Negotiations
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 »
“Let’s just start building in a business-like, decent-minded way.”
Tweet Jude Collins with what looks like good advice to me… If we all wanted to be friends, we might all consider joining the same political party… Or you might say, a little more extremism, less fanaticism? more »
The danger of an impotent Assembly
Tweet The litany of ritual condemnation in yesterday’s Assembly debate could have been spoken any time during direct rule. There is no hint here of a responsible government trying to get on top of events. Just a wringing of hands in an Assembly, impotent, riddled with its own contradictions, waiting for the trouble to burn itself [...] more »
“But today, identity seems more central to politics than ever before.”
Tweet Brian’s noting of the advice from Richard Haass to the Israeli government reminded me that there are other places, and administrations, who have received similar ‘lessons’ from The Process™ here. Afghanistan, for example. Of course, it always helps to have well-placed friends [writing your speeches! - Ed]. And it’s worth noting that Richard Haass’ role [...] more »
The NI peace process has lessons for Israel and Hamas
Tweet Richard Haass President Bush’s envoy to Northern Ireland and now head of a leading foreign affairs advisory board, has a piece in the Financial Times (£) headlined “Israel should learn from Northern Ireland.” The first lessons are not those touted by the former paramilitaries but those learned by the governments. As he has said before, [...] more »
Belated admissions from both of Northern Ireland’s top politicians…
Tweet Things I thought I’d never hear in public… 1, Peter Robinson admitting that unionists were too slow on accepting power sharing; and Martin McGuinness admitting that he and his party dobbed Trimble in with those unfulfilled promises to decommission IRA weapons before the November 2003 Assembly election… Nice to hear it, finally, from the [...] more »
“They are conversations – they are not negotiations, they are not mediation…”
Tweet With the draconian approach of the elected representatives in Sinn Féin and the DUP abandoned, and long-forgotten, the extant Parades Commission have appointed a trio of intermediaries to have ‘conversations’ with unidentified others in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast. From the BBC report Lord Alderdice is involved in the initiative, along with the Holy Cross [...] more »
Lessons from Northern Ireland: Rise above the fatalism generated by your own “sui generis” conflict…
Tweet H/T Mary FitzGerald on Twitter… This is a fairly impressive array of academic, political and government voices which looks at what lessons might be drawn from our much feted Peace Process, recorded in May last year… Most worthy of note are Jonathan Powell (keep hard power on so the insurgents cannot get comfortable, but [...] more »
Queen’s Visit: Time to move on but not to forget…
Tweet ‘I have signed my own death warrant’; so (allegedly) did Michael Collins spake after he had signed The Treaty in London in 1921. Collins’s support for the Anglo-Irish Treaty which both agreed to the partition of the country and required elected representatives in the new state to promise to be faithful to His Majesty [...] more »
Will Irish Labour take lessons from the British experience of coalition?
Tweet The Guardian’s Wintour and Watt blog warns the Irish Labour party of the risks of taking the Clegg coalition route. Yet it’s still hard to believe that the coalition dance in Dublin is much more than a ritual. Comparisons partly depend on your outlook. Pro- Labour opinion in Britain likes to think that the [...] more »
Wrangles over spending cuts expose flaws in political relationships
Tweet Northern Ireland’s only regular press commentator on economics John Simpson is the latest to pour cold water on harmonising corporation tax with the Republic. ( though as usual John does it very gently). Any extra foreign direct investment (FDI) gained would fail to make up the consequent shortfall in block grant revenues of about £200m a year [...] more »
Tax powers for Stormont, a doubtful proposition
Tweet Should the Assembly bid to Westminster to take on tax varying powers and lower corporation tax to the Republic’s level of 12.5%? Local experts appearing before the NI Select Committee were divided. It was pretty much the magic bullet for lobbyists from the Economic Reform Group, Eamonn Donaghy of KPMG and Victor Hewitt of the Economic [...] more »
Attacking Blair only steers political reform into a cul-de-sac
Tweet Robin Wilson’s dismissal ( link repaired) of Tony Blair’s handling of the peace process is misconceived. It’s not clear what his precise objections are. For Robin the form of power sharing which was adopted only institutionalised sectarianism. Can we really heap all that on Blair’s head? In one vital respect the prophets of doom [...] more »
Talking to Terrorists
Tweet On BBC Radio 4 Owen Paterson began down the well trodden road of disingenuous double speak so beloved of Shaun Woodward, Peter Hain and numerous Conservative Secretaries of State of old and avoided completely denying contacts with the terrorists. This has yielded the predictable response of fury from Gregory Campbell and Jim Allister. About [...] more »
Ritchie on the ‘stuck’ Executive…
Tweet SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie says the NI assembly continues to be ‘dysfunctional.’ In a blistering attack on incomplete projects in the term just ended the South Down MP predicts the Executive’s performance will worsen under the weight of further cuts. These are the key areas of ‘failure’ highlighted by her: “The long and expensive [...] more »
Debate within Unionism: Thorough, Intense and Constructive
This is a cross posting of Fair Deal's contribution to Open Unionism's ongoing debate on the future of unionism. He argues that all parties to the debate must resist the temptation to the shape of the solution in their own preferred image, but rather they must allow the debate be 'thorough, intense and constructive'. more »
Sinn Féin’s politics of delusion
Tweet Sinn Féin’s response to criticism of their refusal to sit at Westminster in the face of proposed cuts post-election has been to call on all the other parties “to unite with us against the cuts”, and even to press for an increase in the block grant. At the same time the party’s manifesto, along with others, wants [...] more »
Bloody Sunday: Once again, politics trumped truth….
Tweet Derry has more than its fair share of unfinished business viz a viz the troubles. Earlier today Eamonn McCann gave the Annual Lecture at the St Patrick’s Festival, Coatbridge, Glasgow. The following is an extract in which he argues that political processes has obscured the outcome of the Saville Inquiry: Bloody Sunday was a [...] more »
Time for the DUP and UUP to think the unthinkable?
Tweet The stated policy of all the unionist parties is to move from the current status of mandatory coalition under D’Hondt to one of voluntary coalition. There are perceived to be enormous advantages to having a more normalised system of government with proper power sharing within the confines of a cabinet with collective responsibility. Collective [...] more »
So what’s the deal with the party then Peter?
Tweet The trouble with these deals that we have not yet seen, nor has the likely putative Justice Minister is that we don’t know what they contain. But as raised here a few weeks ago, we still don’t know what might remotely trigger Robinson’s resignation. Lord Ken Magennis in last night’s Tele: Reports have suggested [...] more »
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Books
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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 » -
It’s Derry again – with London and Liverpool, commemorating the Battle of the Atlantic
Tweet From the Dalai Lama to a “ VVIP” at the weekend, Londonderry is proving quite a venue, one of three for commemorating the Battle of the Atlantic this weekend. Good to see the UK City of Culture grafting this on to the programme and the recognition given to its role as a major port [...] read our review » -
A Political History of the Two Irelands competition…
Tweet It’s not often we get free things to give away to our readers, but courtesy of Palgrave Macmillan we have a nice paperback copy of Brian M Walker’s excellent history of partition of the island and how identities shifted in both the north east and the south and west: as most of the territory [...] read our review »
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