What have they Regenerated?

Click to enlarge.

Five years after the University of Ulster invented a fake residents' group it's time to ask "What have they Regenerated?"

When called upon to help, the Extern Organisation could only find 204 residents. That was five years ago. Less than a hundred remain. The Universities have got their campus for free, courtesy of the taxpayer who forked out £24,000 for each property converted. That was generous of us don't you think? The Cancer of Landlordism has spread throughout South Belfast, raping community after community. Stranmillis is being pulled down house by house just like the Holyland. Now there's massive oversupply. Those crazy landlords just keep on going, driven by a compulsion called greed. Now they're invited back to the meetings from which they had previously been ejected. It's Grounghog Day, only there's fewer residents present. Soon landlords will outnumber residents at these things. How could anyone seriously beleive that that place would be turned around?

Denial's a dangerous thing. It enabled a handful of mediocrities to act as a PR front for the Universities and silence the cries of pain from the remnants of a community. What do they have to say for themselves now? Sorry? Mea Culpa? Don't hold your breath. They have no remorse. Instead they mourn the loss of their importance. There's nobody left for them to feed off. They're all that's left on The Raft of the Medusa.

Laugh Out Loud

I laughed out loud when I saw this. Click to open:-

All that money and Declan Boyle has no life. I'm sure he prefers to be rich and miserable.

Declan Boyle, former head of the Landlords Association, sits munching his sandwiches in the squalor of his rusty white van. It captures his moral decrepitude. I wonder is he still cruising the Holyland at night in his black Merc or 4 wheel drive?

I bet he still listens to the Bay City Rollers. He probably wanks to their videos.

Licence to Kill

I've had a week straight out of Franz Kafka.
"What is Mr Catney charged with?"
"AOABH, Threat to Kill, Interfering with an Officer in the course of an investigation"
"What, no GBH? No GBH with Intent?"
"No"
"What evidence has been submitted?"
"Police reports. Interview statements. Mr Catney is contesting the charges. He's made countercharges."
"No photographs have been admitted?"
"No"
"What about medical reports?"
"No"
"What???!!! No medical evidence and no photographs?"
"No"
"Well how am I supposed to get them in?"
"You have to give them to the police"
"The police are trying to keep them out!!"
"You have to give them to the police"
"So they're the gatekeepers"
"Ah, yeah"
"Can the Ombudsman not give the photos to the prosecutor?"
"You have to give them to the police"

I needed valium and an afternoon to recover from that.

Round Two.

"No Mr Murray. Those photographs are for our own use."
"But you have the Continuity of Evidence Statement?"
"It's not our job to conduct the investigation. We investigate the police. Your complaint is a disciplinary matter. This is misconduct, not criminality. We would only give the photographs to the prosecutor is we were pressing charges against the police"
"But they're withholding evidence. The prosecutor has tried and tried and tried to get medical evidence off them and they haven't given it. How could the prosecutor press charges for AOABH in the absence of medical evidence? They cannot get a conviction without it"
"Um, ah. I was going to discuss this with my line manager. The medical evidence is your best bet. The photographs might not be admissible."
The cops insisted they weren't. Stuart Cassells insisted they were inadmissible and was, interestingly enough joined in this by Inspector Jim Young and Sargeant Alan Bell who just, as it were, happened to be passing. That's why the Police Ombudsmans' office sent investigators out to get the photographs and a Continuity of Evidence Statement. I want you to give the photographs and the statement to the prosecutor"
"But they're for our own use. And anyway they were collected six months after the assault."
"They're digital photographs. Each image is a file containing the date and time it was taken and if it was modified."
"But they were collected six months after the asssault."
"That's because the police refused to investigate and only did so after it was revealed to them that my assailant and his six alleged witnesses were party to the giving of a false name. On the day of my assault I went to a neighbour's house and was told to go straight to the police. There were no officers in the station, but the auxiliaries called an ambulance.. The paramedics said I had a serious head injury and had to have it X-Rayed. The police came, the ambulance went away and six officers confronted me in a small room in a somewhat unpleasant manner and told me not to press charges. They said that Katrina O'Neil had six witnesses who heard me threaten to burn down the house with her and the kids in it and then attacked her boyfriend, but they didn't want to press charges. Now I had concussion, but still had the wit to say,
"Why does she not want to press charges. If someone threatened to burn your house down with you and your kids in it would you not want to press charges? Maybe they don't because I'm the one sitting here covered in blood."
Then they cautioned me for the crime of criticising this man's girlfriend, a public figure, for her failures in her public role. I note that you've closed the case on that"
"Oh? I don't think I'm dealing with that case. No, no, I'm not."
"You know that it went to trial and I was acquitted on all three charges and am sueing the cops for false arrest, malicious prosecution and Human Rights abuses. I would have thought the Ombudsman would have been interested in the Human Rights aspect"
"Um, Ah"
"There was another complaint that was closed. I was arrested for criticising another member of that committee. The Ombudsman's office took the police line that because I had been cautioned and placed on this thing called "The Harrassment Register" and had criticised this public figure on the internet again the cops had no case to answer. The Human Rights issue just didn't exist for them."
"Um, I'm afraid I wasn't dealing with that case, but I'll be speaking to my line manager today."
"Do you have the disk with the photos there?"
"Yeeees???"
"It'll only take you a minute. Just pop it in and have a look at it"
"Ummmm"
"I really think you should look at it"
"Um...I really should go.......my line manager....."
"What about the medical evidence?"
"You really need to argue that with the prosecutor. I'm afraid we can't help you"

I will deconstruct this for you, and the line of reasoning is perfectly logical and coherent, and thus very terriffying:-

