Sean Mallory casts his wary eye over political events at home in Ireland and abroad in England and elsewhere.

Arlene Foster, paying no heed to Tánaiste Francis Fitzgerald's sacrifice, and currently an aspiring monarch without a throne, and after another anti-Irish bashing, fleg waving, jingoistic but God inspired (Protestant God that is) DUP party conference, has supressed her true-self beliefs and taken to scrambling for the return of her throne, the Office of First Minister, by declaring “My party will not be found wanting”.

A somewhat trite attempt to lure SF back to the negotiating table to discuss further the re-establishment of Stormont.

Foster, perhaps feels the Ides of March closing in on her as Nigel, her not so trusty deputy Dodds, continues to shine at Westminster and hog the limelight. Or maybe she feels the heat more from her old pals in the UDA, UVF and UFF and not RHI, who are now demanding their payment from the one billion bung for their endorsement of her party in the last Westminster elections.

Whichever, if not all, Foster needs a PR success to thwart any future findings of her progressively unethical behaviour and management ineptitude from the heat of the RHI scandal as the public enquiry gets underway.

Leo Varadkar, according to Unionism, once Tonto but now more Lone Ranger, and across the water best thought of as Kipling's Mowgli, and once facing disintegration of his coalition due to his Tánaiste Francis Fitzgerald developing amnesia, has survived at the last minute.

Fitzgerald, much to the Daily Star's dismay, resigned to retain Leo's position of strength in the British Brexit negotiations.

Unrepentant of her involvement in the Garda whistleblower scandal, she inevitably succumbed to public pressure and unselfishly was pushed on her sword thus saving Leo and the coalition from collapse and early elections. But, not resolving the governmental corruption involved!

Theresa May, as ever, thrill seeking on the edge of the abyss, and laughing in the face of her stays of execution, was advised by one of her former ‘sacked by Theresa’ cabinet ministers, Ex-International Development Secretary Priti Patel and once considered a potential leadership contender, that the UK should tell the EU to 'sod off' over the divorce bill. Blunt and candid advice coming so close to the December crunch meeting with the EU. Theresa and her band of merry men are said to be pondering the minute details of such advice.

Also offering her just as equally blunt advice on her government’s foreign policy on the Brexit Irish border issue, was one DUP Sammy Wilson.

Wilson warned her that any discussion of Norn Iron being treated differently from the rest of the UK and she and her cabinet can kiss the DUP support goodbye. 

May, apparently considered telling Wilson and the DUP to go f*** themselves that she was the PM, 55 million English people were more important, and the alternative was no billion pound bung and Corbyn as PM. Shortly afterwards she dispelled any thought of issuing that sort of response once Dodds, DUP party leader at Westminster, called on Tory Brexiteers to remind her that she is mortal.

Wilson and his motley crew, without Arlene too, are meeting to discuss the gravity of the situation with specifically which one of them is going to convey to Big Jackie and the boys that Ulster is more important than pounds sterling!

Undeterred by Wilson's advice, May faced further calls for Trumps state visit to be denied after his endorsement of Britain First. An organisation whose ethos closely resembles Fosters unionist paramilitaries.

With the rise of the Weimar Republic, German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, in no less a precarious position as Theresa and Leo, faces imminent demise and the end of her 12 year tenure as her party scrambles for a new leader and a new coalition.

Jenny Hill, BBC Berlin correspondent, told the BBC's The World This Week: "This is her twilight. For Merkel, this is the beginning of the end.”

The only resolution to Angela's plight and that of her party is a deal to be done with the Social Democrats by Christmas. As much as Leo's party did with Michael's.

Saad Harriri, Lebanon's Prime Minister, after un-forcibly resigning while not being held against his will in Saudi Arabia by Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, has decided to put his resignation “on hold” now that he has escaped, sorry, returned back to Lebanon – a resignation reversal which led to celebrations on the streets of Beirut but increased his prospects for assassination. Maybe that's what they were celebrating Saad and not your return or your decision to postpone you resignation!!!!

Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, a man in the middle of a civil purge and a man responsible for the crimes against humanity in Yemen and who is militarily advised and supplied with munitions in that conflict by Britain, has attempted, along with the Israelis, to ignite Lebanon in to another civil conflict in order to undermine Hezbollah but especially to impede the spread of Iranian influence throughout the Levant. On the other hand, the Israelis, already defeated by Hezbollah in past battles, are just shitting themselves for fear of the now same guerrilla battle hardened Hezbollah returning from Syria.

Qatar, emboldened by Harriri's stanch of defiance, and also bearing the brunt of the Crown Prince’s petulant and erratic behaviour have come out publicly to condemn the Crown Prince.

Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, Qatar’s foreign minister, accused Riyadh of “bullying” its neighbours and risking new conflict amid an ongoing diplomatic crisis.

