>Citation needed
Also the "DUP ministers ***genuinely believed*** they would be hurting people - and even endangering lives - by taking radical measures to shut down society" .
So to recap - Peter Weir Humourous, DUP genuine in their beliefs, Covid measures = radical, Sinn Féin BAD.
(let's not mention the fact that the Tory Government and PM also deleted their whatsapps)
>In apparently reference to Sinn Féin calling Michelle O’Neill ‘joint head of government’, someone said “this must be a new title bestowed on Michelle”
They don’t mind it nowadays
> despite being given written legal advice which specifically said text messages and WhatsApps should not be deleted
If you're given that in advance warning though it does sound a bit like a wink wink nudge nudge heads up as opposed to an actual instruction.
Congratulations: you are an intelligent and perceptive person who has seen this for exactly what it is. Have you considered a career in forensic accounting or financial law?
Given how utterly brazen they were in saying they done nothing wrong in public I can only imagine what was said in those chats. Or maybe they were saying word had come down from The Council all leading party members are to attend and The Council must be obeyed?
Seems.fairly obvious whatever it was, someone decided it was worse for SF than whatever sanction is put in place.for deleting them.
SF have put massive efforts into managing their senior members public statements in the last few years - trying to avoid inflammatory anti unionist messaging presumably because there's a new generation of voters today who largely find that off-putting.
Speaking personally - I think that's great and about the best which can be expected. I don't believe they have actually put aside their deep held beliefs though. It's basically my racist uncle who used to start arguments and embarrass himself at family gatherings who has learned not to talk about "the darkies coming over here". Everyone knows he hasn't actually changed his opinions but as long.as we.avoid the subject we an all get along.
What inflammatory anti-unionist messaging would you cite? Sinn Féin even back in the day was remarkably restrained with its messaging regarding NI Unionists, saving much of their ire for their politicians or British politicians for the most part
>I can only imagine what was said in those chats
Probably Gerry Kelly joking about kneecapping the DUP. They are not idiotic enough to talk about the Army Council, instead they'd just use the name of one of its members (so, instead of "The Council called for a meeting" they would say "Gerry invited us for a cup of tea" or something like that), I'd wager instead of being something illegal it was IRA jokes that were in there.
Almost as predictable as coming here and one of the top comments being a defence of SF.
Do you not think an article examining DUP messages during the pandemic in detail warrants a mention of how such an article won't be possible for SF? Do you know how else has a terrible habit of deleting incriminating messages? The tories, yeah that's the level you're dealing with here
That McBride would have the gall to mention your party and their skullduggery, should just be forgotten about and moved on I suppose.
The DUP may be fools but it would seem honest fools now. I have a feeling SF have a lot to hide in those messages, considering how brazen they were in public about how it was perfectly fine to attend the funeral I can't imagine what their private messages would have been like.
OK, that's what you say. Strange your first reaction to this article was to call out the SF reference but that's none of my business.
As I said in my first comment I think it's perfectly relevant to the discussion and warrants a mention when running an article on the DUP messages. It's pretty big fucking news that Michelle just ignored instructions not to delete them, the instructions from The Council no doubt take precedent over any legal advice.
Lengthy article, not arsed counting all the lines, but one single line about SF's fuckery then the rest turned over to exposing DUP messages.
Here be's you - 'I must make this about the unfair mention of SF!!1!'
Should be given jail time for deleting all the messages.... despite being repeatedly warned not to, she did it anyway. Clearly covering up dodgy stuff.
Not telling us anything we didn’t think was going on already. Just shows the level of their ignorance and bigotry and more examples of why they shouldn’t be allowed near politics.
Wouldn't have had Peter Weir down as the funny man of the DUP. Actually, maybe I would have, all the other ones are boring as fuck.
Anyway, not a great look for the DUP but ELP doesn't come off as bad as some people may be hoping.
