"UK’s Cameron leaves talks on Northern Ireland" by Douglas Dalby, New York Times December 13, 2014
DUBLIN — Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain unexpectedly left negotiations on the future of Northern Ireland on Friday morning, saying there was no prospect of any imminent breakthrough on the various impasses that continue to bedevil the region after decades of violent sectarian strife.
It was hoped that Cameron’s presence in Belfast, the capital, and the attendance of his counterpart from Ireland, Enda Kenny, would break the various logjams on the restrictions on the flying of the British flag above the Belfast City Hall and Protestant Orange Order parades and about how to best deal with the legacies of conflict. He had been expected to remain until at least Friday afternoon.
Cameron’s main bargaining tool was the amount of money he was willing to release to Northern Ireland’s government to ease its chronic budgetary shortfalls.
Northern Ireland has already requested an additional $157 million just to balance the books this financial year, but the region is also facing a penalty of about $314 million if it does not agree to a package of welfare cuts.
Many observers believe that it would be unable to withstand that financial blow, impelling the collapse of its fledgling cross-sectarian government.
Cameron said his government had pledged almost 1 billion pounds over the next five years, provided an agreement could be reached. But as the recriminations began in the wake of his early departure, Gerry Adams, the leader of the party Sinn Fein, said on Twitter, “2 Govts exiting after most amateurish ham fisted episode I have ever been involved in.”
Northern Ireland relies heavily on an annual subvention from the British central government.
“The running cost of Northern Ireland is 20 billion pounds a year of which we contribute about 9 billion pounds in taxes,” Eamonn Donaghy, the head of taxation at the accounting firm KPMG in Belfast, said recently in the newspaper The Belfast Telegraph. “The British taxpayer is not going to continue giving us 11 billion pounds a year indefinitely.”
Cameron said a deal was possible and a lot of good work had taken place. But, he said, the sticking point was financial sustainability, and local parties still had a lot of work to do in that regard.
“Financial help is on the table if the politicians here locally can agree the issues of flags, parades, and the past, and set their own budget in a way that is sustainable,” he said. “If they do those things, I stand ready — the UK taxpayer stands ready — to help, but it has to be help on the basis that those issues are settled.”
Northern Ireland’s first minister, Peter Robinson, said the talks would continue but said the prime minister had seriously underestimated the difficulties in finding agreement and needed to go further.
“I don’t believe we sufficiently challenged the prime minister on what his bottom line is,” he said. “We didn’t do that because we have ourselves not been able to come to agreement.’’
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Speaking of brain-dead:
Irish face new abortion row over brain-dead woman
More than 4,000 women travel annually to receive abortions in neighboring England.
Maybe you are happy with the Globe's Ireland coverage lately. I'm kinda aborting it.
Church of England names Lane as first female bishop
What's that thing on her cheek?
UK proposes rules for embryos made from 3 people
You.... ARE the FATHER.... BOTH of YOU(?)!!
"UK police investigate murder claims in abuse case" Associated Press December 19, 2014
LONDON — British police said Thursday they are investigating three allegations of murder as part of an inquiry into claims that politically powerful people sexually abused children decades ago.
This is one of the most under covered and underreported stories by the propaganda pre$$: the murderous elite pedophile rings.
London’s Metropolitan Police force said a man who says he was abused from the age of 7 alleges that three boys were killed. Detectives revealed the claim as they appealed for witnesses and abuse victims to come forward. They said they were examining old missing-persons cases, and no bodies had been found.
The force is investigating allegations that a group of pedophiles linked to senior levels of British politics and law enforcement abused children in the 1970s and ‘80s.
The inquiry focuses on an apartment building near Parliament that was popular with politicians as a London base. Police say abuse also may have taken place at other addresses, ‘‘including military premises.’’
What kind of sick and evil elite are in power over there?
Detective Superintendent Kenny McDonald appealed for men who were abused 30 years ago to come forward.
The investigation was triggered by revelations that entertainer Jimmy Savile, who died in 2011, abused children.
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Looks like sex scandals are long part of English lore -- as the press goes back to hiding the perversions of the powerful. If you wish to seek the truth you must go somewhere else and scroll a bit.
"Britain to investigate air-traffic disruption
LONDON — The British government has demanded an investigation after a computer failure Friday at one of Britain’s two air-traffic control centers caused a major disruption of air traffic into and out of London. The congested airspace over the British capital was closed during the 35-minute shutdown, leading to severe delays and flight cancellations in London and other parts of Europe that officials said would spill over into Saturday. The problem was traced to the computer system at NATS, the troubled UK-based air traffic management company."
You sure it wasn't North Korea?
"Runaway truck kills 6 in Scotland" Associated Press December 23, 2014
GLASGOW, Scotland — Six people were killed and several others injured when a garbage truck crashed into a group of pedestrians in downtown Glasgow on Monday, police said.
The truck hit the pedestrians as it veered out of control along a crowded road in the city center, Superintendent Stewart Carle of Police Scotland said.
‘‘For now it does not look to be a criminal or deliberate act that has taken place here this afternoon, but we need to have time to investigate it,’’ he said, adding that the truck driver is being treated in a hospital.
Carle said at least seven people had been seriously injured and warned that number may rise.
Onlookers suggested the driver became ill and lost control of the vehicle, but officials did not confirm this.
In France on Monday, Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said a man drove his van into a Christmas market in Nantes and then stabbed himself several times after what police said was a deliberate crash.
Eleven people including the driver were injured in the crash, which occurred in a market full of holiday shoppers. The driver was among five people seriously hurt.
????? Another staged and scripted fiction or false flag hoax?
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Time for me to dump this garbage.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
Belfast leaders strike deal to save power-sharing
Oh, it's all smiles now, is it?
Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain heralded the deal, which became possible when his government offered an extra $3.2 billion over the coming decade to Northern Ireland.
Cameron, speaking in London, said the financial boost, largely loans from the British Treasury, ‘‘opens the way for more prosperity, stability, and economic security for Northern Ireland.’’
It will allow Northern Ireland to avoid cutting welfare payments as sharply as in the rest of the United Kingdom.
US Secretary of State John Kerry commended the deal.
Related: Doctors: Take pregnant Irishwoman off life support
Irish court mulls rights of dead woman vs. fetus
Clinically dead pregnant woman is taken off life support in Ireland
Ireland has the strictest abortion ban in Europe, a reflection of its heavily Roman Catholic population.
I'm aborting this post now.
