David Clements

[Megan Basham @megbasham]

I appreciate John Cleese’s boldness in speaking out against the ideology of Islam and its impact on the west. But we just learned today that a retired British police officer was arrested for making a mild (and true!) joke about Islam.

The UK authorities are not going to overplay their hand by arresting famous beloved Brits like John Cleese (yet). Instead they are arrest ordinary grandmothers and fathers who say much more mild things than Cleese.

It would be good for him to use his voice to support those who do not enjoy his fame, but who have been arrested by his government for saying the same things he does.

[David Clements @DaveNiccy]

@CatharineHoey A working trend

[Ben Lowry @BenLowry2]

There is no Owen Polley column in today's News Letter. Owen @3000Versts tells me he got an email late last week scrapping the column forthwith. There is much I could say about his excellent writing. For now I'll say that at a time when unionist commentators are in seriously short supply, by which I mean voices that actually defend the very strong case to be made for unionism and are not afraid to criticise a nationalism that, as recent weeks have shown, gets ever more assertive, I was delighted to have Owen as our Monday columnist for the full five years of my @News_Letter editorship. He wrote about the range of unionist concerns, from nationalist political overeach and cultural triumphalism, the legacy outrage to, above all, the Irish Sea border. Owen warned about the supposedly harmless idea of a backstop before it even came in. Latterly he regularly chronicled how it was nonsense to say the constitutional outrage of an internal UK frontier had been scrapped. What a counterblast he is to the dominant NI commentary outlook. His vital voice will no doubt be heard in other forums

[David Clements @DaveNiccy]

@GWalker9 @SJA_McC Yes, Gail it was an excellent piece.

[Melanie Phillips @MelanieLatest]

The Greens should now be proscribed as a terrorist support group. Jews are now demonstrably in danger from them.
https://t.co/RTYwxkLGJ7

[Jim Gamble @JimGamble_INEQE]

Give me Micheál Martin’s leadership every day of the week over those who simply cannot resist the urge to poke the other side in the eye. I wish the OO would let this go, but make no mistake: the inflammatory behaviour of many others, most of whom live well away from the area, has been disgraceful, and the presence of convicted terrorists in the midst of a tinderbox environment is utterly reckless. There were many deaths during this period, inflicted by men and women of violence from both Republican and loyalist gangs who refused to use the democratic process or follow the rule of law. But we don’t seem to have learnt anything. This is too important for the usual political posturing. The sooner everyone leaves the people of the area in peace, the better. Years ago, someone asked me why IRA gang funerals had so many people in attendance. I asked someone from the west of the city about it. They told me that when certain people asked if you were going, you simply didn’t, or couldn’t, say no. I’m not sure much has changed in that respect either.

[Ruth Dudley Edwards @RuthDE]

Is this woman deranged?
" Justine McCarthy: Drumcree proves that reunification of Ireland is the North’s best bet" https://t.co/gFo8bra5pu

[Kate Hoey @CatharineHoey]

@RuthDE says what I hope many decent citizens of the Republic of Ireland will agree with.

[john kyle @cllrjohnkyle]

This badly drafted bill will make things much worse for parents, pastors and young people endeavouring to understand their sexuality and gender. Bad legislation is worse than no legislation.

[Ben Lowry @BenLowry2]

I have been at Drumcree since early this morning.
I was wary about reopening this dispute but now that has happened, here are thoughts from one unionist perspective.
The Orange Order have taken a totally different approach to even the early 2000s (let alone 1990s). There are no supporters on Drumcree hill. None.
They used the courts the way nationalists have long done. This highlighted the complacency of a Parades Commission that failed to promote mediation, as it is obliged to do, and which had in effect rewarded a veto by resident leaders who would not talk.
This is a march with a long history and so it enjoys a greater presumption of right to proceed than marches that lack that tradition.
The massively scaled down Orange proposal of 60 men walking silently, rather than 800 men with bands and banners and flags, was further cut by the commission to 35 participants at 8am. This compromise ruling has been rejected by the full spectrum of Irish nationalism.
We are told the timing clashed with 8am Mass. Are the numbers at that service large? I was at the main 11am Anglican service at Drumcree parish this morning, which had around 30 congregants, reflecting the big declines in NI church attendance.
Would a 7am silent march with 12 people be accepted? I am reminded of a unionist politician saying years ago that residents in part of north Belfast had got out of their beds to be offended by an early Twelfth feeder march.
With a massive crowd on the Garvaghy Road the march will not happen without police dragging people off the streets. The first minister is with the crowds, just as she was at the helm of the huge Bobby Storey IRA funeral (when she had been the most adamant Stormont voice for stricter lockdowns, and after thousands of people in NI had abided by the then severe restrictions on funeral sizes for their loved one).
Police removing demonstrators, even though at an unnotified protest, would be cited to justify the grievance and lies about the PSNI being sectarian, and bolster dissident republicans.
I am not an Orangeman so I comment as an outsider. I think they would win a moral victory if they acknowledged the impossibility of going ahead today. They could say that 'we sought approval to march, we got it, we assembled to abide fully by the new, stricter terms but it was impossible to proceed given the crowds, led by the first minister'.
They could say we will continue to apply for a limited return march.
It would expose double standards, not least among those who show contempt for the wishes of local Belfast communities with a policy that forces Irish signage in streets where 85% of residents don't want it.
A footnote: at Drumcree parish, Rev Gary Galway said this morning: "We must love our neighbours and we do love our neighbours on the Garvaghy Road"

