Ex Services. Don’t suffer fools. I’ll hit you with factual debate or ask challenging questions. Sometimes I just call it what it is
England
Joined October 2025
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The Auditor retweeted
Drumcree brings up so many mixed emotions for me. Portadown is my home town. We worshipped at Seagoe Church of Ireland parish, across the Bann. Some of my relatives belong to the Orange Order, though they were never involved in the Drumcree march. I know the decency, family ties and sense of belonging that membership can hold. Sure, I held the strings on the Orange banners with my grandad and uncles for many years in my childhood.
As a sixth former, and later a theology student, I also knew the Jesuit community on the Garvaghy estate and their grassroots work for justice and peace. Jesuit voices have continued to shape me: from Gerard Manley Hopkins and George Tyrrell to their contributions to liberation theology and Catholic social teaching. One of the Jesuit houses in a London is in the parish I now serve, in the road just behind the Vicarage.
My family background and my developing theology met and still meet in those relationships with real human beings. People complicated the boundaries I inherited. Stereotyping simply could not do justice to the people I knew.
That is why watching these pictures today touches something so deep. Affection, gratitude and belonging sit alongside profound unease about the historic churches’ entanglement with sectarianism in the north of Ireland.
The Church of Ireland has wrestled with this before. In 1999, General Synod asked for the customary invitation to the Drumcree service to be withdrawn if the Orange lodges refused assurances about lawful conduct, respect for worship and keeping church property free from subsequent civil protest.
In 2000, amid violence, Robin Eames said: “I see nothing of Jesus Christ in the nightly actions on Drumcree hill”. He also recognised the disgust felt by decent Orangemen. Both belong in the telling.
Claire Hanna’s statement makes a crucial point: what is being asked of each side is not equal. For residents, this is home, the place where they raise their families and live with the consequences. The parade has other routes.
My mixed emotions do not make that distinction disappear. Knowing and loving people within a tradition does not oblige us to defend everything done in its name. It gives us a responsibility to speak honestly.
Sometimes faithfulness means choosing another road. Here, taking the road less travelled might mean giving up the familiar route for the sake of our neighbours. That could make all the difference.
Belonging and identity are important. So is what our belonging does to other people.
We cannot proclaim Christ’s peace inside a church and treat our neighbours’ fear as irrelevant outside it. The right to walk a road does not settle the Christian question of whether we should. Love of neighbour must shape the route we choose as well as the prayers we say.
The Gospel must be free to challenge everything we cherish. Our traditions. Our churches. Ourselves.
Poor @TwosUpJ51
s56 creates an offence. Never disputed. The point is WHEN: the Govt’s ECHR memo says liability arises only after the post-commencement 60-day period. s58 forfeiture is civil and separate. Challenge it in court. “Retrospective criminal trap” it isn’t.
Shame Mr @TwosUpJ51 blocked me BUT my response is simple
“s56 makes failure to return within the post-commencement 60 days the offence; s58 says forfeiture can occur whether or not criminal proceedings are brought. Their “stance” doesn’t rewrite the law
The Auditor retweeted
There's a lot of misinformation flying around about the Tourism levy, so here's the actual facts:
It's about investing more money in our communities.
Visitors come to our towns and cities every year. This gives local leaders the option to levy a small charge on the cost of their accommodation and reinvest that money into local needs.
It's local choice, not a national tax. The government is providing the framework, but it's for mayors and local communities to decide whether a levy is right for their area and what it should look like.
Budget trips are protected. Because the levy is linked to the cost of accommodation, lower-cost stays will pay less, meaning cheaper holidays and short breaks remain affordable.
This is part of the wider devolution agenda. This is about trusting mayors and local leaders with more powers and more control over decisions that affect their local economy.
The modern Conservative Party. Cheap, nasty and odious. Not serious!
I haven’t had this much fun in ages…
Blocked because he’s already dead and I can’t make him any ‘deader’
Common Sense over Lefty Logic 😂😂
Right, done with the idiots today.
Tories willfully spouting shite and I hope the sensible press take them to task on the claims re defence.
Nice to engage with the masters of debate.
Until tomorrow 🫡
The trend is pretty clear: under the @Conservatives , welfare spending climbed sharply while defence spending was broadly flat for much of the period. Under @UKLabour, both are moving up.
That rather wrecks the “Labour won’t fund defence” line.
I make absolutely no apology for supporting the RNLI.
William Richards. James Madron. Nigel Brockman. John Blewett. Charles Greenhaugh. Kevin Smith. Barrie Torrie. Gary Wallis.
Saving somebody from drowning isn’t an endorsement of an immigration policy. It’s an act of humanity.
Anyone trying to turn the men and women of the RNLI into villains because they rescue desperate people at sea should spend a few minutes reading the names on the RNLI Memorial.