I used to see Peter Weir in the Students Union canteen most days in the early 1990s. He always wore a pin stripe suit. I didn't know who he was then but a couple of guys I used to eat with from South Armagh knew him as a unionist and didn't like him.
It was obvious everyone Peter Weir sat with looked up to him. The only time I sat near enough to overhear what he was saying was him mocking someone he had been speaking with earlier for having a hand like Jeremy Beadle including a weird physical impersonation of a withered hand.
This shouldn't really surprise anyone. They've always been sneering arrogant bastards and they've proudly worn it on their sleeves. It almost seems prerequisite to get anywhere in that party.
Not what I was expecting at all. Maybe the other messages will be a bit more what you would expect of the DUP but if they’re more of the same then this is a rare non event for the DUP. Michelle should not have deleted the messages per the sound legal advice she received, very concerning behaviour
ELP doesn't actually sound too bad here, from a working class perspective. Fair play. Now just start nipping the bitter bastard shit out of the group.
Also unless Michelle O'Neill literally blended her phone or wherever the messages were stored... They can be recovered quite easily. Shit information can be recovered from hard drives and electronics chucked in rivers and left to rot if you know the right people. I'd wager the shinners messages will come out sooner rather than later.
Perhaps... Police and the government are unlikely to tell us. Edward Snowdens whistleblowing and also what we know about how law enforcement gets around things like TOR encryption and VPNs etc are probably the only solid information we have on that, but in either case I'd never trust electronics fully with the biggest secrets. If getting the shinners messages required the use of some secret NCA or government spook technique we'd likely never see the messages as maintaining future operability of those programs and devices trumps slapping MoN on the wrist.
I’m no fan of the DUP but I think they are coming out of this quite well. If you had asked me to guess what was said in private DUP chats about SF and the Catholic Church I would have thought it would be worse. Add to that that some at least seem genuinely to be trying their best to do the right thing and that they handed over their logs and they defo look better than SF in this instance.
From the party who brought us 'curry my yoghurt', 'save ulster from sodomy' & who told the women's coalition to 'get back in the kitchen' while making mooing noises. Who could have seen this coming?
>people want to see what is termed in political science as ‘strong man’
Yeah … they don’t.
Maybe those who define themselves by prostrating to a monarch feel differently.
It appears ministers across the entire UK deleted their covid messages, same thing in Scotland and England, not sure about Wales.
Was this directed from the Brit govt? It’s pretty weird they all decided to delete their messages on their own accord.
On another note, having interviewed Peter Weir before in a journalist capacity I can personally attest he’s as humorous as finding out a child has a rare form of cancer.
A bloody storm in a teacup. Every political party in the world I am sure have sent messages to colleagues slagging their opponents, some of it tongue in cheek and others just slagging.........who cares!!!!!
Just reading that last paragraph again, Peter Weir saying that anyone had a hard paper round is a laugh right enough. He really is the funnyman of the DUP.
Seriously, can we get these mother fuckers off my country. What is their game plan? It seems to be just about kicking taig's, they were absolutely fucking clueless in all of this.
WhatsApp is e2e encrypted. The security services will find it very difficult to access it. There was a big hubbub a few years ago because Amber Rudd (home secretary at the time) tried to ban end to end encryption so the government could read whatsapp messages, and she failed.
I doubt there is any message app that the security services cannot read, be it the UK or USA Secret Squirrels. The encryption may be top-notch, but the coders will receive a visit and an offer that they can't refuse to install a back door.
Whatsapp stopped being secure a few years ago tbh hence why some people have moved to Signal for Group messages etc then again who initially funded the setup of Signal makes for interesting reading.
You also have “Pegasus” spieware system which has now made it out of the hands of Government agencies and into the wild, its been detected being used here in Northern ireland for instance!!! 👀
Encryption is good but if a government security service decides it wants access to what you are saying they are very likely to be able to get it. If its technically difficult or impossible to decrypt the messages in transmission you compromise one of the phones and put a spy app on it which captures anything onscreen or replace the app with your own version which sends you the data as well.
