Robin Livingstone

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Help, Naomi – I don’t understand the British Army Covenant

THE Armed Forces Covenant, which our city has just signed up to via the casting vote of Alliance Lord Mayor Micky Murray, is a short enough document, as you can see for yourself lower down. But for the TL/DR generation, it holds that members of the British armed forces should be accorded “special consideration” as and when the occasion demands.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: The lonely death of a BBC headline

THE story on the BBC News website on July 16 last year was headlined ‘The lonely death of Gaza man with Down’s syndrome’. The bland and determinedly neutral 10-word sentence is gone now, replaced with another by the BBC after a torrent of objections, most from readers familiar with the story who rightly felt that the headline came nowhere near to reflecting the dark and horrific truth of the killing that the headlined referenced. But other objections came from people shocked to the point of disbelief that a news outlet which misses no opportunity to trumpet its trustworthiness would suck the life – and death – out of a story with a thoroughness that would make an IDF spokesperson gasp in admiration.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Starmer: Grand plan or sheer stupidity?

EITHER Keir Starmer’s the worst Prime Minister ever to have stood up in the Commons or he’s playing a game of 3D chess so fiendishly calculating that we’re going to wake up one morning and he’ll be President of the Galactic Federation.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Education Authority gets some creative thinking

DUP Education Minister Paul Givan has appointed his DUP colleague Mervyn Gibson Chairman of the Education Authority. Not surprisingly, questions are being asked about the part-time appointment, which pays a chunky £50k to £60k a year for three days work per week.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Jamie Bryson's problem is he struggles with his greatest asset

I’M pretty sure that if I tell you that I propose to say something nice about Jamie Bryson you’d suspect that whatever I say will come loaded with qualifiers and yes-buts. And you’d be right. But Interflora doesn’t snip the thorns off its roses before sending out deliveries and when you put the bouquet in that crystal vase on the coffee table, the flowers are still what’s important. So here goes.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Ulster flag row is itself a powerful symbol

I DON’T like the union jack much.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: East Belfast murals show the Falls the way to go

DUP leader Gavin Robinson has scored a remarkable victory with the removal of pro-Palestine graffiti from an RVH wall fronting the Falls Road. Fair enough, more pro-Palestine graffiti immediately went up, along with a ‘F**k the DUP’ message for good luck.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: It's a Prod thing – why Trump worship doesn't interest the bead-rattlers

I THINK it’s fair to say that Trump veneration in this little corner of Paradise is a determinedly Protestant Thing. It’s perhaps not the done thing to mention it, but it’s just how it is.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: The Battle of the Poppies – why the Lurgan loser ending up winning

WITH Remembrance Week over for another year…

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Timothy Gaston's no Jim Allister – but he's getting the job done

LET’s remind ourselves of why it was that Stormont lone wolf Jim Allister was so utterly irresistible to the Loyal Ulster media. To that end, a checklist may help.

THE WEEK IN VIEW: UDA/UVF better behaved than the Ra, says UDA/UVF umbrella group

“I HAVE repeatedly stated that the levels of criminality in our community attributable to loyalism is (sic) dwarfed by that which is controlled by the republican movement and leadership.”

THEATRE: Hybrid Lyric Shakespeare gaves zest to familiar themes

A MONARCH in an electric wheelchair wearing a Burger King cardboard crown. The Wars of the Roses fought with pikes and pepper spray, swords and perspex riot shields. Bodies dumped in a wheelie bin, royal ladies in Doc Martens.

THE WEEK IN VIEW: UDA/UVF classroom commandants set the curriculum – again

YOU ask yourself why it was that DUP Minister for Communities Gordon Lyons met with the LCC after Education Minister Paul Givan came under fire just a few days earlier and the answer comes back: Why wouldn’t he?

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: SF references story struggles to find a landing zone

THE case of the Sinn Féin references (Agatha Christie could do better, I feel) has seen BBC Ulster pour its considerable resources into a working week-long dive under the Arctic swell to examine what lies beneath the iceberg’s tip. Culpability, we’re told, is to be apportioned way beyond the two press officers who retired to the library together with a bottle of whiskey and a revolver.

THE WEEK IN VIEW: For the UDA and UVF it's still access all areas

YOU may have noted as I did that DUP Education Minister Paul Givan’s meeting with the Loyalist Communities Council – the umbrella group for the UDA, UVF and Red Hand Commando – didn’t have a photo opp afterwards.

Gaelic Games: Antrim GAA outline a new five-year strategic plan

Jiu-Jitsu: ‘Godfather of Irish MMA’ Andy Ryan hosts masterclass

Basketball: Star edge Maree in nailbiter

NIFL Premiership: Larne strike late to deny Cliftonville long-awaited Inver victory

THE PERFECT CHRISTMAS GIFT: Win a copy of Bill Kirk's superb book of Falls memories

JUST THE GOLDEN TICKET: St Joseph's Christmas show is a big hit

DÚLRA: Council kids leading the green revolution

HEALTHWISE: Parsnips aren't just for your Christmas dinner

Robin Livingstone

Latest Stories

Most Read