Post Archives for Brian Walker
Grammar schools and social mobility: a Northern Ireland contribution to the debate
Here’s something that won’t make relations between the Education and Finance ministers any easier.. An approving poll for a UK wide campaign to revive grammar schools has received a gushing review from Independent columnist Mary Anne Sieghart. It’s pegged to the general angst about stalled – even reversed – social mobility which all UK political [...] more »
Scottish independence: Can Alistair Darling at the head of the pro-Union campaign match Alex Salmond?
Alistair Darling is to spearhead a Save the Union campaign of all the pro-union parties in Scotland, according to a Mail on Sunday scoop. The former Chancellor has just confirmed the story on the Marr show, although the BBC website has still to catch up with it.The report says the plan was hatched in true Edinburgh [...] more »
The Hain contempt case: a warning to England from Northern Ireland
It’s worth taking a closer look at the Peter Hain contempt case before it’s written off as a straightforward free speech victory for the metropolitan Mr Punch over the paddywhackery of Northern Ireland’s appointed and politically independent Attorney General. John Larkin QC brought the case against the former Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain on the admittedly [...] more »
Brady departure in sight
So this is how they’ll ease him out. According to the Irish Times, a coadjutor bishop may be appointed to administer the archdiocese of Armagh with the expectation of succession. Fr Brady himself was similarly appointed coadjutor to Cahal Daly in 1995 and succeeded him automatically the following year. The questions crowd in. Can they [...] more »
Cardinal Brady should go – in charity
I’ve never been keen on a feeding frenzy and there will always be something deeply ironic about Martin McGuinness, despite his peacetime record, calling for anyone to resign, not least a cardinal who despite the facts which the BBC augmented only slightly this week, is still respected and warmly liked by many. It must be acknowledged [...] more »
More soft politics over Easter – but what’s the beef?
The response to Gerry Adam’s “seven goals” in Slugger shows that the union/ unification theme can still assert its old pull. This will no doubt be reinforced over the holiday by Martin McGuinness’s appeal to republicans to engage in “practical ways of giving expression to the unionist sense of Britishness within a united Ireland” and his [...] more »
Cross border education: lay out all the facts please
Is this form of cross border cooperation actually divisive? Contrast two stories about the SF led Education department’s plan for a survey of 50,000 “border families “ (i.e. families on both sides of the border) on the takeup of school places by children from the other side. Liam Clarke’s story records the objections of DUP’s Mervyn [...] more »
After Peter Robinson, are we seeing the start of softer, more seductive politics?
From where he came from, Peter Robinson has made big strides. At the point Northern Ireland society has reached, he comes across as a cautious consolidator, making a distinct if so far unimaginative success of power sharing. In unionist terms, Peter is David Trimble’s heir in quieter times. After decades of often painful self discipline [...] more »
Big News. Innovation from the Executive
Good to see Northern Ireland featuring on the UK national news agenda with a report on the “Tesco tax.,” (Today programme 7.25, Sammy and retail consortium rep interview). Despite the national coverage, inexplicably I can’t find news of the 1st April vesting date for the business charge on the local BBC News website. Old news locally [...] more »
‘New facts’ in abortion debate
In recent years I’ve tried to track the long slow path to easing the bans on abortion in both parts of Ireland. And while I support it, I know full well it is no magic bullet so to speak. And so in the cause of disinterested debate and acknowledging the existence of many awkward facts, I [...] more »
Scottish referendum: the unionist case is still all over the place
The unionist split shows no sign of closing. The Aberdonian Tory cabinet minister and Surrey MP Michael Gove echoes my “England is sulking “ theory and delivers some pretty sharp words to his own side. …While there is a threat posed by Scottish separatism, he added, “there is also a threat, under-appreciated, from English [...] more »
Scottish referendum: ‘Devo more’ could be a unionist runner
On the subject of greater powers for Holyrood, there’s something of a right wing split between the Telegraph newspapers and the darling of the Tory grass roots, blogger Tim Montgomerie of ConservativeHome. The Sunday Telegraph leader dealt with the subject with a knowledge of the subject that would disgrace an unpaid intern: To concede greater [...] more »
It’s the English question now, stupid
The Scottish media were a PhD dissertation about chippiness all unto themselves,” reflected Mr Blair in his memoirs, the Times editorial (£) recalled. By those standards, it seems Dave’s nervous apologia for the Union in Edinburgh fitted the bill after all, presentation wise. Substance was more problematical. In the Times (£) the august Scots unionist [...] more »
Don’t denude Stormont of unionist monuments. Let’s have nationalist ones too. What might they be?