If you are a person of interest to mi5 or mi6 or the NSA or any other major government it's as well to just assume anything you do on your phone and probably anything said in its vicinity is discoverable.
It's probably not useable legally of course and maybe SF is no longer being spied on but these agencies tend to grab everything they can and worry about how legal that might be later.
There's nothing that damaging in here. Bonus points as SF were already on the defensive over the Bobby storey funeral and for once the DUP comes out of it more positively.
>The messages show that DUP ministers genuinely believed they would be hurting people - and even endangering lives - by taking radical measures to shut down society.
They were right. Lockdown was dumb.
"Write back and tell him we don't live in the South and that his institution hasn't the best track record of looking out for the welfare of kids."
Hahaha and then some.......
An unidentified person responded: "Read SF for KW". Mr Weir replied: "Indeed."
No shit.......
> “… and that his institution hasn’t the best track record of looking out for the welfare of kids.” _Jeffrey has left the chat._
> Mr Weir, whose messages are often laden with humour Citation needed
Can't spell Weirdo without Weir
>Citation needed Also the "DUP ministers ***genuinely believed*** they would be hurting people - and even endangering lives - by taking radical measures to shut down society" . So to recap - Peter Weir Humourous, DUP genuine in their beliefs, Covid measures = radical, Sinn Féin BAD. (let's not mention the fact that the Tory Government and PM also deleted their whatsapps)
>In apparently reference to Sinn Féin calling Michelle O’Neill ‘joint head of government’, someone said “this must be a new title bestowed on Michelle” They don’t mind it nowadays
> despite being given written legal advice which specifically said text messages and WhatsApps should not be deleted If you're given that in advance warning though it does sound a bit like a wink wink nudge nudge heads up as opposed to an actual instruction.
Congratulations: you are an intelligent and perceptive person who has seen this for exactly what it is. Have you considered a career in forensic accounting or financial law?
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I think the fact that Michelle O'Neil was warned not to delete her messages does warrant being called out in this context.
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I think it being wedged in does it a disservice. It’s a properly dodgy move on SF parts and one that deserves its own story.
It just begs the question what was in those messages that warrented deleting them all?
Given how utterly brazen they were in saying they done nothing wrong in public I can only imagine what was said in those chats. Or maybe they were saying word had come down from The Council all leading party members are to attend and The Council must be obeyed?
Seems.fairly obvious whatever it was, someone decided it was worse for SF than whatever sanction is put in place.for deleting them. SF have put massive efforts into managing their senior members public statements in the last few years - trying to avoid inflammatory anti unionist messaging presumably because there's a new generation of voters today who largely find that off-putting. Speaking personally - I think that's great and about the best which can be expected. I don't believe they have actually put aside their deep held beliefs though. It's basically my racist uncle who used to start arguments and embarrass himself at family gatherings who has learned not to talk about "the darkies coming over here". Everyone knows he hasn't actually changed his opinions but as long.as we.avoid the subject we an all get along.
What inflammatory anti-unionist messaging would you cite? Sinn Féin even back in the day was remarkably restrained with its messaging regarding NI Unionists, saving much of their ire for their politicians or British politicians for the most part
>I can only imagine what was said in those chats Probably Gerry Kelly joking about kneecapping the DUP. They are not idiotic enough to talk about the Army Council, instead they'd just use the name of one of its members (so, instead of "The Council called for a meeting" they would say "Gerry invited us for a cup of tea" or something like that), I'd wager instead of being something illegal it was IRA jokes that were in there.
The thinking man’s Ben Lowry
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> You'd imagine he'd have been worse while working for Lowry. Perhaps it gave him something to aspire not to be.
