You can't have missed the news that Gerry Fitt passed away in England today at a relatives home, due to a long-running hear condition. I don't know much about him because his heyday was before my time, but it seems he was much more reasonable and rational than most politicians in Northern Ireland at the minute, of either colour.

Gerry Fitt (latterly Lord Fitt) was John Hume's predecessor as leader of the SDLP which he co-founded. This morning that was probably as much as I knew about the man, but having heard the stories and the reflections of his peers on his life, it seems that Ulster has suffered a real loss today.

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No, not mad in a good way; mad as in stir crazy!

Trevor Ringland, Ulster Unionist spokesman for sport said that sport can break down sectarian barriers. This is fair enough, in many cases it can. He talks about promoting sport at local levels through church groups and other community organisations. Brilliant! That all sounds like it might help.

Unfortunately he ruins it all by going on to talk some severe rubbish!

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Another night, another riot in north Belfast around Ardoyne. I'm not even going to comment on the fact that yet more petrol bombs were hurled at the officers caught in the middle of this pathetic but dangerous sectarian chest-beating aside to mention how dispicable it is.

Also in the same area, a Protestant family's home was attacked and had windows smashed in Alliance Gardens yesterday afternoon. Later (around 5:30 pm) a gang of 4 youths attacked Catholic homes in Cliftondene gardens with paint and petrol bombs, in an attack the local Sinn Fein representative described as sectarian.

He's almost undoubtedly right and the attacks are deplorable, but somehow I get the feeling he was only describing the latter attack as sectarian rather than both. This would be regrettable yet only too predictable given Sinn Fein's hierarchy of victims.

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Saw Ken Livingstone on the BBC this morning. Not a fan of his at the best of times but was disappointed to hear him compare the Israeli occupation of Gaza/the West Bank to Nazi occupation of Britain. Can Godwin's Law be applied to a breakfast news item on TV?

I don't often venture an opinion on the situation in the middle east because I don't know enough about it but Livingstone clearly should have kept his mouth shut as his comment seems to back up the idea that he and his fellow terrorist loving leftists have no idea about situations they feel qualified to talk about.

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Home Secretary Charles Clarke has today made public the criteria that will be used to decide if someone can be deported for inciting terrorism via new powers being introduced at Westminster. One of the actions that can land foreigners with a deportation or exclusion from the UK is "advocating and justifying violence to further beliefs."

As a "foreign national", perhaps Gerry Adams will finally be sent back home to Dublin!

Seriously though, human rights lawyers are already "up in arms" over fears that deportees could be sent back to countries where they might face torture. In otherwords scum of the earth wastes of space who thrive off human misery and undermining the rule of law are salivating at the prospect of huge payoffs for exploiting loopholes to allow terrorist recruiters to remain in our United Kingdom. I don't give a flying one if these Islamofascist hate preachers are tortured back in whereever the hell they're going anyway. Their suffering is nothing compared to the deaths caused by each and every suicide bomber they successfully indoctrinate with their hate-filled propaganda. What's more, it's none of our business.

An elderly couple, already dealing with Cancer, had their home attacked by republican thugs last night. Youths reported to have been wearing Celtic tops threw jars of paint through the living room window of a number of homes in Hesketh Road before jumping back in a red Renault Laguna and speeding off. The homes attacked include that of 82 year old cancer sufferer Mr John Mussen and his wife, also in her 80s.

I can't find the words to express my disgust at this attack. While it's possible that the youths didn't know who lived in the houses and attacked indiscriminately, I can't picture them feeling any kind of guilt or remorse at the thought of their assault on the home of this poor couple, who clearly already have enough to deal with; sure they're only Protestants.

The Irish FA has a small number of tickets for the Northern Ireland world cup qualifier against Azerbaijan available. These are all in the south stand and probably available due to the Azeri fans not taking up their full 1,400ish allocation (I suspect somewhere in the region of 1,375 tickets to be available).

That said, demand is likely to be significant. The tickets only went on sale this morning at 9:00 and I got there at 9:20ish to find 3 or 4 guys in front of my collecting and buying tickets. If you want to grab some tickets get yourself down to 20 Windsor Avenue or contact the Irish FA by telephone on (028) 9066 9458.

I don't pretend to understand the mindset of republicans. Frankly the self-important arrogance inherent in the idea that adding Northern Ireland to the 26 county republic is worth blowing up 29 innocent men, women and children (including 2 unborn children) in one afternoon is beyond comprehension. The callous belief that it's A-OK to shoot a 14 year old girl so you can blame the British defence forces and shoot a soldier in 'retaliation' is beneath contempt. I'll never understand that part of Irish republicanism, but it doesn't take a man with green blood flowing through his veins to realise that the provies are losing control of their ghettoes.

Sinn Fein say when Patten is fully implemented they will discuss policing. Frankly, having read about the events in Ardoyne over the past few days, and the police refusal to do anything, I can't imagine that Patten could have anything left to take away from them, but I'm sure Gerry and Coco will find something.

Why am I so sure? Think about it. Sinn Fein win votes by chastising the police service at every turn. Many of their voters have little time for any police force, let alone a "six-county puppet statelet extension of the British military presence in Ireland" one. The very fact that these men and women want to uphold the law is reason enough for swathes of republicans to reject them outright; the fact that it's British law is a convenient excuse, but there's much more to it than that.

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Given the number of stories I've posted in recent weeks about different folks being arrested and then released I'm not overly excited by this story. Nevertheless, not much has been happening today (it seems) so here goes:

Detectives investigating the murder of a man in north Belfast, thought to be linked to the 'loyalist feud' (sounds much too grandiose a term to be used to describe gangs of grown men bitching like old women, but alas I digress).. where was I? Ah yes, these detectives have arrested two men (in their mid 30s) over the murder.

The murder in question is that of Stephen Paul, the third victim out of 4 so far.

Christ those active folk in Ardoyne and their rivals in the Short Strand really are competitive guys. Not content with a weekend of rioting, they've been on the streets again tonight. About 50 youths in the Short Strand are said to be "involved in a stand off" while police are having to keep republican wastes of space away from 'loyalist' wastes of space in Ardoyne, where petrol bombs are being lobbed about like tennis balls.

It really makes for grim reading, but that's only the same old story really, isn't it?

Now this is something else... apparently kids as young as 6 (six) years old were involved. Let me reflect on this fact for a second. That kid should have been lifted and immediately placed in care because his (or, I suppose, her) parents are completely unfit to keep animals never mind raise children! This really is extracting rather large quantities of urine. That kid's got at least 12 years worth of rioting left in him, and that's assuming he ends up with a job and a life and the sense to move out of the godforsaken wasteland he currently inhabits. God knows what the worst case scenario is!

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