The Northern Ireland flag protests: Politics of Distraction

A member of the Belfast local (in-formation) comrade has written this article to be read in conjunction with this piece we published last week.

On December 3rd Belfast City Council decided, by 29 votes to 21, to reduce the number of days the Union flag was flown above the city hall from 365 to 17 days a year.

Within minutes of the vote a protest of over 1000 loyalists broke through the rear gates and into the grounds of the city hall. One security guard and a number of police were injured.