Slugger O'Toole

This user has not yet written a description

Latest comments from Duncan Shipley Dalton (see all)

Duncan Shipley Dalton has commented 4 times (0 in the last month).

1. Comment on Obituary: Professor Kevin Boyle
   on 4 January 2011 at 10:52 am

   Thats sad news indeed. I only just found this out when browsing through Slugger for the first time in a while. Kevin Boyle was my law professor at Essex and I really enjoyed his insights as my human rights law teacher. I always admired his intelligence and decency and his tireless belief in human rights. An abiding memory for me was arguing in a class in favour of the freedom of an artist to publish pro Nazi propaganda and finding that I was on my own until Kevin jumped in to defend the point with me, to the surprise i think of the rest of the class. Not that either of us was in favour of the Nazi’s but we both felt that freedom of speech means all speech not just that which you agree with. This point seemed to be lost on my, mostly very left wing, classmates but not on Kevin and I think it was a good example of his passionate belief in the importance of human rights. A great man and a great teacher.

   Go to comment

2. Comment on Unionist unity is an opportunity to shift baggage in BOTH parties…
   on 26 January 2010 at 12:57 am

   I had wondered that myself but I find it hard to believe that anyone on the DUP team could have been so arrogantly short sighted about it. It might have worked in the short term but it was always going to bite you in the ass eventually. Idiots, and they gave us shit for poor negotiating, hah.

   Go to comment

3. Comment on Unionist unity is an opportunity to shift baggage in BOTH parties…
   on 25 January 2010 at 9:50 pm

   Lotta,
   Just out of interest where did you get that information from? It certainly sounds right as unlike the Northern Ireland Act the St Andrews Act 2006 refers to the largest political party of the largest designation so in interpreting that one would have to have regard to the wider legislative definition of Political Party and I agree with you that a short term UUP/DUP pact probably wouldn’t be enough to meet the definition of a party and thus would be ineffective anyway.

   It’s such a strange set of conditions in the Act in regard to the FM/DFM appointments. On the one hand it lays a sensible set of conditions in “the largest party of the largest designation” condition in section 8(1) substituting for Section 16A and B of the 1998 Act but then in sections 16C (6) contradicts that by simply stating it’s the “nominating officer of the largest political party” without reference to the largest designation part. It is a very strange legislative formulation (I really do wonder what the hell the DUP team where doing when they agreed to that or did they not agree to it? Anyone know who was on the DUP team who agreed the draft bill?) The reformulation re-opens the door to a potential SF FM when the earlier clauses in 16A and B had pretty much closed it unless the nationalists could get a majority of the designations as well as being the larger party and when that day comes who will be the FM/DFM won’t matter versus a border poll anyway. It’s really quite an odd piece of drafting sleight of hand.

   Go to comment

4. Comment on Unionist Realignment, Battles (unionist and sea) and Fantasy Creatures
   on 25 January 2010 at 4:39 pm

   Interesting piece and nicely written. I thought that was a very good description of the Molyneaux years although I think it was John Hunter who captured it more precisely with the phrase ‘steady as we drift.’ The problem with it of course was that the coalition was so fragile that the moment the perceived threat from the barbarians at the gate receded (they stopped the battering ram and asked for some talks) the coalition began to fracture.

   The notion of single unionist monolith arising again is very unlikely in my view. The political reality is one aspect i.e. the submerging of the lesser talents of the senior UUP beneath the DUP talent ship and would be of serious concern to the UUP members concerned but there remains the issue that the DUP whilst it has widened its reach has not really become a friendly place to those of the moderate unionist bent. The attitudinal and world view of the DUP is still pretty fossilised and I just don’t see those in the UUP of a more secular and modernist outlook having a comfortable place in it. The UUP has room for the likes of me (well in theory but not actually!) and has someone like Alex Kane (a talent you missed out mentioning) in a senior position, the DUP would have problems finding space for a self confessed anti-monarchist, atheist as its PR officer I suspect.

   In the short term a limited electoral agreement to give SB and FST a better run is worth it and in the interests of both parties and whilst we might not be moving in with the DUP there is nothing wrong with a quick fling as we still have some things in common.

   I think the Conservative UUP alliance is under pretty serious pressure though I have to say. In my view the local conservatives always took a far too expansionist and self important view of the whole thing. The argument for a pact with the Tories is reasonable but the argument for the UUP maintaining its independence (i.e. its interests and sometimes NI’s, don’t necessarily always align with the wider Conservative party’s interests) remains and at this point a short term link with the DUP for the selfish local reasons of both keeping SF out of the FM office and knocking out 1 or 2 nationalist/Republican MP’s is pretty sound. Add into this mix the fact that I still don’t think the Con/UUP pact is worth losing Sylvia Hermon and the balance is tipping against it. Tough to see how the UUP extricates itself at this point and Reg and others have invested lot of political capital into it but ultimately politics is the art of the possible and the pragmatic and I think pragmatism will likely win out here.

   Go to comment