Black Friday comes to the UK - People lose their shit.

Black Friday sales hit the UK this year in a big way and already (time of writing - 10am) people are losing their shit.  Police have been called to several Tesco and Asda stores as customers get out of hand trying to get cheap TVs.

In The United States, Black Friday is a holiday that follows Thanksgiving Thursday where retail stores heavily discount outgoing stock to sell to the public.  It has slowly been gaining traction online in the UK for the last year or two but this is the first time that brick and mortar stores have gone out of their way to contribute to the madness.

Many large stores have been open since midnight and selling a lot of items at up to 80% off.  It's set to out do boxing day as the UKs biggest shopping day for the first time since people kept track of this sort of useless statistic.

Even online retailers such a Currys/PC world had to implement a queuing system on their websites from as early as 10pm the night before to prevent their site from crashing under the expectations of eager shoppers.

There have been no reports yet of any serious problems in Norn Iron but if there's one thing we do better than the rest of the UK it's get a bit rioty over nothing so watch this space.

Ulster Scots visitor centre opens in Belfast city centre. People still unsure of what it is.

Ulster Scots, a language that only exists because Unionists are jealous of Republicans having Irish, has got its own visitor centre in Belfast City Centre this week.  With approximately £350,000 of its funding coming from the UK government and around the same from the Irish government, some may see it as a waste of money for what is essentially a dead language that no-one speaks (although the 2011 census has the number of speakers at around 16,000, but everyone has got together and agreed that the figure is probably bollocks). 

Ulster Scotch: What we know

Examples of Ulster Scotch (or Ullan) date back to the 18th Century.  There was large demand for Scots speaking poets such as Burns, Lindsay and Ramsay in Ulster and their work was printed locally.  Scots was also used in the narrative in local literature in the 19th century by Ulster novelists.

Then it sort of died. In fairness, everyone was a bit busy in the early 20th century with risings and global conflict.  

There was a revival in the early 90's and in 1992 the Ulster-Scots Language Society was formed to protect and promote what they saw as a language (but no-one else did).

Ulster Scotch as it is today is basically made up.  A language that has gained what little traction it has because of Unionisms need to have a sense of belonging and identity.

Make up your own language, it's fine. I did it when i was 8 and it never hurt anyone.  The main difference is that i didn't get £350,000 of government funding to open a 'visitors centre' in the centre of Belfast.  Not to mention the missing £400,000 from 2010.

Ulster Scots has received at least a million in funding in the last 4 years.  This would be fine if we hadn't been in an economic decline for the same time.  A decline that is coming to a head in the upcoming budget.  The money that's being given to keep alive a language that essentially only exists to prove a point could be much better spent in our schools, our libraries, on our roads or in our hospitals.

Happy 100th Birthday to us! 100 Years of Norn Iron News

We're 100 years old today. Here's a short history.

Started in 1914, our first story was all about The Great War and distributed about Belfast free of Charge written on the back of cigarette cartons.  Due to the prohibitive cost of printing, our first article was:

"War: Europe at War. More Next Week".

In Norn Iron News tradition, we didn't print another article until June 1916 when 18 year old founder, editor and writer David McNorn accidentally volunteered for the 36th Ulster Division and was sent to war.  He convinced the powers that be that he was a proper journalist so managed to avoid any actual fighting and observed The Battle Of The Somme from the side lines, writing up reports for the top brass and sending them back.  Some of his work was printed in the press at home for morale purposes and he always considered these to be official Norn Iron News publications (they were not).  The bloodiest battle of the great war, The Somme lasted until November and thinking he'd managed to get out unscathed, McNorn was captured by the Germans.

He was released in September 1939 (a paper work snafu saw him classified as German so he was held as a traitor long after he should have been released in 1918) but promptly recaptured while realising his long held boyhood dream of visiting Poland before he came home.

He finally arrived back in Belfast in 1945 and bought some premises to start his new paper, The Norn Iron News. 

He sadly died before launching the first proper issue of The Norn Iron News.  No autopsy was ever carried out however unconfirmed reports suggest he fell into what was to be the Norn Iron News printing press. (This is thought to be the origin of the 'what's black and white and read/red all over' joke).

In 2009 the Norn Iron News editor found the printing press at an auction, pulled McNorns remains out of the workings and relaunched the Norn Iron News.  It flopped spectacularly and was too expensive so he just stuck it online instead.  And here we are. 100 years later*.  Happy Birthday To Us.