[Máiría Cahill @cahillbooks]

"If not, by God there will be a reckoning" is a very problematic line for Mc Donald. It's tipping the line of incitement and she should have been called out on it yesterday. This is the type of Paisley-ite inflammatory nonsense that is dangerous here. We are not in a Dáil knockabout. People get whipped up, hurt and killed as a result of careless words.

[Melanie Phillips @MelanieLatest]

The walkout by so many countries, which had listened with respect to the leader of Iran's gang of genocidal butchers, demonstrated with absolute clarity why the Israel they want to destroy is today absolutely essential to defend the Jewish people against those countries themselves.

[Jon Burrows MLA @JonBurrowsMLA]

I do not celebrate any death. But as tributes are paid to Paul Butler, I remember Reserve Constable John Molyneaux Rodgers, murdered on duty in 1974. Butler was convicted of his murder. John’s life mattered. His family’s loss matters. We must never airbrush victims from history.

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

📣🚨 Northern Ireland is set to ban honest conversations about sex and gender between adults and children.

Join the @SpeechUnion and @genspect in Belfast on Friday 25 September to find out more about the proposed law — and how to fight it.

Speakers include Fiona McAnena from Sex Matters; Dr Stella O’Malley from Genspect; Shelley Charlesworth from Transgender Trend; barrister Dennis Kavanagh from the Gay Men’s Network; James Kennedy from the Christian Institute Northern Ireland; and clinical psychologist Jaco van Zyl from Critical Therapy Antidote.

🎟️ Get tickets below 👇

[WRN NI @ni_wrn]

Last night Tennyson suggested “gender identity” already exists in NI law.

What is true is that Westminster provided that NISRA could have the option to ask people if they had a gender identity in the 2021 census. They consulted and left it off the form. Why:
1. Not legally required
2. ⁠Privacy & public acceptability
3. ⁠Data quality
4. ⁠Reduction in overall response

NISRA didn’t even want to ask people if they had a gender identity, yet now we’ll make criminals of people who may not understand the concept. Not an equivalence.

When added to the ONS Census in GB it caused havoc, to the point where the ONS had to formally cancel the accredited status of gender identity figures.

It was an experiment which has damaged the integrity of the census.

Another question, if gender identity is added to the census and we are required to answer the question if we have no gender identity will this cause us fear, alarm and distress? Will this be a form of State sanctioned conversion therapy??
https://t.co/jUFYXnLIaz

[Kate Hoey @CatharineHoey]

Why has @andyburnham continued the Starmer betrayal of British citizens ?The Diego Garcia base is secure.Mauritius is a friend of China. No logic to this other than the UK Gov wont stand up to an advisory UN committee So if a UN committee says Falklands is Argentinian? Do we just roll over?

[WRN NI @ni_wrn]

The Private Members Bill on Conversion Therapy being placed before the house and discussed again tonight lacks any meaningful evidence of current criminal activity that would be captured in it.

To assess this we asked the PSNI for data. The data that could surely back this Bill up.

Their response - its too expensive to find that for you...

We wonder if it’s like looking for needle in the haystack, a way to delay or that the data just doesn't exist at all?

[Graham Linehan @Glinner]

What the hell? We're not allowed to say that terrorists should be wiped out?

[yogi @AlisonW37619617]

Remembering John Haldane shot dead in his office by IRA 1991, his wife left a widow and his 4children left without a father, so when SF stand and shout about protecting women and children, rem they glorify these scum. Know them by their deeds.

[Jeffrey Dudgeon MBE @JeffDudgeon]

Tickets for Belfast meeting on Friday available on EventBrite . Great line up of speakers.