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Sam McBride Opinion Energy crisis: Feeling good about ourselves won’t keep us warm in winter

To most people, energy policy is stultifying — until the lights go out, the gas doesn’t come on, or letters pile up on doormats warning of astronomical hikes in bills.

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Sam McBride Opinion Unionist unity came whisker-close at secret talks, but Tories pulled out – now it could happen suddenly

Early on a chilly Sunday morning in January 2010, two groups of senior politicians set off from Belfast. They travelled separately, but their aim was for an historic reunification of unionism.

Sam McBride Opinion A day after unity for David Trimble, MLAs are divided as DUP again vetoes Assembly

A day after uniting in unanimous praise of David Trimble, MLAs returned to more familiar disputatious ways — with the DUP again blocking the Assembly from functioning and robust exchanges across the chamber.

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Sam McBride Opinion As MLAs unite, the DUP laments David Trimble - the man it once denounced as a traitor

David Trimble was the man who lost some of his friends, lost his seat and saw his party lose its position at the head of unionism rather than abandon the Belfast Agreement.

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Sam McBride Opinion Dignified Presbyterian farewell for David Trimble, a statesman of rare ability and achievement

Edward Carson was buried in St Anne’s Cathedral after a state funeral, his remains having been borne to Belfast on a Royal Navy destroyer and then processed through the streets of behind the RUC band.

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Sam McBride Opinion Buried in simplicity without pomp or flags, David Trimble is mourned by friends and foes

Unadorned by the Union Flag but instead wreathed in the white flowers of peace, the coffin holding David Trimble’s earthly remains has been buried in Lisburn after a service in which his family, friends and foes united in respect.

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Sam McBride Opinion David Trimble knew securing the rights of his own sect meant securing a future that was not sectarian

What drove the enigmatic David Trimble to sacrifice his career and his party to secure and maintain the only lasting unionist deal with nationalism in Northern Ireland’s 101-year history?

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Sam McBride Opinion If even David Trimble opposed NI Protocol, how can EU play the Good Friday card?

The clamour of praise for David Trimble — from Washington and Dublin to the Falls Road and former unionist foes — underlines his status as the most globally respected leader of Ulster’s unionists.

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Lord Trimble got the big calls right, says key internal UUP critic David Burnside

One of David Trimble’s most prominent internal critics has said that the former First Minister was “a great leader” who history has proven to have been right in most of his major decisions.

Lord Alderdice: ‘No one showed more political courage than David Trimble’

One of the few surviving party leaders who negotiated the Good Friday Agreement has said that “no one demonstrated political courage more than David Trimble”.

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Sam McBride Opinion David Trimble’s warmth to former foes said much about his real character

When it was known that Martin McGuinness had just days to live, he received a letter from David Trimble which said much about the former Ulster Unionist leader’s character.

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Sam McBride Opinion Even David Trimble’s foes recognise he shaped the new Northern Ireland in which we live

David Trimble, the unionist leader whose thinking shaped Northern Irish life for a quarter of a century, is mourned by world leaders, colleagues and former enemies.

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Sam McBride Opinion For the first time in 50 years, Stormont has a nationalist leader of the opposition – but also of the government

It says much about Northern Ireland’s changed political landscape that the last time a nationalist agreed to serve as leader of the opposition in Stormont, it was in response to a reformist unionist leader whose gestures included meeting nuns and inviting the Taoiseach to Stormont.

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Sam McBride Opinion All of a sudden, triggering Article 16 of NI Protocol doesn’t seem such a bad idea after all

For months, British threats to trigger Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol had appeared feeble. What started as chest-beating by Boris Johnson, David Frost and then Liz Truss became limply performative as they kept warning darkly of their willingness to disapply swathes of the Irish Sea border — but did nothing.

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Sam McBride Opinion Post-Brexit contradictions and uncertainty surround both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak

On a sunny May day six weeks before the EU Referendum in 2016, Liz Truss arrived at the Balmoral Show to campaign against Brexit.

