Let’s Talk…

Could be a good one tonight… Slugger hears the line up will include Margaret Ritchie, Jim Allister fresh back from Strasbourg, Finance Minister Nigel Dodds, and David McWilliams… Feel free to comment throughout the programme…

Mick Fealty @ 08:05 PM | Comments (0)

Tidy all the bits and bobs

The BBC’s Autumn Watch series is over (does that mean it is winter?) but I’ve received an email telling me local schools where I live, Crumlin or West Belfast sur la Lough,:

will take part in various workshops with staff from the “RSPB” and “Ulster Wildlife Trust”, to help inspire them to do their bit to help nature, and will then have the opportunity to plant some trees in the Glen with the “Conservation Volunteers NI”.

Good stuff but not of interest to most/any of you?

Then on Saturday:

Why not join us on Saturday 22nd November from 10.30am to 2pm and help us clean up and enhance our wonderful natural asset-Crumlin Glen!! “Conservation Volunteers NI” will be on hand, to provide you with the skills required to help you ‘do your bit’.

Still not of interest to anyone outside Crumlin? Well, the rest of you can contact the Conservation Volunteers yourselves to find out how you can get down and dirty with nature, have a bit of craic and improve your local environment.

And if you don’t want to work for nature, here’s a nice link on places you can visit.

Mark McGregor @ 07:59 PM | Comments (1)

“Our plan at the minute is to take the pressure everywhere but from recruiting.”

The anticipated compensation payments might be considered to be legacy issues, but the £24.5million shortfall in the PSNI budget, which Chief Constable, Hugh Orde, has a legal obligation to balance, comes from this year’s operational decisions. Still, with the politicians’ imperative the further delaying of water charges [until after the next election? - Ed] - apparently achieved by central government agreeing to waive charges due to paid by the devolved administration - the Policing Board have voted to reject the Chief Constable’s planned cost savings and will instead lobby the current Justice Minister at the NIO.

Pete Baker @ 07:00 PM | Comments (0)

“potential victims ‘must be given the highest protection of the court‘“

Whilst those “threats from the past” continue to manifest themselves, in Belfast 38 year-old Liam James Hannaway “pleaded guilty to possession of explosives with intent and possession of ammunition with intent on 17 September, 2004” and has been sentenced to 10 years.

Pete Baker @ 04:17 PM | Comments (5)

“but a few issues needed to be addressed..”

BBC political correspondent Martina Purdy has news on the UUP executive meeting this evening at Stormont, where they’re expected to be discussing that “electoral pact” with the Conservatives. From the BBC report

However, delegates will only vote on a proposal to proceed if the two parties can agree on a name that is acceptable to the Electoral Commission.  A well-placed Ulster Unionist said a deal was 95% complete but a few issues needed to be addressed.

Under the proposals the two parties would remain separate entities.  But a new Conservative and Ulster Unionist Joint Committee would be established to make decisions on a consensus basis.

Which would confirm that previous ‘aside’..

Pete Baker @ 03:12 PM | Comments (4)

UUP Exec to meet

With some last minute details to be ironed out, UUP sources are describing new UUP/Tory ‘partnership’ arrangements as 95% done and expect it to be put to a vote tonight.  The two parties will remain separate entities but as rumoured/leaked a joint nominating committee for European and Westminster elections will be established. It will work on a “consensual basis” and this should leave scope for potential deals on South Belfast and Fermanagh and South Tyrone.

Fair Deal @ 03:10 PM | Comments (9)

The honourable Gentleman makes an important point…

Over at Conservative Home Owen Patterson asks whether the Saville Inquiry should be capped and timetabled…

Mick Fealty @ 02:43 PM | Comments (5)

Towards a more enlightened and active democracy..?

I suspect and indeed would hope that NILGA’s new local government awards are inspired by our own critically successful Slugger Awards. They already have 90 nominees for the eight awards on offer. Anything that deepens the quality and committment of representative democracy has to be a good thing. In continuing our spotlight on Councillors we are trying to do the one thing that’s usually relegated to last place in Irish politics north and south: the continuing engagement between citizens and their electorate between elections. Chris Dillow mines the John Sergeant incident for at least one serious piece of insight into that area from Alexis de Tocqueville:

A man of the people, when asked to share the task of governing society, acquires a certain self-esteem…He may not be more virtuous or happier than his forebears, but he is more enlightened and active… Democracy does nor provide a people with the most skilful of governments, but it does that which the most skilful government often cannot do; it spreads throughout the body social a restless activity, superabundant force, and energy never found elsewhere, which, however little favoured by circumstance, can do wonders. Those are its true advantages.

