Republican News · Thursday 23 January 1997

The best headline this week was on a piece by that excellent British journalist, Francis Wheen, in the Guardian. It was ``If Labour wins, how will we know?'' The piece noted ten Labour pledges and put them beside ten Tory pledges from the 1992 election. They were, more or less, exactly the same. It is a game which could also be played with Labour's policy on Ireland, starting this week with Mo Mowlam's rejection of an inquiry into Bloody Sunday. Just proves the old anarchist slogan, no matter who you vote for the government still gets in.

Wheen's colleague, Martin Kettle, tried to do his little bit last weekend to urge Labour to do something pro-active on Ireland. Things were getting out of hand and now was a good time to be positive, he said. ``The 25th anniversary of Bloody Sunday next week would be a fitting moment to begin to show that there can be no going back,'' said Kettle Of course, no sooner had he it out than Mo Mowlam told him where he could put it. Oh well, at least he tried.

Members of the SAS who have written kill-and-tell books about their murderous experiences have been banned from their old bases. But it doesn't appear to have stopped Andy McNab, the best selling author of Bravo Two Zero. Andy (not his real name) has popped up in Colombia where he has told El Espectador newspaper that the British Army had a ``war laboratory'' in Colombia. Obviously much more profitable to prepare the ground for another bestseller than to worry about missing pints with the lads.

Really bad joke of the week: Why have the Egyptians banned Irish beef?
Because we banned pyramid selling.

A little apology is due for us getting paragraphs mixed up in the production process last week. A piece in Editor's Desk about Lee Clegg found its way into a piece about the Catholic RUC man who was transferred to Newry. It may have made it look as if the Irish News was supporting Clegg. They weren't - they were supporting the RUC token Taig who now finds himself in Crossmaglen three days a week.

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