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Sam McBride Opinion How Boris Johnson airbrushed over the truth and how his attempts backfired in Partygate images

The day after Boris Johnson belatedly bowed to his political mortality, two sets of images dominated the front pages of the British newspapers.

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Sam McBride Opinion Texas tragedy gives a glimpse into our future unless there’s a rethink on bonfires

Despite expert concerns, the use of unqualified builders, the prevalence of alcohol, and previous serious injuries, those who could have stopped the bonfire before it was too late chose not to.

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Sam McBride Opinion Jeffrey Donaldson’s belated willingness to accept deputy First Minister post is not all it seems

In the two months since Sir Jeffrey Donaldson refused to take the Stormont seat to which he was elected, a belief dangerous to the DUP has become widespread across nationalism.

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Sam McBride Opinion Top Orangemen vow to defeat NI Protocol as they denounce PM, Taoiseach and US President

The Orange Order’s two most senior figures have delivered hardline anti-protocol speeches from Twelfth platforms, backing the DUP in staying out of Stormont until “a clear irreversible process that rids us of this treacherous protocol”.

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exclusive Just days before John Steele’s death, council was repeatedly warned about bonfire fall risk

The chief executive of the council on whose land a bonfire builder fell to his death was warned about the risk of falls from vast bonfires in the area just days before the tragedy.

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Sam McBride Opinion A January Stormont election is increasingly hard to avoid – and entails huge risks for DUP

After a visit from Sinn Féin’s vice president last week, Cobh and Harbour Chamber posted online that “First Minister Michelle O’Neill” had visited their offices. It was an easy mistake to make, but the truth is that Ms O’Neill could still be the first minister who never was.

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Sam McBride Opinion exclusive The mysterious goings-on in Mid and East Antrim Borough Council – A fire, politicians misled, wasted cash, and the heir to the throne watching on

Almost two years ago, a suspicious fire damaged the old fish factory in Glenarm, a prime development site which Northern Ireland’s most dysfunctional council had bought a year earlier and in which Prince Charles had taken a special interest.

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exclusive Liz Truss: I've no regrets over NI Protocol support, we needed to get Brexit done

Liz Truss has said she does not regret voting for the Northern Ireland Protocol that she now says is disastrous, suggesting she endorsed it in the expectation it would be changed.

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Sam McBride Opinion Great paradox of Article 16 incident is that it gave the NI Protocol some breathing space

Tomorrow, MPs will vote for the first time on the legislation which would shred most of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

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Sam McBride Opinion exclusive Revealed: How our questions about lucrative contracts tore Mid and East Antrim Borough Council apart

Five months ago on a Friday afternoon, something extraordinary happened in Northern Ireland’s most dysfunctional council.

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exclusive Queen’s University ‘pauses’ honorary degree for Stormont scandal figure after Belfast Telegraph questions

Queen’s University has “paused” an honorary degree it chose to award to someone involved in a Stormont scandal after questions about the decision were asked by the Belfast Telegraph.

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exclusive Arc21: Top civil servant tried to persuade minister to reverse Mallusk incinerator refusal after decision was taken

A senior civil servant vehemently opposed Nichola Mallon taking a decision which refused planning permission for the controversial Arc21 incinerator in Mallusk, it can be revealed.

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DAERA breaks silence on why Kilroot power station was allowed to exceed emissions limits

Edwin Poots’ Stormont department has said the order allowing Kilroot power station to exceed its emissions limits was taken with the support of the DUP minister’s civil servants, rather than against their advice.

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Sam McBride Opinion History teaches us that sometimes we must break free of its bindings

In the long and bloody centuries of sectarian conflict in the northeast of this island, the history books can ascribe entire towns to one side or the other based on religion.

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Sam McBride Opinion Why were the words uttered by Martin McGuinness in Stormont in 1998 judged today too awful to report?

We now take for granted that what is said in Parliament or the Northern Ireland Assembly is freely available to read or watch. It was not always thus.