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Books
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A poem for the day – Launching the Whaler Juan Peron
A Belfast epic, and one of my oldest poems, the opener of my first collection, Grub. The gist of the story was found in Moss & Hume’s Shipbuilders to the World: 125 Years of Harland and Wolff, Belfast, 1861-1986, which tells how Eva Peron was due to launch a huge whaling vessel in Belfast, built [...] read our review » -
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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“You can see Newton’s mind at work…”
To add to the open access treasure trove at the Royal Society, Cambridge University Library is putting online some of its collection of books, maps, manuscripts and journals. We have called the first phase of our work on the Cambridge Digital Library the Foundations Project, which runs from mid-2010 to mid-2013 and has been made possible [...] read our review »
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Comment on Nightmare scenario unfolding for Margaret and Fearghal
on 9 April 2010 at 1:53 pm
This is not an Assembly election. Whatever Gildernew’s merits, in a hung Parliament situation it’s madness to elect an abstentionist MP. What if the SF absences bring about a Tory majority and huge cuts? How does that help the people of F&ST;?
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Comment on A good launch for the Big Debates. Any role for social media yet?
on 30 March 2010 at 4:11 pm
It was shocking that there was no mention of devolution in the entire debate – either an acknowledgement that some of the policies being discussed would only apply to England, or any discussion of how funding is allocated to the devolved administrations and what they might want to do with it (or, indeed, whether the basis of the allocations might be changed).
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Comment on Belfast’s ‘Magic Jug’?
on 29 March 2010 at 7:51 pm
It’s not April 1st yet…. so this must be real. It’s ghastly.
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Comment on Ulster Unionist/Tory alliance in danger of collapsing?
on 11 March 2010 at 7:46 pm
‘Are you suggesting that the level of sectarianism (clarifying your tribalism remark) is the same in the SDLP as in the UUP?’
I knew someone would ask me that. What I meant was that if a political party whose main aim is to benefit a particular class links up with another whose main aim is to benefit a group from a particular religious/ national background, aspirations are bound to clash, and I can see that would happen with an SDLP/ UK Labour link-up too.
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Comment on Ulster Unionist/Tory alliance in danger of collapsing?
on 11 March 2010 at 7:15 pm
“The Conservative party’s fear is that we will be dragged down into the gutter of tribalism instead of Northern Ireland politics being elevated onto the national stage.” – well what the hell did they expect? Link up with a tribal party and you get tribal politics. Labour and the SDLP would have had the same problem.
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Comment on Cross posting: No platform for liberals
on 26 February 2010 at 2:54 pm
I wish Platform for Change well and have a great deal of respect for Robin Wilson, but in the end I did not feel able to sign the launch statement. Whatever about who is involved, this is yet another civil society organisation which will (I hope) lobby politicians effectively for policies in which both ‘sides’ can agree to some extent. Parallels are being made with the Alliance Party but perhaps NICVA would be more accurate.
If Platform for Change gets more people involved who were previously sitting at home watching TV then fair play to them. If it takes people out of the political parties then I will be less impressed. Because ultimately I believe
change comes through being a member of a political party and trying to get some votes. Or in my case, trying to get the party or parties concerned to agree to stand for election in the first place!
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Comment on The question Ritchie and McGlone must answer: What is the SDLP for?
on 11 February 2010 at 2:57 pm
It is absolutely right that the question is not ‘what is the SDLP for’ but rather where are they going and what does the future hold. They exist, and so by definition they have a function and a role in NI politics.
Ritchie’s approach to the Justice Ministry makes clear what the next few years is going to be about. She says nationalists shouldn’t be excluded from consideration for the post. But the issue is whether d’Hondt should be applied or not – if unionists were next in line would she be advocating they take it instead of Allaince, on that basis? I think not.
So we are in for a few years of the old agenda – competing with Sinn Fein for 48% or so of the NI vote, a continuation of tribal politics. As the SDLP are not as good at this as SF, they will continue to decline. However, at some point self-preservation will kick in and a group will come up with a new agenda, which hopefully will be based more building cross-community appeal for democratic socialist politics. this is when serious discussions with one or more Labour parties will begin.
The alternative is that the SDLP will fade away, but I think they have too much of a critical mass for that.
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Comment on At last – it’s a deal..!
on 5 February 2010 at 2:50 pm
This deal will do nothing for the alleged ‘middle ground’, as the DUP and Sinn Fein were, ultimately, able to agree.
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Comment on TUV public meeting in East Belfast tomorrow night…
on 29 January 2010 at 2:16 am
Got a leaflet about this through the door at the weekend, up in Belmont. Keen to go, if only to compare with my other recent outing to the Workers’ Party conference (lol)… and to see the inside of an Orange Hall for the first time. But given it’s being held in PUP territory it could be a very interesting meeting indeed.
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Comment on Wake up centre parties. Your big break could be coming
on 23 January 2010 at 7:27 pm
Sammy Morse: ‘Civil society wants the ‘centre parties’ to get together but don’t want to get their hands dirty by actually being involved in politics. If you want political change in this society, you’re actually going to have to get involved in changing politics’.
Absobloodylutely.
Second point – the reason that the ‘centre’ is so weak is because there is no ‘centre’. UUP leans towards the Tories (recent events notwithstanding) and remains unionist. SDLP is sort of centre left and remains nationalist. Alliance is liberal and kind of not bothered on territory but very keen on community relations. What exactly do they have in common, how exactly do they form a ‘centre’, and why on earth do some commentators expect them to be able to work together?
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