Sometimes as a councillor you have to give people bad news. There benefit has been stopped, you cannot get their repair done immediately, you are unable to get a move for a single parent with 3 kids in a third floor flat who has been waiting for three years on the housing list. But it doesn't begin to compare with this. There are some jobs I just could not do. This is one of them.

The Raid. The state doesn't always come round quite so compassionately. Every raid like this in Belfast in the 1970's led to a few more recruits to the paramiltaries.

I am once again reminded (this time by the Black Country Villain) of the power of Johnny Cash's Hurt. Like or loath country music, this video, made whilst Cash was dying, has to be one of the best ever made.