UK
#G8, transparency, tax and “the soft bigotry of low expectations…”
Tweet On tax, and transparency, here’s the final communique from Lough Erne. Ten “shoulds”, all of them ‘good things’, based on self reporting. Ah, “the soft bigotry of low expectations” says Joseph Cotteril. No imminent world government then? As The Economist noted last week: …offshore centres such as the Cayman Islands and Jersey, corporate service providers have [...] more »
#G8: Taxation should remain focused on capital and employees not where sales are generated…
Tweet Sammy Wilson’s negative comments re the Republic’s tax regime at the weekend, just before the G8 convened, was clearly jumping on board mumbling from the US Congress, and Westminster PAC… …the British government does have some leverage on the Irish Government there, because they have a £7.5 billion loan, that is a lot of [...] more »
Obama strikes a note of realism in making a cautious appeal to open a gate in the peace walls before tearing them down
Tweet While it causes a thrill to see Obama in town, lockdown bloated security hassle and all, visits by presidents, prime ministers and even popes are now subject to the law of diminishing returns. Timed to deliver a powerful boost the fledgling peace process in 1995, Bill Clinton’s impact at the City Hall was bound to [...] more »
Obama’s Speech in Belfast…
Tweet Obama’s just arriving at the Waterfront Hall… I’ll try and note the main highlights of the speech here (when he gets to the podium)… We're about to go LIVE!! UTV with full #Obama coverage at 9.25am. And don't forget the live online blog http://t.co/2o7j6pC8P9 — Marc Mallett (@MarcMallett_UTV) June 17, 2013 And US people, [...] more »
Query: Why are the EU and Republic of Ireland flags at the Lough Erne G8 resort?
Tweet Just out of curiosity I noted both the EU and Republic of Ireland flags flying at the Lough Erne resort in County Fermanagh on the local news earlier today. Now the G8 leaders countries are the USA, Canada, UK, Germany, Japan, France, Russia & Italy. Apparently the Presidents of the EU Commission and European [...] more »
“Adding more weapons to this volatile situation could destabilise the entire region…”
Tweet The Northern Ireland First and deputy First Ministers were in a sunny Downing Street garden yesterday, welcoming that suspect package, and extolling the virtues of demonstrating “peacefully, positively, constructively” [Is that with, or without, a Thompson sub-machine gun? - Ed] Without, probably… ANYhoo, on the same day Sinn Féin released the text of what appears [...] more »
‘Tax avoidance’ makes the G8 in Fermanagh more meaningful to Dublin than Stormont…
Tweet Yep, and if you want a short (if a little repetitive) pen picture of what and the who of the G8, this short video from the US Embassy in London is as good a grab as any. You can see from the ariel photographs here just why the Lough Erne Golf Resort was such [...] more »
For the sake of the future, the Assembly needs reform
Tweet You could be forgiven for failing to notice that the Assembly’s Assembly and Executive Review Committee has been holding a review on “D’Hondt; Community Designation and Provisions for Opposition” over the past four months. As the committee is due to report about now we’ve not got long to contain our excitement. The sweeping nature of the inquiry contrasts [...] more »
“It is the politics of self-interest, exclusion, and fear…”
Tweet Less than a week after MLAs Basil McCrea and John McCallister announced the launch of their new party, NI21, and the Northern Ireland Assembly’s Business Committee has changed the number of MLAs a party requires to be eligible for a first round place in the order of party speaking rights in the assembly. A change that affects only the [...] more »
If Ireland north and south can commemorate the First World War together, so should the Germans alongside the wartime Allies
Tweet A piece in the Indy by Matthew Norman on the UK’s plans to commemorate World War 1 has to be read quite carefully to register the satire against the (English) Culture secretary’s smiley moral equivalence approach to the vexed issue of war guilt. Were the Germans the clear aggressors or “were we all to blame?” [...] more »
No room for British #flegs in, erm, British Fermanagh…
Tweet Aha, I wondered how long it would take. In today’s Irish News Fionnuala O’Connor that it is ‘time to give all our identities a rest’. But not in Fermanagh. It started with the council airbrushing an English flag of St George from the top of Enniskillen Castle in a leaflet, now, according SF MLA [...] more »
