Enter the Dragon
I am getting increasingly worried about mentioning the DUP's Jim Shannon in this blog. Previously we have noted his penchant for shooting and countryside sports. Now he is asking the Culture Minister Edwin Poots about funding for karate and taekwondo. Here we have an MLA who I fear may be able to kill you with his bare hands....
Discretion being the better part of valour, the blog will restrict itself in the future to paying tribute to his Ulster Scots rhetorical skills.
UPDATE: No sooner had I written that sentence than I came upon another Jim Shannon question I simply can't resist. He wants to know what action the Environment Minister Arlene Foster intends to take over the display of Christmas lights in vehicle windows. Mrs Foster says there are already regulations covering dazzling lights and she has no plans to introduce legislation on this score as "there is no indication from data provided by the PSNI that the use of Christmas lights on the windows of vehicles is a key factor in road traffic collisions."
And if you haven't got any lights, remember that there are only 81 shopping days until Christmas....
I'm 
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He's probably afraid of the lights catching fire and killing the fairy on top of the tree before he gets a chance to shoot her.
Mark
NO CHEAP SHOTS AT JIM SHANNON, PLEASE!
Your Blog is characteristic of an increasing tendency in the media to poke fun, albeit gentle fun, at Jim Shannon because he is slightly esoteric in his wider interests. The media are being unfair to Jim, whose varied interests and successes make him a more rounded person than most of his fellow MLAs. Let me list his accomplishments to date, gleaned mostly from the Assembly Website:
Β· Member of British Association for Shooting & Conservation
Β· Member of CBI
Β· Member of Carrowdore Shooting Club
Β· Ulster Farmers Union - Mid Ards Branch
Β· LOL 1990 - Kircubbin True Blues
Β· Apprentice Boys Of Derry - Apprentice Boys, Comber
Β· Royal Black Preceptory 675 Ballywalter
Β· Fox Bounty Campaigner
Β· Fluent Ulster-Scots Speaker
Β· Almost Fluent English Speaker
Β· Self-employed Pork Retailer (No, I am not making this up)
As far as I’m concerned, the above list shows that Jim is more than qualified to deal with the great issues facing Northern Ireland. I’m even more impressed by his prescience in taking an interest in karate and taekwondo, given the current level of street violence. Clearly Jim can provide the intellectual dynamism and stimulus that are so crucial to solving Northern Ireland’s complex social, economic and cultural problems.
And I wouldn’t worry about Jim going after the Christmas lights; the time for us all to worry is when he goes after the Fairy. So, Mark, set an example to your media chums and treat Jim a bit more seriously. Gottit?
Right, I’m off to join Jim at his Lai-Jitsu class - Chop! Chop!
Sayonara
Susie
Carryduff
Susie,
Given that every election leaflet for every unionist candidate tells us they are a successful local businessman, items 2 and 11 on your list do not count in making him more rounded than any of his colleagues.
Items 5 - 7 are probably listed as essential criteria on the job description.
Items 1, 3 and 8, and probably 4 can be lumped together under "country sports enthusiast". Again, it hardly makes him unique or more esoteric than any of his colleagues.
That leaves items 9 and 10, one of which is a little example of you poking fun at him.
The martial arts thing is probably on behalf of a constituent (why learn to defend yourself with fists and feet when you have a cabinet full of firearms in the wardrobe?), so I wouldn't list that as an interest at all.
So to summarize, he is a unionist MLA who can speak Ulster-Scots. It's not his interests that make people poke fun at him.