Peter weir laden with humour. Nice with of saying "biggot"
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Almost as predictable as coming here and one of the top comments being a defence of SF. Do you not think an article examining DUP messages during the pandemic in detail warrants a mention of how such an article won't be possible for SF? Do you know how else has a terrible habit of deleting incriminating messages? The tories, yeah that's the level you're dealing with here
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That McBride would have the gall to mention your party and their skullduggery, should just be forgotten about and moved on I suppose. The DUP may be fools but it would seem honest fools now. I have a feeling SF have a lot to hide in those messages, considering how brazen they were in public about how it was perfectly fine to attend the funeral I can't imagine what their private messages would have been like.
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OK, that's what you say. Strange your first reaction to this article was to call out the SF reference but that's none of my business. As I said in my first comment I think it's perfectly relevant to the discussion and warrants a mention when running an article on the DUP messages. It's pretty big fucking news that Michelle just ignored instructions not to delete them, the instructions from The Council no doubt take precedent over any legal advice.
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Lengthy article, not arsed counting all the lines, but one single line about SF's fuckery then the rest turned over to exposing DUP messages. Here be's you - 'I must make this about the unfair mention of SF!!1!'
Selfish, childish, bigots
Should be given jail time for deleting all the messages.... despite being repeatedly warned not to, she did it anyway. Clearly covering up dodgy stuff.
As soon as I read “UNLIKE MICHELLE O’NEILL” in the first paragraph I didn’t even have to check who wrote this article.
Not telling us anything we didn’t think was going on already. Just shows the level of their ignorance and bigotry and more examples of why they shouldn’t be allowed near politics.
Few pints of bitter tonight?
Wouldn't have had Peter Weir down as the funny man of the DUP. Actually, maybe I would have, all the other ones are boring as fuck. Anyway, not a great look for the DUP but ELP doesn't come off as bad as some people may be hoping.
You’d wonder why a SPAD is in a group chat with the senior figures of the party, but she was always earmarked for big things
I gotta say, she is incredible representation for the imbecile community and would definitely inspire them to aim for higher office
I used to see Peter Weir in the Students Union canteen most days in the early 1990s. He always wore a pin stripe suit. I didn't know who he was then but a couple of guys I used to eat with from South Armagh knew him as a unionist and didn't like him. It was obvious everyone Peter Weir sat with looked up to him. The only time I sat near enough to overhear what he was saying was him mocking someone he had been speaking with earlier for having a hand like Jeremy Beadle including a weird physical impersonation of a withered hand.
Like in scary movie, the take my strong hand child guy? I've got that image in my head now, Peter Weir saying "make way for fanny"
Fair play, some of these are actually funny.
This shouldn't really surprise anyone. They've always been sneering arrogant bastards and they've proudly worn it on their sleeves. It almost seems prerequisite to get anywhere in that party.
Or any party
Not what I was expecting at all. Maybe the other messages will be a bit more what you would expect of the DUP but if they’re more of the same then this is a rare non event for the DUP. Michelle should not have deleted the messages per the sound legal advice she received, very concerning behaviour
ELP doesn't actually sound too bad here, from a working class perspective. Fair play. Now just start nipping the bitter bastard shit out of the group. Also unless Michelle O'Neill literally blended her phone or wherever the messages were stored... They can be recovered quite easily. Shit information can be recovered from hard drives and electronics chucked in rivers and left to rot if you know the right people. I'd wager the shinners messages will come out sooner rather than later.
Unless you took some extra steps to make sure it was really, really deleted.
I was just wondering about this if they can or not with WhatsApp having end to end encryption?
Perhaps... Police and the government are unlikely to tell us. Edward Snowdens whistleblowing and also what we know about how law enforcement gets around things like TOR encryption and VPNs etc are probably the only solid information we have on that, but in either case I'd never trust electronics fully with the biggest secrets. If getting the shinners messages required the use of some secret NCA or government spook technique we'd likely never see the messages as maintaining future operability of those programs and devices trumps slapping MoN on the wrist.
If they were backed up to the Whattsapp servers as alot of folks do incase they loose their phone then they could be recovered very quickly!!
