…this cannot become some squalid Orange versus Green argument.

The DUP Edcuation spokesperson, Mervyn Storey, writing in the Belfast Telegraph outlines a means of overcoming the present impasse on education.  It proposes a three year interim period while the new means of transfer are agreed.  He also makes explicit mention of the Dickson plan:

We support acceptable solutions such as the Dickson Plan. This period could be used to examine the feasibility and resource implications of extending more widely other existing practice.

Fair Deal @ 09:33 AM | Comments (4)

Abortion campaign moves into action for Commons move

The last time I blogged on the abortion campaign in Northern Ireland in June, it dropped like a stone.  I’m glad to say that the campaign is full of life and is carrying the cause to London. This effort will almost certainly fail and may not even reach the floor of the House of Commons. Much depends on Harriet Harman who is minister for women as well as the organiser of Commons business.  It made waves at Westminster in July by exposing divisions at the very top of government over priorities- which was more important, the rights of women ( Harriet Harman), or the stability of the NI Executive (Gordon Brown)?  But Diane Abbott’s amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill to extend the GB Abortion act to the province offers a platform that may cause guidelines - deemed vague and restrictive by the family Planning Association - to be eased over time. It look four years and a judicial rebuke to force even this statement out of Stormont. The Pro-Choice campaign claims that: “..these warnings (of the illegality of abortion in the guidelines) suggest that even the small number of abortions that are carried out at present and which, the guidelines confirm, are illegal - those carried out for reasons of foetal abnormality - will now cease. Attrition and persistence in a long process of education is probably the route to civilisation. As with gay rights, there are plenty of people in public life who duck the issue but who would privately tolerate abortion if it was enacted. If you can spare the time from picking at the old sectarian sores, it would be interesting to know where Slugger opinion stands.

Brian Walker @ 08:58 AM | Comments (0)

Incoming!

I just got this news alert from the Space Weather website - “ASTEROID 2008 TC3: A small, newly-discovered asteroid named 2008 TC3 is approaching Earth and chances are good that it will hit. Measuring only a few meters across, the space rock poses no threat to people or structures on the ground, but it should create a spectacular fireball, releasing about a kiloton of energy as it disintegrates and explodes in the high atmosphere.  At least one expert estimates that atmospheric entry will occur on Oct 7th at 0246 UTC over northern Sudan.” At least it wasn’t another Gamma-Ray burst.. Adds More here.

Pete Baker @ 10:49 PM | Comments (7)

“Blimey it must be serious..”

Brian’s hero, and mine, Robert Peston mentioned previously that “the spectacle of governments seemingly at odds with each other and with the Commission is unsettling, to put it mildly.” The New York Times expands on the wider problem

While the European Central Bank has power over interest rates and broader monetary policy, it was never granted parallel oversight of private banks, leaving that task to dozens of regulators across the Continent.  This patchwork system includes national central banks in each of the euro-zone’s 15 members and they still retain broad powers within their own borders, further complicating any regional approach to problem-solving.

The European economic landscape today bears little resemblance to the 1990s, when the groundwork for the euro was laid. Back then, Mr. Pisani-Ferry recalled, few banks in Europe had cross-border operations on a significant scale. A wave of mergers over the last decade created giants like HSBC and Deutsche Bank, which straddle continents and have major American exposure.

A point echoed in the Guardian editorial today

One of the great omissions of European economic policymaking is a continental banking regulator. There are global regulators and an array of central banks, but there is nothing in between. As Nicolas Véron of the thinktank Bruegel points out, pan-European banks work to 51 national authorities, nine EU committees and some 80 bilateral arrangements. As financial institutions become increasingly international, this system looks out of date. Any of the big banks going belly-up would stretch the capacity of the host government to stump up the cash.

The extent of the economic interconnectivity is illustrated by the knock-on effect of the liquidity problems of Dublin-based, and German-owned, Depfa. So far, the only concerted effort by EU leaders looks weak, Peston again.

Every European Union leader has signed up to the following statement:  “All the leaders of the European Union make clear that each of them will take whatever measures are necessary to maintain the stability of the financial system - whether through liquidity support through central banks, action to deal with individual banks or enhanced depositor protection schemes. While no depositors in our countries’ banks have lost any money, we will continue to take the necessary measures to protect both the system and individual depositors. In taking these measures, European leaders acknowledge the need for close coordination and cooperation.”

So the mayhem of uncoordinated statements and actions over the past few days by the governments of Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland and Greece was simply an accident.  They’re all back on the same hymn-sheet today.  Investors seem underwhelmed: the FTSE 100 index is tumbling and shares are currently almost 8% lower.

