Owen Polley

Owen Polley: Labour’s manoeuvring on EU won’t fix post-Brexit Irish Sea border trade problems problems trib.al/8ZqZ0Vb

Nicola Sturgeon “went out of her way to demonise” those, like Joanna Cherry who dared to query SNP finances.

Starmer and his rivals for the Labour leadership have only further undermined any hopes of getting a worthwhile 'reset' deal with Brussels, with their talk of rejoining the EU. app.newsletter.co.uk/story/full_pag…

Republic of Ireland - higher house prices, higher mortgage deposits, higher grocery prices, higher utility bills & health charges. No national security. Less economic security (remember UK rescue loan to ROI 2010 3.25 bn euros). Northern Ireland is home & can be better than ever.

John Swinney told IRA terror victims and their families to 'move on' after they expressed concerns about the SNP First Minister's plans to work with Sinn Fein to break up the United Kingdom. Yesterday, they came to Holyrood to protest these offensive comments👇

I bought my first pint of bitter, in a pub in Slough, in 1972. It cost 12 pence. The Bank of England inflation calculator tells me that is the equivalent of £1.45 today. Yet a pint now sells for £10 in London. What went wrong? Many factors, of which the first was Britain’s entry into the EEC on 1 January 1973. We were eventually made to ‘harmonise’ our alcohol duties with our partners, leading to a drop in the duty on wine and a rise in that on beer, to reflect French cultural preferences. ✍️ Charles Moore Article | spectator.com/article/the-10…

The BBC has now answered my second complaint about David Olusoga’s Empire. It still will not confront the central issue: whether a series that tells an overwhelmingly negative story about the British Empire, on a highly controversial subject, can really satisfy the Corporation’s own standards of impartiality. I do not believe it can. So I am escalating again. Read my thoughts at The Biggar Picture: nigelbiggar.co.uk/p/i-continue-t…

NEW at UEFA: Biggest teams won’t play the lowest ranked nations anymore in men’s European qualifiers. New format: League 1 - top 36 play 6 games v 6 different nations, in 3 groups of 12. Best ranked qualify for tournaments directly. Other 18/19 in League 2 & can reach playoffs

@McKinleyAn The faux common sense is in Donnelly's tweet, not yours incidentally.

@McKinleyAn Contemptible faux common sense. This is about a government agency set up to promote Northern Ireland using the wrong name, not a guy in a bus saying 'the North'. We may understand the terms, & the undertones they carry, but to communicate with tourists you need accuracy & clarity

The problem of course is that neither ‘the North’ nor ‘Northern Ireland’ simply refer to a place.

There’s no Mark Twain, nor John Steinbeck, nor Robert Louis Stevenson. The judges overlooked European classics like The Radetzky March and Effi Briest, as well as too many great English novel to mention, though The Old Wives’ Tale and Point Counter Point are a couple to be getting on with. Beloved, by Toni Morrison, is placed second, behind Eliot. Yet there is no Balzac, and no Turgenev. How is it possible to draw up a list that does not include Fathers and Sons? It beggars belief. Virginia Woolf appears five times, four times more than Muriel Spark. Penelope Fitzgerald and Iris Murdoch do not appear at all. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is there, of course, though there is no room for Mario Vargas Llosa. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry’s western fable, was ignored. Far too entertaining. Two modern Irish novels failed to find favour. Colm Toibin’s The Master and That They Might Face The Rising Sun by John McGahern are works of rare beauty. ✍️ Michael Henderson Article | spectator.com/article/the-pr…

This will only further undermine his chances of getting a worthwhile 'reset' deal. Why would the EU act reasonably and proportionately, when it can argue that the UK must rejoin to unlock any benefits?

“‘Human rights’ have gradually become an almost meaningless concept…Almost any political demand can now be described as a ‘human right’, in an attempt to exempt it from criticism….”

A Sinn Fein led Irish nationalist state is an alternative to the potential Reform-led UK, according to the Stormont constructive opposition leader

'The chief problem with the NIHRC is that human rights have gradually become an almost meaningless concept... almost any political demand can now be described as a human right, in an attempt to exempt it from criticism.' newsletter.co.uk/news/opinion/c…

Activist quangos like the NIHRC and ECNI have debased the concepts of human rights and equality in Northern Ireland. My column in today's @News_Letter newsletter.co.uk/news/opinion/c…

Ben Lowry: ​Keir Starmer is a poor prime minister but the other Labour hopefuls seem worse - particularly from a unionist perspective trib.al/FCxeq7E

"I'm loving Starmer instead" Streeting on the karaoke with his own rendition of Robbie Williams' Angels. How times change. Our coverage of today's events in Westminster on @5_News with @andybell5news and @catherine5news: youtu.be/W6ZLIuMGSWU?si…

@eddiegibbs Celtic was 2-1 up. It was Motherwell that made a comeback.

@DPWilson81 Now, that sounds like a decent day out!

@3000Versts I was watching Banbridge v Moyola Park that day. Moyola came from behind to win, and relegate Ballyclare who had finished their league fixtures. I ended the night dozing off into a curry on Botanic Avenue.

What a final! I was supposed to be at this match, but my ticket was one of 1,600 stolen from a Royal Mail van that were never replaced. I did attend the semi against Chelsea and the fifth round win against Man Utd.