DUP
OFMdFM: “as open and transparent as possible”
Tweet After much foot-dragging, the Northern Ireland First and deputy First Ministers have released the cost [to date - Ed] of their 12-day March junket trip to Brazil and the USA to “Develop and promote political, investment, trade, university and tourism links” – an eye-watering £155,509. As Mark Devenport tweeted So were FM and DFM’s recent [...] more »
“creating consistency between each of the devolved institutions across the United Kingdom”
Tweet While the bullshit distraction that is the DUP/Sinn Féin “Building a United Community” paper [pdf file] was being paraded across the airwaves last week - Think of it as a revamped Contested Space Programme [Don't tell the International Fund for Ireland - Ed], pre-empting consultation on area-based planning, and Girdwood times 10. [And another non-working [...] more »
Seize the opportunities opened up by the Good Relations strategy. Don’t write it off
Tweet Mick’s last post is probably representative of the muted reaction to the long awaited initiative. All the same I’d rather take a more positive approach and - yes!- begin with accepting it at face value. So I’m asking: are critics justified in writing off already the Cohesion Sharing and Integration statement ( not yet a strategy and [...] more »
“during the Derry visit, Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson were nowhere to be seen, surely mindful of their upcoming trade mission to China.”
Tweet According to an Irish News report today …OFMDFM has refuted any suggestion that the Stormont leaders snubbed the Dalai Lama when he visited Derry last month. A spokesperson for OFMDFM said the ministers were unable to attend “due to prior diary commitments”. Which is fine… After all, “diary pressures” was the same excuse Tony Blair [...] more »
OFMDFM spokeswoman: “The Defamation Bill was never considered by the Executive”
Tweet In the Belfast Telegraph, Liam Clarke has a glimpse behind the curtain at ministerial manoeuvring around the failure to consent to the UK Defamation Bill. From the Belfast Telegraph article UK-wide legislation like the Defamation Bill can be extended to here by a motion of ‘Legislative Consent’ passed at the Assembly. A minister, though, must [...] more »
Peter Robinson: in 50 years’ time the votes of the culturally Irish will help ensure union remains safe
Tweet Peter Robinson light-heartedly suggested that DUP’s first ever spring policy conference today in Fermanagh “means that the G8 Summit has now been demoted to the second most important event in Fermanagh this year!” The full speech is available from the DUP website. The DUP leader reassured delegates that Nigel Dodds “will be back at [...] more »
“they have failed to adopt the responsibility and transparency which goes with power”
Tweet In his Irish News column on Saturday, Patrick Murphy identified three “explanations for the failure of Stormont”. That’s all he had time for… From the Irish News article The first is the catch-22 analysis, based on the novel by Joseph Heller. In it, US pilots in the Second World War were deemed crazy to [...] more »
Micheál Martin: Legacy of 1916 is to build rather than to divide the Irish nation…
Tweet Just out of embargo, here’s today’s speech from the Fianna Fail leader made just now at Arbour Hill church, where the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising were buried. The added emphases are mine: Every state should take time to commemorate and celebrate the people and events of their founding. This commemoration is organised [...] more »
“They’ve had the time, they’ve had the money, they’ve had the opportunity…”
Tweet Refreshing to hear someone call it as it is.. and John Cunningham of the Camlin Group certainly laid it on the line last night on The View... “It’s like watching children argue, arguing at school. What relevance does it have? Why don’t they put it all behind and really look and address the problems [...] more »
“it is important that other schemes that may be in a position to be progressed ahead of the A5 are given full consideration by the Executive”
Tweet As the BBC report, the Northern Ireland Regional Development Minister, the UUP’s Danny Kennedy, has announced that his department will not be appealing the Belfast High Court ruling quashing the decision to go ahead with the controversial A5 £330m dual carriageway project. A “costly mistake [not appealing] but will not be the end of this project“, according to [...] more »
OFMdFM parties tell Villiers she cannot take their money ball away…
Tweet That productivity deal that Theresa Villiers has been talking about putting on the table went down well with OFMdFM, NOT… Noel MacAdam in the BelTel: The controlling parties in the Executive also argued the attempt to use the promised package – believed to include EU Peace cash – as leverage could backfire. Finance Minister [...] more »
“But we’re still part of the UK…”
Tweet The DUP’s Jeffrey Donaldson, MP, and Sinn Féin’s Alex Maskey, MLA, appeared separately on UTV Live this evening to give their thoughts on the 15th anniversary of the 1998 Agreement. Apparently Alex Maskey hadn’t arrived at the studio in time for the first segment… Whether by accident, or design, it was left to presenter Seamus [...] more »
Theresa Villiers: “our economic package will be closely linked to, and conditional on real progress by the executive…”
Tweet The Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers, was in west Belfast today on the 15th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement. Here’s a couple of lines from her press statement The Agreement called for ‘reconciliation, tolerance, and mutual trust’ and as I’ve travelled around Northern Ireland, I’ve seen many fantastic initiatives that are bringing different [...] more »
“Already, two Sinn Fein special advisers have been submitted to vetting procedures put in place by Sammy Wilson, the finance minister, as a condition for paying them.”
