England
Gove calls for a split with Wales and NI on GCSE and A Level reform…
Tweet Here’s one to put on the long term forecast. Michael Gove was over last week (not that our Education Minister was very forthcoming on what they actually talked about)… and now he has announced there is such a gap between his reforms in GCSE and the way it is done in Wales and Northern [...] more »
British Labour contemplating a radical change agenda?
Tweet Of Irish Labour can offer a cautionary tale to its British cousins it is, that whatever you do do not land yourself in government without a credible plan of action in a time of internationally imposed austerity. Perhaps looking for strategic gains in tackling some of the long term damage of the Thatcher era [...] more »
Ferguson’s departure: Rivals must work to burst “the incumbency bubble” of the EPL
Tweet I always had it in mind to write something about three exceptionally long term and successful leaders in three very different fields. Now Alex Ferguson has gone, here’s the gist in short blog order… - Gerry Adams, who came to lead his political party from the fringes of constitutional politics in Northern Ireland to [...] more »
2013 elections: the alienation of Freelander man
Tweet The local election results in England and Wales (mainly rural England in actual fact) are now in. They are somewhere between a protest vote with little relevance to the next Westminster elections and a complete sea change in British politics. As ever the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. It does, however, illustrate [...] more »
If you live in a glass house, don`t throw stones…at UKIP
Tweet Much ado about Ken Clarke`s comments on `UKIP clowns, closet racists and fruitcakes` over the weekend. It is amazing however what turns up when you Google various configurations of the words Labour, Tory, racist, nazi & BNP. For example, BNP leader Nick Griffin’s father was a Welsh Tory aide to Ian Duncan Smith in 2001, [...] more »
UTV’s Thatcher’s Ireland: “She stood firm…”
Tweet Last night’s Thatcher’s Ireland from UTV has breadth, nuance, great editorial intellectual content and some of the most acute insight on Thatcher you’ll hear in the next week. It’s a revelation of the machiavellian core of politics… Paisley, dismisses the Hunger Strike as ‘a purely political stunt’… Mrs Thatcher’s actions at the most critical [...] more »
Commons Debate on Margaret Thatcher: Glenda Jackson goes and spoils the party by, erm, having a debate….
Tweet I don’t know whose idea it was to have a debate on Margaret Thatcher in the House of Commons. Glenda Jackson (no, I didn’t know she was still there, no idea John Whittingdale was still there either) could not stand the restraining convention of polite respect. She exaggerates, of course, she’s a politician after [...] more »
Bedroom Tax aimed at the poor in London and SE will cost more in Northern reland
Tweet So to be fair to Iain Duncan Smith, I don’t think the initial motive for the so-called bedroom tax (the social sector size criteria or under-occupation penalty) was to save money. Rather it was intended as a means of redistributing housing within the rented sector so that those with greatest got matching resources. This [...] more »
Belfast’s King of the Cat Burglars…
Tweet Perhaps you’ve never heard of him? Or perhaps you have? IN any case one of Belfast’s most notorious sons slipped his moorings last month. Peter Craig Gulston, or Peter Scott as he came to be known was… …variously hailed the “King of the Cat Burglars”, “Burglar to the Stars” or the “Human Fly”. He [...] more »
The pro-Union wheels are starting to turn in Scotland. But they could still come off the bus
Tweet Not before time, the wheels may be turning at last in the creaking pro-union machine to craft an effective reply to the SNP’s delivery vehicle for Scottish independence. The leader of the Scottish Conservatives Ruth Davidson has done a U-turn (£) to explore the idea of more and greater taxation powers for Holyrood. I wonder [...] more »
Friday Thread: The importance of creativity, fun and engagement in digital marketing
Tweet Our video, featuring Highways Manager Jon Fraser, was released last week. It has been widely well received, and cost was relatively little at £800, provided by our contractor rather than from public funds. We made sure we spent it working with local filmmaker. It took just a day and a half to make. Given [...] more »
So what went wrong in the first half against Ireland?
