OFMdFM
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 »
OFMdFM panic move was “like a funding application where the Secretary of State had cracked the whip”
Tweet Well, here’s a bit of a YouTube Smorgasbord of comment on OFMdFM’s Towards a United Community… It’s telling that the joint tactics of the representatives of the OFMdFM parties used a lot of shouting, jeering and intervention to smother what was in aggregate a decent three pointed challenge from Alliance, the UUP and the [...] 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 »
“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 »
Draft CSI document contains yawning gaps. OFMdFM parties fear criticism.
Tweet Interesting snippet from Mark Devenport which says an awful lot… The layman might think that the obvious big gesture for Stormont to make would be to publish the long delayed Cohesion Sharing and Integration strategy, a draft of which the BBC obtained back in January. However, publishing the whole document might be fraught with [...] 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 »
“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 »
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 »
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 »
Cameron’s occasional summitry replaces Blair’s swing door…
Tweet When the First and deputy First Minister arrived at 10 Downing Street last month, they had to wait outside for ‘the magic door’ to open. Inadvertent no doubt, but the downgrade it implies chimes with David Cameron’s determination to signal to all parties in Northern Ireland that all messes are their messes and it [...] more »
FM and dFM troubles: “a lot more work to be done before there’s true unity…”
Tweet Well, what a homecoming! No sooner had the First Minister got down off the steps of his transatlantic flight than Jane Loughrey of UTV was on hand to ask some relevant questions… And there at 2.56 is Peter’s immortal line, “Stop reading the Irish News…” It spawned three pages of coverage in that paper [...] 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 »
Absentee OFMdFM leadership thawing out in Brazil?
Tweet Brilliant piece of’so-whatness’ from MalachiO’Doherty on an OFMdFM that seems not to understand yet that it is they who are in charge, or Matt Baggott, or anyone of a dozen favourite bogeymen… Have you been down to the beach? Copacabana? Pina Colada? That’s what you need, some chill-out time to talk over your wee [...] 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 »
What exactly has OFMdFM done in the last six months (warning, it’s not impressive)?
Tweet The Irish News today goes back to a strange little communication from OFMdFM last July 18, which laid out ten achievements. As it notes in its editorial: The statement was sent out one evening during the holiday period via email without any form of briefing. Further details were said to be unavailable and interviews [...] more »
Peter Hain: “I took some risky decisions to engage with people who were on the fringes…”
Tweet The BBC reports more self-aggrandisement disguised as political comment from the erstwhile Secretary of State for Wales, etc, Peter Hain. From the BBC report “In Northern Ireland, I think there is a particular issue with the loyalist community and I do not think the government is doing enough to engage with them,” [Peter Hain] [...] more »
OFMDFM’s sluggardly FOI performance under spotlight
Tweet This morning the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) announced four public bodies which will be monitored between January and March in 2013 “over concerns about the timeliness of their responses to Freedom of Information requests”. The four public bodies were selected from the thousands of public bodies across the UK that fall under the ICO’s [...] more »
“Leaders welcomed the opportunity to meet and engage in a discussion…”
Tweet According to the BBC report, after a “meeting at Stormont Castle, which began at 0930 GMT and lasted almost eight hours, [and] was supposed to take place last week but was cancelled after some parties refused to attend”, “The leaders of Northern Ireland’s five main parties have reaffirmed their commitment to the rule of [...] more »
OFMdFM: Political leadership, what’s that then?
Tweet So where’s big politics in all of this flegs crisis. Answer: It is getting smaller and less apparent every day that passes. So far OFMdFM have issued two statements. The first was as follows: The First Minister Rt Hon Peter D. Robinson MLA and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness MP MLA have this evening [...] more »
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Books
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Of the Old North and other Vanished Kingdoms..
Tweet I’m currently trawling through Norman Davies’s fabulous new tome – “Vanished Kingdoms” – Five stars in the (London) Telegraph’s review from Ben Wilson: All the nations that have ever lived have left their footsteps in the sand,” writes Norman Davies. “The traces fade with every tide, the echoes grow faint, the images are fractured, the [...] read our review » -
Debating the Churches’ Role in the Peace in Northern Ireland
Tweet This morning’s Sunday Sequence featured a substantial debate (about 35 minutes into the recorded programme) on a new book,Religion, Civil Society and Peace in Northern Ireland (Oxford University Press 2011), written by sociologists John Brewer, Gareth Higgins and Francis Teeney. The debate was framed in an opening vignette by presenter William Crawley in uncompromising [...] read our review » -
Titanic: was it all right when it left here?
Tweet Not according to metallurgists Tim Foecke and Jennifer Hooper McCarty whose research has suggested that dodgy Harland and Wolff rivets were at fault for allowing the Titanic’s hull to be ripped apart by the pressure of the iceberg impact. With six of the hull’s chambers exposed to the Atlantic waters, the “unsinkable” ship lasted [...] read our review »
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