• The police are determined that Mr Catney not go to jail. That much is obvious.
• The police are gatekeepers for the Prosecution Service and decide who gets charged with what. The prosecutors just shrug their shoulders and go along with it. They clearly have no interest in justice. Thus murder charges get reduced to affray and so on. They just don't care. They even press charges in the absence of medical evidence knowing that the case will fail. It's no skin off their nose. They get paid no matter how crap they are.
• The cops have insisted that Mr Catney be charged with the minimum possible offense. He could have pled guilty and walked, but he's contesting it.
• This will be an opportunity for Katrina O'Neill to throw one of her Performances. I can picture it now. Every lie under the sun will be thrown at me. I will have no opportunity to answer those allegations in court. Her performance will be suitably extreme. For her this is Apotheosis, pouring her efforts into an emotional incontinence of Hollywood proportions.
• A scapegoat is needed for the debacle that has become the Holylands. Why not blame Alan Murray for everything from arson to intimidation to this, to that, to the other thing. The police surely have a file, but curiously, no evidence. I must be a Holyland Ninja, despite having no criminal history. Either that or they're incredibly stupid and incompetent. Or perhaps their "intelligence" is defective or false (hint hint).
  
• The cops really, really, really don't like me. This is Northern Ireland (that's another hint). By making sure Mr Catney gets off because they have withheld evidence and got Katrina O'Neill to throw the performance of a lifetime, and thrown every smear in the book at me, they have given him a licence to come after me again. Even someone as incredibly stupid as him can work it out. He doesn't need to be given instructions. Thus there is no direct link to the cops. This is very convenient.
  
• Mr Catney has no fear, no consequential thought and a history of extreme violence. His last assault on me was nearly fatal. The next attack will come without warning on a dark winter night. He likes to stab people.

• The cops have given him a Licence to Kill.

This chain of reasoning is simple and terrifying and undeniable. The officer given the task of Perverting the Course of Justice and doling out death warrants is a mere willing pawn. He could certainly have chosen not to do this. He could have blown the lid on the whole thing. He made his choice, and if it all goes tits up, will take the fall for those who gave the orders. This is Northern Ireland. It's the same old cops, the same old courts. Murder is reduced to Affray. Informers are given a licence to kill. This is not Justice. This is Northern Ireland.

Rape

You may be familiar with this:-

New Poll finds that almost half of Northern Ireland Students Believe that a Woman is Partially or Totally Responsible for Being Raped if She Flirts

Posted: 30 September 2008 New campaign to target student unions A new poll shows that almost half (46%) of Northern Ireland university students believe that a woman is partially or totally responsible for being raped if she has behaved in a flirtatious manner, revealed Amnesty International today (29 September), as it published a report on attitudes to violence against women. The poll, Violence against women: the perspective of students in Northern Ireland, commissioned by Amnesty International, surveyed the attitudes and experiences of over 700 students across University of Ulster campuses. The research showed that a 'blame culture' toward women and sexual violence exists over drinking, perceived promiscuity, personal safety and whether a woman has clearly said 'no' to a man. The poll found, for example, that almost one third (30%) of students in Northern Ireland believe that a woman is partially or totally responsible for being raped if she is wearing 'sexy or revealing clothing'. The figures are higher than those found in similar surveys carried out elsewhere in the United Kingdom. Amnesty is calling on university heads to do more to tackle the problem of violence against women on campus. Amnesty International Northern Ireland programme director Patrick Corrigan said: 'This survey shows that there are some extremely disturbing attitudes swirling around our campuses. 'It's shocking that so many students lay the blame for being raped or assaulted at the feet of women themselves. If we are going to break a cycle of violence against women in Northern Ireland, we need to start by challenging attitudes amongst students and the population at large. 'As part of an integrated strategy to end all forms of violence against women, the Northern Ireland Executive should consider a comprehensive campaign aimed at preventing violence and challenging prejudicial attitudes.' Katie Morgan, President of NUS/USI (National Union of Students / Union of Students in Ireland) said: 'Sadly, these results chime with what I have seen with my own eyes on campus. We've long been calling for better services for students who have suffered violence, and these results confirm not only that domestic abuse amongst students occurs far too often, but that students don't know where to turn when it happens. The universities and colleges need to think again about the welfare of their students and in tackling the suggestion that a woman can be responsible for being raped.' Amnesty's poll also revealed that domestic violence against female students is apparently widespread in Northern Ireland. Forty per cent of students reported knowing a female student who had been assaulted by her boyfriend or partner. Meanwhile, one in 10 local students considers violence acceptable against a girlfriend who nags, flirts with other men or refuses to have sex. Revealingly, the survey also showed that three-quarters of students did not know what advice to give a woman who had suffered domestic abuse: 77% felt they did not have enough information and support to tackle the problem and 82% were unaware of the availability of any support services on campus for student victims of domestic violence. The results have prompted Amnesty International and local students unions to launch their own campaign on campus to challenge sexist attitudes. The poster, leaflet and drinks mat campaign will be rolled out in the University of Ulster and Queen's University Belfast student unions over the coming weeks. Amnesty has also written to Northern Ireland college heads and the Northern Ireland Executive encouraging them to take more action to tackle violence against women students. ENDS Note to editors The full survey report - Violence against women: the perspective of students in Northern Ireland - is available from Amnesty International. The survey questioned 715 students at the four University of Ulster campuses across Northern Ireland. It was conducted by a group of university students working through the Science Shop. The survey questions were similar to two comparable studies undertaken in the UK by ICM for Amnesty International and the End Violence Against Women campaign. This report also includes a description, where relevant, of the variance between the results obtained amongst students in Northern Ireland with the other surveyed cohort.

That "students" rape and beat their girlfriends and other female targets of opportunity is no surprise to anyone living in the Holyland. That the police cover it up is also no surprise. That no "student" has been or will be prosecuted is, you guessed it, no surprise. When this smug little shit says that "students" are not criminals he means that they are above the law. After all no-one was prosecuted for this. The attitude of the cops was that the victim brought it upon herself because of her mental health issues. I do not know how any woman can be a part of the RUC/PSNI. One would need to be utterly devoid of conscience, empathy, decency etc; in short, simply not human. From my own experience I would have to say that that appears to be the case.