Tweet Wonderful day…in Cardiff anyway ! more »
Embarrassment over Stormont Executive’s shameful failiure to support UK wide free speech and libel reform
Tweet I’m obliged to Jeff Dudgeon for drawing attention to the latest failure by the Executive. It has come to light that the Stormont powers that be failed to agree on bringing Northern Ireland into line with the English Defamation Bill and so bring much needed reform to the libel laws – if the Bill isn’t [...] more »
One rule for an Irish TD and quite another for a British Minister…
Tweet So Chris Huhne gets eight months in Prison. For ducking driving points on his licence by swapping them with his now ex wife Vicky Pryce. Oh, and she gets 8 months for complicity. That’s the English for ya! Andrew Sparrow even ran a live blog on it. Guido’s hopes the judge would go easy [...] more »
Well meaning though it may be, I’m against teaching history to promote a shared identity
Tweet The historian Tristram Hunt has given a cautious welcome in the Times to Michael Gove’s controversial plans for the history curriculum in England, (£) a topic I raised last month. This is interesting because Hunt is also a Labour MP and pro-Labour reaction to the Gove proposals was generally hostile. Hunt writes: At the [...] more »
UKIP’s voters – older, more male and more working class. But especially older.
Tweet YouGov have produced a wonderful composite of all their February 2013 polling to try and give a realistic picture of which bits of the electorate are behind UKIP’s polling surge into double figures , a trend which was clear well before the party pushed the Tories into third place in the Eastleigh by-election last [...] more »
The abandonment of conservatism in British politics
Tweet The vast majority of the analysis of the Eastleigh byelection has centred round the failure of the Conservative Party and the success of UKIP. Essentially the analysis seems to be that the Conservative Party has not been right wing enough and most of the prescriptions for it have been to move to the right [...] more »
Eastleigh: Bad for Tories, Better for LDs, Best for UKIP
Tweet So the LibDems held on to Eastleigh by a narrow majority of 1,771 or just 4.3%, with UKIP surging into second place. Alex Massie in the Speccie warns against overanalysing by-elections, while Martin Kettle argued last week in the Guardian that this was the most crucial by-election in decades. I’m inclined to agree with [...] more »
Newcastle feels the chill wind that may soon blow Northern Ireland’s way?
Tweet Where I live, Newcastle Upon Tyne, there are plans afoot to cull 10 of the 18 libraries. Given that it is the young and elderly who disproportionately depend on them, this is no time to cut such a vital community service. Libraries help create a sense of community; the public use them if it’s [...] more »
Richard III, history and the pressing needs of a modern university…
Tweet I don’t know if you watched it, but C4 had a documentary on the uncovering of Richard III last night. R3, it seems, may have been more significant as a fictional character in Shakespeare than as an significant monarch in the history of the English state. A mere punctuation between prolonged civil war (as [...] more »
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Books
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The Imperfectionists (Tom Rachman) – an insight into a newspaper that’s maybe not so fictional
Tweet ‘news’ is often a polite way of saying ‘editor’s whim’ Given the shift from print to online and e-ink, maybe Tom Rachman’s The Imperfectionists was a suitable first first book for me to finish reading on the Kindle. Considering the economic pressures on the newspaper industry, his novel perhaps captures the spirit and soul [...] read our review »
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A New Vision for the Catholic Church – Book Review
Tweet The oft-quoted verse from the book of Proverbs, ‘where there is no vision, the people perish,’ (chapter 29, verse 18) opens a new book by Gerry O’Hanlon, A New Vision for the Catholic Church: A View from Ireland (Columba Press, 2011). That verse could be considered an apt summary of the current state of [...] read our review »
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Titanic: was it all right when it left here?
Tweet Not according to metallurgists Tim Foecke and Jennifer Hooper McCarty whose research has suggested that dodgy Harland and Wolff rivets were at fault for allowing the Titanic’s hull to be ripped apart by the pressure of the iceberg impact. With six of the hull’s chambers exposed to the Atlantic waters, the “unsinkable” ship lasted [...] read our review »
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