Only problem with Basic Income is an unwillingness to move to consensus on reform..

Chris makes an important point regarding Natalie Bennett’s apparent inability to explain the Green Party’s basic national income policy (which has been policy for almost a generation) in her interview with Andrew Neil… He’s clearly disturbed by Bennett’s lack of clarity (as the Greens emerge blinking into the light of Westminster scrutiny after many years of being studiously ignored), but also by Neil’s reliance on Westminster shibboleths about what’s possible/desirable in government: Mr Neil’s implication that a BI of £71pw …

Read more…

Do we really need another debate about flags?

Tonight our esteemed elected representatives in the Northern Ireland Assembly are due to debate driving licences. Good news – I hear you cry – at last some action may be taken to address the disparity in the cost of driving licences between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Last week there was much consternation when it was revealed that learner drivers in Northern Ireland pay nearly twice the price for a provisional licence compared to elsewhere in the UK – £62.50 …

Read more…

St Mary’s: Accommodation or Integration?

At the heart of the debate on the future of St Mary’s College is a wider one about the future of education in Northern Ireland. How do we want our children to be educated? Do we want a system that prioritises parental choice between different sectors or one that maximises opportunities for children from different backgrounds to learn together? A number of recent developments highlight a lack of unified education planning by the Executive. Last Friday the DUP launched its …

Read more…

Stranmillis launch their Spring Lifelong Learning programme

One of the benefits of working from home is the possibly of sneaking off to the cinema etc. when things are quiet. Each year I am also tempted to do some of the lifelong learning courses at Queens or Stranmillis.  Unfortunately reality gets in the way and I seldom make it away from my digital shackles.  If you have some free time the courses are really worth a look. Are you running night/lifelong learning classes? Feel free to plug them in …

Read more…

Never use memory (or lack thereof) to justify cruelty: Holocaust Memorial Day 2015

For the Holocaust Memorial Day 2015, the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building, in cooperation with the Institute of Conflict Research, held a seminar event: “The Ethnics of Memory and Community Recovery”. The speakers were Daniel Greenberg and Lord Alderdice, chaired by the Attorney General for Northern Ireland, John Larkin. Lord Alderdice provided a distinction between the memory of an individual and that of a community: “The memory of any of us dies with us, but memory of community lives …

Read more…

Now in power, policy will affect the extent which Syriza can continue to wing it

World by Storm on the Greek situation… It genuinely is a situation where it is near impossible to forecast how matters pan out. Interesting to read the view of some yesterday that Syriza regards the current government as a very very temporary thing, almost a means of getting themselves into play at national level. It makes sense, but that only works, both on a political level and economic level both in Greece and more broadly in Europe, if there’s actual …

Read more…

OTR letter omitted original mention of live suspect status in post GFA murder…

So here, to re-iterate to those not following what is controversial and what is not controversial about the OTR letter issue here is a case which aptly demonstrates the former. There’s added interest in this case since it involves the murder of someone which took place in the post GFA period, that of Gareth O’Connor.. The PSNI mistakenly gave an on-the-run (OTR) letter to the man whom the inquest was told is the main suspect in the O’Connor murder. It …

Read more…

Bercow’s #DigitalDemocracy report – how does it challenge NI Assembly?

The Speaker’s Commission on Digital Democracy issued their report Open Up! on Monday. The brain child of the House of Commons Speaker John Bercow, the commission has no powers and no teeth other than the persuasiveness of their recommendations. The report is centred around five targets: By 2020, the House of Commons should ensure that everyone can understand what it does. By 2020, Parliament should be fully interactive and digital. The 2015 newly elected House of Commons should create immediately …

Read more…

Joan V Gerry: Who is the true leader of the left?

Labour party leader, Joan Burton with go up against Sinn Fein President, Gerry Adams on Claire Byrne Live tonight on RTE 1 at 10:35pm. This will be a chance for both leaders to either cement their position or gain ground within the Irish left. What does Adams need to do? Demonstrate that Sinn Fein has not just the critique but also the solution to austerity in Ireland. What new taxes is he proposing? Job creation programmes? Real change v more …

Read more…

At last our leaders are starting to take a realistic line to cope with cuts

Credit where credit’s due, while commending Bystander’s vigilance. Simon Hamilton cuts a competent figure as minister of finance, blowing the trumpet for the financial aspects of the Stormont House Agreement. This is what a finance minister is for, rather than sniping at colleagues. Meanwhile  the Agreement has attracted the rare attention of the Economist which has a global reach and a strong private sector, fiscally conservative leaning  … THE good news about Northern Ireland is that it now has normal problems… …