Mick Fealty @ 11:53 AM | Comments (3)

“the way to deal with that was to put in place a process that would build community confidence..”

The News Letter notes the statement by Secretary of State for Northern Ireland [pdf file] Shaun Woodward, MP, in the House of Commons yesterday on the new Process™ - “..the events of this week mark the maturing of democracy in Northern Ireland”.  But, in the Irish Times, Frank Millar spotted the caveat,

Strangford MP Iris Robinson asked Mr Woodward if he would agree that Northern Ireland’s “transition to democracy” would only be complete “when government moves from a mandatory to a voluntary coalition”. Mr Woodward said he was “tempted to say we should walk before we can run”.

Pete Baker @ 11:16 AM | Comments (8)

It is about the kit rather than the kaboodle…

Readers take note of this missive from the impressive Willem Buiter on why he blogs (H/T to ever vigilant reader John):

I write this blog for me, not for my readers.  Writing things down is the only way for me to communicate effectively with myself about complex issues.  By doing this writing in the form of a blog, I gain the option of taking on board the comments and criticism of those who read my scribblings and feel compelled to respond to it.  I gain this benefit at the cost of having to plough through a lot of stuff that makes little or no sense, in order to uncover the few pearls hidden among the swine.

And that’s the kit, not the kaboodle… But if you want to blog on Slugger, we’re looking for new Unionist (Fair Deal will be semi retiring soon), Scottish and Welsh voices…

Mick Fealty @ 11:08 AM | Comments (2)

On the future of public service media…

There’s a meeting of the DCAL committee just beginning in the Senate chamber today, which means it will be streaming live.  The focus is going to be on Broadcasting and in particular the sustainability (or otherwise) of Public Service Broadcasting within a local commercial context as a counterpoint to the BBC. It should be said at the outset that this remains largely a reserved matter for Whitehall, but the debate may throw up some useful perspectives. One reader has already written to call my attention to the issue (text below the fold). I’ll be dipping into the debate all day, and posting quotes. Please feel free to add your own thoughts in the comment zone below…

Mick Fealty @ 10:32 AM | Comments (5)

Slugger’s Daily Blogburst..

There’s an Amish saying that says “the faster I go, the behinder I get"… So apologies for the non appearance of yesterday’s blogburst… they had to dig a big hole outside Slugger Central and we lost our electricity supply (it’s also why I’ve not put that thread of Fair Deal’s back up to, for those of you who’ve been getting paranoid). Anyway, kicking off this unmissable blog from Red Lemonade. It works even if you’ve never seen the Irish Apprentice… Hat Tip Suzy, who’s in Brussels today…

Mick Fealty @ 10:30 AM | Comments (1)

“community punishment”?

Those “threats from the past” were evidenced today at the west Belfast New Barnsley Police Station where a “coffee jar bomb” was found after a security alert.  Meanwhile, in Strabane, where police patrols were attacked at the weekend amidst a number of alerts, including one near a Sinn Féin office in Cookstown - and other sectarian attacks elsewhere - the Sinn Féin chairman of Strabane District Council, Cllr Jarlath McNulty, has criticised police for being “heavy-handed and cavalier”.  He also claimed they had subjected residents to ‘policing akin to the “worst excesses of the RUC during the 1980s and early 1990s”’ and of imposing “community punishment”.  His party colleague, Cllr Brian McMahon, has also claimed officers had displayed a “hostile approach” towards residents.  Of the two, Cllr McMahon was one of the few Strabane Sinn Féin councillors who did take a seat on the local DPP. Cllr McNulty declined at the time - without censure from his party, as Fermanagh Cllr Bernice Swift pointed out. Perhaps that’s an area for the new Process™ to consider..

Pete Baker @ 11:12 PM | Comments (15)

Media lynching no answer to the tragedy of Baby P

An important corrective to the Sun’s hue and cry from Polly Toynbee. Did you know this? You wouldn’t if you depended on the tabloids.

Surprisingly few children are murdered, given how many parents are drug addicted, psychotic, violent or profoundly inadequate; 29,000 are on the child protection register and another 300,000 are reckoned to be “in need”, with concerns about their quality of life. Yet last year of all those children in danger, 68 were killed (15 of those by strangers). Given how extraordinarily vulnerable children are, that is a relatively low figure to be balanced against the thousands who survive precarious lives, often thanks to social workers, who are never thanked.