I was at Queens freshers fair recently. NUS/USI had a stall. One of their slogans was,

"Thanks for having sex with me when I didn't want it. Duh!"

This says many things. First of all, rape is so common among the "student" body to have become banal. Why else describe it in terms that are not shocking, not voicing the outrage that comes with true violation. NUS/USI, headed by a woman no less, are treating this as a matter of "educating" male "students". Rape is reduced to some kind of childish misbehaviour that needs a lesson in good manners to sort it out. Secondly, the experience is reduced to an unpleasant inconvenience. What the Amnesty International poll makes clear is that rape is not only normal to "students", but something they beleive that young women should simply expect to happen. This is a culture of invalidation that is grotesque beyond my power of words. These people are simply devoid of human dignity and human decency. Where have they come from? They did not emerge from the womb fully formed degenerates. They have grown up in a family and school and peer environment that obliterates all humanity. What kind of parents send their daughters to "study" in Belfast knowing that they will be raped, will be beaten, will be invalidated by their peers? The kind of parents that have raised a generation of monsters and unleashed them on the residents of South Belfast, destroying community after community without remorse, but instead with brutal glee.

Now the truth about rape is out, at least until a PR campaign massages it away. Ater all, it's how the universities "perception managed" the Holyland out of existence.

Wishing for a High Wind

Taken from this, picture 7:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7504139.stm

Click to open link.

Welcome to Partyland

As you can see, they're here to study:-

http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=3551622943&ShowSims=Y

http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=2712799375&ShowSims=Y

http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=4843465196&ShowSims=Y

http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=4119990848&ShowSims=Y

Click to open links.

Spot the Difference

What do

this

and this

and this

and this

and this

and this

have in common?

Almost the Worst Song Ever Written

I fell off my seat when I heard this:-

Mickey Coleman:- Belfast Holylands


And people wonder why I'm ashamed to be Irish. There's more culture in a Dog Turd.

Lipstick on a Pig

Click to enlarge.

Americans have a saying,
"You can paint lipstick on a pig, but it don't matter. It's still a fuckin' pig"
When I lived in the Holylands this article would have driven me crazy.
"Students aren't criminals and we don't treat them like criminals. It's student anti-social behaviour"
They're not criminals. It's all just "high jinks". It's good clean fun.
" The first thing a police officer will do when they come across behaviour such as shouting and yelling is give them advice and warning"
Well that's bollocks. The first thing they'll do is drive on by and systematically ignore this shit all night long.
Then,
" If they don't respond well we'll take a note of their name and address and pass it on to the universities"
In other words do fuck all. Wash your hands and let the universities do fuck all.
"If it's really bad we'll prosecute them ourselves"
How bad does it have to be? The student who invaded a woman's home and entered her child's bed has not been prosecuted. The cops bent over backwards to make sure he got away with it. To put it differently, residents are legitimate targets for students, and the cops will endorse whatever they do.
"The South Belfast police have been accused of this leniency because they don't want to alienate young middle-class catholics ........a claim the policeman rejects"

Why is it that there is an endless call by the Provos and the Belfast News Group for "Zero Tolerance" policing to be inflicted on working class kids guilty of "Anti-Community Activity"? Is it frustration because they can no longer blow the knees off children? Or is it the Debacle, a capitulation so complete that they collaborate with all the enthusiasm of Vichy France with the Nazis? It is interesting to note that no such call is made for "Zero Tolerance" to be inflicted on the perpetrators of this, and this, and this, and this, and this.

They tell me that Trevor is photogenic, some kind of 'pretty face". I can't comment on that, but have noticed the hair gel. In the photograph I see him trying to keep a straight face. Usually he wears a smug grin or cheesy smirk. Whether it's lipstick or hair gel it makes no difference. It's still a fuckin' pig.

Update: Validation

I've got some press coverage. I thought I'd share it with you. I was in fact charged under the protection from harassment order 1998. This was ostensibly introduced to protect people from stalkers. Suffice it to say that wasn't gonna fly in this case. This legislation has been consistently used to protect institutional power from accountability. The Belfast Holyland Fake Residents Group may not in itself have power, but it acts as a proxy for the cops and universities; thus my prosecution. Click to enlarge.

Validation.

Thank fuck for valium. It's a high-threat situation. Her father sits in the visitors seats glaring pure hate at me from an angry, violent face. She's giving her testimony, fear and terror with all of the usual hysteria that characterises her performances. I look from her to the furious street thug and know another beating is on the way. I can win here, but it doesn't end here. It ends out there where the cops new best friends have Free Reign and Official Sanction.

"Tell me, Constable Cassells, on the day you cautioned my client, had he voluntarily come down to Donegall Pass Police Station?"
"Yes"
"He had come to report an assault on himself by the complainant's boyfriend?"
"Yes"
"And this was a very severe assault indeed?"
"Yes"
He's squirming.

It passes like a dream. I'm giving testimony. I'm there, but I'm not there. The menace goes away, and in it's place; the challenge. We go through the witness statements. My disagreements with the prosecutor are balanced, measured, calm. My barrister talks me through the articles from my blog. We discuss the context and content; the death of the community; the need to rehouse most, give soundproofing to others and imprison no more people in that place.

I deconstruct Tony's article; the call to build no more public housing but make the homeless rent from Rachmans. Katrina could not have written it. The dense technical jargon is beyond her limited wit. Yet she sat in the witness box and claimed to have been it's author.

