It’s not a rare thing for business premises to be attacked over here. There’s a long and shady history of it; everything from carpet shops to bookmakers, from car showrooms to public houses. Generally, you’ll get a rash of them in one area, as happened in Newry in August.
There’s been a spate of firebombs over the last eight days, but something about it seems to be a little different. It’s not been confined to a single area;a store in Coleraine was damaged last Sunday, followed by minor damage in a store in Newtownabbey the night before last, followed by a device being found in a store in Belfast today, and a hoax at a store in Derry.
But all four sites have something in common: they’re all B&Qs. Which strikes me as odd: why hit four (or three, is the Derry one was a complete hoax) sites, spread all over the country, from the same company?
The only explanation I can think of is that it’s a protection racket that’s even more transparent than the norm. Or one of those good old fashioned employee-with-a-grudge things that you hear about so often from the States. It just doesn’t seem to be one like of the usual local campaigns, and that’s a change.
What do we know about change, people? That’s right. Change is bad…
Your title ‘Now I’m seeing a theme’ got me wondering were you sitting in a darkened room at a small round table in front of a crystal ball?
Wasn’t there a B&Q @ Sprucefield burnt out a couple of years ago too? Maybe B&Q are legitimate targets now.
At last!! Someone else noticed!
I don’t understand why we’re getting one news bulletin after another about B&Q’s being burnt and not a mention of any connection.
And surely that beacon of investigative journalism Slugger O’Toole should have noticed before you?
Full credit to the Beeb, their latest coverage is mentioning that it’s only B&Q being hit. But they don’t draw any attention to it, or ask why it seems to be limited to them.
Oh, and there’s precious few sectarian battles to be fought over an anti-B&Q campaign, so it’s probably slipped under Slugger’s radar.
CS: to be honest, a crystal ball would probably give you a better insight into goings-on that the interweb. It seems to have taken everyone a while to make the connection…
off topic…
stephen, that’s the longest ‘short intermission’ (on your blog) I’ve seen for a while
yeah, but the quality of the writing has improved immeasurably
I’m sure you’re eating lots of ice cream and popcorn.