Buzzing after my first marathon today, Belfast. Here’s 4 and a half hours condensed into a minute - all human life is here 😊

We were at the DPAC rally in Belfast today, standing against the UK Government’s planned welfare cuts.

Both the Executive and Westminster are presiding over people getting poorer and sicker.

The SDLP will fight these cuts in Westminster and hold the Executive to account in Stormont.

As the US ‘liberates’ itself from a strong economy & basic logic, this is a moment for doing the things in our control to protect people + jobs here. I raised the impact of Big Tech on politics & young people, and ensuring Trump’s ‘inner circle’ don’t get a free ride in all this

Media coverage of vicious & daily abuse of MLAs across the political spectrum is stark & disturbing - solidarity with each & every one of them.

Discussed on Talkback this & some short + long term solutions to help end this toxicity & to encourage more people into public life

There is a time and a logic for social security rules changing but this is neither.

Public services are at a low ebb. In our constituency offices & clinics, week in and week out, we see the drivers & outcomes of the benefit system and it isn’t all that the tabloids would have you believe.

On Wednesday I questioned both the Prime Minister and SOS about paramilitary transition plans. The SDLP will demand and shape an approach that means no payday, no legitimisation and no more soft soaping of organisations have been destroyed so many lives.

Those local politicians who have championed and tried to ride Trump’s coattails have a decision to make. Are they backing his charge towards disinformation, autocracy & international disorder, or are they going to speak truth to his power?

The @SDLPlive made clear we wouldn’t be going to Washington this St Patrick’s Day. Pretending it’s business as usual and a fitting celebration of Irishness just isn’t in line with our values.

Glad to see a growing consensus on this & spoke to RTE about it this evening.

As an Irish political party we can’t in good conscience go to Washington for St Patrick’s Day this year.

Ireland has a proud history of solidarity with Palestine.

The values of the SDLP are simply not compatible with what we’re seeing and hearing from Donald Trump on Gaza.

Discussed Assembly funding & reform on BBC The View. There are so many pressures that it will never feel like enough, but it is truly time for the Executive to get on with it, and to use the power the asked the electorate to give them

The thriving, lawful society we need to create needs a free press & trust in institutions.

Today the NI Affairs select committee explored illegal surveillance of journalists, threats to their safety & the use of ‘SLAPPs’ - the wealthy & powerful harassing opponents with flawed legal actions