"The police instructed you to write no more about her on your blog." Counsel for the State has to make the point. "She is upset that you do so."
"You're aware of the cartoonist Steve Bell in the Guardian?"
"No"
I don't believe him, but the magistrate knows where I'm going. He nods to me.
I continue. " Should it matter to him how Tony Blair, Maggie Thatcher, Gordon Brown, and, this week, Boris Johnston feel about his wonderfully grotesque, funny and apt caricatures of them? Yet Steve Bell's not in the dock, nor is any other journalist. This is the first time in the United Kingdom that someone has been prosecuted for criticising a public figure. This is, in fact, a test case."
"'It may be", says the magistrate, "but I don't care."
I'm learning to like him.
"But", says the prosecutor, "she does not want you to do so."
"I consider it my obligation as a journalist, and bloggers consider themselves to be journalists, and indeed the obligation of every citizen to hold to account those who claim to speak and act on our behalf. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

In his summing up, the magistrate agrees with that. However, it has been a close call. My witnesses, credible, articulate and upstanding, demolish her account of the residents' meeting. Her performance, product of a lifetime of practice, is emotive. Without my witnesses she would have won. Only I can counter her claims about the "looking incident" at the Ormeau Bakery, but it fails to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Her performance has impressed the Judge, but it's not enough.

Justice prevailed and Free Speech won, but the perfidy of the cops and their plaything came dangerously close to succeeding. On the day of the day of the trial they tried to introduce three more alleged "incidents". What they are I don't know. They could have had the trial adjourned until September and then out of a total of six allegations they would have to win only two. Dirty tricks and thugs on the ground; the RUC haven't gone away you know.


Postscript.
The issue is discussed in these links:-

http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/weblog/comments/power-of-arrest
-used-against-belfast-blogger/

http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/weblog/comments/holylands-
blogger-cleared-of-harassment-charges/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jul/06/
northernireland.civilliberties

http://modoherty.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/save-the-blog/

That Suzanne Breen Article in Full

Click to enlarge.

Bargain Bucket Degrees

A commenter wanted to debate correspondence courses as an alternative to attending university. I think they are an excellent idea. Now that education is a commodity rather than a public service it was inevitable that someone would seek to undercut the competition by, basically, mimicking the Open University. This institution opened the door to people who were excluded from mainstream higher education. Cultural Capital and the then existing numbers bottleneck made university primarily the prerogative of the comfortable few, grants and free tuition not withstanding. Now grants are gone and in the free market universities are chasing each other down the toilet in an endless Race To the Bottom. I entered higher education via the Institution Previously Known as BIFHE. Things have, I gather, got even worse since I moved on. However the new Belfast Metropolitan College is shilling Bargain Bucket Degrees in conjunction with Leeds University.

This means that one can get a degree without ever leaving home. No more need for student accommodation. No more need to move to Belfast. What justification do they have now? Those inbred yokels flood into the Holyland like a Tidal Wave of Excrement. Yet they don't go to class, so tuition fees are wasted. They regurgitate their notes onto the exam paper just like they were taught in grammar school. They are simply a grotesque waste of taxpayers money. This does not bother their parents who, after all, enjoy unearned wealth and privilege courtesy of the UK taxpayer. Oddly they claim to oppose the Union, much in the same way, I suppose, as a high class whore claims to oppose prostitution. A short anecdote describes perfectly their hypocrisy. I found myself chatting to the occupants of a expensive car; the father in a dark suit; mother conservatively dressed; both middle aged, middle class parents, their demeanour dignified and restrained. In the back sits their daughter, laughing through her fake tan,
"We're movin' in on Monday!!! Party!!!!!!!!!!"
Mum and dad are unmoved, unphased. For them there is nothing wrong. I slap my hand on my head and say,
"Thank fuck I'm leaving"

Correspondence study enables those who are repulsed at the well earned stigma of our local universities to get an education without leaving here. Lectures can be made available on line or on DVD. It's just like the Open University only dearer. Someone should have thought of it sooner.

Uni offers cut-price degrees in north

By Simon Doyle Education Correspondent
27/05/08

STUDENTS are being offered the chance to earn cut-price degrees from an English university without having to leave Northern Ireland.

Plans to develop a US-style state college network using the north’s further education (FE) institutions are being brought forward by Leeds Metropolitan University.

The scheme will allow FE students to work towards higher qualifications while saving thousands of pounds in accommodation, travel and fees.

Accredited degrees can be earned for around £1,000 a year less than it would cost to study at either of Northern Ireland’s two universities.

Leeds Met is offering its courses through Belfast Metropolitan College and is working to develop links with other colleges.

The university already has a strong association with the north – its Carnegie faculty of sport and education sponsors Irish League, women’s and schools’ cup soccer.

It said it now hopes to encourage more people in Northern Ireland to continue their studies by making degrees more accessible and affordable.

Leeds Met was the first university to announce it would charge less than the maximum ‘top-up’ tuition fees when the controversial new system was introduced.

Top-up fees – blamed for adding to record levels of student debt – are set to rise from £3,000 to £3,145 a year in line with inflation but courses at Leeds Met have a price tag of £2,000.

Its expanding partnership with the north’s FE colleges gives students, for the first time, the opportunity to avail of cheaper degrees without having to move to England.

With transport and other costs rising, this may be also attractive for many as it will mean saving on accommodation and travel.

Vice-chancellor Simon Lee, a former dean of the School of Law at Queen’s University Belfast, said the relationship between Leeds Met and the north’s colleges was “evolving”.

“We should be like an American state university. We are not trying to be a research university. We are trying to be like the University of Texas, Wisconsin or California, where there are different campuses and different community colleges,” he said.

“The regional college network sees the value of the partnership and we like the idea of students who might have stopped at that stage of their education feeling confident and wanting to keep progressing.”

Students can study for foundation degrees – in subjects including marketing and media technology – in colleges for two years.

They can then either transfer to Leeds or stay at home for an extra year to earn a full degree.

Prof Lee said while the collaboration was still in its infancy he predicted that more students would earn their degrees without moving to Leeds.

