Archives for July 27, 2007

I promised to report back on the impact of Gordon Brown's new unified border force closer to home. An NIO spokesperson tells me that the force will be on duty at airports and seaports in NI as well as GB. But so far as the 224 miles of the land border are concerned, the operational details appear far from clear at this stage. Mr Brown and Mr Ahern did, of course, discuss security at the recent British Irish Council meeting. But for any more details I am being referred to the Home Office and the Treasury. I'm sure that in creating a "border force" the authorities can't have forgotten about the only actual land border they have. Can they? So we will plug away and get back to you if we get any more..

UPDATE: One of our team was just on the phone to the Home Office. When asked about the border they described the force as a "basic proposal" with no whens, wheres and hows at the moment. So tomorrow, on the Letterkenny road, in a uniform? I don't think so...

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Earlier this month I blogged about an Assembly football team playing in London versus sides from Westminster, Cardiff and Edinburgh. The tournament is due to take place on Saturday 4th August. I noted that no Sinn Fein MLAs were due to take part and wondered whether they had an alternative fixture in Dublin.

But today a flyer dropped into my e-mail box for another tournament on exactly the same day. The Anti-racism World Cup at Colin Valley Playing Pitches in Poleglass on the outskirts of West Belfast boasts sides from Cuba, the Congo, the Basque country, Palestine, Italy, England, Catalonia, Kurdistan and Germany. The organisers promise a "spectacular competition". Whether any SF MLAs will be demonstrating their nifty ball skills I simply don't know.

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