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Sam McBride

@sjamcbride.bsky.social

3.9K followers 22 following 450 posts

Northern Ireland Editor of the Belfast Telegraph & Sunday Independent. Author of Burned: The Inside Story of the Cash-for-Ash Scandal. Any views mine alone.

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Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · Jun 25

📢 Some news from me: I've written a book with the erudite and eloquent Fintan O'Toole in which we each argue for - and then against - Irish unity, setting out objectively what seem to us each side's best arguments, and the issues people across the island of Ireland should consider.

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 3h

The US vulture fund that bought Nama’s Northern Ireland loans for £1.1bn would likely never have been allowed to do so if it had been known that Frank Cushnahan stood to make money from the deal, as the Crown allege, Nama’s former chairman has said.

If Cushnahan was being paid by Cerberus, we’d never have done £1.1bn deal, Nama’s ex-chairman tells jury

The US vulture fund that bought Nama’s Northern Ireland loans would likely never have been allowed to do so if it had been known that Frank Cushnahan stood to make money from the deal, Nama’s former c...

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 12h

Officers in the PSNI’s most sensitive department have described their senior management as more dangerous than those trying to kill them. Some 53 of 60 officers who spoke to a Cambridge academic were scathing about what they've to deal with internally.

PSNI mirroring Blue Lights: Officers fear their own bosses more than dissidents amid ‘deep, corrosive disillusionment’

Officers in the PSNI’s most sensitive department have described their senior management as more dangerous than those trying to kill them.

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 1d

This contains a vulnerability for both taxpayers and boiler owners: It gives the department so much power that it essentially just asks us all to trust it - and DfE has repeatedly demonstrated we shouldn't trust it on RHI. Here's the draft bill: www.niassembly.gov.uk/globalassets...

www.niassembly.gov.uk

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 1d

Caoimhe Archibald has now published the draft legislation to shut the existing RHI. It's just two and a half pages long but would give her department exceptionally sweeping powers to make changes "of any kind"....essentially the power to do as it pleases.

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 3d

In the aesthetically uninspiring surroundings of Court 13 in Belfast’s Laganside courts complex, the outline of a legal thriller has been unfolding over recent days: secret recordings, back-stabbing, claims of insatiable greed, alleged fraud and money laundering.

Nama trial is a thriller with back-stabbing and claims of insatiable greed... and it's an establishment who's who

In the uninspiring surroundings of Court 13 in Belfast’s Laganside courts complex, the outline of a legal thriller has been unfolding over recent days, replete with secret recordings, back-stabbing, c...

m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 4d

Stormont is pretending to close RHI, but isn’t: it’s quadrupling payments, locking them in to 2036, and making the scheme easier to abuse. Here are eight flaws in what is now being proposed - this time under a Sinn Féin minister.

Stormont is pretending to close RHI, but isn’t: it’s quadrupling payments, locking them in to 2036, and making scheme easier to abuse

On Monday, Stormont set out how it plans to close the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme, but there were two problems: key details were missing, and what it’s planning doesn’t in fact shut the sche...

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 6d

A jury has heard dramatic evidence about how a top solicitor alleged to be behind a vast fraud saw a sophisticated plan unravel after his senior colleagues caught him with millions of pounds they knew nothing about.

Nama trial hears evidence of how allegedly massive fraud fell apart: Order to delete an invoice, audio recording and offshore millions

A jury has heard dramatic evidence about how a top solicitor alleged to be behind a vast fraud saw a sophisticated plan unravel after his senior colleagues caught him with millions of pounds they knew...

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 7d

Updated with lots of detail from this afternoon:
💻Coulter allegedly told Tughans’ IT manager to delete deal emails to ‘cover his tracks’;
🕵️‍♂️Coulter allegedly took over Isle of Man firm using his wife’s email address, using front company which hid his role.

Retired banker boasted in secret recording that he’d make millions from Nama deal – and of his top-level political access, jury told

Frank Cushnahan was secretly recorded claiming that he would make millions from the Nama deal and boasting of his ability to influence First Minister Peter Robinson and other top politicians, a jury h...

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 7d

Nama trial day 3: Frank Cushnahan was secretly recorded; 90-minute conversation laced with expletives, references to the most senior politicians in Belfast and Dublin, confidential internal Nama minutes and an assurance for huge developers deep in debt.

In secret recording, Cushnahan boasted he’d make millions from Nama deal – and of his top-level political access, jury told

Frank Cushnahan was secretly recorded claiming that he would make millions from the Nama deal and boasting of his ability to influence First Minister Peter Robinson and other top politicians, a jury h...

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 8d

A senior figure at a major US investment fund invited to bid for Nama's NI loans described top Belfast solicitor Ian Coulter as “a greedy fker” for trying to get an allegedly corrupt €16m success fee changed to £16m, Belfast Crown Court has been told.

‘Tell him he’s a greedy f**ker’: Nama jury shown emails revealing tensions over ‘odd’ deal with €16m fee to be split three ways

A senior figure at a major US investment fund invited to bid for Nama's Northern Ireland loans described top Belfast solicitor Ian Coulter as “a greedy fker” for trying to get an allegedly corrupt €16...

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 8d

Nama trial, day two: Senior businessman Frank Cushnahan used his position with Nama to “get access to politicians” and “gather intelligence” which he wanted to use to improperly enrich himself, a jury was told today.

Nama corruption trial told ‘dishonest’ Cushnahan abused his position to lobby key politicians and ‘gather intelligence’

Senior businessman Frank Cushnahan used his position with Nama to “get access to politicians” and “gather intelligence” which he wanted to use to improperly enrich himself, a jury was told today.