“It is possible for students never to leave home,” he said.

University Leeds way in forging new links

By Simon Doyle Education Correspondent
27/05/08

Having already developed strong links with Northern Ireland through sport, a university in England is now seeking to expand the range of academic opportunities open to students. Education correspondent Simon Doyle reports

When Professor Simon Lee, a one-time dean of the law faculty at Queen’s University Belfast, was appointed head of Liverpool Hope University he sought to boost the number of Irish students on campus.

His Hope Across the Irish Sea campaign saw the undergraduate total from both north and south rise from a tiny proportion to the 1,000 that attend the university today.

Prof Lee said Liverpool was a natural place for young people from Ireland to study while Hope itself also offered a small town charm attractive to those from rural areas.

Now as vice-chancellor of Leeds Metropolitan University, Prof Lee is again looking to his former home.

His university’s Carnegie brand is already well-established in sport in the north and he is seeking to expand the university’s role in further and higher education.

“It is obviously more of a difficult proposition than Liverpool because it hasn’t got the historical and romantic attachment. It hasn’t got the proximity and didn’t have the communications,” Prof Lee said.

“When I came I did not want to do what I did at Hope, so for the first year I don’t think we did very much at all about Northern Ireland.

“At the end of that first year, Bradford City football club got into difficulties and I suggested that we see if we can help.”

Leeds Met began delivering sport science support to Bradford City FC and then the following year while attending the British-Irish Association annual conference he learned that the Irish League was seeking a new

sponsor.

After discussions between the university and IFA chief executive Howard Wells, a former student at the Carnegie faculty of sport and education, it was agreed that the name of the faculty would be used to sponsor the league.

“From the beginning we were clear that we wanted to help but it would give us a profile in and across Northern Ireland,” Prof

Lee said.

“It’s not a commercial sponsorship and it is not like an average university somewhere in Scotland or England deciding randomly to try and recruit students from Northern Ireland.

“There is a real human relationship at all sorts of levels through the university.

“We have a real opportunity to develop relationships with schools, young people, their families and we are not just trying to recruit anybody and everybody.”

The university has also launch-ed a new partnership with Rugby League Ireland which will see players benefit from Carnegie’s sporting expertise in developing players, coaches and officials.

Prof Lee said Leeds Met had also forged strong cultural and academic partnerships and had developed links with about 20 different colleges across “the north of these islands” – including Hull, Grimsby, Belfast and Derry.

He said the relationship with Northern Ireland colleges was “evolving”.

“We should be like an American state university. We are not trying to be a research university. We are trying to be like the University of Texas, Wisconsin or California, where there are different campuses and different community colleges,” Prof Lee said.

“In America you might study two years at your local community college and then decide you want to go on to the big city in your state.

“In England the government introduced foundation degrees and that has now rippled out through the rest of these islands and the model is two years and one year for topping up.”

Prof Lee said the initial idea was for Further Education colleges to teach the two-year foundation degrees, with students then travelling to Leeds to top-up to a full degree in their third year.

However, he said that this had changed because the British government was giving colleges the power to award their own foundation degrees.

“In general the regional college network sees the value of the partnership and we like the idea of students who might have stopped at that stage of their education feeling confident and wanting to keep progressing,” Prof Lee said.

“It is a very gradual process. We are dealing with the north – the north of Ireland, the north of England and Scotland.”

A college that Leeds Met has strong links with in Dunfermline, formerly known as Lauder College, has changed its name to Carnegie College.

Prof Lee said he could see one of the north’s institutions making a similar name change.

Among the Leeds degree courses offered through Belfast Metropolitan University is the BA (Hons) in Marketing.

“In principle you can do the degree in anything,” Prof Lee said.

“What tends to happen is a college develops a course for its local economy. Probably what would happen would be students going for a more generic top-up year such as in enterprise.

“If you are going to widen

participation in the north of Ireland, you have often got to hook a youngster or a returning- to-learning person into something they feel very confident in. You take them through to foundation degree and then you branch out.”

Prof Lee said the relationship was still in its infancy and he believed that more students would choose the distance-learning option.

“It is possible for them never to leave home,” he said.

“The numbers are too small to say what the pattern will be, but I think it will mostly be staying at home.”

Suzie Gray, head of higher education at Belfast Metropolitan College, said the collaboration contributed to the continued professional development of college staff, which in turn benefited students.

“Our strategic partnership with Leeds Metropolitan University not only provides opportunities for curriculum development within the college, it provides our students with progression opportunities here in Northern Ireland, thereby increasing the likelihood that they will forge their career closer to home and make a longer-term contribution to the local economy,” she said.

Dancing on our Dead

Click on these to enlarge:




Smears, slurs and innuendo. Where does it end?
"....his death would have come as a relief"
No, it's not enough to dance on his grave. He, and all other residents, are labeled as thugs, criminals and sex offenders. The editors of the Gown, in a desperate attempt to save face, have put a half-hearted and dishonest "Clarification" on their blog. See here. Queens' University, which must have sanctioned this demolition job on the remaining residents, has gone into lockdown mode. To pretend that "students", who do not live in the Holyland, but merely use it as a drinking den and flophouse, while abusing education, are in fact "residents" adds insult to insult to injury. Clearly the privileged scum, who have driven an entire community from their homes, are not the problem. The remaining residents, imprisoned in a lunatic asylum, are what's wrong. They should not be allowed to live there. The ethnic cleansing should be completed. How dare anyone hit back. People should know their place and stay in it and shut the fuck up. Arbuckle never admitted torching the cars. No-one who hits back ever admits anything. This drives the cops up the walls. It also costs them a fortune. The resources committed to containing the frustration of a handful of people are so huge that it would be cheaper to build them new houses.

