Archives for July 11, 2007

I bumped into Edwin Poots at Stormont this afternoon, on his way out from an Executive meeting to discuss next week’s summit with Gordon Brown. The Culture Minister is at the centre of a storm about whether his party has muzzled him over the proposed multi sports stadium at the Maze. However he seemed relaxed, just back from a break in the USA. The minister confirmed that he intends to appear before a special meeting of the Culture Committee scheduled for July 24th, in which members will return from their summer break to concentrate on the controversy over the Maze. The DUP are currently avoiding questions about the project, but it will be hard for Mr Poots to duck and weave throughout the special session of the scrutiny committee which is expected to take place on camera in the Senate chamber.

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I'm so used to documenting Jim Shannon's efforts to extend "countryside sports" to various breeds of our wildlife, that it seems a refreshing change to hear from our Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson. He wants to end the practice of "bass pair trawling" which he believes to be "responsible for thousands of dolphin and whale deaths every year". Britain has already banned this kind of fishing, but according to Jim Nicholson, there still isn't an effective European ban. "When an unacceptable number of intelligent mammals are being needlessly put to a painful and miserable death" the MEP argues "surely it is time to act."

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