*100 posts

News Roundup Part Two - An Irish man in Damascus, Jim Wells is a dick and Ashers Bakery are giant dicks.

Northern Irish man attends training camp in Syria

We love Derry here at the Norn Iron News.  You know who loves it more though?  Eamon Bradley who recently returned home to Derry after receiving fire arms training in Syria.  

Inexplicably, he could not get the training he needed from anyone in Derry or even Northern Ireland.  Given our propensity toward violence, it's clear he didn't look hard enough.

Bradley claimed he used his training to help fight future Call Of Duty bad guys ISIS while in the middle east but did not use firearms or explosives to do so.  Presumably he went for a speed class and just ran around knifing them.

Incoming health minster Jim Wells starts as he means to go on

It was the announcement we were all waiting for. Poots was out.  Who would replace him....none other than Jim Wells.  He couldn't be worse than Poots, could he??

"If you go to a hard bitten social club in West Belfast tonight, you will see six foot tall men with skin head haircuts, tattoos and earrings, standing out in the rain smoking"

Nothing says 'i'm good for this country' like some epic stereotyping in your first month in a high profile post.

Nice one Jim.

Bakery to be prosecuted for hating the gays/sticking to its principles/ being dicks

The Northern Ireland Equality Commission is to take legal action against Ashers Bakery after it refused to make a cake with pro gay marriage slogans on it.

Long and short of this story is:

The bakery are being dicks

The catholic church has sided with the bakery (at least it's local bishop has).

Nearly everyone else supports the Equality Commissions view of things.

Just bake the fucking cake guys...it was to have Bert and Ernie on it. Focus on that.

And Happy 100th post to us.

News Roundup Part One - Budget Cuts, Ebola, Sport and Abortions

Google Image Search For The Word 'News' Gave This Result

News Roundup.  Because we forgot to write anything for three weeks.

First up - Sport!

No men hitting balls with a stick this time around but rather men hitting balls with their feet.  After beating the mighty Estonia and Greece in the Euro Qualifiers, Northern Ireland have risen to 43rd place in the Fifa World Rankings table.  Ahead of ROI and just behind Scotland and Wales.

HOLY SHIT WE MISSED EBOLA IN NORTHERN IRELAND...wait, no. It's ok.

A patient, believed to be a woman, returned from Africa and tested positive for malaria.  Having been to an ebola infected region, they also put her into isolation and the national media flipped their shit, reporting on the lack of news every day until the ebola tests came back negative.    A random woman in Derry also tested negative after going to the hospital feeling "generally unwell" and worrying she had contracted Ebola, despite not being out of the country.  

Stormont Agrees Budget At Last

The NI Assembly agreed a budget at last this October, securing a 100 million loan from the Treasury.  Only the shinners & the DUP voted for the budget with the SDLP voting against and Alliance abstaining (uncontroversial position by the Alliance party? Shocker).  Oh and the UUP abstained too but no one really cares what they think.

Long story short, they need to find savings of nearly £900,000,000 (900 million, yes) so most departments, with the exception of health, will be gouged for cash.  Health will in fact get an increase to its budget of 200 million but somehow they're still cutting services and closing hospitals.

Nice work, Stormont.

Amnesty International Poll Suggests Public In Favour Of Abortion (In Certain Circumstances).

Long and short of this is that the government, being alarmingly rooted in the church, won't even think about it so it's not really news.  Nice try though Amnesty, at least someone is trying to do something.

Paying For Sex Made Illegal In Northern Ireland, Men Everywhere Disappointed To Find Out It Wasn't Before.

The Northern Ireland Assembly has finally passed a law making it illegal for people to pay for sex in Northern Ireland.  Up until this week it was perfectly legal to pay for sex by either picking up a prostitute on the road side or going to one of the many brothels dotted throughout the country.  Arguments against the proposal have centred around how the law will force prostitution underground as it was so mainstream and public before.  

We took to the streets of Belfast and asked the question; "What do you think about the law just passed that will make paying for sex illegal?" and we got the following responses.

"It's legal now???"

So, you have a short window before this becomes law to get yourself as many prostitutes as you want without fear of legal repercussions. Go to town, they hang out around Alfred Street and near the cinema.

Bumper October Update! In Summary: We Have No Money!

The Norn Iron News would like to apologise for the lack of posting. We've not been well.