A few years ago six hillbillies beat Arbuckle with iron bars. They nearly killed him. I bet the cops wish they had. To treat the collapse and death of a 25 year old as "Not Suspicious" shows that they don't care. Someone who stood up and fought back is dead and can be subjected to posthumous character assassination. That's all that matters. The horror, intimidation and violence inflicted on residents is whitewashed out. The narrative is inverted; "innocent" "Students" are tormented by "evil residents". Perhaps the editors of the Gown could tell me: where has the community gone? They were not abducted by aliens and they did not want to leave their homes. Life had become intolerable for them. Now I am one of the refugees. I have escaped from hell and enjoy the luxury of sleep at night in the peace of silence. I do not know how or if the man who swapped house with me will cope. It is not a redemptive ending. We don't do that here. Maybe we don't deserve it.
"No nation in this world are as morally debased as the People of Ireland"
Connolly knew what he was talking about. After all a party of the Criminal Hard Right names their Head Office after him.

Arbuckle was no angel, but he had many friends. His funeral and interment moved a lot of people to tears. He is remembered here

Tony's Fraudulent Article

I was beaten almost to death for exposing this as a fraud.

Click on it to enlarge:-


For a description of the row resulting from it see here and here.

PACT: Pigs And Collaborators Together

They're finally launching their new forum. The Community Police Liaison Committee collapsed because nobody went to it. Here comes it's replacement. You will remember I have previously described a proposal to pervert Restorative Justice and turn it into a vehicle for The universities, their Bogus Students, cops, landlords and the local Housing Association to isolate, intimidate and silence residents. We will be obliged to confront our tormentors face to face. We will become Targets. The number of complaints will fall through the floor. We will be told what a great success it has all been.

I expect heavy Provo involvement in this. After all their man, the Head of Restorative Justice in West Belfast, has been a tout for years if not decades. As I've said in the comments section, Downing Street has been not only writing Provo press statements, but appears to also be producing front page articles for the Andytown News. It's "Zero Tolerance" for working class people. Well we surely have that here. Such a policy will not apply to Rich Scum, who are above the law. What are Ogra Sinn Fein gonna say,
"Arrest and prosecute us and our mates"?
Some fucking chance.
There are others who are above the law: the "Partners in the Community" are allowed to do whatever they want, up to and including Homicidal Violence, and the cops will bend over backwards to make sure they get away with it. Lets face it, murders go unsolved round here.

This "New Initiative" is old piss in new bottles. PACT: Partners And Communities Together. Fuck that. Its PACT: Pigs And Collaborators Together.

"Who let da Dogs out?"

"Woof woof woof, Woof woof!!!!!"
They're laughing at the cops. They know it's all for show; the dogs, the armoured vehicles, the riot squad. A meat wagon pulls up. A local is led away. The cops have roughed him up. He defended his brother and clobbered a "student". It's a no-no. Don't protect your own from drunken hillbillies. The Stasi zoom in on kids with baseball hats; Zero Tolerance for Residents. The Andytown News would be proud. For the rich scum it's different; its a big fucking pantomime. At least the cops have the decency to be angry at these cunts. Maybe it's frustration; they can't do to them what they did to us when they dragged us off the Ormeau Road. There'll be no plastic bullets in the face for rich cunts, no Billy-Clubs wrapped round the head, no being trailed through broken glass.
They're singing,
"We all live in the Holy-Holy Land, Holy-Holy Land, Holy-Holy land"
The cops are desperate. They can't afford to lose this showdown.
"We need you to step back, Mr Murray. We have a public order situation."
"Is there an O.C. here?"
"Ask the sergeants. They're dealing with this"
There's no commander on the ground. Jim Young, local Inspector, is nowhere.
An officer pretends to film the mob. She can't even operate the camcorder.
The cops are engaging them, taking their drink and pouring it away. Bottles fly. The cops are arguing with them, pushing them back.
"Throwing bottles is a criminal offence!!!"
I would have thought this was obvious. A previous Inspector thought different.
It takes a hundred cops, a company level unit, to deal with five houses. If St Patrick's Day had happened during Term Time they would have had no hope. In previous years we have had 6000 drunken yokels inflicting Mob Rule for 48 hours solid while the cops drive by and watch, doing nothing.
Slowly the "students" disperse. They have other places to be, a mini-riot in the Hatfield to enjoy.We had a homeopathic dose of culture this year. Only a handful of these people were up, the rest having no classes and no excuse for being here. Parental authority was presumably exercised. It is a suitably rare occurrence. No-one need claim that progress has been made. Token gestures don't fool the "students". Remember, it was one of us, not them that was hauled away.
In their enthusiasm to go the cops abandon a landrover. The "students" bleed the tyres, leaving it stranded like a ship on the rocks. It's an appropriate metaphor for the whole situation.

They've abolished the community and invented another one

I'm being prosecuted for writing this, so I thought it was worthwhile to look at the success of our self-appointed representatives.

Queens have renamed the area. The word Holylands has obvious embarrassing connotations.

From now on the area previously known as the Holylands will be known as Queens' Quarter


The Belfast Holyland Regeneration Association has been so successful that the handwriting's on the wall.



I thought I'd give you a guided tour through the new Queens' Quarter.


As you can see, the "students" have got their priorities straight.

Because their tenants are "students", the landlords do not have to pay rates on their properties. This is one of a number of massive redistributions of wealth from you, the public, into the pockets of the super-rich. Let's look at the service provided by Belfast City Council with your money.


The landlords refuse to buy wheelie bins, so your rates are paying for these industrial Eurobins. At one point the council took them out, so you can imagine what things were like without them.


In the South Belfast News BHRA claimed that we don't have rats here. I kid you not.





