Flag protesters are making a key error: they are now damaging the cause and brand they seek to promote. Get off the streets and into talks.
— Alex.Kane (@AlexKane221b) December 21, 2012
Showing posts with label loyalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label loyalism. Show all posts
Alex Kane - Damaging the cause they claim to promote
#Protests - 5,000 loyalists planned for November 30 in Belfast city centre
It appears that loyalist protest marchers will once again take to the streets of Belfast city centre on Saturday 30 November to mark the anniversary of the December 3 2012 decision to restrict the flying of the Union flag at Belfast City Hall (see here). News reports are suggesting that the event organised by the Loyal Peaceful Protesters will host 40 bands with around 5,000 participants. The Irish News editorial of October 22 2013 said:
"Little is known about Loyalist Peaceful Protesters which has no public profile. It must be a matter of concern that a faceless, unaccountable organisation can take over the streets and damage livelihoods at enormous cost to the public purse. There is a need for common sense to prevail on the issue."Unionism needs to lose its loathsome cowardice, stand up to loyalism and demonstrate real courage and real leadership. Loyalism is not immune or exempt from the rules that the rest of society lives by. Other people have rights and it's time they were spoken for. Let's not have Belfast or Northern Ireland become a cold-house for tourists, shoppers, wealth and job-creators. And let's ask as Ian Coulter did: "Where are the rights for the people trying to trade and build businesses?"
Previous posts on loyalist protests and their affect on Belfast and wider Northern Ireland here and here.
Northern Ireland needs to follow Washington and move past the 'shutdown'
When America was stuck in a government shutdown with much of the country involuntary furloughed and facing a catastrophic default, America needed real leadership. The morning news show, Today on Morning Joe, held a discussion with the title the "top ten political leaders we (United States) need right now."
The man who helped to create peace in Northern Ireland through the Good Friday Agreement topped the discussion. I came across this on the Democrats blog here. How very lucky we were to have such a great and capable man like George Mitchell to bring together the most intransigent of intransigents.
The US shutdown has since been cleared, Washington is now open and America is open for business once again. Northern Ireland unionism needs to do the same and make a deal, move the agenda forward and end the 'loyalist shutdown'. Leadership is not about managerialism but about moving society from where it is to where it should be. We're in a very bad place and we need real courage from both unionism and nationalism.
Previous blog on the debt we owe George Mitchell here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
