Let’s start with the bare if not so lovely bones, so to speak. This paean to the IRA Chief of State and Irish Presidential candidate Martin NcGuinness appeared on Today this morning. (8.43am)
Martin McGuinness, once a leading figure in the IRA and who was feared and loathed in almost equal measure, is now a respectable political leader. So respectable that he wants to become president of the Republic of Ireland. Ireland correspondent for the Guardian and Observer Henry McDonald.
For starters, turning to the Guardian and Observer correspondent for opinion is hardly balance but I suppose it is natural for the BBC to seek the opinion of their own print arm. Helpfully, Henry is able to instantly point out that just like Martin McGuinness, he lives in Northern Ireland but chooses to have an Irish passport in preference to a British one. Natch. We know where this one will go,
Then let’s move on to this business of McGuinness being “once a leading figure in the IRA”. Good to see that the BBC now grudgingly admits McGuinness actually was a terrorist commander but their journalistic curiousity seems a tad restricted. For example, why not ask when did McGuinness leave the IRA, exactly? When he was occupying the position as Capo di tutti capo, just how many innocent lives did he arrange to have terminated.Perhaps even more pointedly, how many peope did he murder HIMSELF? What exactly did he “command”?
Why is the BBC so coy about pursuing these aspects to the McGuinness pedigree?
I venture to suggest because the State Broadcaster has been central to sanitising the reputation of bloodthirsty IRA killers and McGuinness is being increasingly presented as a warm if not cuddly character that we all need to learn to love. Not sure if those families who visit lonely graveyards care of the actions of this piece of Republican scum would agree – but then again, through the BBC prism, I’m the extremist.
I was ever so surprised when I watched QT on Thursday to see that Martina Anderson wasn’t subjected to an hour of constant verbal attack from a panel and audience made up entirely of UVF members and sympathisers.
I guess she’s not a real extremist though, having only been convicted for bombing and firearms offences. It’s not like she wants to cut immigration or anything like that.
Mr McGuinness should be in prison. But they’re full of rioters, I suppose, so no room at the Inn.
Wasn’t it alledged that this peice of filth fired the first shot on Bloody Sunday in order to win a propaganda coop with a Soviet stylee? You know the thing – wind up the kids point them at some soldiers then fire over their heads. Instant martyrdom follows …
Perhaps the Irish steroetype of the thick Paddy is not so far wrong if they are seriously considering electing a man of such high moral standards?
Its the way he tells ’em perhaps?
it appears he s certainly told a few!
You’ve gone over the line matey with the “thick paddy” stuff.
If you won’t listen to me then take a moment to think how you’re making everyone on this site look.
I won’t look at this thread again because I don’t want to see any more insulting rubbish like that.
You are right in a sense, although of course, people here are individuals and not all share the same views. However, it does not help the blog, does help make the case for the perceived enemy and does make the Beeboid Corporation look more reasonable – even enlightened and virtuous.
Tsk. Find the word ‘stereotype’ in the dictionary.
Richard Littlejohn (March, 2011) on IRA, McGuinness, Tebbit, BBC, etc.
“Heaven knows, Call Me Dave could use a young Norman Tebbit today”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1370924/David-Cameron-use-young-Norman-Tebbit-today.html#ixzz1YCbgXm9L
If the Palestinians get their state pehaps they’ll need a President – McGuinness would probably fit the bill nicely, he has the credentials…
Is that the same Martin McGuinness who the BBC admit has admitted being second in command of the IRA in Derry in the 1970s’? Was he still in this role when the IRA murdered the Queen’s cousin Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, in 1979? Did McGuinness have any part in the murder; the ordering or approving of it? Have the BBC ever asked these questions? Do the BBC even care? – http://notasheepmaybeagoat.blogspot.com/2011/09/piece-of-information-that-bbc-see-fit.html
Good questions. One could also throw in what he knew about the slaughte at the cenotaph in Enniskillen. Maybe some intrepid BBC journo might think that a useful line of enquiry? Then again…
The Beeb is utterly obsessed with the 1980s and Thatcher – maybe they should relive former glories by voicing McGuinness with an actor so we don’t have to endure that guttural drawl?
The good news is that he doesn’t stand a chance and he won’t bag another pension to go with the 234 others he currently enjoys. The bad news is that Northern Ireland will be stuck with him.
ahh! talking of gutteral drawl
i wouldn t mind seeing Kinnock go arse over tit, in the sea again
…..then get up drenched and punch the air???
…..twat
I can help !
Guttural drawl ? Check !
Puffed-up twat falling into the briny ? Double check !
whatever was that punch supposed to signify?
success?? yep good at going arse over tit 😀
Noggin I have inadvertantly flagged this comment as inappropriate, when I thought I was Liking it …so sorry, it’s a great comment….keep it up man!
DV, comparisons really need to be made between PIRA and ETA. Britain decided to appease PIRA and legitimise their 30 years of terrorism by giving them places in the Government of Northern Ireland. Spain upheld the view that if a free nation is to maintain its democratic integrity terrorism must be defeated. ETA is literally on its knees. PIRA could have been there today as well if we’d had the resolve. They were on the ropes when we decided upon the policy of ‘hug a terrorist’ instead of ‘defend democracy’.
