Nationalism
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 »
What will become of the May 2015 UK Parliament if Scotland votes “Yes” on independence?
Tweet Every so often – but not very often – a major theme enters political debate which nobody noticed much at first but when attention is drawn to it, it becomes completely obvious. This topic is one such I’m posting here on how a referendum vote in favour of Scottish independence in September 2014 could greatly complicate [...] more »
Salmond prepares to let Westminster take the hit over post-Leveson press regulation
Tweet It may surprise you to learn that a separate Scottish response to the Leveson report on press regulation is looking unlikely. Stage One was a separate report by an “expert group” headed by the former Scottish judge Lord McCluskey who recommended “draconian “ powers and a regulator appointed by the Scottish government. If the [...] 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 »
ECNI: “where it believes that a public authority may have failed to comply with its approved Equality Scheme…”
Tweet As UTV note, the Equality Commission For Northern Ireland have announced that they are “to conduct an investigation into a decision made by Newry and Mourne District council to retain the name “The Raymond McCreesh Park” for a Council-owned play park in Newry.” Here’s Mick’s post on that decision in December last year. From [...] more »
What is history for again?
Tweet A growing row over Michael Gove’s proposed new history curriculum for England may well spark a bout of Brit bashing in Slugger and other places. Anything that seems to encourage the “great man theory ”( History p 165 et seq)” of British history will be dumped on, but not only on this side of the [...] more »
Opening shots muffled in UK government’s fightback against Scottish independence campaign
Tweet Significantly as PM and not as Conservative leader David Cameron launched on Sunday a “heart and head” campaign against Scottish “separation” as unionists like to call it, with a upbeat image of four happy partners. Britain is admired around the world as a source of prosperity, power and security. Those glorious Olympics last summer [...] more »
“a 65% to 17% majority for Northern Ireland remaining in the UK suggests little room for doubt.”
Tweet From the conversation on BBC NI Spotlight tonight there are challenges for all the political parties in the results of the polling by Ipsos Mori. But here are the reported results on the constitutional question. Not surprisingly, more than 90% of those who identify themselves as Protestants told the pollsters they wanted to stay [...] more »
UK’s strongest constitutional card may be the very mildness of the loyalty it invokes…
Tweet John Lloyd argues that the moment for unity is over. I’m not sure I agree with him in that regard, in the sense that the moment has never yet appeared. Thus far, Sinn Fein’s call for a border poll has only served to emphasise a growing political distance between Northern Ireland and the south. [...] more »
Is Heaney right when he talks about us having ‘caste politics’?
Tweet I was wondering if in my absence yesterday someone on the Slugger team might have picked up the gauntlet thrown down so casually by the south Derry Nobel Lauret, Seamus Heaney. It seems not. In an interview with the Times it seems the poet doesn’t think there is going to be a united Ireland. [...] more »
Referendum blues
Tweet Bad news for the Yes campaign for Scottish independence, analysed by the psephological guru of gurus John Curtice. It’s a debate worth following not only for its own sake but for how issues wider than the border itself might feed into any referendum debate in Ireland. First off, the headline: just 23% now say that “Scotland [...] more »
Villiers: “It is crucial that political leaders here concentrate on working together on pressing economic and social issues…”
Tweet Both the Irish and British Governments have given their answer to Sinn Féin’s fanciful notion of a border poll. [Catch yourselves on? - Ed] Indeed. Taoiseach Enda Kenny in the Dáil “I think we have a lot of work to do both here and up North before people’s mentality and views change about the [...] more »
We could be entering an era of referendum politics. Will it be destructive or creative?
Tweet Sinn Fein’s very reason for existing requires that they will call for a border poll during the life time of the 2015-19 Assembly. The tactic is about more than bravado. SF can afford to lose one poll and yet do well enough for another to be called within the prescribed seven years. It might [...] more »
“If you set so much store by symbols then don’t be surprised if…”
Tweet In the News Letter, Alex Kane has some sensible advice for the recently convened unionist forum. From the News Letter article So can we stop falling over ourselves in a headlong rush to jump into every elephant trap set for us by Sinn Fein and Gerry Adams’ continuous loop guff about the inevitability of [...] more »
Leadership That’s Working?
Tweet 48, 48, and 48 – those are the nightmare numbers for Unionism. Not necessarily for the Union, but for Unionism the political ideology as we have understood it for the past century or so. In the 2011 Assembly election, only 48% of the population voted for Unionist candidates, interpreting that term as generously as [...] 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 »
Why are Sinn Fein’s ratings in political game higher than the Unionists’?
Tweet The perception filling the airwaves that Sinn Fein do a better job of representing the people than the unionist parties needs examination. On the one hand everybody seems to believe it or explain it by claiming SF had the easier task – “Catholics had it all to gain; the Prods could only lose.” The [...] more »
Now here’s a thought. The Union Jack is not the flag of Unionism
Tweet The raising of the Union Jack for a day over the City Hall (not “City Hall”, BBC) creates a welcome moment of reflection for the political parties. Looking around them, they can surely see that the protests do not have the oxygen to ignite a real crisis, as Eamonn has reported. The persistence of disorder and [...] more »
We need fresher thinking than this
Tweet Two New Year articles worth noting which struggle with the abiding theme. Given prime billing in the Irish Times, Robin Wilson laments the anti-democratic and physical force elements in both of our traditions as we move further into the decade of commemoration. His historical sweep of a century reinforces his determinist case against the [...] more »
The modest case for the Assembly in 2013
Tweet Later.. I’ve now made it to 20 points by adding a couple on managing the economy ( how could I have left them out?). These create a dialogue with Mick, although not quite along the same lines. Working with the available material and far away from Nirvana. To adapt Mario Cuomo, you rebel in poetry but [...] more »
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Books
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Unionists, Loyalists, and Conflict Transformation. A book about how things are changing.
Tweet Unionists, Loyalists, and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland is a new academic tome by lecturer and researcher Lee Smithey. In the book the Pennsylvania academic outlines his findings based on 67 interviews over eighteen months with grassroots activists in unionist and loyalist communities and organisations. This is largely a book about men, even though [...] read our review »
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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 » -
Friday afternoon thread: Why confession works in a world of ‘cheaters’…
Tweet This is really worth watching… It suggests the very Catholic option of opening a new page by having a confession process does in the longer term help people to behave better… Presented by Dan Ariely, author of The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone – Especially Ourselves. read our review »
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