Not that there isn’t a case for a compete overhaul, after just one sacking, the paediatrician who has said she was “deeply affected” by the case.  Better to wait a week or two until after the full local report before picking on individuals. But who advised these people to stay so silent for so long, even to express regret?

Brian Walker @ 04:40 PM | Comments (12)

Sergeant quits more gracefully than he danced

Well done John, absolutely the right decision. Your PR has been brilliant throughout.

“If the joke wears thin, if in fact people begin to take it very seriously, and if people really are getting so wound up that it’s very difficult to carry off the joke, then I think it is time to go.”

…even though it leaves the Beeb with another problem to do with phoning in.....

Brian Walker @ 04:15 PM | Comments (10)

Councillor of the week: Cadogan Enright…

Sorry for the unintentional commercial break, but today we return to our occasional series, Councillor of the Week. It’s Down District Council and the Green Party’s co--option candidate Cadogan Enright, who Slugger understands has just returned from the US after campaigning for Barrack Obama. 

Mick Fealty @ 03:32 PM | Comments (57)

“Some of the threats from the past still remain.”

Whilst the First and deputy First Ministers made their way to Downing St to talk to the Prime Minister about the bill.. In Belfast PSN Assistant Chief Constable Drew Harris has withdrawn from the ACPO drugs conference at the Europa Hotel to attend to a heightened security threat from dissenting republican paramilitaries.

Pete Baker @ 03:21 PM | Comments (0)

Murphy’s trial on tax evasion sent back to Dundalk District Court

Having denied agreeing to his brothers’ forfeiture of criminal assets, Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy [Who is, according to some, “not a criminal” - Ed] sent his legal representatives to the Republic of Ireland’s High Court today to hear the ruling on the High Court judicial review proceedings after Mr Murphy alleged breaches of his rights by the Special Criminal Court in relation to charges of tax evasion. The ruling is reported here.

Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O Neill found state lawyers breached Murphy’s rights by giving his solicitor only four minutes’ notice when they applied for the non-jury trial.  The judge said the court order, made in January and containing three technical errors, should stand after the mistakes are corrected.  “I’m satisfied the accused person is entitled to be present and legally represented to ensure this essential step of the process is protected,” the judge said.

The judge added that Murphy’s legal team had not objected to the order between December 19, 2007 and January 10, 2008.  Murphy’s trial on tax evasion has been sent back to Dundalk District Court to amend the order. It is unlikely the prosecution will be challenged.

Pete Baker @ 02:41 PM | Comments (1)

“a bright and formidable lawyer and is well respected among his peers.”

At the end of yesterday’s video round-up of reaction to the new Process™ I suggested that where we are now is actually back to St Andrews.  The difference being that now, rather than claiming that unenforceable deadlines exist, Sinn Féin have agreed to work towards a time when conditions on the ground are suitable for the devolution of policing and justice powers - with “no date actually agreed by the politicians”.  And, whilst other reports indicate that John Larkin has also carried out legal work for Sinn Féin, it’s with St Andrews in mind that I read with interest Gerry Moriarty’s brief background on the proposed nominee for Northern Ireland Attorney General.

Prof Larkin, who is in his mid-40s, is from Glenavy in Co Antrim, a Catholic who was educated at the Christian Brothers grammar school on the Glen Road in nationalist west Belfast.  Viewed as politically moderate, he represented the DUP in several cases over the past decade and more, according to party sources.  He was their legal adviser during the St Andrews talks in Scotland that resulted in the agreement that was the foundation for the current powersharing administration.

Pete Baker @ 11:42 AM | Comments (26)

From print to the web

Following on from his grim assessment of the English Indy’s future, media guru Roy Greenslade today instances the bad example of the Scotsman to show how important websites are becoming to a newspaper’s future.  I must say though that judging from my occasional scans, Scotsman owners the notably lean ‘n fit Johnston press aren’t doing a bad job with the Newsletter whether you agree with its editorial line or not. Overall though, the press and the regional daily press in particular are just about as lean as they can afford to be. The Tele’s awkward synergy with the metropolitan Independent is not one any editor however innovative would chose on purely editorial grounds, much as I revere them both.  With newspapers already facing market decline and now the recession, does the future lie with websites and their offspring the blog? Greenslade boldly answers the fears I raised in one of Mick’s paens to new media recently .

“

The problem, as every know-all traditionalist reporter likes to say, very loudly and all too often, is that no business model exists to fund effective online journalism. Websites can never do the job now done so brilliantly by newspapers.  Let’s puncture those reactionary generalisations with some facts that suggest such fears are nonsense.”