So here's what we've missed so far in October:

Stormont On The Verge Of Going Into The Red - 02/10/2014

The Northern Ireland Executive is due to go into the red this year as they still haven't resolved the dead lock over welfare reform that's cost Stormont over £90m in fines to date.

It's the shinners arguing against the reforms which admittedly will cause hardship for those on benefits in Northern Ireland.  The destruction of the public services for everyone has less impact according to Sinn Fein MLA Dairmaid O'Fictional. Will this crisis be solved? Ministers will be meeting shortly to discuss it but if Stormonts track record is anything to go by, the answer will be a resounding no.

Tourism? Where we're going, we don't need tourism. 04/10/2014

An aerial view of Belfast in 20 years time if the cuts continue as they are

As yet more budgets are slashed, the Tourism Events Fund which, exactly as the name suggests, funds things that provide boosts to tourism, pulls funding for several key events in Northern Ireland. The following events are in danger of not going ahead after funding was cut:

-Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival

-Culture Night Belfast

-North West 200

- Ulster Grand Prix

- The Mill Cup

- The Festival Of Fools

- The Ulster Rally

- The International Airshow

There are many many other events that we haven't listed because it's all getting a bit depressing.  The overall amount of funding given out is approximately £2.4 million per year.  The simple fact that these events combined bring significantly more to the economy doesn't seem to be relevant.  Anything that was a fun day out for the family in NI is now more or less gone. Belfast will be a ghost town and the only exciting things to happen will be our yearly 'Orange Fest' which usually results in the city being on fire.

I'm sure you'll all be delighted to know that several high profile golf tournaments will go ahead as planned. Thank god for that. Maybe we won't all be bored afterall.

Hurricane Fintan hits Northern Ireland 05/10/2014

The weather got really bad. It was super rainy and windy and some people had power cuts. It was awful so it was.

Flegs Cause Yet More Trouble

Offensive Fleg

Police were called to a house in Holywood on Sunday when a complaint was received about an offensive flag flying outside someones house.  

The local resident, who chose not to be named for various reasons, put it up to show support for national ball/stick game hero Rory McIlroy and the European team in the Ryder Cup.

One of his neighbours reported to the police that an 'Arabic flag' was being flown and that he found it offensive and the police responded for some reason.

No-one is entirely sure why an Arabic flag would be offensive the first place to cause a police response.  If he was flying the Swastika to show his support of Hitler, then that could be cause for alarm but....

The only Arabic flag to bear any resemblance to the European flag is the flag of Somalia which looks like this.

We took to the streets of Belfast and asked the locals to pick out the Somali Flag from a selection of Flags and this was the common response:

Yaaar!

The fact the man made the report in the first place shows that he isn't bright enough to know what the Somali Flag looked like so this seems like typical Northern Irish Fleg Outrage.

In a country where we see Union Flegs, Tricolours, Israeli Flegs, Palestine Flegs, Italian Flegs and Ivory Coast Flegs regularly flown this is somehow offensive enough to make a call to the police who then actually sent out officers.

As the man who was supporting Rory said, "You couldn't make it up"*

* i am loathe to use that sentence, it sounds far too Daily Mail-esque

Northern Ireland Library Service To Be Gutted

Chief Executive of N.I Libraries, Irene Knox, announced yesterday that a number of temporary staff were to be cut from N.I Libraries front line staff in an effort to meet budget cuts imposted on the Department of Culture, Art and Leisure. 

This all seems eerily reminiscent of the process that in 2010, resulted in the closure of 10 libraries in the Greater Belfast area, again due to budget cuts.  On that occasion however, they actually had a public consultation (that resulted in four libraries being saved) instead of making the announcement the same day they notified staff.

There is no doubt that the cutting of these agency staff will result in library closures.  Although nothing was mentioned in yesterdays press release, it is very clear that given the service is in a constant budget crisis, they wouldn't be employing these agency staff just out of concern for Northern Ireland's high unemployment rate.  These staff are obviously covering shortfalls in the service and if you remove them, clearly gaps will be left.

There seems to be little public outcry that has been seen so far.  Could this be because they announced the story at lunch time on a friday and by mid evening it had dropped down to the second page of news on the Belfast Telegraph website?

We cannot allow the cuts to go unnoticed.  As we've mentioned before, certain parties in Stormont *cough* Sinn Fein *cough* are refusing to allow the UK governments welfare reforms to go through.  Which is good for the people on benefits.  However everyone else who relies on the NHS, Libraries NI, Education and basically every other department within ggovernmentis suffering as we are having to make massive budget cuts to keep up with the financial penalties that the refusal to even look at the UK Govt proposals is causing.