Odd that the table on which the Union was signed and a portrait of the Queen by a local artist have been quietly removed from Stormont, according to Jim Allister, a hawk eyed stirrer of eminence. These items are surely less controversial than the bronzes of Carson and Craig and the old boy’s grave [...] more »
Will the referendum debate go two way at last today?
Adds at 2pm. David Cameron’s speech ( in full here, courtesy of the Scotsman) was a constipated affair. Like Eric Morecambe and the Grieg piano concerto, he played all the right notes but not necessariily in the right order – and without enough colour and tone . He talked nervously into the middle distance, not to the single [...] more »
Why did Toby Harnden refuse to attend the Smithwick Tribunal?
I missed the most direct accusation against securocrats this week, by Paul Larkin, a Dublin and Donegal based freelance, in the Guardian. Focusing on the Smithwick tribunal, he criticises journalists for accepting British Army Force Research Unit ( FRU) “spooks” versions of infiltration into paramilitaries too readily and claims that the unexpected refusal of journalist [...] more »
Learn from the English experience in secondary schools
Interested parties would do well to examine battles over secondary school admission in England. The Northern Ireland debate, such as it is, is locked in parochialism and stand- off. Unwisely it seems to steer clear of the English experience – on political grounds?- even though we have broadly the same schools system. The major difference [...] more »
Scottish referendum no further forward
“Spin” the Telgraph acidly calls it, while the home- based Herald labels it “confusion“ There are different views, of course, on the timescale that the Scottish Government has set out. I don’t think that is a serious argument any more.” However, Mr Moore later insisted that he timing question was far from settled and said [...] more »
Are we seeing Increasing frustration from old securocrats or mounting pressure against the former IRA leadership?
Eamonn McCann gives an absorbing analysis in Counterpunch, co- edited by Alexander Cockburn the Independent’s highly critical reporter of “the war on terror,” of the linkages between the Omagh bomb and the Boston College tapes. A key figure is former Chief Superintendent Norman Baxter, who is now one of a number of former RUC and [...] more »
Hutchinson leaves under a cloud but he has an obvious point
For all the criticisms made against him, Al Hutchinson ends his controversial period as Police Ombudsman admitting the obvious, that not all Troubles cases can be investigated and calling for a “limited” amnesty. He said that any amnesties would be conditional and that victims should be the driving force in making decisions on individual cases. What [...] more »
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Books
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Do Words Matter?: Book Review of Political Discourse and Conflict Resolution – Debating Peace in Northern Ireland
I share many of the concerns of Andy Pollak, whose recent post ‘My Response to the Slugger Begrudgers’ zeroed in on the ‘relentless flow of negativity’ of some Slugger commentators. Pollak’s post was largely concerned with the medium of the blog. Indeed, I think the anonymity of the online world encourages extreme discourse and allows [...] read our review »
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Of the Old North and other Vanished Kingdoms..
I’m currently trawling through Norman Davies’s fabulous new tome – “Vanished Kingdoms” – Five stars in the (London) Telegraph’s review from Ben Wilson: All the nations that have ever lived have left their footsteps in the sand,” writes Norman Davies. “The traces fade with every tide, the echoes grow faint, the images are fractured, the human [...] read our review » -
Talking to a brick wall: how to make politicians listen?
It took me a long time to warm to advertising agencies. The first time I worked with one I was working in sales management on Fairy Washing Up Liquid. I was due to attend a meeting at which I was to be told what consumers really thought of the brand. I remember my reluctance to [...] read our review »
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