Belfast riots

[mrmarcus]

The Protestant Unionist Loyalist people of Northern Ireland, who are more British than the British themselves, have been rioting for a week now over the Belfast city council democratic vote to remove the union flag from Belfast city hall on all but 17 days a year.

There's no thread on it and it barely makes the tv news. As long as the petrol bombing of cars with police in them, road barricades or burning down of political party offices stays within tolerable levels it's just them lot over there acting up again isn't it?

Funnily enough though, on the evening of the council vote, a group of rioters broke into the city hall and one particular bigoted piece of work has created an Internet meme. 3 Examples below of many...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYZVAlSdLLY&fea...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTvFC7QNc0Q&fea...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsPVPtjye4c&fea...

[Odhran]

A bar trashed tonight in another evening of sectarian rioting. One would almost think the loyalist working class would put their efforts into protesting about welfare cuts and housing issues rather than a piece of cloth flying over some old building. Protests have cost struggling retailers £3m in lost trade so far apparently too.

[Art0ir]

mrmarcus said:

The Protestant Unionist Loyalist people of Northern Ireland, who are more British than the British themselves, have been rioting for a week now over the Belfast city council democratic vote to remove the union flag from Belfast city hall on all but 17 days a year.

There's no thread on it and it barely makes the tv news. As long as the petrol bombing of cars with police in them, road barricades or burning down of political party offices stays within tolerable levels it's just them lot over there acting up again isn't it?

Funnily enough though, on the evening of the council vote, a group of rioters broke into the city hall and one particular bigoted piece of work has created an Internet meme. 3 Examples below of many...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYZVAlSdLLY&fea...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTvFC7QNc0Q&fea...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsPVPtjye4c&fea...

The videos aren't even the best of it

[Eric Mc]

I don't think "the protestant people" are rioting. The "mob" is made up of the hard core extremists plus teenagers out for a bit of action.

[Dog Star]

Well tbh what mug thought that taking the flag down was NOT going to result in this happening?

[Jasandjules]

Many people have fought and died for that flag over the years.

Many others have fought and died over regimental colours over the years.

[Eric Mc]

Including many Irishmen of all persuasions.

As far as I know, Belfast City Hall was the only civic building in the UK that flew the Union Flag 365 days of the year. I think the decision by the democratically elected council to fall in line with the rest of the country is quite reasonable.

However, if the majority of people in Belfast don't like it, they can always do their best to get a council elected that will reverse the decision. Northern Ireland is a democracy and things can be changed there without burning the place down or hurting anyone.

[IroningMan]

Rain required.

[essayer]

IroningMan said:

Rain required.

Or just make a stand and take down the flagpole.
"RIGHT YOU LOT, NO FLAGS FOR ANYONE. HAPPY NOW?"

[Art0ir]

Jasandjules said:

Many people have fought and died for that flag democracy over the years.

[Ozzie Osmond]

I have a great compromise suggestion.

Why don't they fly the Scottish flag?

[JuniorD]

It's incredible but true to form to see the DUP and UUP wash their hands of the situation which they stirred up. It was inevitable that a democratic vote in the council would mean the removal of the flag on all but designated days which was a good compromise, facilitated by the Alliance party. However instead of accepting the inevitability of the democratic vote, the DUP and UUP saw fit to preemptively encourage the mindless morons whose votes thy are desperate for ,to target the Alliance partys offices. The trouble with the big unionist parties is that they have never been known to do the right thing in the right way.

[iphonedyou]

JuniorD said:

It's incredible but true to form to see the DUP and UUP wash their hands of the situation which they stirred up. It was inevitable that a democratic vote in the council would mean the removal of the flag on all but designated days which was a good compromise, facilitated by the Alliance party. However instead of accepting the inevitability of the democratic vote, the DUP and UUP saw fit to preemptively encourage the mindless morons whose votes thy are desperate for ,to target the Alliance partys offices. The trouble with the big unionist parties is that they have never been known to do the right thing in the right way.

I'd have thought pushing for the flag to be removed in the first place - when 80% of people don't care, meaning you're effectively doing it for the 10%, or less, that actively oppose it - was the very definition of 'stirring'.

[anonymous-user]

I do a fair bit of business in Northern Ireland, to a certain extent the UK government has bought peace over recent years by keeping the economy afloat, now the government is having to trim it's expenditure and the neighbouring Irish Republic's economy is pretty bad it's getting harder to keep a lid on it again.

It's a great shame to see it sliding backwards, and sad that this is getting less coverage than the admittedly tragic, but ultimately hollow story of the hospital prank calls.

[Regiment]

I thought the whole part of being British is just, not giving a damn...the people of Northern Ireland need to do a lot better job of being British.

[Art0ir]

iphonedyou said:

I'd have thought pushing for the flag to be removed in the first place - when 80% of people don't care, meaning you're effectively doing it for the 10%, or less, that actively oppose it - was the very definition of 'stirring'.

People are beginning to see past the tribal politics in NI that much like anywhere else, politicians are in it for personal gain not some wonderful ideology.

Both parties will pander to the extremists from both parts of the community - Sinn Fein playing the equality card over the flag and the DUP playing the "they're slowly killing us" card to the loyalists.

Meanwhile the Alliance Party steps in and says "What about a compromise? Don't take it down altogether, let's have it fly the same amount of days as any other government building in NI or any other city hall in the UK?" and they're the ones attacked, threatened, firebombed and run out their homes..

I have many, many unionist friends and colleagues and outside of East Belfast any I've spoken to are extremely disappointed in how the Unionist politicians have fired the loyalists up (40k leaflets calling for the Alliance party to be held responsible for "siding" with republicans, etc).

As one of them said to me this morning, "At the end of the day it's just a flag. But it suits both parties. While they're playing tribes off each other, they can keep the gravy train at Stormont at full steam while youth unemployment hits 25% and community unemployment reaches the highest levels in the UK"

And right he is.

[JuniorD]

iphonedyou said:

I'd have thought pushing for the flag to be removed in the first place - when 80% of people don't care, meaning you're effectively doing it for the 10%, or less, that actively oppose it - was the very definition of 'stirring'.

The debate over this flag has been going on 10 years. Interesting statistic that 80% don't care as I hadn't heard that one before but the only verifiable statistic that matters is that the democratically elected council saw fit by a majority of 29 votes to 21 to have it only flown on designated days. The DUP and UUP should have acquiesced to the inevitable. Had this passed without the incendiary advance comments of the DUP /UUP leaflet campaign and their lack of leadership afterwards I suspect it would have went down with a murmur.

[madbadger]

Being discussed on Jeremy Vine now.

[Eric Mc]

madbadger said:

Being discussed on Jeremy Vine now.

That'll calm things down for sure.

[NoNeed]

Regiment said:

I thought the whole part of being British is just, not giving a damn...the people of Northern Ireland need to do a lot better job of being British.

This is true, in fact they are almost french!