Fly Me To The Moon.

I downloaded a new album, Cheek to Cheek, by Tony Bennett and Lady GaGa. It is brilliant. I am a longtime fan of Mr Bennett and in more recent times, Lady GaGa.

Tony Bennett is celebrated for his decades of singing hit songs.  He has also been a life long activist, a dedicated pacifist and an advocate for social justice and a cleaner environment. He marched with Martin Luther King in the Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights demonstration. He is also an acclaimed painter whose work has raised millions for good causes. But it is his singing that most of us enjoy. I have had the good luck to hear him sing live a few times.

PSNI losing sight of Patten Vision for Policing

All societies need a police service. A police service that works in partnership with the community and with citizens. Community policing is not the same as policing the community. A policing service is different from a police force. The North does not need another state police force. We had that with the RUC. For 80 years that paramilitary organisation, along with the B Specials, functioned as the armed wing of the unionist/British state and employed a plethora of special laws and repressive techniques to maintain unionist domination. 

The Good Friday Agreement established the Patten Commission as a means of creating a new beginning to policing. Progress was made. But in the last few weeks a series of events and issues have emerged that have inflicted significant damage to hopes of the Patten vision and the PSNI...