Pete Baker @ 08:10 PM | Comments (4)

“She will soon be listening to my lawyers..”

Fair Deal and Mick have already mentioned this but there’s another point of interest to note.  Sinn Féin’s Alex Maskey threatened to set his lawyers on Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie for her comments about Robert McCartney’s murder [Whatever happened to the previous writ? - Ed], but with parliamentary privilege in play he had to settle for a gentle chiding of the minister by the Speaker, the DUP’s Willie Hay - as Newton Emerson noted on Saturday.

There were angry exchanges in the Assembly when SDLP minister Margaret Ritchie told Sinn Fein’s Alex Maskey that she can hardly look at him without thinking of the murder of Robert McCartney.  “She will soon be listening to my lawyers,” Mr Maskey blustered, twice. If so, she will surely hear that Stormont has full parliamentary privilege and members can say anything they like without fear of litigation. Doesn’t Mr Maskey know this? When the privilege was granted in 1999, he gave The Irish News an interview about it.

The interview, or rather quotes, from Alex Maskey complaining about parliamentary privilege being extended to the Assembly is available online in Google’s cache - original article here [subs req].  And here are the original comments, lawyers threats, ruling and studio discussion from today’s Stormont Live.

Pete Baker @ 06:58 PM | Comments (3)

When’s a point of order not a point of order?

As Fair Deal notes below, Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie was given a telling off by the Speaker today for her remarks about Sinn Féin MLA Alex Maskey in a debate on Environmental Improvement Schemes in the Markets Area of Belfast last week.  Ritchie said: “When I see the proposer of this motion, Mr Alex Maskey, in the context of the Markets, I think of only one thing — the events surrounding the cruel murder of Robert McCartney.”

Mick Fealty @ 05:16 PM | Comments (16)

Speaker censures Ritchie

The Speaker has censured Margaret Ritchie for her references to the Robert McCartney murder during a debate about Environmental Improvement Schemes in the Markets area.

Fair Deal @ 04:40 PM | Comments (2)

Limited troops call

Following a series of attempted attacks in Fermanagh UUP MLA Tom Elliott has called army personnel to return in a support role to police.  He criticised security evaluations of dissident capabilities in the area and speculated:

“Obviously they’re getting help and support which is a huge concern and I’m afraid that maybe some of that support is from coming over from mainstream republicanism.”

Fair Deal @ 02:54 PM | Comments (22)

Legislative block to combined SoS

Iain Dale reports that the ‘Department of the Nations’ to replace the three SoS positions was indeed planned but could not happen because such a move requires legislation.  If correct this is the second time a Labour proposal has been prevented late on because of ignorance of the legislative framework of government.

Fair Deal @ 02:26 PM | Comments (1)

I don’t like Financial Mondays…

If I can grab the time from preparations for tomorrow, I’m hoping to do a piece on financial crisis over at Brassneck. But I see Slugger is not the only blog with the ear of the London Media. Conall’s post on the UK Treasury’s financial exposure has been taken up by the BBC’s flagship Today Programme website as their web pick of the day (It’s inside the big blue quotation marks!). 

Mick Fealty @ 12:57 PM | Comments (2)

Service Announcement - Fair Deal intends to retire from Slugger

Mick was informed a few weeks ago and this is to let the rest of you know that I will ceasing to be a Slugger blogger in the next few months.  I intend to stand down when I reach 1000 blogs which I estimate to be about November/December time.  I may continue with occasional articles for Slugger as I do for the Our Kingdom blog.

Fair Deal @ 12:35 PM | Comments (28)

RIR TA return from Afghanistan

The TA section of the Royal Irish Regiment deployment has returned to Northern Ireland after its six month tour in Afghanistan.

Fair Deal @ 12:33 PM | Comments (3)

Slugger Awards 2008: The final shortlist

The judges for the Slugger Awards were corralled into their ‘chambers’ at Stratagem yesterday and not allowed out again until they’d come to decisions in all eleven categories.  The whole process took almost four hours and several rounds of tea, coffee and cake.  After much deliberation (and in several categories, there was much deliberation), they did finally come to their own conclusions. In the finest Slugger tradition (and deliberately corrupting that famous Fox News strapline), I believe the decisions were “fair, but not necessaily’balanced”. Those on the final shortlist have made it entirely on their own merits. Full details below the fold: 

Mick Fealty @ 12:30 PM | Comments (8)

“the main liquidity problems lay with Depfa in Dublin..”