So who will really care about the Library service closing some branches? Not you, you're on your phone or laptop, reading a site that either makes jokes about serious news or just flat out makes it up.  So it doesn't matter about the Library Service when you have a kindle, a laptop or a smart phone.

It probably matters to the people who don't have these devices and use the library computers.  It matters to the parents of the children who have taken an interest in reading because of the enthusiastic agency workers they've just fired.  It matters to the elderly who go in for help in getting to grips with the technology that i mentioned before.  It matters to a lot of people who use the service.  I use it, i like actual books.  I enjoy graphic novels but hate reading them on screens and can't afford to buy all the ones i want to read.  It matters to the people that work there.

One final question i have though is:

Irene Knox - if they fired you, or maybe one of your deputies...how many frontline staff would that keep?  Former libraries NI employees have said, particularly during the 2010 round of cuts, that the service is manager heavy.  Since then the people who don't work in the actual libraries and no-one is sure what they actually do have gotten their pay rises and protected their jobs. Four years have passed and the people who actually do the work get punished again.

So instead of cutting the front line workers, maybe someone needs to look at the people who don't actually work in the libraries, figure out what it is they actually do and then realise that they could probably get rid of a whole lot of them and run Libraries NI with greater efficiency and service. 

Northern Ireland Still The Happiest Place To Live In The UK. Somehow.

According to the Office Of National Statistics, Northern Ireland has been named the Happiest Place in the United Kingdom again.

They asked a representative sample of 165,000 (out of the 60 odd million people who live in the UK) the following questions:

1 - Overall, how satisfied are you with life nowadays?

2 - Overall, to what extend do feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?

3 - Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?

4 - Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?

Co-author of the study, Dawn Snape, described the Northern Irish people as a 'conundrum' as they scored so highly despite having a higher rate of unemployment than the rest of the UK.  Somehow someone who works for the Office Of National Statistics cannot see a direct correlation between not working and feeling happy with life.

The top five of the UK wide survey of happiest places were:

1 - Antrim. Home of the worlds most bombed Hotel

2 - Fermanagh - Mainly livestock.

3 - Omagh - Mainly farmers who are naturally happy as they get to drive tractors and no-one has ever seen someone look sad in a tractor.

4 - Dungannon - Mainly chickens.

5 - Somewhere in England somewhere.

So there it is. Northern Ireland is the happiest place in the United Kingdom despite seasonal violence, a government that's 20 years behind most of the modern world and its populace suffering from an identity crisis.

Come on, come all. Just not in July. Please.

Shake Up In Stormont

Peter Robinson today announced a reshuffle in Stormont with several key figures being moved around in an effort to settle the party before the local elections.

The movements in full(ish):

Edwin Poots is being replaced as health minister by Jim Wells.  Poots won't be going to another department, instead he'll have his legs broken by friends of Peter Robinson and sent to A&E by ambulance to see first hand the clusterfuck he's created.  No doubt staff will treat him graciously.

Nelson McCauseland is being replaced by Mervyn Storey as DSD head. Again, he isn't being given another position, but is being sent back to around 68,000,000 years ago to show him a thing or two.  Failing that, he'll be sent to chair the culture, arts and leisure committee, replacing Michelle McIlveen (who's moving to education).

Some other people that have managed not to make such monumental fuck ups that they get destroyed in the press are also moving departments.

Alex Salmond Asks Scotland For Independence. "No" Says Scotland

Using an extremely complicated algorithm devised by graduates of Queens University*, Norn Iron News can exclusively reveal the results of the Scottish referendum on independence and the answer is No.  

Getting the results just as the polls closed is a coup for our little organization but as there were only 12 actual votes cast, it was an easy count.  However the official results won't be announced until somewhere between 6am and 7am as previously speculated.

It was an incredibly close vote that was broken down as follows.

6 votes for no

5 votes for yes

1 vote was unreadable, orange and quite sticky.

Alex Salmond now has his tail between his legs having pissed off every government official in the UK bar those in his own party.  As agreed though, the Scottish parliament is to get yet more powers from Westminster including.  No-one is entirely sure of the specifics of the deal but it's expected it will at least get Alex Salmond to shut the hell up for a while.

Alex Salmond has vowed to keep holding referenda until people get so sick of it they just say yes.


