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Sam McBride Profile picture
@SJAMcBride
Oct 18, 2022 • 3 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
A barrister who billed the taxpayer for 29.5 hours of work in a single 24-hour day has been fined & suspended by the NI Bar – but will be back working by Christmas. Gavyn Cairns claimed hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal aid for work he didn't do. belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-…
This case raises questions about how barristers self-regulate: The Bar of NI didn't tell the media about this case, didn't mention it on its website & refused to give me a copy of the full verdict when I asked for it. We got a leaked version, and on that our report is based...
Two weeks after this major verdict, more than a day after @BelTel asked questions about it, and despite the verdict saying it should serve as a "deterrent" to other lawyers, the Bar of NI still hasn't publicised the case in the news section of its website: barofni.com/news

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More from @SJAMcBride

Sam McBride Profile picture
Aug 8, 2023
A monumental PSNI data breach happened today, & perhaps can't be undone: Detailed personal info on every PSNI officer & civilian employee was published online - by the PSNI. It is a catastrophic breach of security, undoing years of discretion by officers. belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-…
A former officer told @BelTel “This is freely circulating on WhatApp groups, including retired officers. It is in essence ‘out there’ and can never be retrieved; the operating assumption must be it will be outside of the police family.”
People who don't know police officers won't grasp the full extent to which some of them go to conceal their work. One says "my own family do not know what I do". This comes at a time when there were already serious problems within the PSNI - which the Policing Board has missed.
Read 6 tweets
Sam McBride Profile picture
Oct 8, 2022
Where it all went wrong for the DUP since its total dominance in 2016: The party has spent 6 years damaging itself – and the Union. Many DUP insiders despair at their party’s perpetual scandals and serial ineptitude, but don’t expect that to change. #DUP22 belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/column…
It's breakfast time and already the DUP press office has created a problem of its own making. If political parties were to ban everyone who's been to an event they don’t like or works for a media outlet they don't like, the press benches would be empty.
And now the DUP has U-turned on banning a reporter from its conference. About the same level of strategic thinking involved as when Arlene Foster said "I will never accede to an Irish language act", and then quietly agreed to it as the price of getting back as First Minister.
Read 5 tweets
Sam McBride Profile picture
Sep 22, 2022
Catholics now outnumber Protestants in Northern Ireland, a country whose boundaries were drawn in 1921 to ensure a hefty Protestant majority - but both are now minorities. Results (including 'religion brought up in') of last year's census: NI is 45.7% Catholic, 43.5% Protestant.
In 2011, the figures were 48.4% Protestant, 45.1% Catholic. This is an historic shift, and one which will have political implications. But it does not mean what it would have meant in 1921 - religion is no longer a simple signifier of constitutional preference.
Key to understanding this is that it makes NI sound much more religious than it now is: The real growth over recent decades has been in the irreligious - but the census uses those people's parents' religion to allow them to be assigned to the Protestant or Catholic 'side'.
Read 6 tweets
Sam McBride Profile picture
Sep 9, 2022
Today's Belfast Telegraph has 50 pages of reports & analysis of the death of the late Queen and her relationship with the island of Ireland. In an age of ephemeral online content, a physical newspaper is an unrivalled record of history.
What is being mourned is not just a person, although the sorrow felt at the death of the late Queen is itself intense. What is being laid to rest with Queen Elizabeth II is an era of stability, a way of life, a country which has departed never to return. belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/column…
Former Sinn Féin MLA @daithimckay writes that nationalists believed the Queen was "genuine & respectful" in presiding over moments of reconciliation with nationalist Ireland. As a firm republican, he says the Queen "didn’t put a foot wrong" in Ireland. belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/commen…
Read 7 tweets
Sam McBride Profile picture
Aug 25, 2022
After months of obfuscation, @BelTel has discovered that the person who spent public cash trying to overturn a judgment devastating for NI's chief vet...was NI's chief vet. An extraordinary conflict of interest by a man still in post - & top officials knew
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/…
Robert Huey's decision added to whistleblower Tamara Bronckaers' distress - but also cost taxpayers a fortune. Not only was the appeal itself costly (DAERA refuses to say how costly), but rules on compensation changed in that period meaning that the settlement went up to £1.25m.
And that's not all...
👍After Huey & Henderson were castigated by the judge, a civil servant told them: "You're a credit to your profession”
😲Civil Service's HR boss knew nothing until reading @BelTel
✖️SF spad removed word 'impartial' from reply to MLA.
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/…
Read 5 tweets
Sam McBride Profile picture
Jun 25, 2022
The story NI's most chaotic council didn't want published: How a @BelTel FoI request for information about lucrative contracts caused five months of consternation, whistleblowing, an inquiry & its entire FoI team to quit after they were literally shut out.
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/column…
The months of work here by reporters, editors, lawyers, etc costs money & is only possible because @BelTel prioritises it: If you want more, you can support it by subscribing - & get yourself an incredible deal for another few days: <6p a day for all we do:subscribe.belfasttelegraph.co.uk Image
Many @mea_bc staff & councillors have been in touch today; none of them know who agreed to issue a statement suggesting ratepayers' money could be used for a libel action against @BelTel. If you know, get in touch. Two said that despite hiking rates, the council is in the red.
Read 4 tweets

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