At times like these, one feels sorry for the owners of British off-licenses. I don't imagine that the champagne was flying off the shelves after last week's Westminster election. The Conservatives won more than 40 extra seats but couldn't shift their share of the vote from the lamentable 33% they won in 2001. The Lib Dems increased their overall vote but didn't gain significantly more MPs. Labour, although re-elected with an eminently respectable majority of 67, saw their share of the vote sl...
The voters of North Down are a contrary bunch, always prepared to buck the trend of unionist politics. For years, while other unionists voted for the DUP or UUP, the good people of Bangor sent Jim Kilfedder, of the laughably titled Popular Unionist Party, to represent them in the House of Commons. After his death, another one man band took over in the constituency, Bob McCartney's United Kingdom Unionist Party. Now, once again, the MP for North Down can hold meetings of her parliamentary ...
Even before I clicked on the election results on the BBC website, I knew it was good news. On the homepage was an electoral map of the UK. I paid no heed to the mess of red, yellow and blue in GB, but instead fixed my gaze on Northern Ireland (NI). And there they were, lime green splashes in the north-west and south-east of the six counties. On closer inspection, there was also a little green dot by the River Lagan. My party, the SDLP, had won three seats, holding Foyle and South Down, lo...
Often, when entering a house in northern Taiwan, I would notice an old photograph of a soldier hanging proudly on the wall. When I enquired who the man in question was, I would typically be told: "This is my grandfather, he fled to Taiwan in 1949." Most of the old men who take pride of place in Taiwanese homes have now passed away. I wonder what they would have made of this week's visit to China by Lien Chan, the head of the Kuomintang (KMT). There is, at last, a reconciliation of so...
For me, observing the governments of China and Japan squaring off recently is rather like watching Manchester United play Tottenham. Isn't there some way, I ask myself, that both of them could lose? I say this as someone who has spent several years living in two countries, Taiwan and South Korea, which toil in the shadows of the East Asian giants. Along the way, I've picked up a strong dislike of the right-wing regimes in Tokyo and Beijing. This part of the world is beset by conflict...
In the past, Westminster elections in Northern Ireland (NI) were dull affairs. In the 1992 and 1997 polls only one or two seats changed hands. However, since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, politics in the north have entered a period of great flux. In 2001, many seats changed hands and there were tight contests in many others. Once again in 2005, there are thrilling, down-to-the-wire fights right across NI. It's going to be great craic, I'm sorry that I'll miss it. Any t...
It was "China Week" a while ago on BBC World and I, as a fully paid-up Sino-phile, was looking forward to seven days of special programming on the Middle Kingdom. But I'm afraid to say that the Beeb's efforts were largely disappointing. There were some interesting reports, especially about the Muslim population of the far west, but too much of the coverage was of the highly cliched variety " Look! Some people in China are rich these days !" etc. The one programme that really rankled was t...
A few months ago, I came home from work and switched on the TV. On the screen were two men holding a photo opportunity, one Catholic, the other Protestant - His Holiness, Pope John Paul the Second and George Walker Bush, President of the United States. The Supreme Pontiff was trying to read a written statement to the press. I strained to listen to what the old man was saying. Was it Polish, Italian, Latin even? It was only after several moments that I realised that the leader of the world's C...
In a strange way, I find myself agreeing with the US ambassador to Israel, Dan Kurtzer, when he said on Friday that it is "unrealistic" to expect the large settlements on the West Bank to be evacuated. It seems to me that Kurtzer is correct in identifying the permanence of Ma'aleh Adumim et al . However, the American diplomat was amiss in not drawing the logical conclusion from this. The harsh reality is that the larger settlements on the West Bank, many of them now the size of small tow...
Thursday was my last St. Patrick's Day. From now on, I'm boycotting the annual celebration of all things Oirish. Next March 17th, no matter where I may be in the world, I will be defiantly (and uncharcteristically) sober. Anyone foolish enough to wish me a happy Paddy's Day will be met by a terse "bah, humbug!" For me, this won't be much of a sacrifice. When I was a kid, St. Patrick's Day wasn't that big a deal, except on the rare occasions when one of my school's sports teams made it to t...
The first thing that struck me upon entering the West Bank city of Nablus was not the poverty or the violence but rather the sheer natural beauty of the city's setting, nestled in a valley. It seemed only right that Palestine, as a land over which two peoples struggle, should be a physically beautiful country. Other conflict zones like Ireland, Lebanon and the Balkans are also pleasing on the eye. The wistful side of me likes to think that men would no more fight over an ugly country ...
One of the advantages of learning Hangeul , the Korean writing system, is that it allows the native English speaker to understand many words which have been Hangeul-ised from English. So for example, at the cafe I can order a " ka peu chi no " or a " mo ka ". Sometimes though, ignorance might be bliss. A while ago, I saw a public information notice on the Seoul subway. My Korean is very poor so I could only understand the title, which was derived from an English word: " te reo ". Unfo...
In the run-up to the war in Iraq, the supposedly liberal US commentator, Tom Friedman tried to rally progressives to the war camp with the argument (I'm paraphrasing) "somethings are still right, even if Bush thinks they are". While I do not agree with Friedman's position on the Iraq war, I do accept the principle he was espousing. Every once in a while, I find myself agreeing with the US president. It sends a shiver down my spine and I feel like I need a shower, but still I can't deny it...
I find it remarkable how Americans refer to their government, their armed forces and their country in the first person."We have to support our president and our troops in Iraq. We have to win." Or equally, "We have to oppose our president's Iraq policy. We have to bring our troops home. We can't win." The idea that the government belongs to the people is strongly enshrined in the American constitution. It probably seems natural then for Americans to speak of their state as "we" "us" and "...
Ten years ago my school, deep in unionist Ulster, became the first mainly Protestant place of learning to invite members of the IRA's political wing, Sinn Fein (SF), to come and speak to the pupils. At the time this was a controversial step. The IRA's ceasefire was not yet a year old and SF was still, to many unionists, completely beyond the pale morally. As Jim Gibney and Tom Hartley arrived at my school that day back in 1995, I imagine that they saw their visit as one more small step on...