This was High Seriousness delivered in the old-fashioned way, with spare wartime urgency and without sentimentality.

Again, yesterday, in his interview with Andrew Marr, Mr Brown did not put a foot wrong ... Interestingly, these were the first television appearances I have seen in which there was no sign of his peculiar nervous mannerism of rolling his tongue inside his mouth that is so beloved by satirists. Has he been trained out of it, or has he been transformed by his role and the state of national emergency? Either way, its absence helps to remove the impression of neuroticism that would not have inspired public confidence.

First the terror attacks, then the floods, now the pestilence. Gordon Brown seems to be undergoing the trials of Job. But in this case, it is not so much his faith that is being tested as the country's in him. And, my goodness, isn't he rising to the challenge?

Once again he has appeared on our television screens within hours of terrible news, not just to assure us that he personally is taking charge of the foot and mouth crisis but to thank the authorities in affected communities for their cooperation and competence - to make it clear, in other words, that he is in command but also deeply respectful of people on the ground who must deal with the problems over which they have singular expertise.

Wow! Will this guy ever put a foot wrong?

"...the Secretary of State for Wales, Paul Murphy, went on television to state that the election results showed that further devolution was no longer the political priority of Welsh voters. People, he said, were far more interested in the delivery of public services.

"In making this statement he was speaking diametrically against the policy of the Welsh Labour Party. This underlined the growing tension between the Labour Party in Wales and their Labour colleagues in the UK Parliament. Undoubtedly Welsh Labour leaders in the National Assembly saw their disastrous local election performance as a result of the incompetence of Labour's ruling regime in London."

There's concern that while the Assembly LCO Committee wanted to work jointly with the Welsh Affairs Select Committee to scrutinise the Order, "this has subsequently proved not to be possible".

And there's yet more disappointment that despite cross party support in the Assembly for the conferral of powers in relation to the physical punishment of children - it isn't, of course, happening. You must remember the 'Slap in the face of the Assembly' headlines.

And then there was that half-hearted invitation from the MPs to AMs to 'observe' their scrutiny ... but not join in.

"They tend to want to double scrutinise and look at policy and look at measures because they have a policy interest as Members of Parliament...it's not for them to make legislation. What we are seeking are the powers, that is what the issue is about. That's a constitutional matter and therefore I think that's more appropriately addressed by the Justice Committee, the constitutional committee of the House of Commons."

In his new book, Reappraisals, Tony Judt claims we live in an "age of forgetting".  We regard history, he says, not as something that has shaped us, but rather a litany of error and delusion from which we have escaped into sanity. And because our economy is undergoing the most rapid and extensive transformation the world has ever seen, we believe history has nothing to teach us: we think "that was then; this is now."
Which raises the questions: is this true? If so, why?
It certainly hard to square with what seems an active market for history. The BBC's History magazine sells as well as the New Statesman and Jewish Chronicle combined; two TV channels are devoted to history, albeit sustained by Nazi-porn; and popular books on history sell well.
And yet, I suspect many might be guilty of Judt's charge.  Here are three possible causes of the problem:
1. An undervaluing of academia generally. Knowledge for its own sake - be it history, Latin, pure science - has a low priority. The function of education is thought to be preparing people for work.
2. Managerialism. The most famous saying of the quintessential managerialist Henry Ford is: "history is bunk." And it is for managerialists, who are always "moving forward", "progressing" away from an irrelevant past: Tony's Blair's ignorance of history was limitless. The managerialist faith that all problems are soluble requires a blindness to history, which tells us this is not so. No boss values the employee who tells him: "we tried that a few years ago, and it didn't work."
3. Narcissism. In an era when we all think ourselves unique and special, we flatter ourselves that we are self-made men rather than bearers of historical and social relations. We don't therefore need history to tell us who we are.
As Oasis put it in one of their most popular songs:

I'm free to be whatever I
Whatever I choose

But the point is that the Gallaghers were not free, but were instead products of history; men who used musical history as refuge from a dysfunctional working class family. History made them, as it made us all.

What can I say about the galloping major that hasn't been written a thousand times before? (one thousand, eighty hundred and forty seven if you include the writings of Brian Glanville.)

The sweetest left foot. The fulcrum of the best team never to win the World Cup. Playing in that game that every male Glaswegian over the age of sjxty claims they saw in person. That wee jink and move to turn Alf Ramsay inside out for that goal against England in '53. Oh and someone is using his name over at the Guardian Sportsblogs to fuel the conspiracy theories in anticipation of R*ngers end of the season run-in:

"You're aware who currently manages Aberdeen?

Tango and Sash will make sure Rangers secure any necessary points at Pittodrie next Thursday.

Having said this Bob Malcolm FTP won't be trying to hard this weekend to upset the orange, I mean, apple cart.

Hence Celtic's greatest hope lies at Love Street on Monday - bugger." [Rangers' treble triumph in the hands of McGhee's Motherwell men]

Conspiracy theories to the left of us, conspiracies to the right of us. A future R*ngers domestic treble staring right back at us.

Q: What do you get when you cross a left anorak with a psephologist

A: Someone who will click on this latest/final post from the SPGB's election blog, Vaux Populi.

The comrades over at VP give a breakdown of the votes for the SPGB candidate in the Lambeth and Southwark constituency. Turns out the Party's best ward vote - a whopping 71 votes - was in the Larkhall ward. I'm not knocking it. It's the first recorded victory of a Menshevik over a Bolshevik (71-50) since the Georgian Parliamentary Election of 1919.

Now we know where to concentrate comrades. Larkhall can be the Little Moscow Paris Commune for the 21st century.

PS

Q: What a good definition of 'reaching'?

