Every so often, something comes to the public ‘s attention that is so manifestly unfair that it calls to the heavens for justice.
The treatment of the post office managers who were hounded through the courts to suicide, bankruptcy and ruin, when a flawed computer system painted them as dishonest, was one.
The other has happened in Belfast to residents of the Victoria Square apartments who bought their properties only to find them condemned as uninhabitable when defects were found.
It seemed straightforward: someone made a mistake and it would be rectified or the owners compensated.
But a judge then ruled their case had to be struck out because it was outside the statutory six-year time limit. A limit that no-one had hitherto heard of, and which had been extended to 30 years in England and Wales.
The people affected have been out of their homes since 2019 yet had to continue paying mortgages on those properties. And worse – they were also paying service charges for their uninhabitable dwellings, as well as being charged rates. They’re also liable for the legal costs of bringing the case to court.
Public shaming seems to have lit a fire under politicians across the water over the Post Office scandal to speed up the compensation process. Our own parties should step up now and take immediate action to remedy the current anomalies and do the same for the Victoria Square residents.
Every so often, something comes to the public ‘s attention that is so manifestly unfair that it calls to the heavens for justice
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So it’s true that the TUV is linking up for the general election with the Reform UK party, headed by Richard Tice, a man with the air of someone trying to flog funeral plans on daytime TV.
The party’s haul of MPs has now been boosted to one – thanks to the defection of Tory Lee Anderson, who had previously defected from Labour. Don’t you just love conviction politicians?
Anderson’s stock in trade is to repeat meaningless mantras like “I just want my country back”. We like empty slogans here too, so he’ll fit right in. No surrender!
And here’s hoping they do adopt Make Ulster Great as their rallying cry. Yeah, Mugs. Or maybe even Muggles, like in Harry Potter – the unfortunates without any special magic powers.
[ Alex Kane: TUV link-up with Reform is all about looking like a contenderOpens in new window ]
It’s disturbing that the same kind of empty rhetoric that “Ireland is full” is being chanted by tricolour-waving citizens demonstrating their opposition to asylum seekers in the south.
Why is it that their concern about lack of housing for local people was not evident before?
The protestors do have a valid argument that there is an obvious shortage of housing in the country and it’s been the case for many decades.
Perhaps the Irish government should have spent more time dealing with providing adequate housing for its people than tinkering around with the wording of the constitution.
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I don’t know if the Princess of Wales has gone missing, though it’s possible that she just doesn’t fancy posing for pics until she feels fully recovered from the abdominal surgery she’s reportedly had.
But I do know that Kensington Palace’s PR department must be staffed by teens on work experience as they’ve handled this whole business so badly it’s a joke.
In fact it’s now the subject of comedy on late night TV shows in the US and according to a Spanish friend, has become a topic of obsession in her country’s press which has published a whole range of stories from botched plastic surgery to wife-beating and extra marital affairs, though not yet kidnapping by aliens.
Like it or not, the British royal family is in a Faustian pact with the popular press. The late queen had it right when she said they needed to be seen to be believed. KP must get a photo of Kate out soon – preferably with her holding a copy of that day’s newspaper.