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Author Archives: Stephen Shellard
Football – Man and Boy
Football — soccer that is — occupied a unique position in the culture of Newry and District for it was not an official game in any of the schools, whether Catholic, where Gaelic football and hurling were played, or state schools, such as Newry High School, where the official sports were rugby and hockey. I’d played both of these in my first year and opted for hockey, which I enjoyed; but my first love was “the beautiful game”. Continue reading
Posted in Comment, Misc
Tagged "Carnbane League", "George Best", "John Giles", "Newry Town", "Pat Jennings", "World Cup", soccer
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Open Letter to John Cooper, MP for Dumfries and Galloway Constituency
The Reform Party which Nigel Farage leads, spell out a number of proposed constitutional changes … they say, there should be a referendum on constitutional reform. I doubt very much their enthusiasm for this will last beyond the point at which they win a majority of seats in the House of Commons. Nigel Farage is very happy to ally himself with Donald Trump, the most duplicitous individual ever to emerge in the politics of the modern era and thus his commitment to genuine democratic reform lacks credibility. Continue reading
Posted in Comment, Electoral Reform
Tagged "Labour Party", electoral reform, nigel-farage, Politics, PR, SNP
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Sunlit uplands revisited
On the edition of BBC Radio’s Any Questions broadcast immediately following the UK election on July 4th, I was shocked to hear Charlie Falconer – Lord Falconer, who I have always thought of as something of a wise owl – … Continue reading
Posted in Comment, Electoral Reform, Podcasts etc.
Tagged democracy, elections, electoral reform, Fair elections, FPTP, Political accountability, Politics, PR, Ranked choice voting, uk-politics
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Change…real change
I got the result I wanted but I fear for the future of British politics if we do not change our electoral system which, on the basis of a low turnout – evidence of widespread disenchantment with politics – produced … Continue reading
Posted in Comment
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Remembered Fragments Playlist
Remembered Fragments is a memoir. For those who may have stumbled upon the page, the book and a summary of its content is now available for sale on Amazon at a cost of £12, plus postage, the latter charge being … Continue reading
Posted in Misc
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Beached
Kippford, south west Scotland, 8th April, 2024, 5 pm.
Outgrow the System
A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT TRANSITIONING TO A SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC SYSTEM With thanks to Reel to Real Cinema, the Stove Network and the Climate Kitchen Dumfries for providing the opportunity to view and discuss this film. There is no argument with the … Continue reading
George Monbiot: I once admired Russell Brand. But his grim trajectory shows us where politics is heading
George Monbiot’s Guardian article is definitely worth a read if at some time previously you thought, as I did, that Russell Brand was someone of great originality, clever, funny, articulate, worth listening to despite his occasional missteps and his rejection … Continue reading
Carruchan 
A Day of Protests
Migrant communities are always the object of suspicion and mistrust and that is to be expected, but here in Scotland this should be tempered with an awareness of the recent history of emigration. Continue reading →