Property sales are up, everything must be okay!

Nothing gets me more riled on a morning than petty media hype. All it takes is one iota of a minute spark of an upserge in a atom farm to trigger a story.

Hence the Londonderry Sentinel came up with the beauty that is this story.

"Waterside property sales are on the up"

All it takes is one house to be sold more than last month and it's "on the up". What worries me is that the basis of the story is all on ONE estate agent. Free advertising I would call it. To fuel the positives in the story they then hook the Ballykelly housing sales of recent weeks. No mention that it was basically a free for all that turned into a near farce. Cynical, me, well yes.

Now it's all gone quiet on the campaign to get Project Kelvin to Derry, for the simple reason that it's time to hang their heads as it was a totally pointless exercise, there's a desperate need for a positive story. Job losses left right and centre, businesses failing (some, not all), bankruptcies increasing.... but non of that really matters as property sales are up.

Obviously no estate agent is going to give real figures on who is buying, background, income and the rest of it. To get to the masses to get through the door you have to create some spin... A hundred houses going in Ballykelly is just the ticket.