You may have noticed that we are in the middle of a housing crisis. Over the last ten years homelessness has trebled from 7,000 to 20,000. Someone somewhere is proud of this achievement. The reasons behind it merit investigation. Ten years ago, in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement, a hidden agenda began to unfold. The Housing Executive was prohibited from building houses. The funds were redirected elsewhere. The official responsible for doling out conversion grants to landlords revealed at a residents' meeting that the average grant per property was £24,000 and could go up to £36,000. It appears that the entire housing budget, untold tens of millions of pounds, has been doled out to property developers and has financed the rape of communities all over South Belfast and the rest of the province. The application of simple mathematics suggests a truly shocking figure. 10,000 HMO's in Northern Ireland multiplied by £24,000 per property equals £240 million, of which £120 million would have been doled out in South Belfast alone. This is an enormous redistribution of wealth from the public to the Rentier Class. I feel a James Connolly quote coming on, but will refrain lest I offend those who desecrate his name by hanging it on the front door of their head office.

Let's see what the modern day Rachmans have got for your money.

Families used to live here

And here


and here

and here




Another one bites the dust......
OOPS!!!!!

As you're probably aware, the cops have a crisis of credibility when it comes to community relations.



That completes this tour of the new Queens' Quarter. Those of us who remember when the Holyland was a cultured, Bohemian, tolerant place where we were free to be ourselves and not some sectarian stereotype will forever mourn it's passing.

"Students are Victims". Thus spake Farrell

It's hard to think of privileged thugs as victims, but our former spokesman thinks so. The narrative of victimhood is so perverse that the perpetrators of this and this and this and this can be called victims.
Next he says it's all the fault of planning. The landlords have not raped this community to death, it was planning's fault for allowing them. No matter how evil the act, do not hold the powerful and the privileged accountable for their actions and the resulting, intended, consequences.

Farrell wanted the landlords to attend meetings of his "Regeneration Association". No doubt they'll be invited back. After all, they're part of this "Restorative Justice" initiative that will compel residents who complain to face their tormentors and make targets of themselves. When the number of complaints falls through the floor we'll be told how successful it has been.

The Nolan Show has exposed the truth that we are not wanted here. Why, therefore, are we not rehoused? Why should anyone be obliged to live in this environment? Farrell owns his home. He chooses to stay and deprive his family of peace. If he wants, he can leave any time. Most of us have no option. We're renting from a housing association that treats us with utter disdain. They can't even be bothered to fix a leaking bath. You will not be surprised to hear that on their management committee sits a certain David Farrell. Suffice it to say, we did not elect him. He might at least have had a bath before having his photo taken for inclusion in their annual report. The image brings forth the smell of stale booze and body odour. That's our spokesman. Is it any wonder no one goes to his meetings?

Fake Residents group: Update

I wrote this in the comments section in reply to someone who wanted to know how the Fake Residents Group are getting on. I think it merits publishing as a post.

On the evening of the last meeting I was in common grounds cafe. Anne Monaghan was coming and going looking smug. At one point she smiled at me. I smiled back. She didn't stay for long. The meeting appears to have folded after half an hour. I suspect they lacked a quorum, or, to put it differently, no-one bothered going.

I was at the latest Community Police Liaison Committee meeting. I was the only resident from anywhere in the University sector to attend. The Holylands self-appointed representatives no longer go as they can't bear to be in the same room as me. Some months ago Tony McGuinness threw a tantrum at a CPLC meeting because the cops would not remove me. It was quite funny to watch. Some months ago the cops tried to exclude me from any meeting attended by Katrina O'Neill. My barrister tore Stevie Kingsman to shreds. You can read about it here.

There is obviously a crisis of confidence in the cops. Go figure. The CPLC has been wound up. The cops are planning an alternative forum. I assume this is where they will pervert restorative justice and turn it into a vehicle for landlords, the cops, the universities and their "students" to terrorise isolate and silence residents. Naturally the local housing association under Dermot Curran are moist with enthusiasm at this. I think that the power of eviction gives some people more pleasure than sex. Social predators are always drawn to positions of power over the vulnerable. I've seen it in hostels and I've seen it in landlords, whether of the private or "Social" kind. Shit floats. Institutional power is always fundamentally psychopathic (Chomsky).

2:57 PM

Loathing is the Sincerest form of Flattery

I'm truly honoured. This goes beyond plagiarism or even satire. It is magnificent. The author copies my style and turns it around, completely inverting it's meaning. The effort poured into every word is simply admirable. Only obsession could drive such a project. The compulsive striving to "get at" Alan Murray can only be driven by a profound loathing. It is remorseless. To have acquired an enemy with such a monomania fills me with pride. It is one thing to be hated, but such a skillfull and eloquent expression of hatred is a complement beyond words.

http://hollylands-wearzon.blogspot.com/

http://www.blogger.com/profile/09223055291748366556

A Matter of Numbers

I posted this in the comments section. I think it's worth publishing as an article in it's own right.

For many years now there has been an argument about percentages. In a different life I was a student representative (the worst decision I ever made)and bought into the notion that it's a small minority causing mayhem, no more than ten percent. Way back then there was talk of introducing restorative justice in the Holylands. At the time, and we're talking eight years ago, this made intuitive sense. Involve the students in the community; make them feel accountable and responsible for their actions. I was such a deluded fool. Residents were selling up en masse. I remember attending the inaugural meeting of the original residents' group. The top room in city church was packed. There must have been 200 people there. That group folded and now we have the fake resident's group, sponsored by the University of Ulster and currently headed by their former community relations officer. The illegitimacy of this entity can be measured by attendance at it's meetings; always in single figures, many of them non-residents;- Anne Monaghan, Gerard Morgan, Denise from city church. About half of the committee are non-residents. The community is almost completely extinguished. There are less than a hundred residents left.