*we tossed a coin

Live - Scottish Referendum From Glasgow

No preamble, straight to NornIronNews reporter Agnes McStereotype who brings us all the news from Glasgow.

1500:

Of the 4 million registered voters, there are 2 from Glasgow who are definitely going to vote as far as we know so far today.

The polls have been open since the crack of dawn this morning but as yet, we haven't seen anything.

15:34

News reports are coming in of an assault in one of the polling stations at Shettleston Community Centre where one of the voters was brutally attacked with a battered mars bar.

16:02

Still just the one vote cast.  We've seen a number of fist fights but none of them are related to the election.

16:55

The second Glaswegian is out to vote.  Obviously it's bad form to tell the world how you have voted but the giant 'YES' pin badge taking up half of their shirt should at least give an indication as to which way their loyalties lie.

17:00

Both voters from Glasgow have made their decisions known, so that is us for the day. Good luck Scotland

With just a few hours remaining until the polls close, the remaining few voters have yet to register their interest in actually voting.  The other 4 million who are registered but don't care enough to go out and place their vote are likely to be the one who ultimately decide the fate of Scotland and the United Kingdom.

Further Updates to come after 10pm.

See here for our earlier coverage

Live - Scottish Referendum

The most important vote in Scotch history is under way today.  With just over 4,000,000 Scotch people registered to vote and around 12 expected to actually show up at the polling booths, a very close fight is expected.  

Our Scotch reporter, Tartan McHaggis, is live on the scene all day:

10:00:

We've been here since 6am this morning, wandering around Edinburgh and trying to find people who were going to vote.  We've had little success.  

The problem has been the lack of media coverage.  Neither Alex Salmond nor David Cameron have said much at all about the issue to the Scotch people.  We'll update you if we can find a voter.

11:42:

We have found two voters in Edinburgh.  Apparently, journalists are not allowed into any of the polling stations so we cannot say what went on inside but suffice to say, they went in looking all sad and Scottish and came out looking even worse.

We're going to have a smoke and some coffee now, and will report back if anything happens.

12:18

We saw a small ginger cat chasing a squirrel through the park, it was incredibly cute.

14:14:

The fifth and final registered voter from Edinburgh has gone into the polling station just moments ago. We'll try and nab him before the BBC do when he comes out again.

14:16:

We listened in and transcribed the BBC Interview with David McAngus, here's what was said:

BBC Scotland Correspondant James Cook:

JC: David, how did it feel today to have a say in the future of Scotland.

DM: *incomprehensible*

JC: I'm sure.  Do you feel like your vote could be the one that makes the difference?

DM: *incomprehensible*

JC: Completely.  How are you going to cope with the wait until tomorrow morning to find out the results?

DM: *incomprehensible*

JC: Laughs Well, i certainly agree with you there! This is James Cook, for BBC Scotland.

As you can see, the buzz of excitement among voters is like no other and this is truly a historic day for Scotland.  Voting in Edinburgh seems to be finished so we'll pass over to our Glaswegian Correspondent who will update the blog in around an hours time.

The Scotch Vote For Independence Draws Closer

The Scotch have a decision to make this week.  On Thursday, million of Scotch people will rush to the polls to vote on whether or not Scotland should break off from the United Kingdom and become independent.  

While they won't physically break away (though if Alex Salmond had his way, they'd have a line of pneumatic drills working 24/7 along the border), what will the repercussions be if Scotland becomes independent?

- The price of Haggis, Irn Bru and Edinburgh Rock to increase throughout the remaining UK nations.

- The Scottish Premier League (SPL) will be even worse.

- If they do not adopt the Euro, they will launch their own currency - The Haggis (Symbol will be the squiggle (~) and currency code HAG).

- As the Treasury is refusing to allow them to use the Sterling, they will no longer have the Queen on their money. The Scottish five Haggis note will have Susan Boyle, the ten will have David Tennant, the twenty will have Sean Connery and of course the little seen fifty Haggis note will be large enough to show both members of the Proclaimers.

- Can no longer use Hadrians Wall as a tourist attraction.  It's been fine up to now as we're all one big happy family but the wall is in England, so enough of your nonsense, Scotland.

- Edinburgh castle to be shipped, brick by brick, back to England as they were the last monarchy to live there.

- The Last King Of Scotland will become an inaccurate title as Alex Salmond prepares for a drastic change in government.  

