The Editor

WE SAY: As arts groups struggle, questions must be asked about spendthrift Belfast 2024

With the British Council as a senior partner, there were always doubts that Belfast 2024 would rise to the ambitious goal it set itself of "ignit(ing) a new chapter for our city".

WE SAY: Making a statement on public spaces

ATTACKS on police at the Broadway roundabout this week did not happen out of the blue. Rather they were the culmination of another Twelfth week marked by recrimination and division.

WE SAY: Labour government remains non-committal

THE new British Secretary of State, Hilary Benn, says “probably” the most important thing on his desk as he takes up his role is Casement Park. The “probably” is entirely consistent with the maddeningly ambiguous and confusing messages that he and the Labour Party have been sending out from the opposition benches.

WE SAY: Big electoral changes lie ahead

THE shape and direction of politics are going to be changed hugely by the results of this week’s Westminster election.

WE SAY: Hypocrisy on show alongside the UVF

IF the people of the Lower Newtownards Road are content for a memorial parade for a UVF sectarian killer to take over the area for a day then there’s no-one with a scintilla of good faith who could possibly object.

WE SAY: Another day, another betrayal

AFTER a quarter-century of devolution we might be entitled to think that the propensity of unionists to defer to those in Britain they feel to be their superiors would have waned a little; but not a bit of it. And five years after the brutal lesson in realpolitik handed to Arlene Foster and the DUP by Boris Johnson and the Tories, we might also be entitled to think that any unionist would think long and hard before entering into an arrangement with the raucous right of British politics.

WE SAY: MP count means more than points

THE decision of SDLP leader Colum Eastwood to run candidates in all 18 constituences in the coming Westminster election is perfectly understandable from a purely personal and pragmatic point of view.

WE SAY: No winners in row over Stormont budget

AS the Westminster election campaign gets into full swing, it is the budget of the devolved Executive which has become the first field on which the parties are doing battle.

WE SAY: The urge for justice trumps all

THE walls are closing in around Israel in the blood-spattered room in which they stand. Beside them is a small and dwindling band of US and European allies who have surrendered their moral authority so completely to the Israel lobby that even if they were to take the clearly marked exit now, the crimes they have committed and condoned in Gaza will continue to stain their names.

WE SAY: Let’s have more misery, is the unionist mantra

THERE can’t be a unionist anywhere across the North who doesn’t understand that Brexit has been catastrophic for the union. The human addiction to cognitive dissonance means that the DUP and the TUV will never admit to having made a mistake by backing a hard departure from the European Union. But the truth of their plight – and of their knowledge of it – is revealed by every whiney utterance as further layers of the Brexit onion are peeled away to reveal more unpalatable truths about what they’ve done to their precious union.

WE SAY: Who will speak against UDA/UVF?

YOU’LL never hear it said in the usual quarters, but the total disappearance of the IRA has been one of the most – if not the most – comprehensively delivered promises of the peace process.

WE SAY: Preventing the truth from coming out places the PSNI in the dock

THE trouble with political accommodations is that they require a degree of accommodation on both sides. 17 years ago when nationalists and republicans took the historic decision to throw their lot in with a policing service and justice system from which they were thoroughly estranged, the hope was that a new era of cooperation and respect would open up.

WE SAY: Health is the real loser in UUP drama

THE decision of Health Minister Robin Swann to step down from his Executive position as soon as the Westminster election is called later this year is just one of a couple of worrying indicators of the sorry state of the UUP – and therefore of unionism more widely.

WE SAY: Another day, another insult from An Taoiseach

IF YOU thought that new Taoiseach Simon Harris was finished with us Nordies for a while when he said on taking over the top job that the unity of the island would not be on his list of priorities then think again. One insult to the people that his predecessor Leo Varadkar vowed never to leave behind again might have been put down to a rookie error – a second in a matter of days suggests that he may think there’s political mileage in it.

WE SAY: New Taoiseach's indifference is no big deal

IT WAS disappointing that outgoing Taoiseach Leo Varadkar left it to the last minute of his time in power to issue his most passionate and stirring statement of support for a united Ireland. The departing Fine Gael leader, responding to a recent debate about the cost of reunification, said no price could be put upon the desire of the Irish people for independence.

Gallery: Hannahstown a hive of fun and energy

Boxing: Quinn to fight for Commonwealth honours on the June 28 'Belfast Brawl'

Gaelic Games: Vital fixtures for clubs as hurling heads towards the split

Gaelic Games: Gleeson to take time before deciding his future with Antrim

THE WEEK IN VIEW: Lies, damned lies and stupidity

SQUINTER: Live and dangerous! Not any more as GB News pull the plug

DÚLRA: We’re going raven bonkers in the city centre

HEALTHWISE: Spread it around: Margarine gets the nod over butter

The Editor

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