The political parties in the Assembly Executive were today accused of “gross negligence for their complete lack of action to save jobs at Hughes Christensen factory” in East Belfast.

Although the crisis surrounding the ’sidestepped’ Northern Ireland First Minister, Peter Robinson, and his wife, Iris, has appeared to temporarily subside, the fact that the whole structure of power sharing and the power-sharing Executive might be in danger of collapse over the controversy, graphically illustrates the artificial nature of that entity.

THE JAWDROPPING sequence of events surrounding Iris Robinson soliciting £50,000 from two millionaire property developers (the late Fred Fraser and Ken Campbell) has opened a Pandora’s Box of corruption which goes right to the heart of the political establishment.

The signing of the St Andrews Agreement in 2006 was meant to represent a framework which would enable the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein to work together as the two largest parties in the Northern Ireland Executive. Peter Hain, Northern Ireland Secretary for State at the time, declared it an “astonishing breakthrough”. This so-called agreement, though, was nothing of the sort.

ALTHOUGH THE fans of Derry City knew that the club was in financial difficulty, the decision to throw them out of the FAI League has sent shockwaves through the city.

The exchange of insults between Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness in recent weeks has exposed the real crisis within the power-sharing Executive.

After returning from his luxury holiday home in Florida, Robinson chose to turn the temperature up by declaring at a meeting with big business that the DUP were now in favour of scrapping the current veto arrangement in the Executive and replacing it with a weighted majority arrangement.

Protest - 5.30pm Thursday 15th October, BBC Broadcasting House, Ormeau Ave, Belfast

The BBC have offered the BNP a platform on Question Time. The far-right BNP won 2 seats in the recent European elections. This party is attempting to develop a respectable image, but their core is out-right fascism. Their founder called Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ his ‘Bible’ and Nick Griffin, the current leader, regularly denied the Holocaust.

Sinn Fein councillor Domhnall O Cobhthaigh today announced his resiganation from the party at a press conference in order to join the Socialist Party to “build a cross-community opposition to the right-wing economic policies of the Assembly Executive”.

By Peter Hadden
August 1969 was a turning point in the history of Northern Ireland. It was then that the Labour Government of Harold Wilson took the decision to send troops onto the streets, first of Derry, then of Belfast.

By Peter Hadden

THE NORTHERN Ireland European election results have placed a huge question mark over the long term future of the Assembly. The crestfallen faces of DUP supporters at the count said all that needed to be said about the impact of the vote for Jim Allister and his Traditional Unionist Voice.