It’s not clear how much of a direct cause and effect there was between the announcement of the Republic of Ireland’s government tax-payer guarantee for Irish banks and the collapse of the loan arrangement for Munich-based Hypo Real Estate, but the sequence of events is worth noting given the role of HRE’s Dublin-based subsidiary Depfa.  And there’s a facinating report in the Irish Times which hints at the possible connection.

The Munich-based HRE says the problems stem from its Dublin-based subsidiary Depfa which has experienced liquidity problems as a result of global financial insecurity, making it impossible for the bank to refinance its debts.  A HRE spokesman yesterday said the Irish Government had indicated it would “consider” helping with the bank’s liquidity problems.  “When it became clear that the banks were withdrawing their credit line for Hypo, we telephoned everywhere to see where we could get help,” said HRE spokesman Hans Obermeier.  “There were signals given from Ireland that they would consider it, that they might be prepared to help.” However, the Government said it would not be involved in any substantive way.

“We are not providing assistance to Depfa,” said a spokesman for the Department of Finance.  Any such assistance would have been a bizarre twist in the financial crisis.  At the weekend, German chancellor Angela Merkel criticised Ireland’s decision to issue a State guarantee for all Irish banks. Berlin says it favours tailored rescue solutions for individual banks with liquidity problems.

Despite yesterday’s announcement of a state guarantee for private deposits, she indicated there would be no state guarantees for commercial investors.  “We will not allow that the difficulties of one financial institute to bring the whole system into difficulty,” said Dr Merkel.  “The federal government will make sure of that. We owe that to the taxpayers.”

Some Dublin observers complain that the blame for HRE’s difficulties is being shifted solely on to the shoulders of Dublin-based Depfa.  HRE sources say “it is a fact that the main liquidity problems lay with Depfa in Dublin”.  Bought by HRE last year for €5.7 billion, Depfa finances large state infrastructure projects like hospitals and bridges.  The world financial crisis appears to have had a knock-on effect on Depfa’s results, with operating profits down from €1.06 billion to €862 million last year.

Pete Baker @ 11:47 AM | Comments (1)

“What an unfortunate mess..”

Maman Poulet has a collection of links reacting to the Republic of Ireland’s government tax-payer guarantee to the banks, which we are told emerged following a meeting requested by the chief executives of the two main banks.  Meanwhile Germany has joined in, apparently in response to a consortium of banks withdrawing support [pdf file] from a loan to Hypo Real Estate which was announced only last week.  But if I was sceptical before, Robert Peston’s update to his post on the German move only serves to heighten that scepticism. Maybe not “out of jail” just yet, Brian.  From Peston

For example, it’s not clear whether this is a formal, unambiguous commitment to take the retail liabilities of the German banks on to the public sector’s balance sheet - a commitment would add many hundreds of billions of euros to Germany’s national debt.  Also, to add an almost comic element to Germany’s evasive action, almost simultaneously there’s been a statement by the EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes that blanket guarantees on bank deposits by individual members states are “discriminatory”.

Kroes added that she was hopeful that Ireland’s controversial 100 per cent guarantee - launched last week - would be modified in “a form for which we can together state that it is [in] line with the treaty”.  At a time when there’s profound unease across Europe about the safety and security of our banks, the spectacle of governments seemingly at odds with each other and with the Commission is unsettling, to put it mildly.

Update Robert Peston, again, clarifies what the Germans did - “It gets weirder.”

Pete Baker @ 08:16 PM | Comments (17)

“Unfortunately for me it’s still present politics..”

A tie-in with Brian’s previous post noting the 40th anniversary of the events at Duke St on 5th Oct 1968. There’s a bit of a false start due to technical problems at the BBC but, after a brief extract from tomorrow night’s documentary The Day The Troubles Began, Oxford academic Simon Prince makes some reasonable points on his thesis [subs req] - or, as Brian called it, a “glorious piece of revisionism”. As Simon Prince says at the end, on the current battle over the legacy of the civil rights movement, “Unfortunately for me it’s still present politics, rather than past history.” And, after all, “history is like a knife..”

Pete Baker @ 03:32 PM | Comments (19)

Hints of “Or else devolution gets it”?

Martin McGuinness spoke yesterday at the Civil Rights commemoration event at the Guildhall in Londonderry.  He offered two conspiracy theories about Unionism that some wanted a return to the 1960’s and that the DUP was not moving as it was looking over its shoulders.  The speech also appeared to make two implied threats to devolution:

“It isn’t just about whether there is or is not an Executive meeting - it is about partnership government and power sharing in the new political dispensation. It is about the acceptance of the rights and entitlements of nationalists and republicans won over many years of tough negotiations.  If one party does not believe in partnership government and power sharing on the basis of equality then it is they who are placing the political institutions at risk...The only way any unionist politician will ever hold any semblance of real political power now or in the future is in partnership with nationalists and republicans.”

