Profile for Michael Shilliday
Latest posts from Michael Shilliday (see all)
Michael Shilliday has posted 308 times (1 in the last month).
New Tories, old Tories, what’s the difference?
Everyone seems to be talking about the headline of Lord Feldman’s press release today, and no one is talking about what he actually said. Let’s be clear, there is to be no “new party” in Northern Ireland. They are not farming off their existing branch, they are attempting to tart it up a bit. And [...] more »
Can we get some things straight?
I’m getting a bit sick of reading nonsense about Loughgall. Firstly, all that is new in the Belfast Telegraph is that the HET report is due out soon. If that report states that the IRA fired the first shot, that will simply be a regurgitation of the facts as detailed in the European Court of [...] more »
Opposition or bust
A couple of weeks ago a few of us put on a fringe event at the Ulster Unionist Party conference, where the prospect of going into opposition was discussed. On the same day, the coverage of Tom Elliot’s speech mostly focused on the same issue. Since then the matter has gained traction and comment, with [...] more »
The rubber stamp gets smaller?
Mark McGregor is of course right. At the very least the disclosure of the d’Hondt private run by the Executive Twitter account was a violation of the Assembly’s right to be first to know. It was like that in 2007, and is now. However there probably is some justification for it, given that such an [...] more »
At least now, the UUP’s blinkers will probably come off
The last time a major Unionist party was lead by anyone from west of Portadown it was Harry West in in 1970′s. That was not a happy period of the UUP’s history. The sense of ‘otherness’ that exists amongst border Unionists is well known, researched and documented. It is not a fictional notion dreamed up [...] more »
Should unionists be entitled to vote?
That is the logical question arising from what the UUP candidate claims SF have said in their literature in West Belfast. Mr Manwaring said; “Gerry Adams says that moves to secure a Unionist Assembly seat “represents the old unionist agenda of resisting equality and denying nationalists’ representation.” The message in this is that “old unionism” [...] more »
Is David Ford safe this time?
I don’t think we’ve had an open thread on South Antrim yet, but here’s a thought. A lot of the talk in 2003 and 2007 in South Antrim was over David Ford’s safety, at both elections he was the most vulnerable Alliance sitting MLA. Indeed a couple of weeks out from 2007 when asked I [...] more »
A thought on the Alliance Party Manifesto
The Alliance Manifesto is certainly the longest of any produced. In the summary on page five they commit to: Introduce transparency around political donations What interests me is, has anyone gotten around to asking Alliance if any part of their manifesto is brought to us courtesy of money changing hands? Seems a fair question in [...] more »
Nominations published
The Electoral Office have published the list of those seeking office at the Assembly elections. Having a quick scan two things stick out. The TUV are standing two candidates in North Antrim. Given that their ability to pick up transfers from anyone but eachother is going to be reasonably low, I don’t see why they [...] more »
Belfast and lost constituencies
The Belfast Telegraph also has a story on the boundary review. The revamp could mean — for example — that Belfast will be represented by two MPs rather than the current four, with south and east, and north and west constituencies in the city being amalgamated. Very little factual basis for this claim, Sunderland and [...] more »
Latest comments from Michael Shilliday (see all)
Michael Shilliday has commented 390 times (10 in the last month).
Advertise
-
Books
-
Debating the Churches’ Role in the Peace in Northern Ireland
This morning’s Sunday Sequence featured a substantial debate (about 35 minutes into the recorded programme) on a new book,Religion, Civil Society and Peace in Northern Ireland (Oxford University Press 2011), written by sociologists John Brewer, Gareth Higgins and Francis Teeney. The debate was framed in an opening vignette by presenter William Crawley in uncompromising terms, [...] read our review » -
Stay out of Libya: counterinsurgency doesn’t work
A moment of some significance in journalism perhaps, as the New York Times reviews the current talked about book, The Wrong War: Grit, Strategy, and the Way Out of Afghanistan by Bing West. The author is no bleeding heart but a former assistant Defense Secretary from the Reagan era who stomped his way round the Afghan [...] read our review »
-
Spare us a phoney row about racism, we’ve got enough on
A silly media row about racism just had to figure in the riots’ post mortem. Was the Tudor history expert David Starkey racist on Newsnight when he said: The whites have become black. A particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic, gangster culture has become the fashion. And black and white, boy and girl, operate in [...] read our review »
-
Comment on UUP: Confused boxer without a decent right or left?
on 2 February 2012 at 3:40 pm
A NI Tory with no idea how Government works. How odd.
Danny Kennedy has no power to announce how that money is to be reallocated. If there is any money to be allocated, he can bid for it in a monitoring round, but the Minister for Finance has the power to distribute it.
Go to comment
Comment on McNarry: “the party will close ranks and anybody who wants to be a hypocrite will get their photograph taken”
on 1 February 2012 at 9:21 pm
Hard to know what to say to that………….
Go to comment
Comment on New Tories, old Tories, what’s the difference?
on 1 February 2012 at 9:41 am
What’s your point? Are you expecting me to disagree with you? Other than to say that the offer he rejected wasn’t really an offer at all, but we all know why it was so disingenuous.
Go to comment
Comment on New Tories, old Tories, what’s the difference?
on 31 January 2012 at 9:04 pm
That’s hardly a surprise. But the Tory council candidates didn’t make up the difference either. Hence my statement ” The UUP and Tories can only hope for success together, it’s about time both sides came to terms with that.”
Go to comment
Comment on New Tories, old Tories, what’s the difference?
on 31 January 2012 at 8:36 pm
OneNI,
Open your eyes. 100k votes is what the UUP have been getting at every election since 2004. Even in the isolated DEA’s Tories were standing in in 2011 they were only getting 2% of the vote. The UUP and Tories can only hope for success together, it’s about time both sides came to terms with that.
Go to comment
Comment on Robinson seeds a slow merger for the UUP?
on 18 January 2012 at 8:19 pm
Err, that’s Unionist. It’s just a unionist perspective. You are confusing believing in something with being an extremist again.
Go to comment
Comment on Robinson seeds a slow merger for the UUP?
on 18 January 2012 at 5:49 pm
Quite how you have managed to misunderstand what I said so fundamentally will never be fully apparent to me. Your reply Rory, is a truly heroic misrepresentation of my position.
Go to comment
Comment on Robinson seeds a slow merger for the UUP?
on 18 January 2012 at 5:12 pm
I want absolutely nothing to do with these people:
http://www.tyronetimes.co.uk/news/local/disgust_as_dup_fail_to_mark_sf_councillor_s_bereavement_1_3425858
So if the UUP decides it’s better to be linked with the party that refuses to sympathise with the recently bereaved than with the Conservative Party, I will have nothing to do with the UUP either. Recently I thought this madness was off the table again, but Banquo has resurfaced and we all get to dream about how good it would be if it was all Prods together. Or at least some of us do.
Go to comment
Comment on What if David Ford and the Alliance ruling council did walk away from justice? Allister? Agnew? Hay?
on 13 January 2012 at 9:35 am
It’s inherently a good idea to have someone in there who knows at least as much as the civil servants about his job. But maybe not Jim Allister. It’s also inherently a good idea to have lawyers in decision making positions surrounding the law (almost everything Labour did to criminal procedure being the, rather large, exception that proves the rule there).
Go to comment
Comment on What if David Ford and the Alliance ruling council did walk away from justice? Allister? Agnew? Hay?
on 13 January 2012 at 8:46 am
What makes you think Willie Hay will leave the DUP to look independent to be a Minister when he didn’t do it to be Speaker?
Go to comment