Tweet In the Belfast Telegraph, Liam Clarke adds some interesting background detail on Jim Allister’s Bill legislating for the vetting of ministerial special advisers. As he points out, vetting began following the resignation of Sinn Féin’s Mary McArdle - who had been jailed for her part in the 1984 murder of Mary Travers. From the Belfast [...] more »
“the Department had access to all the relevant information and yet…” – redux
Tweet In February 2010, when the UK parliamentary Treasury Committee criticised the NI Department of Enterprise, Trade and Industry’s failure to identify the problems with the Presbyterian Mutual Society, the relevant NI Executive Minister, the DUP’s Arlene Foster, dismissed their report as “the shoddiest piece of work I have seen coming out of Westminster for [...] more »
“unless it’s because politicians in Northern Ireland want to be able to sue newspapers more readily…”
Tweet Some interesting added detail in the News Letter report following up on the story of the Northern Ireland Executive’s failure to consent to the Defamation Bill going through the UK Parliament. To begin with, it’s claimed that it wasn’t the Executive after all… Last Wednesday, the News Letter revealed that the Defamation Bill – [...] more »
The judges are right to speak out against coat trailing politicians
Tweet The sequence of empty complaints led by Peter Robinson about the “perceptions” of partiality in the granting of bail only risks creating more trouble for the police and the courts to deal with, witness Glengormley last night. The gurning is unlikely to have the slightest effect on the PSNI and the judiciary. This is not [...] more »
The political vacuum is compromising the standing of the PSNI
Tweet When criticism is made from both directions it’s often said that the subject of the criticism must be doing something right. I suspect that’s what Matt Baggott is thinking now over the rows about recent arrests on both sides of the divide. There is an alternative view of course; he may be getting it [...] more »
“Our job is to express the concerns as we hear them in the community…”
Tweet If it’s not Sinn Féin complaining about ‘political policing’, it’s the DUP. Mr Robinson said that trust needed to be rebuilt. “It’s important that the police gain the confidence of the unionist community, or regain the confidence of that section of the unionist community who have lost confidence in the police, by showing that his [...] more »
“after some people made it clear they were not prepared to make witness statements to investigating officers”
Tweet An Irish Times hosted PA report adds some interesting detail to the story of the arrest, questioning, and subsequent unconditional release – after being in custody for 36 hours - of Shankill bomber Sean Kelly following the apparent punishment shooting of an 18-year-old in Ardoyne. From the Irish Times report It is understood detectives had been [...] more »
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Books
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Death of Dolours Price – opens up possibility that her taped oral history will be published (or not)
Tweet Dolours Price – sister, mother, bomber, prisoner and a thorn in Gerry Adams’ side – died in her Malahide home on Wednesday night. The Guardian’s Ireland correspondent Henry McDonald writes: Price was involved in a car bombing at the Old Bailey in 1973, which injured more than 200 people and may have led to [...] read our review » -
Ulsters Last Stand?: Can Unionism Move Beyond Insurance Policy Politics?
Tweet How has Ulster unionism arrived at where it is today – fractured and uncertain, yet dominated electorally by the DUP, a party that tells us it offers unionists sure footing in uncertain times? In his latest book, Ulster’s Last Stand? Reconstructing Unionism after the Peace Process (Irish Academic Press, 2010), Prof. James McAuley from [...] read our review »
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Belfast port celebrated as hopes rise for lower corporation tax
Tweet The House of Lords was the suitably grand venue for the London launch of Alf McCreary’s magnificently illustrated tome Titanic Port, a history of Belfast Harbour. Before I got a chance to take a good look at my copy, my ears pricked up when the chairman of the harbour commissioners Len O’Hagan said hopes were [...] read our review »
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