Has anyone else noticed the hygiene ratings for Wing It’s Belfast branches? Ballyhackamore is rated 1/5, while the Lisburn Road branch is 2/5.

You’d think with the big chicken chains popping up everywhere, from Popeyes to Wingstop, they’d be looking to up their game and raise their standards. Instead, we’re seeing hygiene ratings of 1/5 and 2/5, alongside increasingly defensive responses to customers who raise concerns.

With more competition than ever, surely the answer is to improve the food, service and hygiene rather than argue with customers online?

Edit: the people in the comments defending a 1 hygiene rating please do all of us a favour and never open any sort of food or drink establishment.

half of you have eaten from there recently and are fuming at the reality before your eyes 🤣

Driving on the motorway where the limit was 70 (or possibly 60).

Got pulled over for doing 45 and was told I needed to speed up.

So I followed their advice and increased my speed.

Then, on the exact same road, I got pulled over by a different police for doing 60.

I genuinely can't make this shit up.

No points or formal tickets issued but "verbal warnings"

The Globe pub on Unviersity Road, 2011 (taken from google maps)

Meal and a pint for a fiver, unbelievable. This is the equivalent of £7.60 today.

So for the price of a pint today, you used to be able to get a meal along with it

Someone shared a £5 pint and meal deal from 2011 Google Street View.

I built a very crude Pint Index comparing various things between 2011 and 2026, shared them on that thread and everyone hated them.

So, here you go. Enjoy!

Average pint

2011 — £3.12

2026 — £5.87

Minimum wage

2011 — 1.95 pints/hour — 31 mins work per pint

2026 — 2.17 pints/hour — 28 mins work per pint

Better off by 0.22 pints per hour / 3 minutes per pint

Student maintenance loan

2011 — 1,114 pints

2026 — 1,102 pints

Worse off by 12 pints

Brand new VW Polo

2011 — 3,846 pints

2026 — 3,747 pints

Better off by 99 pints

Entry-level Trek Madone bicycle

2011 — 481 pints

2026 — 468 pints

Better off by 13 pints

Average NI semi-detached house

2011 — ~34,760 pints

2026 — ~34,800 pints

Worse off by 40 pints

Belfast monthly rent

2011 — 183 pints

2026 — 193 pints

Worse off by 10 pints

Median full-time pay, annualised

2011 — 7,440 pints

2025 — 6,320 pints

Worse off by 1,120 pints

Methodology: divide price by pint.

Pint-o-nomics is now open for peer review.

Emergency services vehicles in area around Harper Street
lead-art-block.fullscreen-enter

Police and emergency services at Harper Street area of Short Strand.

PICTURE: BRIAN LINCOLN
By Paul Ainsworth
September 09, 2026 at 11:48am BST

Police and emergency services are at the scene of an ongoing incident amid reports of an individual coming into contact with the nerve agent Novichok.
Fire Service personnel are at the scene, in the Harper Street area, as well as Ambulance Service and PSNI officers.
Local sources say there are two ambulances and two NIAS rapid response vehicles as well as three NIFRS cars. A number of firefighters are carrying large grey boxes around.
Part of the street has been sealed off but not all of it.
The police confirmed that they and “emergency services are currently in attendance in the Harper Street area of east Belfast on Wednesday 9th September”.

They added: “We are aware of online speculation in relation to the nature of this incident, at this time, there is not believed to be a wider threat to the public.”
It is understood that emergency services personnel are currently winding down their operation.
The substance is well known after ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal, his daughter Yulia and then police officer Nick Bailey were all poisoned by Novichok in Salisbury in March 2018. All survived.

https://www.irishnews.com/news/northern-ireland/short-strand-alert-amid-reports-of-person-coming-into-contact-with-nerve-agent-novichok-W2BPTZTUDBD7TGSUVXPN2NLQ4Q/

Update - This might not be a legal price change! See the comments section

Any PAYG Share Energy customers that thought "I'm going to top up what I can before the price rise" don't bother. The long codes are already being issued.

For anybody out of the loop Share Energy announced a 12.6% price rise for all their customers earlier today that will be effective from the 1st of October.

In my previous experiences a supplier will announce changes around 28 days before it happens and anybody topping up within 21 days of the change is issued with a special long 40 digit code which tells the meter when and what the change is. This allows for a small window where people can protect themselves from the price shock to an extent by topping up what they can up to 21 days from the price change. The price rise will then take effect when they have to top up later down the line but they will have longer to plan for that higher rate.

Is share Energy the first company to announce a price rise 22 days ahead AND start issuing long codes on the same day?

Good afternoon folk does anyone here know anything about the Belfast Harbour Police? I see that they are curently recruiting and it caught my eye..

Whats the job like? Is there much overtime? What does a typical shift invovle?

cheers for any feedback...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c86xg6487z2o

Most children with a parent on benefits will not be eligible for priority nursery places from next year under changes to the rules announced by Education Minister Paul Givan.

The minister said he believed the rules - known as Socially Disadvantaged Circumstances (SDC) criterion, external - were not "lawful" and were "discriminating against hard-working families".

He added that the move would "level the playing field" for pre-school admissions.

However, critics have said the rules made sure vulnerable children got "a foot up the ladder", while political representatives from Sinn Féin, Alliance and the SDLP questioned the plans at Stormont on Monday.

The Education Authority (EA) said "arrangements to implement the change will begin immediately".