Success in the US one thing, adopting the business model of the trust for websites here is another but we travel hopefully…

Brian Walker @ 10:01 AM | Comments (13)

What on earth were they thinking…

Yes Minister on how to rig Opinion Polls… Now take a look at this? I am not sure what on earth the City Council was thinking, but this is exactly the kind of skewing of public opinion mentioned in the episode. Okay, it’s an online poll rather than a carefully designed and controlled survey of local opinion. But best practice dictates the Council should be trying to find out exactly what the populus actually think, rather than leading them towards what the council clearly already thinks. Allowing yourselves to be seen to be that close to a single private vested interest is a very bad idea. More later...

Mick Fealty @ 09:28 AM | Comments (11)

“As of yet there is no date actually agreed by the politicians..”

“Rejoice, rejoice” were Jim Fitzpatrick’s opening comments on Stormont Live today, with perhaps just a soupçon of sarcasm.. Then to Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Shaun Woodward, MP, possibly overselling today’s announcement by comparing it with the Belfast and St Andrews Agreements - pointing out that they “did not agree a date or a process for the transfer of policing and justice”. By contrast, according to Shaun Woodward, today’s “historic agreement between the two party leaders” was “home-grown” [as opposed to the previous “indigenous” deal “put together by Sinn Féin and the DUP”? - Ed].  He does acknowledge also, “As of yet there is no date actually agreed by the politicians.” BBC NI political editor Mark Devenport suggests that “Sinn Féin must have some sort of private understanding of exactly how this will go.” Perhaps, Mark, perhaps.. although, we’ve heard about those private understandings before.. Below the fold, the UUP’s Reg Empey and the SDLP’s Alex Attwood, Shaun Woodward, again, the DUP’s Nelson McCausland and the Alliance Party’s David Ford.  Noticeable by their absence were Sinn Féin who, despite being asked, failed to put anyone forward to talk on the programme about their agreed arrangements.. Adds Official statement. New letter to the Assembly Review Committee [pdf file].  And the new Process [pdf file].

Pete Baker @ 08:10 PM | Comments (34)

Bangor and Belfast lead the way

1. Bangor and Belfast with 7
2. Carrickfergus with 3
3. Newtownards with 2
4. Ballycarry, Omagh, Ballyclare, Holywood, Randalstown, Glengormley, Ahoghill, Comber, Dungannon, Newtownabbey, Newry, Armagh, Donaghadee, Larne, Lisburn, Portadown , Fintona, Portrush, Lurgan, Portstewart and Coleraine all with 1.

So what’s the list? It is the number of members the BNP have in those areas according to their full leaked membership doing the rounds (names, addresses, phonenumbers, in some cases jobs etc). I won’t link the actual doc unless/until Mick gives the nod (so don’t do it in the comments) but in the meantime feel free to read their members absolutely crapping themselves.

I counted a total of 39 members in the north of Ireland.

Mark McGregor @ 08:09 PM | Comments (83)

Crunch hits the Independent hardest

Sweeping job cuts at the Independent in London mean Tony O’Reilly is committed to the two titles, says media guru Roy Greenslade. Otherwise, he’d sell the youngest, smallest and most expensive of the English quality papers.  The Belfast Telegraph is more than ever relied on take the company into very modest profit, offsetting the Indy’s losses, not always to the delight of the Bel Tel staff.

The Independent is loss-making but has been backed by profits generated by the Belfast Telegraph. As advertising revenue slows at the Northern Ireland paper, The Independent’s losses have become more critical.

Other heavies, the Times and the Guardian make even bigger losses but are supported by bigger companies, especially the Times of course. Cuts in Trinity Mirror eat into the regional press. No news yet of fresh cuts in the Republic’s press apart from shamrock editions of the Mail, but can these be long delayed? All papers will be quaking at the prospect of dramatically falling advertising. If ads and revenue generally fell with circulation during boom time, what’s going to hit them now? 

Brian Walker @ 05:36 PM | Comments (4)

Slugger’s Daily Blogburst…

Kicking off, that speculation over a settlement after five months of civil action inside OFMDFM, Chekov reckons it’s simply putting things off until next April. An interesting time; with the DUP facing one big election (Europe); and SF facing two (Europe and the Councils in the Republic).... Ignited has Jim Allister’s prophesies on the matter…

Mick Fealty @ 04:28 PM | Comments (7)