I, DANIEL BLAKE offers a bruising critique of the UK’s welfare system, but no answers. That’s not the point. It’s a cry for help, a plea for common sense and injection of humanity as the unfeeling social welfare system is laid bare. QFT until 3 November.
As I noted in a post in September In July, the NI First and deputy First Ministers and Justice Minister, Claire Sugden announced the publication of the NI Executive’s Action Plan for Tackling Paramilitary Activity, Criminality and Organised Crime – 147kb pdf file here. Costing £50 million over 5 years, it’s jointly funded, £25 million each, by the NI Executive and the Brits the British Government. At the launch of that action plan The [Northern Ireland First Minister, Arlene Foster, deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness and Justice Minister, …
As Alan mentioned in his post on the Court of Appeal ruling against Ashers Baking Company yesterday, noted legal commentator Joshua Rozenberg, describing the ruling as “surprisingly straightforward”, outlined the judges reasoning …if a business does supply a service, it must not discriminate on grounds of sexual orientation — which means it must not refuse to provide a gay person with goods that it would provide to others. In this case, said the courts, the correct comparison was not with …
So Flexit -a flexible Brexit or separate deals with the EU for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – are ruled out – for now at least. “We have been very clear that we should be working together to secure the best possible deal for the whole country,” the prime minister’s official spokeswoman said on Monday. “We expect representatives of the devolved administrations to act in that way and to in no way undermine the UK’s position.” “The devolved administrations” …
COURT OF APPEAL found that Ashers Baking Company is not allowed to only provide a service to people who agree with their religious beliefs: “In the present case the appellants might elect not to provide a service that involves any religious or political message. What they may not do is provide a service that only reflects their own political or religious message in relation to sexual orientation.”
GREEN AND BLUE is a thoughtful and respectful dramatisation of oral history, illuminating life of officers and their families. While there are many moments of laughter throughout, it’s not all levity: the performance doesn’t shy away from the deadly aspects of Troubles policing, and the mounting personal trauma of policing terrorism and being terrorised, of shooting being shot at.
FAMILIAR VENUE BUT SOME NEW FACES at the UUP conference today. SDLP leader Colum Eastwood’s was received with a standing ovation, while Mike Nesbitt set out his stall to convince critics why his chosen path was the correct one. Confident performances, but still lacking the detail of Opposition policies that will be developed.
Who is she? The head of the European Parliament’s Constitutional Affairs Committee, and honest to goodness, she really did say this… “We have a regulation … where every EU country has the right to notify one official language,” Hübner said. “The Irish have notified Gaelic, and the Maltese have notified Maltese, so you have only the U.K. notifying English.” “If we don’t have the U.K., we don’t have English,” Hübner said. Hmmmmm, yeah, that’ll work… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor …
Theresa May’s little pitch over coffee at the EU summit last night seems to have backfired. The Guardian and the Daily Telegraph although divided over a hard and a soft Brexit are united in reporting that she ” created a lot of anger.” This from the bête noire. Asked how talks had gone with Mrs May last night, Jean-Claude Juncker shrugged his shoulders and spluttered “Pfff”. The European Commission president said: “We had no special event with Theresa May yesterday. “She …
CONNECTED POLITICIANS report examines the digital footprint of MLAs departing at the end of the last mandate, assessing their website and social media presence, and how well they update constituents with information about the political and constituency activity, as well how easily you can locate their offices and surgeries.
Saturday will see a symbolic demonstration of finding common interests amidst other policy diversity when SDLP leader Colum Eastwood takes to the Ramada Hotel stage at the UUP conference in what he calls “a demonstration of what genuine cooperation looks like”.
With the leak of Brexit cabinet committee documents and the Chancellor’s admission of tensions within the committee itself, the UK government’s refusal to give “a running commentary” is under heavy pressure already. This morning in Commons questions, the Brexit Secretary still stalled on the details but insisted in general : Davis says the government will publish “much information” about its Brexit plans The SDLP were given a little outing… Mark Durkan, the SDLP MP, says employment law is a devolved …
Last week I wrote that I had watched the second Clinton/Trump debate and wish I hadn’t. I presumed that experience had taught me a lesson and that I would give the third debate a miss – I was wrong. No sooner had I returned home from appearing on RTE Radio One’s Late Debate show last night, but I found myself switching over to CNN and settling in to watch the pre-debate coverage. I am glad I did. Last night’s third …
Best, and most honest, post-mortem I’ve seen on the EU Referendum bar none from Daniel Korski, a foreign policy advisor to David Cameron: When people ask me whether I think Project Fear lost us the referendum, I answer that Project Fear did in fact win. Just not ours. Our problem is that the other side was much better at fear-mongering. Their threats — of mass immigration, Turkey’s membership, and a European army — were far scarier to the British voters …
Interesting piece in the Gurdian today, suggesting there’s a bit of a rush to enroll as solicitors in the Republic: Ken Murphy, the director general of the Law Society of Ireland, confirmed that 543 solicitors from England and Wales and 21 solicitors from Northern Ireland have been admitted to the roll of solicitors in Ireland so far this year. A further 145 applications are being processed. The figures compare with an average of 50 to 100 admissions a year from …
With the Northern Ireland First Minister over-praising a letter of acknowledgement from the UK Prime Minister, and the deputy First Minister sounding off [again? – Ed] about his lack of trust in “this British government”, it’s worth noting this exchange between Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams in the Dáil yesterday high-lighting the dysfunctional approach of the NI Executive to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. From the Dáil record 18 Oct. [The Taoiseach:] I want Deputy Adams to …
Ahead of the third, and final [thankfully! – Ed], televised debate between the Republican and Democratic parties candidates for US President, BBC Trending reports on the campaigns for the best person for the job – none of the above! Survey show that dissatisfaction with the two major party candidates is particularly acute amongst young people. According to one survey released Tuesday, nearly a quarter of voters under 35 would prefer to see a giant meteor hit Earth rather than have either …
We inch forward in a long struggle for clarity.. The legal challenge in the English High Court to triggering Article 50 without parliamentary approval drew this insouciant admission from a barrister in reply to a sharp question from the Lord Chief Justice. But how meaningful would a take –it-or-leave-it vote be? James Eadie QC, defending the Government over claims Mrs May should seek Parliamentary approval before triggering Article 50, told the high court: “The Government view at the moment it …
Great piece by Gavin Jackson on Brexit on Cooperative Game theory.. …the UK needs to recruit 20 other countries to agree with it in a period of two years. Its priorities are likely to be restricting immigration and getting the most access to the single market it can. To achieve its goals it will need to pay people off, with the marginal countries able to extract the highest prices. Or to cut a long story short: either the negotiations end …
An interesting poll conducted by Millward Brown for Amnesty International has surveyed the attitudes of voters of various parties towards abortion legislation in Northern Ireland with some noteworthy statistics Overall the poll found that attitudes in Northern Ireland as whole favour reform. Full details can be found here. David McCannDavid McCann holds a PhD in North-South relations from University of Ulster. You can follow him on twitter @dmcbfs