“This is a big country bullying a small country – we have seen it in Qatar and now we are seeing it repeated in Lebanon.”

Al-Thani perhaps ‘sensing’ a change in the Gulf States support for the Crown Prince and his numerous follies and especially an ill wind blowing within Saudi Arabia due to his civil purge, feels that the time is right to declare such. For his and Qatar's sake I hope so!

As a bellicose Ratko Mladić was being dragged away to his cell where he will most likely see out his days, in Zimbabwe, a ‘jovial’ Robert Mugabe gave in and resigned leaving the way open for the return of his once right hand enforcer, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the deputy he sacked but always presumed to be the heir apparent even though he is 75 years old. Mugabe and his family, pensioned off, will not face any investigations at all in to his past malfeasance.

Mnangagwa, once a core member of Mugabe’s inner circle and known as the crocodile, was head of the State secret police during the 1980s civil conflict in which thousands of civilians died. 

Mnangagwa has denied any part in the massacre and blamed the army. The same army that returned him to head Zimbabwe.

It's nice these days to see people and or institutions not holding a grudge unlike those bitter and spiteful people from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia who judged Ratko!

Aung San Suu Kyi has been formally stripped of the Freedom of the City of Oxford. The City Council unanimous in its decision, did not want to celebrate “those who turn a blind eye to violence”. Very noble when one considers the past world monsters that once threaded the halls and corridors of its more illustrious institution of learning!

And to finish on a happier note, Harry, Prince of the House Windsor, has announced his and Meghan Markle’s engagement. Once divorced and not pure white Anglo-Saxon, Meghan declared undying love for the Prince and signalled as ‘Camilla the Taig’ has done, that the institution of the English Throne is modernising....well more refurbishing really!

Let's wish them good luck, well, better luck than his Dad or even his Mum whose relationship with a person of similar tone ended so tragically!



Sean Mallory is a Tyrone republican and TPQ columnist

Game Of Thrones

Sean Mallory casts his wary eye over political events at home in Ireland and abroad in England and elsewhere.

Arlene Foster, paying no heed to Tánaiste Francis Fitzgerald's sacrifice, and currently an aspiring monarch without a throne, and after another anti-Irish bashing, fleg waving, jingoistic but God inspired (Protestant God that is) DUP party conference, has supressed her true-self beliefs and taken to scrambling for the return of her throne, the Office of First Minister, by declaring “My party will not be found wanting”.

A somewhat trite attempt to lure SF back to the negotiating table to discuss further the re-establishment of Stormont.

Foster, perhaps feels the Ides of March closing in on her as Nigel, her not so trusty deputy Dodds, continues to shine at Westminster and hog the limelight. Or maybe she feels the heat more from her old pals in the UDA, UVF and UFF and not RHI, who are now demanding their payment from the one billion bung for their endorsement of her party in the last Westminster elections.

Whichever, if not all, Foster needs a PR success to thwart any future findings of her progressively unethical behaviour and management ineptitude from the heat of the RHI scandal as the public enquiry gets underway.

Leo Varadkar, according to Unionism, once Tonto but now more Lone Ranger, and across the water best thought of as Kipling's Mowgli, and once facing disintegration of his coalition due to his Tánaiste Francis Fitzgerald developing amnesia, has survived at the last minute.

Fitzgerald, much to the Daily Star's dismay, resigned to retain Leo's position of strength in the British Brexit negotiations.

Unrepentant of her involvement in the Garda whistleblower scandal, she inevitably succumbed to public pressure and unselfishly was pushed on her sword thus saving Leo and the coalition from collapse and early elections. But, not resolving the governmental corruption involved!

Theresa May, as ever, thrill seeking on the edge of the abyss, and laughing in the face of her stays of execution, was advised by one of her former ‘sacked by Theresa’ cabinet ministers, Ex-International Development Secretary Priti Patel and once considered a potential leadership contender, that the UK should tell the EU to 'sod off' over the divorce bill. Blunt and candid advice coming so close to the December crunch meeting with the EU. Theresa and her band of merry men are said to be pondering the minute details of such advice.

Also offering her just as equally blunt advice on her government’s foreign policy on the Brexit Irish border issue, was one DUP Sammy Wilson.

Wilson warned her that any discussion of Norn Iron being treated differently from the rest of the UK and she and her cabinet can kiss the DUP support goodbye. 

May, apparently considered telling Wilson and the DUP to go f*** themselves that she was the PM, 55 million English people were more important, and the alternative was no billion pound bung and Corbyn as PM. Shortly afterwards she dispelled any thought of issuing that sort of response once Dodds, DUP party leader at Westminster, called on Tory Brexiteers to remind her that she is mortal.

Wilson and his motley crew, without Arlene too, are meeting to discuss the gravity of the situation with specifically which one of them is going to convey to Big Jackie and the boys that Ulster is more important than pounds sterling!

