Northern Ireland Editor of the Belfast Telegraph & Sunday Independent. Author of Burned: The Inside Story of the Cash-for-Ash Scandal. Any views mine alone.
Belfast
Joined January 2012
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📢Some news from me: I've written a book with the erudite & eloquent Fintan O'Toole in which we each argue for - and then against - Irish unity, setting out objectively what seem to us each side's best arguments, and the issues people across the island of Ireland should consider.
The National Union of Journalists says the News Letter's new owner, Iconic Media, is refusing to recognise trade unions. Despite what staff say are intense pressures on them, the NUJ says some Iconic journalists earn less than £100 above the minimum wage.
nuj.org.uk/resource/iconic-m…
Sam McBride retweeted
"In this essential book, two #Irish public intellectuals set forth the opposing sides of this controversial issue. The result is impressive." ~Foreign Affairs #Ireland @fotoole @SJAMcBride
@ForeignAffairs review of FOR AND AGAINST A UNITED IRELAND: foreignaffairs.com/reviews/a…
ALT Cover for O’Toole and McBride’s For and Against a United Ireland. The title and authors’ names appear in white text over a simple map of Ireland and Northern Ireland in pale green and dark green, respectively, and a dark blue background. Background repeats cover motif and states: "An accessible and measured approach to the polarized debate about Irish unification."
Excellent analysis of Alliance's drastic decline. It should have entered opposition in 2024 (or, alternatively, secured a tangible price for entering government). Once the party offering an alternative to the Executive, now it's at this failing Executive's heart.
Naomi Long lifted Alliance into double digits but, on 9%, its back on old territory. Once NI's most popular leader, she is now consistently the lowest rated. Insiders say the hard, honest conversations desperately needed in the party aren't taking place.
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/comme…
Gavin Robinson doesn't want to pull down Stormont, believing that would harm unionism - but he might do so anyway. Jeffrey Donaldson shared the same view, yet collapsed devolution. The DUP is now fighting for its life, is desperate... and ruthless.
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunda…
Ferraris, Bugattis and £4.5m mansions: NI’s vast wealth that Stormont resolutely refuses to tax... while claiming it’s broke. One in five new cars in NI is a premium or luxury brand as Northern Ireland’s rich live in opulence while public services crumble.
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/comme…
Sam McBride retweeted
EXCLUSIVE: SF support surges as DUP hits 5-yr low & TUV rises in @LucidTalk poll. UUP down but still just ahead of unionist rivals as Alliance & SDLP fall 🧵
🟢SF 28% (+6)
🔷UUP 15% (-1)
🟠TUV 14% (+2)
◼️DUP 14% (-1)
🔴SDLP 11% (-2)
🟨Alliance 9% (-1)
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/…
Sam McBride retweeted
EXLCUSIVE: A political bombshell for the DUP as loyalist Jamie Bryson is more popular with unionists than Gavin Robinson in our new @LucidTalk poll. And they have more faith in Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart than in the DUP leader on "key unionist issues".
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/…
Sam McBride retweeted
💧 | When he left in July, NI Water thanked Mr Larkin for his "significant contribution".
Accounts also revealed:
🔸 84 breaches of NDA guidance
🔸 £1.4m paid out on NDAs
🔸 Assurance statement unacceptable
📰 | @BelTel
tinyurl.com/3kx5w8uf
With DUP losing its sole female — and most popular — MP, three quarters of its MPs are now men in their 70s. Losing Carla Lockhart is a far graver blow to the DUP than it might seem. Gavin Robinson is presiding over decline, and running out of time.
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/comme…
Sam McBride retweeted
Carla Lockhart has quit the DUP following weeks of speculation over her political future, as she said it was a “difficult” decision.
@SJAMcBride explains what has happened tinyurl.com/ydu3yecv
The DUP has lost its most popular MP, Carla Lockhart. Days after Sammy Wilson dismissed her shot across the party bows as a "token" gesture, she's quit the party. It's a blow which confirms the DUP's continued decline. Once the voice of unionism, now it has just 22% of NI's MPs.
Half a century ago today, the UVF murdered two Belfast Telegraph delivery men as a 10-year-old watched in terror. My colleague Liam Tunney tracked down one of the killers, whose pathetic response to questions was: “My memory is not what it used to be".
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/…
Sam McBride retweeted
Jeffrey Donaldson was doing paid work for the Ministry of Defence in Africa even as acute political turmoil was engulfing his party at home in Northern Ireland.
@SJAMcBride joins @CiaranDunbar on The BelTel to disucss the story. Listen here tinyurl.com/55d2jzxh
Sam McBride retweeted
Exactly a year today @SJAMcBride for the launch, every prediction has come true and service hasn’t changed.
Nowhere more obvious than GP to be so fundamental to new model, to prevention and proactive care and to shift to out of hospital care, but has instead been decimated
Northern Ireland's collapsing health service is a scandal; Stormont knew this would happen - and has allowed it. Vast sums have been paid to temporary staff to prop up a system MLAs admitted a decade ago was unsustainable. Now even that isn’t working.
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunda…
Rhinos, Provos and loyalist terror bosses: Northern Ireland has become the land of the absurd where words have lost their meaning. Society is pretending all is well, when deeply abnormal behaviour has become not only acceptable but encouraged.
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/comme…
Sam McBride retweeted
😭 great to see.. what a hero.
World-leading cardiac surgeon Asif Hasan was surrounded by the children who received the gift of life thanks to his unerring skills at the emotional climax of another memorable Pride of Britain ceremony. 🥹
Now 70 years old, Mr Hasan has just retired after 35 years of service at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle upon Tyne, but just after receiving his Lifetime Achievement Award, he had an extra special surprise: a cast of patients who would not be alive without him. ❤️
Stormont descends into chaos as Michelle O’Neill walks out, leaving Emma Little-Pengelly unable to continue: After O'Neill belatedly agrees to attend scrutiny committee, FM-dFM chasm is impossible to conceal or deny. This is now government in name only.
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/comme…
