I heard the news today. Oh boy.
Brian Cowen was just on RTE News, quibbling with Sammy Wilson saying that the devolution of justice had been solved "in Ulster" -- then claiming that he wasn't going to quibble about it. Last time I checked, Northern Ireland would be in Ulster, so the statement would seem to me to have been entirely correct, if not exactly having as tight a bounding box as possible. As distinct from "Republican" objections to "Republic of" Ireland (teh irony), where the inclusion is the other way 'round. (Equally possible to make the opposite confusion/apparent equation/mistake, though, in some different content.) I'm prepared to think there's an idiocy gap between the two politicians in Cowen's favour here -- but if I were him, I wouldn't be getting too complacent, as the idiocy gradient between 'em doesn't seem all that steep to me.
Of course in theory, the UK has agreed to "officially" call RoI "Ireland"; but by that token, the RoI has agreed to "officially" call the UK "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", so the qualifier "officially" is somewhat key. In practice we're doing well to get "the UK" or even "Britain", as opposed to "England", "cross-channel", or assorted other terms less precise and/or complimentary still.
On substance of said news, good on 'em for having sorted it out. Eventually! Let's hope it sticks.
And in other news, what is "The Hon. Mr Justice" Barry White smoking, exactly? As surely a High Court Judge would never indulge in anything illegal, I can only assume he must popping pills from one of his apparently many local "head shops". Otherwise, I'd be struggling to see how the judge that sent someone down for a record-breaking 14 years for a bog-standard (I'm sad to say) juvenile drunken knife-fight manslaughter, thinks that an appropriate sentence for a crime where there's been extremely extensive evidence of obstruction of justice, and the jury's practically sent a memo saying "he's as guilty of murder as he could possibly be without an actual powerpoint presentation on premeditation", would be 10. Then slaps on a three-year discount for the standard-issue "credulity-defying character witnesses" and "the media's been nasty to him" bullshit.
Of course in theory, the UK has agreed to "officially" call RoI "Ireland"; but by that token, the RoI has agreed to "officially" call the UK "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", so the qualifier "officially" is somewhat key. In practice we're doing well to get "the UK" or even "Britain", as opposed to "England", "cross-channel", or assorted other terms less precise and/or complimentary still.
On substance of said news, good on 'em for having sorted it out. Eventually! Let's hope it sticks.
And in other news, what is "The Hon. Mr Justice" Barry White smoking, exactly? As surely a High Court Judge would never indulge in anything illegal, I can only assume he must popping pills from one of his apparently many local "head shops". Otherwise, I'd be struggling to see how the judge that sent someone down for a record-breaking 14 years for a bog-standard (I'm sad to say) juvenile drunken knife-fight manslaughter, thinks that an appropriate sentence for a crime where there's been extremely extensive evidence of obstruction of justice, and the jury's practically sent a memo saying "he's as guilty of murder as he could possibly be without an actual powerpoint presentation on premeditation", would be 10. Then slaps on a three-year discount for the standard-issue "credulity-defying character witnesses" and "the media's been nasty to him" bullshit.