NITB chairman Roy Bailie rolled up his sleeves and arrived at the premises armed with paint pot and brush. Reason being that his daughter, Caoibhe, is one of the proprietors of the new venture, and Bailie wanted to ensure that everything was looking spic and span. THE tough-talking president and chief executive of the United States Chamber of Commerce, former trucking boss Tom Donohue, made a lasting impression on the politicians and business leaders who gathered at the Culloden Hotel to hear him the other week. They are used to sitting through long and dull lectures from the politically correct about complex aspects of social and economic policy and the importance of international relations for Northern Ireland. But Donohue outlined his philosophy of free markets and red tape cutting as a way forward for the world.
Prosperity brings peace.
Social and environmental legislation only brings problems, he believes. They now have so much green legislation that it is impossible to build power stations and the lights keep going out. When I think of California I think of a collection of fruits and nuts. THE history of any period or place should not be based upon the media accounts of the time, according to the late Barbara Tuchman who twice won the Pulitzer prize for her work as a social historian. In the foreword to her last book A Distant Mirror, which examines the terrible events of the 14th century, she makes the following observation.