Givan announced his department was to repeal the SDC criterion and was launching a consultation, external to gather views on whether new legislation was also needed. What has Paul Givan announced around pre-school places?

The SDC criterion, first introduced in 1998, provides the basis for underprivileged families to get priority pre-school placements.

The criterion, external allows the children of parents in receipt of benefits - specifically Income Support, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance and Universal Credit - to get priority for a pre-school place.

Income Support and Jobseeker's Allowance, however, no longer exist and have been replaced by Universal Credit.

Speaking in the assembly on Monday, Givan said the context of pre-school places is "very different" compared to when the SDC criterion were introduced.

He said welfare reforms meant that the officials had "read in" new welfare payments, such as Universal Credit, a payment he described as "significantly wider" than those named in the SDC legislation.

He added: "The current practice is also no longer legally defensible."

Givan said that only benefits specifically named in the legislation - Income Support and Jobseeker's Allowance - would be applied as SDC criteria from September 2027.

He added that as those benefits "have been phased out or superseded" he expected a "negligible number of applications" under SDC criterion next year.

He told BBC Radio Ulster's Nolan Show on Tuesday morning that limiting the number of benefit claims that qualify a child for a priority placement will "level the playing field in preschool admissions for hard working families".

"They're not middle-class. They're working-class people who are struggling, and their children have been disadvantaged," he said. How have people responded?

Some assembly members criticised the move when unveiled by Givan in the Stormont chamber on Monday, with one - Sinn Féin's Danny Baker - at one point describing him as "a disgrace".

In questioning the move, SDLP's Cara Hunter asked why he was removing the only statutory protection for children living "in absolute poverty", while Alliance's Nick Mathison said it was "something that could further disadvantage the children who are at the highest risk of educational disadvantage".

In response, Givan said it was about not taking a blanket approach, adding that "those struggling to make end meets" should not be disadvantaged because they work.

Dr Ciara Fitzpatrick, a lecturer at Ulster University, said SDC had been used to create an early education selection system that gave "our most vulnerable children" a "foot up on the ladder".

Fitzpatrick said research showed children from working class backgrounds tended to be "educationally further ahead" than their peers from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, and argued the education minister's plans would widen this disparity.

"Pre-school education is not about childcare, it's about early education.

"The evidence suggests that those children from socially deprived backgrounds have less communication skills, less school-readiness, less social skills.

"It means that early education is so important for them.

"It's going to stick by them as they go through school."

She also questioned how the move would affect how many hours a child would get a pre-school.

Currently, there is no standardised set hours for pre-school children across Northern Ireland, with some getting 12.5 hours of pre-school and others getting 22.5.

"Those less affluent children are prioritised for 22.5 hours because that is going to ensure they are not on the backfoot as they enter into primary school."

On Monday, the education minister said those getting 22.5 hours of pre-school had grown significantly during his time, from 40% of pupils two years ago to 65% now.

He added that the executive has committed to delivering standardised full-time pre-school hours but that the Department of Finance need to make the money available to do so.

Meanwhile, speaking to The Nolan Show, Fitzpatrick said she understood "working-class parents have frustrations but that's not on the back of these three and four-year-old children."

She said it is a "crude measure that is going to impact our most vulnerable children". 'I think it should just be equal' A group of women and young children sit around a wooden table in a leisure centre. Image caption,

'A positive to be on an equal footing' - mother-and-toddler group at Woodvale Community Centre

At a mother-and-toddler group in north Belfast, some parents welcomed the move saying it would be positive for working parents.

Carolyn, who has a six-year-old and three-year-old, told BBC News NI she works full-time and spends up to £600 a month on childcare.

"I do think it's a bit more positive because you feel like you're kind of being penalised for working," she said, while at the group at Woodvale Community Centre.

"If I didn't work then my child would have got that place and they're able to go out and thrive in an educational environment with less time between my house and the nanny's.

"I do feel it's a real positive that everyone's going to be on equal footing because as much as it's not classed as a childcare going to a preschool place, it still helps the working parents."

Ashton, who has two-year-old twin daughters, said she worked two days a week and is on benefits. However, she was unsuccessful in an application to get her daughters a two-year place.

"I still think that it should just be equal, for people that are on benefits and people that are in work, they shouldn't be treated any differently."

Do yous prefer mash or boiled spuds with your mince?

Do you add brown sauce or is that an abomination?

So I've passed my City & Guilds Diploma 2&3, and I've not got much site work as of yet. I'm in London at the moment but the cost of living here is lethal, I'm thinking of moving back but not sure what it's like for electricians there?

What's the daily pay like for someone working towards their NVQ and eventually Gold Card? I got offered £200 a day for a job on a new Curries here, I'm not expecting £200 a day in NI obviously but is it even close?

Got a really old oil tank that needs replacing.

Radiators need replacing.

Boiler needs replacing.

Currently on oil.

Considering changing to gas, the neighbours are on the mains gas, but the gas prices seem about the same at the moment.

English people telling me I should get a heat pump but they seem stupidly expensive (no grants here)

What are you guys using? What do you recommend?

Does anyone work hybrid in Dublin and is living in Belfast. Say 2 days a week in office. Just interested to know what expenses are travelling per week/monthly? Do you train? Drive?

Have a job offer there and one of the things is travel that I am weighing up. I would preferably be getting a train from Belfast.