Unionism
End now the old pretence that we want to deal with the past
Tweet Another conference, another raking over old ground? Perhaps – but the DPP Barra McGrory made an interesting speech at the well-cast transitional justice conference in Belfast. “I think society has got to make a choice. Either it decides now to go down the route, the very difficult route, of determining that we are going [...] more »
Team Jasil – that’s John and Basil – say: “Get off your backsides and vote for people that are trying to make a difference”
Tweet Basil McCrea and John McCallister were the invited guest speakers at a Friday lunchtime Politics and Change in Northern Ireland seminar run by the Institute for Research in Social Sciences at UUJ. The room was mostly full of academics and postgraduate researchers. It was an opportunity to hear John and Basil deliver what might [...] more »
The Thatcher debate in the Commons
Tweet The speeches from our MPs Nigel Dodds and Alastair Macdonnell during the Thatcher tributes were bound to reflect the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. Neither speech was terrible. Both avoided a rant. Alastair McDonnell had the tougher job. His doctor’s experience in the face of death probably helped. But both of them followed the [...] 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 »
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 »
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 »
Basil and John need a name for their New Party: Can you help?
Tweet Renegade former Ulster Unionist MLAs Basil McCrea and John McCallister have now publicly announced that they intend to set up a new political party for those disaffected with the political direction of the UUP under Mike Nesbitt’s leadership. At this point, the new party still needs a name. As both Basil and John lived [...] 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 »
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 »
Does Robinson’s move to the right on #flegs open a viable space on the Unionist ‘left’?
Tweet How long ago was Peter Robinson’s speech of hope? I want us to use our powers of persuasion here at home, where it matters, to expound the benefits of belonging to the Union. That means challenging ourselves as well as challenging others and it means building a society where everyone feels equally valued. In [...] 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 »
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 »
On the lack of unionist leadership – what would Paisley in his prime made of it?
Tweet As Paul Bew has pointed out in the Times(£), with the NIO a rump and now lacking historic memory in depth, there’s not much Theresa Villiers can do to affect the flags disturbances directly, with day to-day responsibility for law and order devolved to Stormont. Unless that is, the protests gain wider political traction as [...] 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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Roddy Doyle’s Two Pints: An epic tale of modern Ireland in less than 90 pages..
Tweet Less than 90 pages long, Roddy Doyle’s latest book sounds like a must have… I must admit I have never heard three reviewers so obviously break down in laughter over just one book as on Saturday Review (12.02 in) this weekend. This extract from the Irish Times Review section is all I have to [...] read our review »
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What has The Third Man got to say about Northern Ireland?
Tweet Short answer: very little, other than he enjoyed the environs of Hillsborough Castle, enjoyed working with the local politicians, and has Gerry Adams to thank for Bobby his dog. Peter Mandelson’s book The Third Man has captured media headlines in recent weeks as the Times serialised the most juicy bits. But what did he [...] read our review »
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Manchán Magan’s ‘Oddballs: A Novel of Affections’: Book Review
Tweet A skilled chronicler in travel narratives and documentaries of those who wander the fringes, Manchán Magan’s debut novel follows four characters on the fringe. Two of them, teenaged Rachel and her quasi-aunt Charlotte, collide after a long estrangement in New Hampshire, and take off on Charlotte’s Wiccan pilgrimage to ye olde England of, as [...] read our review »
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