The United States Of America are keeping a close eye on the current situation.  If Scotland does gain independence, the current US administration believes it may have to swoop in and liberate the North Sea fields.

The vote is too close to call at the moment, polls are swinging one way or another depending on who does the poll.  We'll keep you updated throughout the week and this Thursday we plan to do a live blog of the news, updating hourly.

- 

Ian Paisley - The Death of A Titan Of Northern Irish Politics.

Ian Paisley, one of Northern Ireland's most famous political leaders, has passed away at the age of 88.

A Norn Iron News Obituary

Before entering Politics, Paisley formed the Free Presbyterian Church Of Ulster who are frankly a little bit extreme with their views.  Homosexuals are going to hell, the Pope is the Antichrist, that sort of thing.

He then got into politics and single handedly held off peace in Northern Ireland for an entire generation.  It's safe to say that up until the very late 90s and early 2000's he was a bit of a roadblock for any constructive political discourse in Northern Ireland due to his rabid hatred of the Shinners.

Then he ended up being First Minister. I can't be bothered to look up how this happened. Voted in or something i suppose.  He and his deputy, Shinner Martin McGuinness (pictured below)

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness showing off his proficiency with a water pistol

became known as the chuckle brothers.  Two men who were at odds through much of their political careers had become best of friends.

It's safe to say that old Paisley had mellowed out  a lot.  Power sharing, friends with his nemesis.  Whether or not his later work undoes the problems he caused in the 70's, 80's and 90's remains to be seen but most people agree that a key figure in the history of Norn Iron has passed away.

Paisley - A Life In Pictures

A Restored early photo of Ian Paisley.  His first word - NO

One of his early Speeches.  The transcription can be found online but it can be summarised as "No,. Never. Never. Never"

Paisley & McGuinness enjoying a moment, preparing to take on The Alliance Party.

Ian Paisley - 1926-2014

In the interests of not showing political bias, please enjoy this photograph of current First Minster, Peter Robinson, also holding a (much larger) water pistol.

Our Childhood Has Been Ravaged Again With More Operation Yewtree Arrests.

In another devastating blow for children born before 1995, yet more of our childhood stars have been brought in by the police for questioning under the banner of Operation Yewtree.

Those convicted so far include:

Gary Glitter (singer)

Max Clifford (publicist)

Rolf Harris (childrens entertainer, artist, 'musician')

Chris Denning (Radio 1 DJ)

Jimmy Saville was not convicted on account of being dead but it's widely assumed he's guilty as hell.

Here at the Norn Iron News we're pillars of Journalistic Integrity so won't post the names of those taken into custody by police as we don't think it's fair that identities are released before guilt is confirmed.  We can't really post an article without pictures however so these blurred out photos of the suspects will do for now.  We believe these photos have been appropriately masked and refuse to give any incriminating information out to the public.

More on this story as it develops. 

Unionist Outrage Over Something Someone Said - Again

Unionists have been outraged by something again.  

A folk band called 'The Druids' apparently made some sectarian statements while performing on stage at the Ardoyne Fleadh festival.

They said something along the lines of British Soldiers in Ireland "should get together with their Orange comrades and go back to England".

Slightly sectarian? Perhaps.  Hate speech? Not really.

Nonetheless, the DUP are up in arms that the police have decided not to press charges.  

The PSNI had to conducted a 'full investigation' and then present their evidence to the Public Prosecution Service in an exercise which wasted absolutely everyones time and no doubt some tax payers money.

Sources say the situation will blow over soon as the DUP are joining forces with other unionist political parties to find something to be outraged about around the third week in September. 

Google Begin Removing Links From Search Results Under "Right To Be Forgotten" Laws

Google have begun the process of removing links to stories about people under the new EU "Right To Be Forgotten" law.  All you do is fill in a form and request it.

Northern Irish news stories are one of the first to be hit by this.

Several articles about a story from 2001 about brothers Kenneth and Alan Patterson being convicted for bomb making have been removed from the search giants web results.  

It appears as if someone who was implicated but not convicted has made the request, which is fair enough from their point of view, however it is important to remember that Kenneth and Alan Patterson were convicted. For trying to kill people.

No doubt the Streisand effect will be in full force as it takes very little detective work to find who has made the request (which Google will not release and i won't post here).

You do not have to give any reason to be 'forgotten' and have any offending links removed, which is concerning when people have generally done bad things and Googling them is a good way to find this out.

