±«Óãtv

I found myself in the ±«Óãtv's Blackstaff studios tonight watching the taping of the ±«Óãtv programme. An edition of the programme from Belfast is always a bit of a challenge for David Dimbleby (though, of course, nothing ever looks like a challenge for this most polished of broadcasters), for a couple of obvious reasons.

First (and quite understandably), the network audience is clearly not as fascinated by Northern Irish politics as people are here. The producers deal with that challenge by picking mostly "national" rather than "local" questions for discussion.

Then comes the second problem: Whatever the question -- no matter how seemingly unrelated that question may seem -- local panellists and the studio audience in Belfast will steer the debate back to our traditional political tit-for-tat. Ask a question about Tony Blair apologising for Britain's role in the transatlantic slave trade, and within minutes the discussion will return to Northern Irish politics. Ask about those Russian "murky" murders and whether they look like a throw-back to the bad old days of the Soviet regime, and we'll soon be talking about the bad old days of Northern Ireland's troubles.

This dynamic was in evidence again in tonight's programme. We barely made it through a single question on any topic without returning to the Northern Ireland political issues. Our local political questions are extremely important and need serious consideration; but other global and national issues are also important in their own right and deserve consideration without rhetorical side-tracking. Watching the usual dynamic unfold during the programme, I wondered if we, in Northern Ireland, are not a nation of political alcoholics, returning to the same favourite tipple with predictable regularity. Is it time for a detox?

Before I end this rant, let me pick up on one thing David Trimble said tonight. When asked if it was right that Tony Blair should say sorry for slavery, he told the audience that calls for an apology were "stupid". Those calling for an apology forget that Britain was the country that ended the slave trade. It's undoubtedly true that Britain took the lead in dismantling the slave trade -- and abolitionists such as William Wilberforce deserve to be better known today than they are. But isn't it also undeniable that Britain was dismantling a slave trade that it, more than any other country, helped to create in the first place?