Undeterred by Wilson's advice, May faced further calls for Trumps state visit to be denied after his endorsement of Britain First. An organisation whose ethos closely resembles Fosters unionist paramilitaries.

With the rise of the Weimar Republic, German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, in no less a precarious position as Theresa and Leo, faces imminent demise and the end of her 12 year tenure as her party scrambles for a new leader and a new coalition.

Jenny Hill, BBC Berlin correspondent, told the BBC's The World This Week: "This is her twilight. For Merkel, this is the beginning of the end.”

The only resolution to Angela's plight and that of her party is a deal to be done with the Social Democrats by Christmas. As much as Leo's party did with Michael's.

Saad Harriri, Lebanon's Prime Minister, after un-forcibly resigning while not being held against his will in Saudi Arabia by Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, has decided to put his resignation “on hold” now that he has escaped, sorry, returned back to Lebanon – a resignation reversal which led to celebrations on the streets of Beirut but increased his prospects for assassination. Maybe that's what they were celebrating Saad and not your return or your decision to postpone you resignation!!!!

Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, a man in the middle of a civil purge and a man responsible for the crimes against humanity in Yemen and who is militarily advised and supplied with munitions in that conflict by Britain, has attempted, along with the Israelis, to ignite Lebanon in to another civil conflict in order to undermine Hezbollah but especially to impede the spread of Iranian influence throughout the Levant. On the other hand, the Israelis, already defeated by Hezbollah in past battles, are just shitting themselves for fear of the now same guerrilla battle hardened Hezbollah returning from Syria.

Qatar, emboldened by Harriri's stanch of defiance, and also bearing the brunt of the Crown Prince’s petulant and erratic behaviour have come out publicly to condemn the Crown Prince.

Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, Qatar’s foreign minister, accused Riyadh of “bullying” its neighbours and risking new conflict amid an ongoing diplomatic crisis.

“This is a big country bullying a small country – we have seen it in Qatar and now we are seeing it repeated in Lebanon.”

Al-Thani perhaps ‘sensing’ a change in the Gulf States support for the Crown Prince and his numerous follies and especially an ill wind blowing within Saudi Arabia due to his civil purge, feels that the time is right to declare such. For his and Qatar's sake I hope so!

As a bellicose Ratko Mladić was being dragged away to his cell where he will most likely see out his days, in Zimbabwe, a ‘jovial’ Robert Mugabe gave in and resigned leaving the way open for the return of his once right hand enforcer, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the deputy he sacked but always presumed to be the heir apparent even though he is 75 years old. Mugabe and his family, pensioned off, will not face any investigations at all in to his past malfeasance.

Mnangagwa, once a core member of Mugabe’s inner circle and known as the crocodile, was head of the State secret police during the 1980s civil conflict in which thousands of civilians died. 

Mnangagwa has denied any part in the massacre and blamed the army. The same army that returned him to head Zimbabwe.

It's nice these days to see people and or institutions not holding a grudge unlike those bitter and spiteful people from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia who judged Ratko!

Aung San Suu Kyi has been formally stripped of the Freedom of the City of Oxford. The City Council unanimous in its decision, did not want to celebrate “those who turn a blind eye to violence”. Very noble when one considers the past world monsters that once threaded the halls and corridors of its more illustrious institution of learning!

And to finish on a happier note, Harry, Prince of the House Windsor, has announced his and Meghan Markle’s engagement. Once divorced and not pure white Anglo-Saxon, Meghan declared undying love for the Prince and signalled as ‘Camilla the Taig’ has done, that the institution of the English Throne is modernising....well more refurbishing really!

Let's wish them good luck, well, better luck than his Dad or even his Mum whose relationship with a person of similar tone ended so tragically!



Sean Mallory is a Tyrone republican and TPQ columnist

1 comment:

  1. Excellent choice of title. Present day politics like the allusory titillationist fiction just goes on and on from one close shave after another. One could be forgiven for thinking that indeed there may be some divine inspiration or magical properties involved. But you know like the elongation of the series, LSD, (pounds, shillings and pence) is a great motivator and raison d'etre, as old as the hills. There's no such thing as principles just the cold facts of mammon, wrath,fire and brimstone.

    Perhaps we are all waiting pm some dragon, savior or king Leo for salvation.

    One thing I feel strongly about is the dearth of credible alternatives or political analysis other than the status quo line from main stream media. I can expect the same old shit from the establishment but not from so called republicans, the left or progressive elements. They are all over the shop and not many putting their head above the parapet. Brexit epitomises this. One of the results is the far right being allowed to own it. It is condescending to hear the line that those who voted 'leave' are ignorant and didn't know what they voted for. Another condescending line that Remainers take is labelling Brexiteers as loonies.

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