One Man Peace Wall
Last night I had the privilege of chairing the "East Belfast Speaks Out" debate, with panellists Peter Robinson, Martin McGuinness, Dawn Purvis, NIO Minister of State Hugo Swire and journalist Liam Clarke.
I quipped at one point that I felt like a "one man peace wall" keeping Peter and Martin apart. In truth the occasion was pretty polite - the First and Deputy First sang off much the same hymn sheet and the proceedings only got heated when they turned on Hugo Swire over the Spending Review.
Mr Swire gave the term "residual terrorist groups" its first official outing (both the British and Irish governments are trying to propagate this jargon as a substitute for the Solzhenitsyn like term "dissident"). RTGs? A bit too much like RPGs for my liking, and it would require a leap of faith to imagine that the media and society in general would obediently follow the officially suggested vocabulary.
Indeed Martin McGuinness (who has had a few colourful descriptions for the dissidents over the years) made it pretty clear to me that he thought the proposed jargon is absurd (I shall check his precise words to you and update when I have them).
As chair I wasn't able to scribble copious notes, concentrating instead on trying to keep the proceedings moving. However over on Slugger I see that Alan in Belfast has provided There's also a good write up on The debate will feature on tonight's ´óÏó´«Ã½ Hearts and Minds and there was a team from the young people's group who i think will be posting up some video of the event in the near future.
In one sense the evening was remarkable as much for what didn't happen as what did. I can't ever recall Martin McGuinness sitting on a public platform in loyalist East Belfast before. Even though one question from the PUP's Jim Wilson talked about the allegedly one sided nature of the police's historic enquiries no one from the audience took this as an opportunity to get stuck into the Deputy First Minister about his IRA past. Instead he was extremely warmly received.
I'm 
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