It also outlined what SF considered the Plan B:

“If partnership government is beyond the DUP then it will fall to the two governments to take the necessary decisions and implement the necessary policy changes to ensure political progress in the all-Ireland context envisaged in the Good Friday And St. Andrews Agreements.”

Fair Deal @ 01:25 PM | Comments (41)

Further arrest over Paul Quinn’s murder

Gardai arrested a man in Cavan town during the early hours of this morning in connection with the murder of Paul Quinn a year ago. The man in his 20s is being held at Monaghan Garda station under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act. He is the sixth person to have been arrested in the RoI over Mr. Quinn’s murder, with another six in Northern Ireland; all the others have subsequently been released without charge.

Turgon @ 12:59 PM | Comments (4)

What next to save the world…?

Update WOW!  This certainly gets Ireland out of jail and anyway- “There has been no stampede on the part of UK businesses to transfer savings to Irish banks, a BBC poll suggests. In a survey carried out with the consultants Unicom, 91.6% of the 312 small businesses quizzed said that they would not consider moving deposits.” Peston adds: “The decision by the German federal government to guarantee all private savings in German banks is momentous. In a globalised banking market, in which money can leak across borders like a sieve, it will be almost impossible for the UK not to follow Germany’s lead. I would be immensely surprised if Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, didn’t announce a similar commitment within the next 24 hours.” Good to see Slugger’s judgment vindicated!  ( phew )

ln the blizzard of Sunday coverage about “staring into the abyss” etc., two pieces in the UK stand out and a couple in Ireland, on what looks like an emerging consensus to recapitalise the banks.  The Lib Dems’ Vince Cable by common consent the best Chancellor we haven’t got, has quietly anticipated the programme Alistair Darling is expected to touch on next Wednesday.  Extracts:  “One step would be to help banks to raise fresh capital from the markets....An.. approach would be to use the £8 billion the government has committed to social housing for social landlords to buy surplus land and property at the hefty discounts being offered… There will be time enough for post-tsunami reconstruction. The priority now is disaster management”

And he has room for a note of hope too....

Brian Walker @ 12:13 PM | Comments (0)

“The generals feared they were too far ahead of their troops..”

In today’s Irish News Patrick Murphy identifies the correct questions to ask in order to understand the current blocking of the Northern Ireland Executive by Sinn Féin.

Two questions are central to understanding the row which is preventing the Stormont executive from meeting - does it matter if policing powers are devolved and was there agreement at St Andrews on the devolution date?  The answer to the first question is a matter of opinion.  The answer to the second is a matter of fact.

That “matter of fact” has already also been identified by others. And, in case anyone hasn’t been paying attention, Patrick Murphy focuses on the correct issues too [no subs req]. Added links throughout.

The ard fheis motion stated that the party’s leadership was mandated to support the police only when the assembly was restored and the ard comhairle was satisfied that policing powers would be transferred.  The wording at St Andrews was sloppy but it clearly satisfied the Sinn Féin leadership.  This suggests that they may also have received additional assurances from the two governments in one of the many side-deals at the event.  But, as Samuel Goldwyn said “a verbal contract is not worth the paper it is written on”.  Armed with only a vaguely-worded view from the two governments, Sinn Féin bought into policing.

They received no guarantee on the devolution date and they have no mechanism for determining how or when such a guarantee might be achieved.  Their membership of policing boards is in line with the letter of the ard fheis motion, but not with its spirit, which was based on devolution of policing by May 2008. In June, executive meetings stopped.

The generals feared they were too far ahead of their troops.  Politically the leadership could not withdraw support from the police and practically they could not achieve devolution as long as the DUP adhered to its view on community confidence.  Stuck between a rock and a hard place, they claimed a denial of equality and partnership and brought the executive to a halt.

Pete Baker @ 10:15 PM | Comments (88)

Rendevouz with Mercury - redux

The first fly-by of Mercury by a probe from Earth in 33 years took place in January this year [plenty of images and videos there], before departing the planet on January 14, and on Monday morning NASA’s Messenger probe, is due to return to Mercury for its second fly-by of the closest planet to the Sun.  The planet is already clearly visible from the probe and the animation below details the measurements that will be taken this time.  The Messenger flyby 2 page will update as more information becomes available.  Messenger has already visited Venus twice and there’s one more flyby of Mercury scheduled for September 2009 ahead of a year-long orbital mission, which begins in March 2011. (All images credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington).