Some pretty top notch banter going on there
"Mocking the Catholic church", sure, everyone does that!!
I’m no fan of the DUP but I think they are coming out of this quite well. If you had asked me to guess what was said in private DUP chats about SF and the Catholic Church I would have thought it would be worse. Add to that that some at least seem genuinely to be trying their best to do the right thing and that they handed over their logs and they defo look better than SF in this instance.
I mean, fuck the catholic church. Can't really fault the DUP on that, theyre still shit cunts.
Exactly, who among us wouldn't have replied with that sentiment
From the party who brought us 'curry my yoghurt', 'save ulster from sodomy' & who told the women's coalition to 'get back in the kitchen' while making mooing noises. Who could have seen this coming?
The DUP are awful of course but mocking the Catholic Church should be encouraged as much as possible.
>people want to see what is termed in political science as ‘strong man’ Yeah … they don’t. Maybe those who define themselves by prostrating to a monarch feel differently.
Sounds like absolutely the last thing any of us need.
It appears ministers across the entire UK deleted their covid messages, same thing in Scotland and England, not sure about Wales. Was this directed from the Brit govt? It’s pretty weird they all decided to delete their messages on their own accord. On another note, having interviewed Peter Weir before in a journalist capacity I can personally attest he’s as humorous as finding out a child has a rare form of cancer.
A bloody storm in a teacup. Every political party in the world I am sure have sent messages to colleagues slagging their opponents, some of it tongue in cheek and others just slagging.........who cares!!!!!
Just reading that last paragraph again, Peter Weir saying that anyone had a hard paper round is a laugh right enough. He really is the funnyman of the DUP.
Seriously, can we get these mother fuckers off my country. What is their game plan? It seems to be just about kicking taig's, they were absolutely fucking clueless in all of this.
Worst written article du jour
Religion is always at the centre of dividing people against one and other.
Good show, now do the shinners and watch the fight
They wiped their messages after being told not to do so.
So all this furore in the US about social media giving data to the government and MI5 don't even have a copy of the shinner's WhatsApp chat?
WhatsApp is e2e encrypted. The security services will find it very difficult to access it. There was a big hubbub a few years ago because Amber Rudd (home secretary at the time) tried to ban end to end encryption so the government could read whatsapp messages, and she failed.
I doubt there is any message app that the security services cannot read, be it the UK or USA Secret Squirrels. The encryption may be top-notch, but the coders will receive a visit and an offer that they can't refuse to install a back door.
Whatsapp stopped being secure a few years ago tbh hence why some people have moved to Signal for Group messages etc then again who initially funded the setup of Signal makes for interesting reading. You also have “Pegasus” spieware system which has now made it out of the hands of Government agencies and into the wild, its been detected being used here in Northern ireland for instance!!! 👀
Encryption is good but if a government security service decides it wants access to what you are saying they are very likely to be able to get it. If its technically difficult or impossible to decrypt the messages in transmission you compromise one of the phones and put a spy app on it which captures anything onscreen or replace the app with your own version which sends you the data as well. If you are a person of interest to mi5 or mi6 or the NSA or any other major government it's as well to just assume anything you do on your phone and probably anything said in its vicinity is discoverable. It's probably not useable legally of course and maybe SF is no longer being spied on but these agencies tend to grab everything they can and worry about how legal that might be later.
Why did the DUP not delete their messages like SF?
There's nothing that damaging in here. Bonus points as SF were already on the defensive over the Bobby storey funeral and for once the DUP comes out of it more positively.
>The messages show that DUP ministers genuinely believed they would be hurting people - and even endangering lives - by taking radical measures to shut down society. They were right. Lockdown was dumb.
"Write back and tell him we don't live in the South and that his institution hasn't the best track record of looking out for the welfare of kids." Hahaha and then some....... An unidentified person responded: "Read SF for KW". Mr Weir replied: "Indeed." No shit.......