Newton Emerson's satirical online newsletter brightened up the early Noughties in Northern Irish politics (previously celebrated on this blog here, here and here). It irritated the heck out of some, to the point that the Andersonstown News, that bastion of free speech and unbiased enquiry, got him sacked from his job for updating his website at work. The book basically pulls together, somewhat edited, his articles from March 2001 to 2004, a period of political stagnation; it's all somewhat dated now, and his casual sexism was not even funny then, but his sæva indignatio at the sectarianism and hypocrisy of all sides in Northern Irish politics is still refreshing and justified. (Full disclosure: I was myself mildly and indirectly targeted by Emerson back in November 2003.) The book is a bit of a curio now but still has plenty of enjoyable moments.

Back home, and counting the cost of my visit to P-Con and then to Hodges Figgis and Waterstone's on Dawson Street the next day:

( bookspoils )

OK, I'm giving up books for Lent. Or something.

A true breath of sanity in the mad world of Northern Irish politics is the weekly Portadown News, edited by Newton Emerson. I've just been spending a few minutes looking over his recent election coverage. His piss-take of the Ulster Unionist Party's dire election slogan "Decent People...Vote Ulster Unionist" is hilarious but also (for obvious reasons) made me wince:
( *Wince* )

His commentary on news coverage of the Pope's death takes a typically local angle:
( Paisley still alive! )

And he manages to make me glad to have got the hell out of the place, while at the same time bringing home how much I miss that vicious sarcasm which constitutes the "crack":


And on similar lines, from quite an early point in the Portadown News' run:


Back at the end of 2001, Newton Emerson annoyed certain people in Northern Ireland politics to the extent that they managed to get him sacked from his job. The reward has been that he is now one of the most visible political commentators in the media. Long may he continue.