There we were hoping for a shiny new home for us here in Guildhall Tower. Very annoying then to hear that Edwin Poots is planning to cap the heritage building grant at £250 000, which means a cut of around £400 000 to the renovation of our lovely Guildhall. Apparently First Derry Church will lose over £100 000 which must also put that project at risk. Someone from the DoE on the radio with Mark Durkan said that St. Columb’s wouldn’t lose out – then explained that was only because the builder would do it for less than the cut!

When local politicians visit Stormont to ask for an economic stimulus, this is a kick in the teeth for the Derry construction industry and our tourism development. One can’t help think that if the Guildhall was in Lisburn that another approach would have been taken.

Interesting debates on Facebook today about the NUJ meeting on the planned cuts at BBC Radio Foyle that happened in the City Hotel during the week.

What seems odd though is the difference in the online comments and today’s Derry Journal article in the name of Michael McMonagle.  The web discussions refer to a speaker from the SDLP contributing to the meeting – in fact they suggest that this representative from Mark Durkan spoke better than Sinn Fein. Yet the Journal only refers to the fact that Sinn Fein was represented.  Why?

The photo of the meeting is also focused in on Sinn Fein. So a reader would nearly think only Sinn Fein were there.

At best its an oversight at worst its bias. We’ll be emailing the Journal for a reply and will let you know.

We can hardly believe it ourselves, but we are still getting between 70 and 100 visits each week.  Seems to us we shouldn’t let you folk down.  The truth needs exposed and the cosy Derry media (Derry Journal, Radio Foyle, the rest)  are probably getting a bit complacent, sitting on their big cushioned leather chairs.

And if we don’t put something up soon nobody might come back to check on us!

The Observer has revealed that former US President Bill Clinton visited Donegal quietly in 2006.  He attended Nobel Poet Seamus Heaney who was recovering from a stroke in Letterkenny General Hostpital at the time.  Heaney wrote in the paper that Clinton also visited various wards in the hospital giving a boost to patients across the county hospital.

Positive development yesterday with the confirmation by An Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD at the North South Ministerial Council that E9 million is being released for the A5 and A8 roads.  Well, positive in respect of the A6 anyway.

Taxpayers in Donegal and elsewhere in the South can’t be happy that the Irish government is making severe cutbacks but is paying for a road from Belfast to Larne.  Whatever about its profligacy in the boom years, it can hardly be justified now. Unlike the A5 road which links Donegal to the east coast, this has little advantage to southern taxpayers.

It would be too much to expect the DUP Cats Who Got The Cream yesterday to give credit to North/South cooperation, rather than arguing the downturn is a reason for union with Britain.  And we didn’t notice Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness claiming responsibility in from of Cowen for the A5 road project, as Sinn Fein did in the Southern elections.  No doubt because he would have looked been shown out to be a liar in front of the paymasters if he had.