Pete Baker @ 09:07 PM | Comments (2)

It was forty years ago today…

It wasn’t Bunker Hill nor Bastille Day nor yet Easter Monday because there was no victory, not many were hurt nor was there a clear outcome. But October 5th 1968 has to be the landmark day of the death of a kind of innocence when the civil rights march in shabby little Duke St in Derry was batoned by the police, launching more or less continuous violence that never really stopped for thirty years. It was too an early example of the power of television. Northern Ireland was suddenly famous. We could all pile in and create our own nasty little Truman Show. The civil rights were to come tumbling in right enough, but too little too late, and disastrously dismissed as a sign of weakness in the State not only by the beneficiaries but by the State’s own supporters.  Each side brought about the other’s worst fears. The best hummed and ha’d, the worst were full of divilment. The movement of “ too many chiefs” (right Edwina), they had tactics but no strategy and even worse, neither had the government, beyond affronted arrogance and total ineptitude.

Adds Bernadette is still in struggle, wants to remain a living icon not a celluloid one. “At the Cannes film festival this year a biopic of Devlin was announced, to be called The Roaring Girl. She will be played by Sally Hawkins, star of Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky, apparently. But not if Bernadette Devlin McAliskey (as she has been for years) gets her way. “The whole concept is abhorrent to me,” she says, revealing that her lawyers are challenging the film. “How dare anybody make a pretend life for me while I’m still living the real one?”

On the “might have beens”

Brian Walker @ 08:41 PM | Comments (49)

Back to arguing

After a brief appearance of possible civility: SF and the DUP seem to be back to attacking one another’s position in the executive. The problems of course are lack of trust, fundamentally differing aspirations, the legacy of the past etc, etc. but at the moment they are manifesting as differing views of the nature of the partnership government forced by mandatory coalition.

Turgon @ 06:50 PM | Comments (10)

Paisley’s non political porridge

Dr. Paisley has been writing his column in the Newsletters on Fridays for a while now. I have found it both informative and surprising. Paisley’s Newsletter articles have been largely religious in nature: political comments especially as relating to current Northern Ireland politics have been very limited.

At one level this is unsurprising: Dr. Paisley, whatever his detractors may think is a fundamentalist theologian of very considerable note: His exposition on Romans is highly regarded and his purely religious and theological works probably entitle him to a Doctorate of Divinity to a much greater extent than the moderators of the Presbyterian Church who are always given one. Remembering, however, that this man is not merely a well respected fundamentalist theologian and founder of a church but also a leading politician, and until very recently the leader of unionism; his almost complete silence on Northern Irish politics is surprising and maybe not what Darwin Templeton had envisaged (or hoped for?) when he - for I presume it was he who- offered Paisley a column.

Clearly, however, Paisley; no matter that he is damaged goods now amongst rejectionist (or even sceptical pro agreement unionists) could do Robinson considerable damage should he denounce his current strategy. John Coulter in the Irish Daily Star (via Newshound) has tried to suggest Dr. Paisley is involved in a plot to end Stormont. However, I have not seen or heard any similar comments about Paisley and he seems to be willing to play Blair to Brown rather than Thatcher to Major, by cultivating his interests outside politics. In the absence of much NI political comment in public or in the pages of the Newsletter, some will no doubt try to suggest that Paisley is plotting. Whilst that may be possible I suspect it is highly likely that Dr. Paisley is quite happy doing what he is doing. Many in journalism and politics forget that Paisley always was a serious church minister and theologian as well as a politician. He is also now an old man and as such religious activities as well as his own constituency are probably enough to keep him busy, and away from any critical comments even if he is opposed to Robinson’s current stance: at least Peter Robinson must hope that is the case.

Turgon @ 12:04 PM | Comments (29)

Towards a civil society online?

I couldn’t get to the Organise, Activate, Influence conference in Dublin this morning, but I have sent this ad hoc ‘soapbox’ piece in which I argue that we need more Irish bloggers who take the whole business of mainstream politics more seriously if citizens are to be able exert more influence on the way politics is done between elections. Outside a handful of sites, like Politics.ie and Irish Election that’s far from the norm.

Our excellent recent recruit Brian Walker has greatly enhanced Slugger’s coverage of politics in Britain, Slugger’s focus is still remains Northern Ireland. But my own pitch on the video ends with a pitch for new bloggers from the south. So if you’d like to join the Slugger Fest and you have something to say about politics in the Republic, with some of your ideas and we’ll see if we can get you a start!

You can follow today’s seminar live, just below the fold:

Mick Fealty @ 10:15 AM | Comments (11)