Category: DUP

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NUS-USI President calls for university admissions to be after results are published

Michael McFarland Campbell

When I applied to university the first time around, back when I was a pupil at Ballymena Academy, I couldn’t understand why we had to apply based on the results of our predicted grades. It seemed to me, and still does, that it would be fairer to have the university admissions process after real grades  had been awarded. The recent action [inaction?] by UCAS to put off a decision on having post-results admissions has been rightly condemned by the President of NUS-USI, Adrianne Peltz, who said that basing offers on predicted grades is an unreliable system and that going by predicted grades … Continue reading NUS-USI President calls for university admissions to be after results are published

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Is the Executive so tight that they cannot find £5000?

Michael McFarland Campbell

I was interested to notice that cancer patients in Northern Ireland are among those benefiting from a payment from the Northern Ireland Executive of a one-off winter fuel payment. Apparently this is because their immune systems are somewhat suppressed and they need to stay warm. £5000 is not much in the overall budget of the Northern Ireland Executive. At least you would not think that it is. Yet this relatively small amount of money is all that it would take to extend the payment of the winter fuel payment to one group of people who could really benefit from it. … Continue reading Is the Executive so tight that they cannot find £5000?

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Belfast, Blogging, DUP, Northern Ireland life, Royal Family, Sinn Féin, UUPLeave a comment

Sinn Féin, a youth organisation, and the Duke of Edinburgh… time to grow up.

Michael McFarland Campbell

Imagine that you are 14 years old, you have just worked hard completing activities including Volunteering, Physical, Skills and Expedition, for over three months as well as additional three months on one of them. During this time you have also carried out a 2 day (and one night) expedition. At the end of it you get an award. It could be with your school, the Scouts, the Guides, the Boys’ Brigade, the Church Lads’ Brigade or any other youth organisation. Having completed this award. you receive a certificate from someone important, along with all the others who have got your … Continue reading Sinn Féin, a youth organisation, and the Duke of Edinburgh… time to grow up.

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and they’ve done it again in @niassembly – D’Oh!

Michael McFarland Campbell
Northern Ireland Assembly logo
Image via Wikipedia

Once again our esteemed MLAs in the Northern Ireland Assembly have managed to pass a motion with amendments that is not possible to enforce. Continue reading “and they’ve done it again in @niassembly – D’Oh!”

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Belfast Pride Festival 2011

Politician states Pride is ‘totally repugnant’ – when will the DUP learn?

Michael McFarland Campbell

With the DUP snubbing yesterday’s Belfast Pride event at Stormont, Michael wonders how long it will be before they come on board on the issue of LGBT rights. Continue reading Politician states Pride is ‘totally repugnant’ – when will the DUP learn?

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APNI, Armagh, Belfast, Blogging, DUP, Media, news, Northern Ireland life, politics3 Comments

UFOs observed in Queen’s Quarter

Michael McFarland Campbell

Updated on 13 March 2011 – thanks to Conor Prendergast

Last night, whilst most of Northern Ireland’s political bloggers were finding out about the stars of the Slugger Awards in the Cathedral Quarter of the city, some 50 or 60 people were observing UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects), aliens, planets, and stars in the Queen’s Quarter.

There was, however, some connexion between what was happening in Hill Street and in Elmwood Avenue. Three of the four of us that had been involved with the Hammering Out of the Slugger Awards were actually in one location and not the other. Guess which three and in which location we were to be found. Continue reading “UFOs observed in Queen’s Quarter”

Belfast, Conservatives, DUP, Education, Lib Dems, news, Northern Ireland, politics, Scotland, Sinn Féin, United Kingdom, Wales1 Comment

freedom, fairness, and responsibility: but not to NI!

Michael McFarland Campbell

freedom, fairness and responsibility The three words that we are told by the Liberal Democrat Federal Party website sum up the Coalition Government’s Programme. However, I don’t see how it is promoting any of those when you consider what has just happened to the devolved countries’ finances. HM Treasury changed the rules Formerly, departments were allowed to carry over money from one year to another. In this way, Northern Ireland’s Department for Education had built up a reserve of £87m (2008 figures). Usually, making savings, is considered a good financial practice: building up reserves in case of need in the … Continue reading freedom, fairness, and responsibility: but not to NI!

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linguistic diversity should be a positive benefit to all

Michael McFarland Campbell

The proposal that we should have the possibility of bilingual traffic signs in Northern Ireland is seen as divisive. However, I think it could have a much more positive benefit to our country in general.

Until many, mostly political unionists and cultural Protestants, stop seeing any language use other that of English as an attack on being British, we will have a hard job in using any such language. However, as I have said before, and has been said by many, if these self same people would look back in their heritage they would find that they are likely to have ancestors who used Irish, and if not Irish, then Scots Gaelic. Scots Gaelic of course like Welsh is in use on roadsigns in other parts of their so-beloved United Kingdom. In other words, they need to relearn the history of this island and come to the understanding that diversity is often a way of unifying a whole country. Continue reading linguistic diversity should be a positive benefit to all

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We’re in a time warp: 1910, 2010, 2110?

Michael McFarland Campbell
Victoria Square, Belfast, 1910

A programme for the reform of the whole system is what is wanted. State built and State equipped school buildings in every district; management by a State department of Education… When a thorough system of secular education is advocated it is by many thought that religion is thereby endangered. This is not so. Religious instruction in schools is apt to be a mere routine which does not touch the finer feelings. Religious instruction in the schools has done much to destroy religious teaching in the home. The indifferent parent has satisfied his conscience by delegating some of his most important duties to the schoolmaster. In a country which has no State Church there is no State religion to be taught in the State Schools and it is the duty of the various religious denominations to see that their children get proper religious instruction without unnecessarily sacrificing their secular education and thereby providing third-rate education and routine religious instruction… Continue reading “We’re in a time warp: 1910, 2010, 2110?”