The Green Ribbon

Green Ribbon makes Troubled Diva blog chart

Blogger Troubled Diva has compiled a list of 'the most linked UK weblogs' listed on Technorati.

The Green Ribbon has made it in at 60, jointly with Troubled Diva himself, and just ahead of the Guardian newsblog. Thanks to everyone who has linked to the blog. I suppose I had better get posting.

(Hat-tip to Independence, in at no 37.)

Labour campaign for emigrants goes on

Emmet Stagg of the Irish Labour party was continuing his campaign to get more support for elderly Irish emigrants in Britain last week.

On Wednesday, he renewed his call for the Irish Government emigrant elders the right to free travel in Ireland currently enjoyed by Irish-based elders.

He followed that up on Thursday with a call for the license fee to be increased by 5 euros a year to fund an RTE television service into Britain.

Bloody Sunday rifle sent to Sierra Leone

The Sunday Times carries details of a remarkable claim by Colonel Tim Collins in his  new autobiography:

Collins gives us a few unsettling examples of his sometimes inappropriate sense of humour, and he can be disarmingly honest. As SAS operations’ officer, for instance, he helped organise the dramatic Special Forces mission in Sierra Leone that rescued a group of Royal Irish soldiers captured by the West Side Boys terrorist gang. In an anecdotal footnote, he says that 1 Para recovered a former British Army SLR rifle from the gang. The serial number revealed that it had been used by 1 Para on Bloody Sunday in Londonderry 1972. The footnote adds that the rifle had been declared destroyed when the Saville inquiry into the shootings asked for it. (Sunday Times)

Sellafield leak undetected for three months

The recent internal leak of nuclear waste of 20 tonnes of nuclear waste at Sellafield's THORP facility went undetected for at least three months, an investigation has found:

The magic peace process roundabout

Brian Feeney has an interesting metaphor for the stalemate in the peace process in his Irish News column this week:

They say the Magic Roundabout is due for a revival. If you remember, it was originally a French programme. For the BBC the puppets were all given names in English like Dougal and Dylan and Zebedee and then a script was written in English to fit around the actions of the puppets.

Of course the activities of the characters bore no resemblance to the script, but who cared?

Just in case you're wondering, no, the characters in Downing Street last week were not rehearsing for the Magic Roundabout revival. It's true the whole performance bore striking similarities to the Magic Roundabout – the characters walked on and off stage in strict rotation, there was a disconnection between the script and the action, everyone played exactly the role they've always played, they all went around in circles like the puppets and no character paid the slightest attention to any other character. (Via Nuzhound)

Devolution is the only real integration

My latest opinion column for the Irish World looks at the debate on devolution within the Conservative Party, and considers its possible implications for Northern Ireland:

The arrival of ‘home rule all round’ in 1997 contributed to the political imperative that led to the Good Friday Agreement. If England and Scotland gain more autonomy, the pressure on Northern Ireland to move out of its current state of political dependency will grow accordingly.
Today, devolution is the only real integration, because ironically, Britain itself is becoming more nationalist and less unionist.

Spicer's threat to sue MP

AegisDefence Services chief executive Tim Spicer is threatening to sue MP Sarah Teather and Irish-American newspaper the Irish Echo over comments about his role in the Peter McBride case in a recent story 'Spicer speared in scathing US report.'

The Echo's Ray O'Hanlon reports:

In its May 4-10 issue, the Echo, in a story headlined "Spicer speared in scathing U.S. report," reported Teather's view that "serious questions" still required answering in the McBride case.

However, it was the Echo's precise wording of this aspect of the Spicer/Aegis story that prompted the legal letters to the Echo and Teather.

The report stated: "Teather recently told the Echo that 'serious questions' were still in need of answers with regard to Spicer and his role in the death of Peter McBride."

The letter sent to the Echo alleged that this statement, made with regard to "Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer OBE," was "seriously defamatory of him."

The letter stated: "He had no role whatever in the death of Peter McBride. He was the commanding officer of the regiment in which two soldiers involved in Mr. McBride's death were then serving. Thereafter he stood by his men and, in due course, was vindicated in so doing."

The ideology of Star Wars

I haven't seen Revenge of the Sith yet, but apparently the parallels between the the fall of the Galactic Republic and the contemporary world are more obvious than ever, summed up in Anakin Skywalker's phrase, "You are either with me, or you are my enemy."

The Quare Fellow back at the Tricycle

Kathy Burke's production of Brendan Behan's The Quare Fellow begins a new run at the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, North-West London tomorrow:

Peter McBride ruling expected

An informed source tells the Green Ribbon that a verdict is likely this week in the judicial review sought by the family of Peter McBride.

McBride, an eighteen-year-old Belfast man, was shot dead in 1992 by two British soldiers who were subsequently convicted of murder, but who were allowed to remain in the Army after their release in 1998.

Under Army rules this should only happen if there are exceptional reasons. The Northern Ireland Court of Appeal ruled in 2003, that no such reasons existed. The McBride family sought a judicial review after the MOD declined to discharge the soldiers in response to the decision.