Economy
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 »
“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 »
“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 »
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 »
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 »
Cyprus: So what happens next?
Tweet The Guardian’s still live-blogging, for now, in the aftermath of Cyprus’ parliament’s rejection of an, albeit amended, EU/IMF cunning plan bail-out which included the public seizure levying of €5.8billion from private depositors in Cypriot banks – 36 votes against, 19 abstentions, none in favour. The paper’s economics editor, Larry Elliot, answers the title question …there are really only [...] more »
How do Robinson and McGuinness explain their anti- EU stances to Brazilian and other would be overseas investors?
Tweet The Financial Times (£) have another report warning of possible dire consequences if the UK voted to leave the EU in a 2017 referendum, not least for Ireland north and south. An UK exit from the EU would produce huge complications to cross border trade – you can just imagine trying to put in [...] more »
#MU13 “Mid-Ulster is a constituency with more than its fair share of problems.”
Tweet Nice piece by Peter Geoghegan, who’s been doing some digging in Mid Ulster, and what a functional political argument might have raised for the voters: The Irish housing boom was not confined to the southern side of the border, and the collapse in construction has hit Mid-Ulster hard. Between 2007 and 2008, joblessness in [...] more »
Ireland: Europe’s poster child for austerity or fall guy?
Tweet “The plan is working” declares the Taoiseach, in an article above his name in the Irish Times. While I acknowledge that we still have a long way to go, it is clear Ireland is headed in the right direction and there is light at the end of this tunnel .. Other banks have been [...] more »
Sir George Quigley
Tweet The sudden death at 83 of Sir George Quigley is a reminder of the underappreciated value of the really top class civil servant. No faceless bureaucrat during the long years of Direct Rule at the department of finance and elsewhere, he had an equally beneficial afterlife in the public and private sectors, serving [...] more »
Irish Agriculture Minister: “I am seriously concerned about this development…”
Tweet I haven’t been posting on every twist and turn [Not "an isolated instance", then? - Ed] of the still unravelling story of the Europe-wide horse meat for beef scandal. But this looks like it could be a significant development. From the RTÉ report A processing plant in Co Tipperary has been shut down after inspectors found it [...] more »
Italy: “History risks repeating itself…”
Tweet The BBC’s Europe editor, Gavin Hewitt has been looking to Italy ahead of a general election brought 2 months early after Silvio Berlusconi’s party withdrew support for Mario Monti’s technocratic government – voting begins on Sunday. The FT notes that Strong, stable government will be needed to continue the reform process put in place by [...] more »
“Two European countries, Ireland and Norway, have already banned all eel fisheries.”
Tweet But not in Northern Ireland. [Partitionist! - Ed] Indeed. Here the regulation of eel fisheries is the responsibility of the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure – and the current Minister, Sinn Féin’s Carál Ní Chuilín. As is salmon fishing… There was a brief flurry of press statements last week as the NI DCAL Minister suddenly [...] more »
In the UK housing market it’s back to the 1970s
Tweet The ever widening gap in regional property values is spelt out in Mail Online is even more remorseless detail than the news section of its source, the upmarket estate agents Savils. Homes in the ten richest London boroughs are worth the combined total of houses in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, it emerged yesterday. And [...] more »
“In Ireland, it is not in our culture to eat horsemeat and therefore, we do not expect to find it in a burger…”
Tweet So, what did you have for dinner… The BBC reports the headline findings of the snapshot survey by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland of some beef-based products on sale in Ireland. From the BBC report Horse DNA has been found in some beef burgers being sold in UK and Irish supermarkets, the Republic [...] more »
“Sinn Féin councillor Máirtín Ó Muilleoir has called on Belfast Chamber of Commerce President Joe Jordan to ‘stop politicking’…”
Tweet It’s not entirely clear to me why Belfast Chamber of Commerce President Joe Jordan has been singled out for criticism by Sinn Féin Councillor Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, but he has been. Here’s the 11 January press release from the Sinn Féin website Sinn Féin councillor Máirtín Ó Muilleoir has called on Belfast Chamber of Commerce President Joe [...] more »
Belfast start for 2014 Giro d’Italia? – “Discussions are ongoing”
Tweet It could be some time before we get an answer to that question – official confirmation that cycling’s 2013 Giro would start in Naples only came in June last year. But there’s been a flurry of activity following a L’Equipe report last night that sources were confirming that Belfast would host the start of the 2014 Giro d’Italia. [...] more »
“Many of them only yearn for victory…”
Tweet The Guardian’s Simon Hoggart has some interesting thoughts on the ongoing controversy over flags. The tremendous fall in violence over the past decade or so has perhaps made us forget that for some people in Northern Ireland the Troubles are not a frightening inconvenience but part of the fabric of their lives and their [...] more »
“the looming legal row, which is due to commence on 9 January, could become a defining event for Northern Ireland…”
Tweet Well, perhaps. At the very least it might provide the basis for some actual politics, for a while… ANYhoo… The Observer’s Jamie Doward with a reminder of the upcoming legal battle over planning permission for the Bushmills Dunnes development - a 18-hole golf course, clubhouse, golf academy, 120-room hotel and 75 golf lodges complex, plus associated [...] more »
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Books
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The peace process not such a good model after all
Tweet Which reminds me…. Platform for Change’s driving force Robin Wilson has produced a corrective to the notion that the lessons of the NI conflict are easily exportable. Like myself, Robin is associated with the Constitution Unit. He introduced his new book in a CU blog which I here reproduce. The water crisis in Northern [...] read our review »
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The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday (Neil MacFarquhar)
Tweet With perhaps the longest title of any book I’ve read this year, The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday: Unexpected Encounters in the Changing Middle East gives an insight into the lives of people living in Middle East through the eyes of journalist Neil MacFarquhar. MacFarquhar’s father was a chemical [...] read our review »
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Eamon Nancarrow’s misadventures in Rock…
Tweet It’s the quiet ones you have to watch, they say. When I last saw Eamonn Namcarrow, back in the mid 1980s he was a congenial, good-natured and highly sociable young lad. The next time was 26 years later, in Lavery’s Gin Palace in Bradbury Place. He’d just brought out his first book, Holywood Star [...] read our review »
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