Over eight years my position has changed. If half of Queens undergraduates don't go to class, one can assume that half of them are bogus students, only up here to party. Because of its reputation, it's safe to say that a disproportionately high percentage of "students" in the Holyland are bogus. That means that the vast majority are party animals abusing education, and a small, but significant minority are genuine. This is the universities unofficial campus, and the academic progress of genuine students must suffer. My own experience is a rather extreme example, but must reflect to some degree the debilitation suffered by all who try to study here. A neighbour of mine is furious and outraged at the effect on her daughter's A-levels. Naturally the Universities' representatives have been suitably unhelpful in addressing her grievances. Anne Monaghan set a disgusting precedent when she represented the University of Ulster. Her footsteps are clear and easy for her successors to follow.

The wheel has, grotesquely, come full circle. Restorative Justice is again on the agenda. It has the support of Jim Young, our new Police inspector and Dermot Curran, chair of the dominant local housing association. I would love to know what planet these people are living on. They are either pious fools or sinister operators. Dermot Curran insists that people have no right to oppose this, after all "It's an attempt to resolve the situation". He doesn't live here and his attempts to compare this place to apparently successful efforts in Poleglass are absurd. Community Restorative Justice requires the existence of a stable community. Such a point is so obvious that only the deluded could fail to see it. There are 100 residents and 6000 "students". If you complain you make yourself a target. The police refuse to protect us, the universities use a variety of initiatives as "perception management", and the "students" make it clear that this is their area and we are not wanted. We should not be expected to make ourselves targets. The only thing that has had any effect is direct action. I will not endorse car burning, but it has made a lot of people and their parents think twice. If the truth be told, only large scale direct action could have saved this community, and the time for that was at least twelve years ago. Now a handful of us are left because we don't own our homes. Individuals may get moved out, but someone else is imprisoned in the same house. This must end. Get us out of here. Stop imprisoning people in this environment.

Update: share the love

Remember This?

And This?

Well now our future professionals have decided to take up house-painting. Either that or they think that we shouldn't be here. I'll let you decide. For what it's worth, they're really bad decorators. They should stick to shovelling pigshit.

Because We Care

Tick tick tick tick............I hear the van pull up beside me.
"What are you up to Alan?"
It's the short fat blonde ugly one.
"I'm getting wood out of this skip"
"Not while we're here. You see while it's in that skip it's the property of the landlord. And it remains his property until it's taken away by the skip people"
She's been reading a text book.
"What you're doing is a criminal offence. It's called "Theft by finding". If we see you doing it we'll arrest and prosecute you."
I'm staring at her in disbelief.
"Now, where are you headed to?"
She sounds like a schoolteacher.
"I guess I'll just go home"
"Good!! Off you go!!"
Hostility and smugness ooze out of her. She's not moving 'till I've gone. Her partner smiles inanely, trying to look the good cop. She knows she's won. I can't stand there all night. She'll arrest me. Clearly she has a need to humiliate.
They've timed it to perfection. It's midwinter. Snow is coming. As I write this, it's arrived. For seventeen years I've raided skips for firewood. I burn no coal, or oil, or gas. I recycle waste. My carbon footprint is minimal. In all of that time the cops have never had a problem. I was even told by them I wouldn't be prosecuted for raiding skips. What's changed? Could it be that their attempt to prosecute free speech has become a farce? If they can't get me one way, they'll get me another? Maybe it's the latest form of community relations. Maybe they'll apply the same "Theft by Finding" standard to every student or mob thereof with a traffic cone or a gate or a fence or a tree. Equality under the law?; Prosecute our future "Doctors, Lawyers, Teachers, Taxpayers"?
It's an act of exquisite cruelty. Zimbardo's experimental subjects would recognise it instantly.
I remember sitting in court behind three cops. Two were old hands. They were red-faced, having at least the decency to feel embarrassed at what they were doing. The other, a newbie, was ice cold, smug, ambitious. She'll go far.
I don't hate cops. I don't think they're all despicable...................

They Don't like it Up 'Em

"You hit our friend!!"
"Fuck you!!"
A handful of Lower Ormeau's finest, looking like the junior cast of Shameless, are taking no shit from these four burly hicks.
A bottle flies. The hicks retreat inside and emerge, each armed with a hurley bat. The locals flee, but not for long. They return with their friends. A dozen scrawny kids, aged 10-16, armed with nothing but their rage, want revenge. Our four brave lads have no fight in them. They're scared of a bunch of children. They run for cover, bolting the front door and turning out the lights.
Double glazing defeats the young one's efforts. In their anger they use the first weapons to come to hand. Empty beer bottles bounce back at them. They kick the front door in frustration. The heat of the moment takes over. No-one thinks to get a brick and put it through the front window.
Our four Hillbilly Heroes call the cops. Two landrovers and three cars, two marked and one unmarked arrive like the seventh cavalry. The locals scatter. A landrover and parked car stay to protect our future lawyers, doctors professionals etc. The other vehicles disperse. They try and fail to hunt down the kids.
It's interesting that the same people who go to rebel night at the Hatfield are the first to call the cops. It's interesting that when they laid siege to residents after BBC's Spotlight the cops stood and watched. It's interesting that they can do whatever they want round here and the cops do nothing. A resident can't even take wood from a skip without risking prosecution. But, when they call the cops for help, armoured vehicles come to their defence. Every effort's made to keep the lower orders in their place, so the wealthy can have their endless party and stomp the little people into the ground.
I admire Lower Ormeau's finest. They know they have no future, like the rest of the Lost Generation. They hate the Provos and fair play to them for that. Some years ago the local Honchos stood guard at the luxury housing complex that backs onto McClure Street. The kids were throwing rocks through the windows and making the cosy tenants most uncomfortable. In the end direct action won. The property developer had stolen their playground. Now he had to put it back. Today kids play on the slide and climbing frame. They have a couple of goalposts on the patch of grass enclosed by a steel fence and private greed.
A class war is played out in the Holyland. Designer Republicans, property developers and Institutional Power against residents and local kids. It's the New Order in microcosm.