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Sam McBride
@sjamcbride.bsky.social
Northern Ireland Editor, Belfast Telegraph and Sunday Independent
184 followers7 following51 posts
SMsjamcbride.bsky.social

Yes, the websites are close to unusable. Having worked somewhere which had a similar problem, I know that it won't be the fault of the journalists who will have constantly told their bosses that, but of executives who don't really care so long as the profits are rolling in.

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SMsjamcbride.bsky.social

Well if you can crowdfund £10k, I'm sure the baroness will happily oblige!

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SMsjamcbride.bsky.social

AI will do some truly amazing things. But it could mean outsourcing our critical faculties to manipulatable machines whose workings we don't undertand. Microsoft's AI tool told me it didn't like this column and I ignored that. Over time, we're less likely to reject such advice.

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SMsjamcbride.bsky.social

Meanwhile, RHI claimants who took huge loans after Arlene Foster's promise of 20-year untouchable subsidies have had payments slashed - and now Stormont is going to stop them entirely. One claimant says he has "nothing but contempt" for the politicians behind RHI.

RHI pledge torn up: I’ve only contempt for politicians who set up scheme, says farmer as every claimant to have payments halted
RHI pledge torn up: I’ve only contempt for politicians who set up scheme, says farmer as every claimant to have payments halted

Nine years ago, insider information from the Stormont department running the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme made its way to those profiting from it. The message was simple: The loopholes are going to...

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SMsjamcbride.bsky.social

Ahh but that was the ebook - this is the real thing! Amazon is simply a law unto itself.

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SMsjamcbride.bsky.social

More than a decade after the enormous criminal enterprise was shut, Paul Doherty and Gerry Farmer have still not been sentenced — even though they finally admitted their involvement two years ago. Mobuoy is a case study in the failure of government in all its forms in NI.

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SMsjamcbride.bsky.social

Something very odd is happening in Northern Ireland. In England and Wales, the number of inquests is rising. Yet here, despite a growing and ageing population, fewer deaths are being examined than at any time since NI was created - and perhaps since inquests began almost 1,000 years ago.

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SMsjamcbride.bsky.social

Go raibh maith agat.

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SMsjamcbride.bsky.social

Ouch. If that's where I'm going to end up, I need to stop.

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SMsjamcbride.bsky.social

Thanks. It's a bit like going back to your old school - strange, yet oddly familiar.

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Sam McBride
@sjamcbride.bsky.social
Northern Ireland Editor, Belfast Telegraph and Sunday Independent
184 followers7 following51 posts