Belfast Blogs.com

It's hard to comprehend the ingratitude expressed by asylum seekers who threaten hunger strike when asked to leave their holiday camp accommodation and move elsewhere while their claims are considered.After all, these people have fled life-threatening environments, and have arrived on the shores of Ireland pleading for a safe haven. That's the claim, anyway.Of course, it's a claim that makes no sense whatsoever. Justice figures show that in excess of 90% of such claims are bogus, and the claimants utilise all routes at their disposal, from destroying their ID documents on arrival, to repeated expensive appeals (paid for by the Irish taxpayer) to delay their lies being exposed.The aim is to delay the process sufficiently so that it results in their nationalisation, either by the former...

At long last, the imaginary language has produced something of genuine worth.No, not the 'translation' fees that helped fund turncoat Ian Parsley's ill-fated tilt at political superstardom. I mean a genuine piece of art even more hilarious than Lord Laird's excuses for his stratospheric taxi expenses.Welcome to 1690 and all thon, a satirical examination of Northern Ireland's politics and culture, with a special focus on the nonsense that is Ulster-Scots.You have to admire 'Professor' Wullie and his associates Billy and WJ for their mastery of this spoof language. I really hope they're receiving some sort of grant from the millions of wasted taxpayers' money that's being pissed away on this linguistic scam.After all, if the Department of Arts and Culture can fund the paedophiles, bigots...

It's been the coldest winter since 1963 here in Ireland, apparently.And we're not unique. Most of the planet has been experiencing exceptionally cold weather this winter.This goes quite a long way towards explaining why you don't hear the words 'global warming' being bandied about so much any more.These days, the buzz words are 'climate change'. I'd be inclined to refer to climate changing by its old-fashioned title, 'weather'.But plenty of the true believers in the cult of anthropogenic global warming are still keen to claim that armageddon is imminent, and it's all your fault and mine for, well, existing basically.Global warming, yesterday.On BBC Radio 4 today, they were covering the British parliament's grilling of the lying scientists who conspired to fabricate data, cover up the...

Biffo says there is no other option than NAMA. He says there is no Plan B.Apart from the fact that Fine Gael have proposed a good bank/bad bank option and Labour have proposed temporary nationalisation of the banks, Biffo is still wrong.While the Opposition proposals are improvements on the blatant bailout of Biffo's plan, there is a third option. It's called capitalism. Not crony capitalism like Fianna Fail understand. Proper capitalism.Allow me to summarise: LET. THE. BANKRUPT. BASTARDS. GO. TO. THE. WALL.But Biffo says we need to bail out these banks so that they can get lending to the rest of us and improve the economy so that we can stop borrowing a billion every fortnight and we won't have to call in the IMF.Biffo couldn't be thicker if he was a bottle of pigshit.Here's how to save...

At a time with approaching half a million on the dole, 25% of mortgage holders in negative equity, the government borrowing nearly a billion every two weeks to stay afloat, and all public sector and PAYE workers facing the third round of cuts in their wages, what does this corrupt and shameless government do?They bail out their developer pals to the tune of tens of billions we don't have.Congratulations. If you are an Irish taxpayer, you have just been heisted to the tune of around 35,000 euro. And that will go to bail out Liam Carroll, Sean Dunne and their odious ilk, who gambled and lost on a punt that the property prices they inflated would keep ballooning forever.They've done this by propping up the corrupt bankers who gave them the preposterous sums in the first place. No room for...

DUP Minister Edwin Poots (the lad who looks like the FA Cup, on the right) has gone back on the St Andrews Agreement by refusing point-blank to introduce an Irish Language Bill for Northern Ireland. Now, I don’t speak Irish and don’t intend to learn it. And I’m pretty disgusted at the amount of money pissed away on it in the Republic, where children for generations have been tortured by being forced to read about Kerry islander grannies with depression in a language that almost no one uses in day-to-day situations.And don’t get me started on the jobs ring-fenced for Irish speakers, the subsidised TV station, the civil service sinecures and the ridiculous legal and police profession language requirements. But it is a real language, and part of the heritage of this island, so...

So finally the authorities have started removing the Roma who had been living in their own faeces on a motorway roundabout, seeking to extort free money and housing from the Irish taxpayer.News reports have revealed how these people, with no visible means of support, had nevertheless been banking four figure sums in Western Union accounts. Either that money came from begging, such as I have already highlighted, or from out-and-out robbery.Comments by Gardai in some news reports suggest the latter, in the form of handbag snatching, is the most likely source of much of the income they obtained.The Romanian embassy is appalled by the behaviour of these people. They have repeatedly said so in public too. The Irish authorities have done their best for them, repeatedly offering them free...