According to the BBC, police officers came in for multiple attacks in west Belfast on Tuesday night. Landrovers had stones thrown at them at about 10:50 pm in the Springfield Road area, while police were attacked with a petrol bomb, bricks and bottles at Distillery Street (near Grosvenor Road) and on 2 other occasions on the Springfield Road.

These sorts of assualts are disgusting. These teenagers' idea of a good time is attacking the nearest authority figure out of some sort of resentment that their own life is so meaningless that they have nothing else to be doing. Of course had the police decided to arrest the little darlings, their parents would have been straight out claiming brutality!

How depressing that we live in a world with priorities this fucked up.

A north Belfast primary school has become the BELB's first 'green' school. Cavehill Primary School has solar panels which power, among other things, lights which automatically switch off when nobody's in the room. Rain water is also collected from the roof to be recycled and used in the school.

Given Northern Ireland's excessive use of landfill sites (and the hike in rate bills this might enduce) this has to be a good thing.

The school also plan to begin using a wind turbine to generate electricity and raise a bit of extra cash to be reinvested in the school - which given recent rows over education funding, can't be bad.

The new building will accommodate 315 pupils.

The PSNI have removed LVF flags from an estate in Holywood, Co. Down.

Officers recovered paramilitary flags from a gang of men in the Loughview area at about 10PM on Friday night (although details were only released last night). 5 men were questioned and 2 have since been reported to the DPP.

The first convictions for displaying paramilitary flags came as a result of an offence in Loughview in 2003 when 4 men were charged and convicted under the Terrorism Act (2002). The LVF in the area obviously aren't fast learners!

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Sinn Fein today continued their "Outside the tent pissing in" policy to policing as spokesman Gerry Kelly used the launch of a new, supposedly safer, plastic bullet as an opportunity to have a dig at the SDLP under the headline "SDLP policing failures exposed as new Plastic Bullet is introduced"

Kelly has one of his trademark whinges, starting with "Plastic bullets kill that is the bottom line."
Whereas all those live rounds fired by the IRA were harmless toys? Or the petrol bombs lobbed by Sinn Fein's "beleagured nationalists of north Belfast" on Friday night? Plastic Bullets (PBRs) are a lot less lethal than live ammunition - that's the whole point!

He goes on to say "The SDLP in public have consistently claimed to be opposed to the use of plastic bullets."
They do. They go to meetings and argue the case against their use. Sinn Fein bitch and moan from outside.

"They told us that through membership pf the Policing Board they would ensure the removal of Plastic Bullets. Yet on the Policing Board they have presided over the introduction of another new plastic bullet."
Sinn Fein are as guilty as, if not moreso than, the SDLP of allowing plastic bullets to continue to be used. Rather than go into the policing board and vote against them, they'd rather use them as an excuse to attack the SDLP and score cheap political points. So which party is actually opposing them?

"The SDLP made noise but were ultimately powerless to prevent this and will without doubt go along with the decision of the Board."
The SDLP would have had more votes if Sinn Fein had taken their seats. As for going along with it - what should they do? Threaten the decision makers with their own private army? Oh wait...

The BBC reports that the number of troops in Northern Ireland is to fall further next August. John Reid today confirmed that the King's Own Scottish Borderers, currently based at Lisanelly Barracks in Omagh, due to end their tour in August 2006, will not be replaced.

This will bring troop levels from their current level of roughly 11,000 down by about 550 - still higher than would be envisaged during peace-time. The MoD said the army would continue to support the PSNI "to counter the threat from terrorism and to prevent potential public disorder." and will keep troop numbers in Northern Ireland under review.

Again, courtesy of my Value Cabs calendar on my desk.

"There's no point in burying a hatchet if you're going to put up a marker on the site."

Perhaps this suggestion should be made to those responsible for the proposed Hunger Strikers' Memorial at the proposed Maze Stadium

This is how the Daily Ireland, that bastion of impartial reporting, chose to describe a group of people who attacked marchers with missiles at the Ardoyne shops on Friday night. The followers of the march who were attacked included women and children.

The report also includes a photo of a woman being deflected with a shield from the PSNI officers trying to keep the peace. It must be disappointing that this is the best they can come up with to support their neverending claims of 'brutality'.

The writer goes on to have a bit of a mope about the police that "Batons were drawn — but only to be used on Catholic residents." Well since, according to most reports, on this occasion the protestors were the aggressors, it would seem logical that they would be the ones who would be hurt if the police officers had to defend themselves. As Paul pointed out over at the Northern Irish Magyar:

"This was no spontaneous demonstration by 'Concerned Residents'. You don't tend to find ready-made petrol bombs and golf balls embedded with nails just lying about on inner-city streets, waiting to be propelled towards the nearest policeman or person of the opposite religion."

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Yes, that's one expensive wombat...

OK it's not a real Wombat. Invest Northern Ireland have awarded Wombat, a high-tech company operating in the Financial Software market, $700k (US) to help them expand their Belfast workforce to 45 over the next couple of years.

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According to Sinn Fein Presidenté Gerry Adams, the return to jail of a multiple murderer spotted amidst a crowd of rioters "unjust" and "reprehensible".

Sean Kelly was arrested after he was photographed taking part in riots in the Ardoyne area of Belfast this year. This was pointed out to Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Peter Hain, in the House of Commons on Thursday by DUP MPs Jeffrey Donaldson and Nigel Dodds. It has been reported that the secretary of state was handed a police dossier and that Kelly's rearrest was not based on any one incident.

Obviously the fact that this man and his cohort carried out a bomb attack which killed 9 innocent people was neither unjust nor reprehensible, nor the fact that despite being given 9 life sentences he was released on 28th July 2000, after serving only 7 years, with £76,000 in his pocket.

The UPMJ (hardly an unbiased source, I realise) carries an account of a relative of one of the innocent victims of Kelly's Shankill Bombing.

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Another offensive last night by some brave sons of Ulster as they targeted a number of houses in north Belfast. Bravely hiding under the cloak of nightfall, these courageous heroes set fire to an oil tank outside a house.

The flames quickly spread forcing residents, including young families, out of their homes (where they were obviously involved in plotting a conspiracy to bring Ulster to her knees, so it could be subsumed by the Papish Republic).

Our heroes were unfortunate that their attack was timed on the day it was - had they carried out their plans the night before, they could probably have killed 5 young children who had been sleeping in a playhouse in the garden; a playhouse that was completely destroyed in the ensuing blaze.

Seriously - what sort of sick fucker do you have to be to carry out something like that? 5 kids were in the playhouse the night before, sleeping out overnight. Residents believe they were targeted by "loyalists".

Nigel Dodds of the DUP described the attacks as "despicable", adding "Thankfully, there were no serious personal injuries, but the trauma for the families involved must be considerable." He said anyone who could help the police should do so. I needn't point out that I completely agree with this.

These people aren't "loyalists". They're scum. Aside from the fact that this sort of mindless, ruthless attack is cowardly and just plain wrong, it does nothing for their so-called 'cause'. Do they really think we can sleep safer in our beds, Britishness assured because some wankers have burned a couple of families out of their houses leaving them distressed and upset? People in Northern Ireland don't even want to be associated with that sort of malice, what makes them think anyone in Britain does?

So if it's not for the 'cause' what is it for? It was plain, simple, bigoted hatred. Scum, I tell you!