It seems that President Trajkovski of Macedonia is missing in a plane crash, along with most of his staff. I’m devastated. He was probably the only current head of state I could describe as a personal friend, and I also knew and liked several of the staff members who were probably travelling with him. He was instrumental in keeping the peace process going, and the country together, in 2001. A really charming guy.
And the timing is lousy because the Macedonian Prime Minister was due to formally submit their membership application to the EU in Dublin today. They can hardly go ahead with that now.
So what next? I think that whilst the desire exists for non-sectarian, tribal politics, which the UUP cannot escape, it is not yet the case that Alliance can answer the desire for centre right, conservative politics; it is too non division obsessed. A new home grown political party to try to fill the vacuum? While the OO exists the UUP cannot hide from its tentacles. Am I the only person in NI who feels sure that Tom is going to veer towards unionist unity & put NI back 20 years.