Read more…

Michael Mansfield QC gives the first Gerry Conlon Memorial Lecture

‘You’re doing this for future generations. The next generation of politicians know this – you’re setting a democratic precedent with these inquiries. And if they won’t do it, set up people’s tribunals.’ So advised Michael Mansfield QC, the radical lawyer and defence counsel for the Birmingham Six, to a packed auditorium at St. Mary’s College on the lower Falls Road in Belfast, metres from where Gerry Conlon had grown up. The lecture, titled ‘Democratic Bankruptcy’ had been organised as the …

Read more…

Homeless Pod – Belfast Council have made the Homeless, Homeless

Never blog when angry, wise advice…I’ve sat on this all day and I’m now ready to share. I wrote yesterday about the “Hipod” or Homeless pod that had been placed by a socially minded individual at “Jubilee Gardens” Belfast (Most loose use of the word garden I’ve ever seen). Paid for and built entirely by themselves…It is a park bench that doubles as providing shelter for rough-sleepers, with added features of a padded floor, solar panel charging for an fm …

Read more…

Slices of Belfast: A tour of Sandy Row

As part of a work group, I went on a Sandy Row Tour, discovering the history and character of this neighbourhood. We began at the well-known mural site at the entrance to Linfield Gardens — a large example of a re-imaging project. The UFF “Welcome to Sandy Row” has been replaced with a more permanent, metal affixed, “Let ambition fire thy mind” homage to King William. Standing at Boyne Bridge, we learned that this was where the Belfast riots of …

Read more…

Stormont House Agreement – One Month On – A Progress Report

Amidst months of wrangling and the now expected media circus and PM visits, the parties reached agreement on what we now know as the Stormont House Agreement. One month on, it may be useful to check it’s progress to date: “4. A balanced budget for 2015-16 needs to be agreed in January.” Last week saw DFP Minister Simon Hamilton MLA outline the proposals to the Assembly following conclusion of the consultation period. All in all, it makes a decent fist …

Read more…

Gerry Kelly running on an aggressively ‘get themuns out’ ticket in North Belfast

  Here’s the front of a leaflet in support of Gerry Kelly’s bid for the Westminster seat of North Belfast. The lack of party logos suggests it’s intended to reach beyond party loyalists to wavering SDLPers and dissidents by rousing sectarian tensions, tribal loyalties, erm, legitimate political grievances against the sitting MP (who just happens to be an Orangemen). Classic old style Defenderist values then, which really don’t go much further than, ‘get themuns out’. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written …

Read more…

Syriza’s Victory: When populism and opportunism meets European technocracy?

And a stunning and pretty decisive result in Greece. It appears even to have taken Syriza by surprise, leaving them only one seat short of an outright majority. Open Europe already have a good blog post outlining the possibilities: Independent Greeks (ANEL); or the centrists To Potami. The problem with the first is that whilst they firmly agree on ‘ending austerity’, they depart radically on issues like immigration (Greece is one of the EU’s beleaguered front line states in that …

Read more…

From King Billy to the Glasgow Trams. A brief history of government debt…

Governments often need more money than they can extract from their citizens or subjects. Centuries ago, the sovereign relied on loans at interest. This was called ‘usury’, but usury at that time carried no implication of extortionate rates of interest. It wasn’t until Jean Calvin decided that lending money at interest wasn’t a sin that such lending became acceptable amongst Christians. (Calvin thought a rate of 5% per annum was reasonable.) King William, at the end of the 17th century, …

Read more…

A loss of Respect for Amjad Bashir?

UPDATED The defection of MEP Amjad Bashir from UKIP to the Conservative Party took an amazing new twist this afternoon when George Galloway’s Respect Party claimed on their website that Bashir was selected as the Respect candidate in Bradford Moor for the May 2012 council elections but was deselected “after local residents raised serious concerns about his fitness to stand.” He subsequently left Respect, joined UKIP and was placed second on the UKIP list of candidates for the Yorkshire and …

Read more…

The PSNI’s latest move against the Boston archive is unintelligent

Henry McDonald in the Observer has picked up on the PSNI’s latest incursion into Boston tapes morass. There is a blinkered police logic to this that contradicts the stated expectations of the law officers of the low likelihood of future prosecutions.   Pursue the Bloody Sunday paras and  give Gerry Adams lousy food in Antrim Police station for a couple of days. If the PSNI go after the Army and the Provos they have to go after the loyalists, don’t …

Read more…

I Finally Used A Food Bank

Some of you may remember that I wrote in support of food banks in December, related to my homeless teenage years. I never used a food bank back then because I didn’t know about them, I wish I did…life might have been easier to cope with. The public response to my account was far beyond my expectation, people really care about this issue. There is a pattern with charities and homelessness around Christmas time… People feel privileged in their warm …

Read more…