G8 Summit: “Gardaí will place a particular emphasis on securing the Border…”
Tweet According to the Northern Ireland Finance Minister, the DUP’s Sammy Wilson, the NI Executive will face a bill of £6 million from the £60 million total cost of hosting the G8 Summit in Fermanagh on June 17th and 18th – the UK Treasury is expected to provide the rest of the funds required. But, as the [...] more »
NILT for 2012 suggests passion for constitutional issues is dropping fast…
Tweet Headline findings from the 2012 Life and Times survey includes some mixed news, and some fascinating snippets. Ive added emphasis to highlight some of the more intriguing findings: percentage believing that a United Ireland is very unlikely has now risen to 41%. proportion of Catholics expecting Irish unity remains less than among Protestants. a [...] more »
“still much to be done in those communities that have not previously, or only partially, engaged in peace building and reconciliation activities…”
Tweet The Irish Times reports on, what would appear to be, the International Fund for Ireland’s (IFI) response to the Northern Ireland First and deputy First Ministers bullshit distraction about ”Building a United Community”. From the Irish Times report “The community transformation strategy recognises the new reality on the ground and looks to support communities that are still [...] more »
On the matter of uncertainty and principle…
Tweet With all due apologies to students of quantum physics out there, Brian Feeney’s ‘poetic’ use of the Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle in today’s Irish News (£) to explain the SDLP’s apparent confusion over the last fortnight is too good to resist: The principle suggests that the closer you get to establishing the position of a [...] more »
Are the Sunday Mirror (and the Met) latest ‘target’ of Bangor con man, Mark Townley?
Tweet Well, here’s our old friend Mark Townley again. This time posing as a Jihadist. His story was plausible enough to have him arrested after ‘confessing’ to planning to kill Prince Harry. And to get the Sunday Mirror to cover it as real. Ashraf Islam is his latest nom de guerre. After his arrest over [...] more »
Lord John Laird in hot water over Fiji ‘gig’…
Tweet John Laird has a record of being somewhat indiscreet… But, this is not looking good… more »
Harry Fitzsimons arrested in Senegal
Tweet As the BBC reports A west Belfast man has been arrested in Senegal in west Africa. It is understood Harry Fitzsimons was detained in the capital Dakar last month. Earlier this year Italian police issued an arrest warrant for Mr Fitzsimons in connection with an alleged mafia money-laundering operation in Calabria in Italy. The [...] more »
Paisley, Question Time & Keeping up with the Jones’
Tweet Ian Paisley Jnr has caused a bit of a storm following his appearance on BBC Question Time earlier this week. His views on gay marriage (video clip here) provoked a twitter backlash (featured in yesterday’s Irish News) and led to several on air clashes with fellow contributors and members of the audience. What Paisley [...] more »
UK City of Culture rocks for Radio 1 Big Weekend
Tweet I’ve just been watching the video stream of Day Two of the Radio 1 Big Weekend in Derry for a few hours, on and off. (I fess up. My daughter is an executive producer of the event. For variety during the cultural initiation I opened up other windows to sound off in Slugger about political [...] more »
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Books
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“Good Friday. The death of Irish Republicanism” by Anthony McIntyre: a review
Tweet This was a book that I first reviewed at the same time as “Unionism Decayed” back in 2008. Like Vance’s work, it is the author’s portrayal of a defeated political movement or ideal and as a Unionist it was instructional to read an interpretation of the immediate post-Agreement period from the other side of the [...] read our review » -
The Earl Bishop
Tweet Interesting BBC article on an upcoming presentation and talk [Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre, 17 August] by lecturer and broadcaster Stephen Price on the subject of his new book – The Earl Bishop. The 18th Century ”Earl Bishop” was Frederick Augustus Hervey, fourth Earl of Bristol and Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry. Hervey was also [...] read our review »
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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 [...] read our review »
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