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 8d

Stormont has failed lamentably in meeting its own targets to encourage people out of cars, can’t prove it has spent public money properly — and is not even on course to be lawful, a scathing Audit Office report has found. Another shambles.

Watchdog lambasts Stormont for ongoing failures in its strategy to boost active travel

Stormont has failed lamentably in meeting its own targets to encourage people out of cars, can’t prove it has spent public money properly — and is not even on course to be lawful, an Audit Office repo...

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 9d

Most people assume that since Victorian times it's been compulsory to send all children to school. It's not - and in fact, you don't even need to tell the state that your child should be in education.
🎧Podcast with @ciarandunbarrach.bsky.social (no paywall)

Concerns some children might be vulnerable because NI education system doesn’t know where they are

Northern Ireland’s education system has no idea how many children it’s responsible for.

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 9d

This is now a live case and for your own sake, as well as in the interests of justice, you should exercise extreme restraint in commenting on it due to the strict contempt of court rules. If you don't, and the trial collapses, you could end up in jail.

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 9d

Nama trial day one: Top solicitor laundered £7.2m via Isle of Man account while ‘dishonest’ businessman ‘acted in the shadows’, court told. Key business figure was paid €1,000 to attend every Nama advisory meeting but was greedy for millions, jurors told.

Nama trial day one: Top solicitor laundered £7.2m via Isle of Man account while ‘dishonest’ businessman ‘acted in the shadows’, court told

A top Belfast solicitor engaged in laundering £9m as part of a corrupt deal for more than a billion pounds which involved a key figure from Northern Ireland’s business establishment, Belfast Crown Cou...

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 10d

Peter Vandermeersch, the outgoing head of @belfasttelegraph.co.uk owner Mediahuis's Irish division: "Print is vanishing. Big tech digital gatekeepers decide not just what news we see, but also what gets buried...this is about what sort of society we want to live in."

Peter Vandermeersch: My fears for journalism’s future — and how you can help to save it

Will trusted journalism survive the decade? That question echoed in my mind as I read the harrowing conclusions of a new report by the International News Media Association (INMA), which held its Europ...

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 10d

The night I nearly killed myself on a dark road… and the second reason I’m a slower driver now.

The night I nearly killed myself on the roads… and the second reason I’m a slower driver now

It’s hard to describe the terror of being in a car when it suddenly becomes airborne at speed. The cliches are true. Time does slow to almost a standstill; your life does flash before your eyes.

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Reposted by Sam McBride

Belfast Telegraph @belfasttelegraph.co.uk · 11d

Reclusive and shy Fianna Fáil politician was the party’s wordsmith, played a pivotal role in the Northern Ireland peace process, and loyally advised Charles Haughey, Albert Reynolds and Bertie Ahern.

Martin Mansergh: The English-born politician of unionist stock who was pivotal for NI peace process

I last met Martin Mansergh at the end of June in the coffee shop of the National Gallery in Dublin. It was one of his regular haunts and where, almost 40 years ago, he first met the Redemptorist pries...

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 11d

Until two days ago, I believed the Secretary of State had the sole power to call a border poll. Remarkably, he doesn't. The Government says a little-known fetter on his power means the Commons or the Lords hold a veto. That could be incredibly messy.

Largely unknown parliamentary veto on border poll exists — but Government dismisses possibility of a rogue minister

Most people — even those with deep knowledge of the subject — would say confidently that the legal power to call a border poll rests with the Secretary of State alone. I believed so until two days ago...

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 14d

The spying that wasn’t really spying: How the PSNI’s silence made its actions seem far worse than they were. A perfect example of where saying nothing is not only not in the organisation's interest, but isn't in the public interest.

The spying that wasn’t really spying: How PSNI’s silence made its actions seem far worse than they were

Six months ago, the Belfast Telegraph reported allegations that the PSNI spied on the journalist Donal MacIntyre.

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 14d

🚨Just in: UVF commander Winston Irvine’s prison sentence for getting caught red-handed with guns and ammunition has been doubled by the Court of Appeal because the trial judge's sentence was "unduly lenient".

Loyalist gun-runner Winkie Irvine's jail term doubled

High-profile loyalist Winston Irvine’s prison sentence for having guns and ammunition in the boot of his car is to be doubled, the Court of Appeal ruled today.

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 14d

More than a month after I asked NI Water for a copy of its whistleblowing policy, it has been unable to produce the document it has trumpeted. Amid concern at NI Water's treatment of whistleblowers, an Opposition MLA says it's "bizarre" behaviour.

More than a month after being asked for its whistleblowing policy, NI Water still can’t produce it

More than a month after being asked for a copy of its whistleblowing policy, NI Water has been unable to produce it – despite trumpeting the document to Stormont.

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 16d

You probably didn't know that David Trimble - then a hardliner close to Bill Craig & involved in bringing down Stormont's first power-sharing experiment - travelled to jail to teach republican students interned in 1971. Lots more nuance like that in @stepwalktv.bsky.social's new biography.

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 16d

🎧Podcast
David Trimble was one of unionism's most compellingly consequential leaders, and its most complex. Stephen Walker talks through with me the life of this far-sighted but contradictory man who rarely seemed destined for getting to the top, yet did.

David Trimble: ‘There would have been no Good Friday Agreement without him’

The former BBC journalist Stephen Walker has published a new biography on the former UUP leader and Nobel Prize winner David Trimble.

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 16d

This is now a live case and for your own sake, as well as in the interests of justice, you should exercise extreme restraint in commenting on it due to the strict contempt of court rules. If you don't, and the trial collapses, you could end up in jail.