Any mainstream Spanish politician who suggested the way to solve terrorism in the Basque Country is to have terrorists in Government would have faced a lynching.
Now, instead of 2:1 nationalist votes in favour of the SDLP over Sinn Fein, the ratio has been reversed, thanks to HMG’s legitimisation of PIRA terrorism.
The false peace we have in Northern Ireland is an absolute disaster for the democratic principles on which our nation stands. I dont speak as a diehard Unionist, I’d be more than happy to see some joint sovereignty solution with the Republic, but what the Belfast Agreement acheived – or more its (non) implementation – was a triumph of evil.
Sorry to be un PC but the Irish Elite are mad. First they tried to foister David Norris on the Irish people, a man who had a paedophile boyfriend and used his influence as an Irish Senator to get his paedophile boyfriend off the hook. Now they are having the Irish Bin Laden running for President. So so far they have had a paedo lover and a terrorist running for President, says alot about the Republic of Ireland.
Fair comments.
I think there’s a difference between being ‘un-PC’ and ‘anti-Mick’.
When David Norris’ nonce loving activities came to light he felt left with no option but to stand down.
And let’s not forget that it is the ‘Brave New Britain’ that has given McGuiness the credibility he has today. If it says a lot about Ireland it says a heck of a lot about us as well.
Not so fast hippiepooter…
David Norris confirms he intends to re-enter the Presidential Race
http://www.newstalk.ie/2011/news/3norris-confirms-he-intends-to-re-enter-the-presidential-race35/
Dumb micks!! 😛
Old African colonial joke:
Q. Whats the difference between a terrorist and a President?
A. 15 years.
What goes round comes round.
A few comments from a pragmatist outsider who had interaction with ordinary people from both sides of the NI isle.
A civil war (which is what the N Irish conflict was) can never be resolved militarily.
At some point there has to be a political solution because too much blood has been shed. Such a solution involves the leadership of the parties involved. Wars are always dirty and both sides will always point to the atrocities of the other with some justification.
If you follow the path of a political solution then you must also forget the grievances of the past and look to the future. Trying to live in the present with one foot in the past will not work.
You either commit to working for a peaceful future or decide that the the pain of possible success in the future is worth the blood that is going to be shed.
Civil war is what took place in the former Yugoslavia. Terrorism is what took place in Northern Ireland and the Basque Country.
Terrorism triumphed in Northern Ireland. Democracy has triumphed in the Basque Country.
One man’s idea of worldly wise sophistication is another man’s idea of self-regarding stupidity.
A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
Proverbs 15:1
Indeed, my apologies tiger.
hippiepooter has highlighted brilliantly the comparison with the Basque country where terrorism has been defeated. The same was in fact happening in NI where the war was only maintained due to a diesel smuggling criminal fraternity heaping enormous profits from it. I have seen the latter personally at first hand and information on it is very easy to obtain on the web. Just look at the reports of all the on-going raids by Irish customs in North Louth for instance. We were winning in NI that is the simple truth, democracy was being defended and PIRA was suffering unsustainable attrition in terms of arrests by the 90’s. However a Labour party which held significant republican sentiment pissed all of that away and legitimised terrorists by releasing them from prison, thanks Tony Blair!
Back on topic, I seem to remember a terminally naïve New Labour minister calling a multiple murderer (who ordered that a remembrance service be bombed) ‘babe’. That shows where New Labour’s sympathies lay along with the beebs, if MM becomes Irish President it will only serve to highlight the moral ambiguity that passes for popular culture in large parts of the Irish (UK funded) Republic.
Let us not forget that when the Belfast Agreement was put to referendum Tony Blair promised the people of Northern Ireland that not one terrorist prisoner would be freed without decommissioning and then proceeded to free all PIRA terrorist prisoners without one round of ammunition being decommissioned.
Thanks to the DUP threatening to put the scuppers under this treasonous betrayal, some movement was acheived in this field, but I’m not entirely sure on what basis we are supposed to believe that Adams & Co have not retained their terrorist capacity for a rainy day.
We’re talking of people whose terrorist network did the 26 million Northern Bank job and covered up the pub murder of a man who displeased a Republican with Adams and McGuiness in Executive positions in the N. Ireland Government.
It’s not just ‘gay rights’ that Britain is now a ‘world leader’ in. Self-abasement all round has truly become a British speciality in the last couple of decades.
If there were a secret ballot asking Beeboids whom they prefer:
Martin McGuinness, or Norman Tebbit,
-is there any doubt of the result?
Good point George and we know the answer already. Just look at how they pout over MM.
Beeboid aversion to Norman Tebbit has 2 roots. First, he advocated sensible policies, helped save the UK from economic disaster caused by over-mighty trades unions.
Second, he told and kept telling the BBC to cut out their anti-Tory bias. At the time, of course, the BBC response was to keep denying any leftie bias. But recently we had the Director General of the BBC stating outright that in his time at the BBC 20 or so years ago there was endemic leftie bias.
So – back then, the BBC was lying when it denied bias time after time after time.
Once a serial liar, always a serial liar. The BBC is still lying when it denies bias.
And the acid test is that Norman Tebbit and Margaret Thatcher are still reviled at the BBC.