We all know nothing is every truly 'forgotten' on the internet.  Just because it's not on Google, doesn't mean it's not there.

Celebrity Big Brother Kicks Off!

In the yearly event that no one actually cares about anymore, the 2014 series of Big Brother has started on channel 4 Channel 5

Kellie Maloney

Well this is a hell of a place to start.  Boxing promoter (formerly Frank Maloney) who is currently undergoing gender reassignment surgery.  He's been in the headlines recently as he's gone public with his new...lifestyle? Gender? I am unsure of the preferred nomenclature.  The press have for the most part been applauding him for this decision but somehow forgetting comments he made in 2004 while campaigning for UKIP - "I don't want to campaign around gays, i don't think they do a lot for society....I'm not homophobic but in public lets live a proper moral life - i think that's important.  I'm more for traditional family values and family life"

Nothing is more traditional than a transgender parent.  Way to practice what you preach there Kellie and good luck.

Lauren Goodger

I have no idea who this is.  A cursory google seems to suggest she's famous for being on reality tv and nothing else.  I'm not entirely sure that counts as fame?

Gary Busey

Holy shit, someone people might recognise.  Actually famous for his film work and general madness but given he has appeared in Lethal Weapon, Under Siege and Point Break, his appearance may show his career is winding down somewhat.  

That Old Guy Who Plays The Old Guy In American Sit-Coms

That Old Guy Who Plays The Old Guy In American Sit-Coms is no doubt a hot favourite to win this year.

Claire King

She used to be on Emmerdale, she was most recently on Pointless.

Angelique 'Frenchy' Morgan

She's never been seen on UK TV before (except for some nonsense on VH1) but apparenly she's big in France (which is like totally the new 'big in Japan').

Tornado

Dude's a gladiator, he probably has a real name but did we ever know the real name of Wolf? No, we didn't. Because we didn't need to. WOLF POWER.

Edele off of that girl band from back then B*witched

You know the one. No, not her, you're thinking of her twin sister.  No, still not right, that's her brother, the one who's in Boyzone who may or may not still be a thing.  Just look at the picture!

White Dee

'Star' of 'Benefits Street', White Dee is the perfect example of the welfare state in action.

Audley Harrison

The second actual famous person with some sort of measurable talent in this years CBB.

There were other people, but every time i look one of these people up, a little part of my soul dies. So here are their names

James Jordan - no idea why he's famous

George Gibley - from Channel 4's 'Googlebox'

Stephanie Pratt - blah blah reality tv star

Ricci someone

So who will win this years exciting Celebrity Big Brother.

Really don't care. Stick a fiver on the boxing dude/dudette for me.

Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Falling Apart

This past week has seen our Emergency Services in the spotlight as N.I.A.S has come under fire for generally being a bit shitty.

Unison, the biggest (and most conceited) union for the service said their members voted unanimously 'no confidence' in the NIAS board.  

They released a statement yesterday and while they raise several very valid points (not enough staff, cancelled leave, delays in hospitals and insufficient rest periods), there were a couple of things that stood out for me. Directly from the Unison Briefing:

UNISON currently represents approximately 750 ambulance staff across Northern Ireland.  UNISON Shop Stewards and staff representatives from across the province voted unanimously that they no longer had confidence in the NIAS Trust Board

So they didn't actually poll their members..not the best no confidence vote out there.

UNISON is confident that the Northern Ireland public holds their ambulance staff in the highest regard. Not just for the work they do presently, but for the sacrifice, loyalty and dedication they demonstrated throughout “the Troubles”.  The public will recognize these comments for what they were, an attempt to blame the shortcomings of management on the staff

You know when American right wing news stations refer to 9/11 as a way to get public sympathy? It's kind of horrifying really, to use memories of a national tragedy that (or in the case of our little island, tragedies) to soften up the public.  This is what Unison did here, they 9/11'd us with this press release.

Yesterday some guy from Unison (who from what i could gather isn't actually ambulance service personnel as he didn't seem to know much about it) and the Chief Exec of NIAS were on the radio with locally famous/hated hate monger & stirrer of pots, Steven Nolan.  Neither of them came out of it well.

So what will happen to our precious service? Hopefully it will be ok. I've no doubt that the public, as i do, support the staff who clearly do a difficult job.  NIAS managers have made some regrettable comments in the media but the responses we've been hearing from the staff are beginning to sound equally as petty.  Lets hope the situation is sorted soon before someone suffers the consequences of this collective clusterfuck.