“Normalisation” is one of the buzz words in the NI peace process, along with “decomissioning”, “restoration”, “clarification”, “intransigence”, “bloody mindedness” and “outright farking stupidity”.

Well, “clarification” was supposedly sorted out in ’94, and those last three are here to stay I think. Decomissioning is the bitch for unionists, and restoration [of local government] is what everyone wants (apparently). Normalisation is the big issue for the SDLP and SF. Basicially, they want troop levels down to sensible levels, as there isn’t the same need for troops on the street. They also want police stations to resemble police stations, not military barracks.

It seems that some of that may be on the way. The Chief of the General Staff is hinting that most of the troops will start going by Christmas, and nowpolice stations are due for defortification.

It seems that my home town’s station is due to be civilianised once they get hte money together. A good thing, considering that it is, literally, a semi-buried bunker surrounded by steel and concrete walls, with a 100ft radio antenna sticking out of the roof and more cameras on it than UTV have owned.

Honestly. You’d think that it’d been built like that after the original was levelled…