A: When the comrade in the same post suggests that the SPGB's best result in Southwark - Faraday Ward - can be put down to the fact that the Party had an " . . . outdoor speaking station [that] we ran at East Street from the 1930s to the 1960s." [My emphasis.]

That comrade is now being head-hunted by Gordon Brown for the position of Chief Spindoctor for the forthcoming General Election.

Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees fame may have let the cat of the bag over the Prime Minister's taste in music.

Although Gordon has previously admitted to listening to The Arctic Monkeys regularly, today the 70s disco legend told The Times: "He listens to our music every day. Gordon likes our music and I like Gordon."

Apparently the Prime Minister likes the Bee Gees' music "because it talks about human relationships and experience rather than specific events and reaches out across the decades".

However Downing Street has kept almost silent on the issue.

"The Prime Minister listens to a wide range of music," was all his spokesman would say when asked at Lobby about the revelations.

Does this mean Labour will be changing its anthem from D:Ream's 'Things Can Only Get Better' to 'Staying Alive'?

Which Bee Gees classic do think is the Prime Minister's favourite?

(EMDP) aimed to attract bright students from state schools in inner London who had A-level results that were far too poor to gain entry to medical school and show that, with the right help, they could succeed. Students would normally require two As and a B at A level, but the scheme, called the Extended Medical Degree Programme, accepted those who had managed no better than three Cs. (The Times)

…many of the students who are from lower professional and managerial groups have a Black African heritage and from families headed by women….Many of the students classified as being from semiroutine and routine backgrounds are from South African families. (BMJ)

…the scheme is politically correct, but costly. The extra cost is £190,000 a year. Professor Chris McManus, of University College London, and Hugh Ip, of the journal, question whether this is justified. The scheme involves sacrificing equality of opportunity for the quest for social justice, they say.
"Is it worth our while to widen participation, particularly if this risks reducing standards?" they ask. "Political ideology says yes, but the evidence is pending and the costs are rising fast." (BMJ editorial)

As BOM readers will know, Heather Brooke is a fearless and indefatigable freedom of information campaigner. She runs the blog Your Right to Know.

For the past couple of years she has been hard on the case of our rascally MPs over their secret expense claims. And today she has won a famous victory. Despite the tax-funded efforts of Fat Mick to outgun her in the courts, she has won:

"Lord Justice Latham and Mr Justice Blake dismissed Parliament's attempts at preventing disclosure... they said:

"Once legislation which applies to Parliament has been enacted, MPs cannot and could not reasonably expect to contract out compliance with it, or exempt themselves, or be exempted from its ambit. Such actions would themselves contravene the Bill of Rights."

Given that the Bill of Rights (pic) was established 300 years ago - long before we ordinary punters even had the vote - the judgement speaks volumes about the sleazy self-serving pit into which Parliament has sunk.

Of course, our esteemed rulers may appeal still further. But as Heather points out:

"The more MPs resist transparency the more they fall in the public's esteem. Constituents are not content with the elitist and unaccountable old boys system that operates inside the Palace of Westminster. Drastic reform is needed to bring this institution into the 21st century."

Hear hear.

A year ago, President Nicolas Sarkozy was elected on a reformist platform--that he termed a "rupture" with past policies--to tackle long-standing economic difficulties. The government has pushed through several initiatives, including measures to boost work, investment, and purchasing power, but the needed "critical mass" to boost lagging growth and tackle persistently high unemployment is still to come.

Inspired by Friday Lolcats meme.

One point repeatedly raised at the west Belfast conference was that the Titanic quarter will shift the city's economic centre of gravity to the east. But thousands of people from west Belfast once worked on Queen’s Island. They travelled there by tram and they could do so again if Sinn Fein regional development minister Conor Murphy would spend £1.86 million a year on a west Belfast light rail line.

West Belfast is a place and a community apart, not least due to the massive and traumatic population shifts of the late sixties and early seventies. Early attempts by some residents to move their families out into mixed areas, even well beyond the confines of the city ended in some of them being intimidated back into the safer reaches of their original communities. This is often underestimated by outside commentators. If there is a siege mentality, some of it arises from what many in that community would see as good reason.

But Emerson does have a point when he suggested that some of the Troubles-centric development decisions have helped deepen a sense of isolation from the rest of the city. Not least the deep (and widening) trench that is the Westlink:

One obvious and highly profitable solution would be to drop the road into a trench and roof it over, creating hundreds of acres of prime city centre real estate. It might seem perverse to suggest this while the current Westlink widening is still under way but that project ripped up years of recently completed improvements.

Even mundane cities such as Leeds manage to bury their urban motorways, despite having no local ministers with devolved powers. However, burying the Westlink has never been seriously considered throughout all the many opportunities to do so, including the Invest NI conference.

It appears that certain people, both inside and outside west Belfast, are only too happy with its tarmac moat.

He argues that Sinn Fein's leadership on this issue is at best misguided:

Last week’s ‘cultural conference’ may have helped some republicans to cope with the stench of global capitalism emanating from the Invest NI conference. But few of the party’s constituents will be helped by pretending that a neighbourhood Irish-language quango will be a force for economic growth even if they find this tribal totem more pleasing to contemplate than the difficult decisions that are actually required.

“Whenever I hear the word ‘culture’ I reach for my gun,” Hermann Goering famously never said. Sinn Fein, conversely, has put down its gun and reached for the word ‘culture’. There is little reason to believe that this strategy will be any more successful than the last one.

We now accept that there was no evidence that the broadcaster or programme makers had misled the audience or that the programme was likely to encourage or incite criminal activity. A review of the evidence (including untransmitted footage and scripts) by Ofcom demonstrated that the programme had accurately represented the material it had gathered and dealt with the subject matter responsibly and in context.

We accept, without reservation, the conclusions of Ofcom and apologise to the programme makers for the damage and distress caused by our original press release.