September 2016 – Page 4 – Slugger O'Toole

This Island’s Godwin: Teorann’s Law

Kris Nixon (Belfast Barman) on September 13, 2016, 10:24 am | Readers 1007

Godwin’s Law: The longer and more heated a debate or discussion becomes, the more likely it is that Hitler or Nazism will be used as a comparison. Teorann’s Law: No matter the original subject area, it is possible to make any argument become about the partition/division of Ireland. I’ve noticed over the years that there is no predicting a discussion about anything in Slugger’s below-the-line comments. The most tenuous links can bring a discussion right around to who took what from …

Describe a great political dish … & win a pair of tickets to BBC Good Food Show in Belfast

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on September 12, 2016, 8:30 am | Readers 481

Between curried yoghurt, the Speaker’s mints, Boris’ bendy bananas, the European funding gravy train and helpings of revenge served cold, politics and food never seem far away. Describe a great political culinary dish and be in with a chance to win one of five pairs of tickets for the BBC Good Food Show in Belfast Waterfront that can be used on Friday 14 or Sunday 16 October.

Publish or be damned: a party’s (very public) swipe at the Irish News

C Johnston on September 11, 2016, 8:05 pm | Readers 2244

A brief ‘ICYMI’: an image appeared on Twitter at the end of last week criticising the Irish News over would-be coverage of Palestine the newspaper “chose to ignore”. Posted in the main Sinn Féin account on Thursday 8th, the image was published as a direct Twitter reply to a story the Irish News ran the same day featuring Palestinians voicing concerns over Sinn Féin meetings with Israel’s Likud party. The public broadside throws up some interesting points about the relationship …

Declan Kearney: “an attempt to destabilise nationalist areas in the North.”

Pete Baker on September 11, 2016, 6:40 pm | Readers 2697

As mentioned by Newton Emerson in Saturday’s Irish News, in an under-reported article in An Phoblacht this week, the Sinn Féin national chairperson, and MLA for South Antrim, Declan Kearney, doubled down on Roy Greenslade’s ‘policy of criminalisation‘ for dissident republicans to explain away the evident discontent the party is experiencing – adding further layers of conspiracy in the process. Yep. It’s the Brits the securocrats the ‘Dark Side’, again! In the article Declan Kearney claims that “republicans hostile to …

SDLP – One Woman Party or Just the Nature of the Beast?

Kris Nixon (Belfast Barman) on September 10, 2016, 6:15 pm | Readers 3009

When the SDLP require a representative for a media appearance, who are they going to call? Claire Hanna. It’s become obvious over the last number of months that as and when the SDLP need to present their party position to the electorate, if at all possible they will turn to just one person – time after time. Claire Hanna has been ever-present in the press for most of 2016, even more so in the run up to the Assembly election, …

Will Theresa May’s support for grammar schools help or hinder schools sharing in Northern Ireland?

Brian Walker on September 9, 2016, 12:09 pm | Readers 1145

Now we know why Theresa May has been so vague about Brexit. All along she has been preoccupied with – grammar schools and lifting restrictions of faith schools especially Catholic schools! Schools will be allowed to select children on the basis of ability at 14 and 16 as well as 11, Theresa May said today, as she outlined the biggest reform of the education system in 50 years. The prime minister presented her plans to allow new and expanded grammar …

How Twitter is taking us beyond the PSNI’s closed doors

C Johnston on September 9, 2016, 9:44 am | Readers 2284

A quick one: over on his own blog a writer who describes himself on Twitter as a PSNI officer has just published a rarely-seen (WARNING – EXTREMELY GRAPHIC) glimpse into what are presented as some of the hardest days of a currently-serving police officer. For many years, Police Service of Northern Ireland social media policy for work social posts and security concerns for personal posts kept this kind of look at life beyond the PR hashtags and taglines to a …

“Giving meaning to Brexit”

Brian Walker on September 9, 2016, 9:34 am | Readers 1001

The best article I’ve read so far on the UK government’s approach to Brexit has been written by Andrew Tyrie MP, the chairman of the Treasury Select Committee for the think tank Open Europe. Problems for preserving an open border are clear if the UK leaves the customs union. But without doing so the UK cannot negotiate free trade deals with other countries. On the other hand, the analysis leaves open the possibility of an otherwise close relationship with the …

The View poll suggests link between Brexit and demand for Border Poll is febrile (at best)…

Mick Fealty on September 8, 2016, 11:50 pm | Readers 2451

One thing to understand about Northern Ireland is that we don’t do really polls, we still mostly do elections. As far as the constant feedback loop, it’s the land that time forgot. There are so few outlets who can afford real out in the field polling that it rarely happens. Tonight, yet again, the BBC stepped into the breach and tested the climate in the post-Brexit era regarding the business of having a Border Poll. So let’s get to the main theme …

“Still, I think the name Londonderry should be kept on there somewhere.”

Mick Fealty on September 8, 2016, 12:27 pm | Readers 2920

So the boundary commission’s proposals are going down badly with Unionists. Hardly surprising since as Nicholas Whyte notes, the changes are likely to have a negative impact on both UU seats in Fermanagh South Tyrone and South Antrim. North West Belfast looks vulnerable for the DUP. In a reshuffle that in many ways harks after old county boundaries the one that most resembles old County Londonderry is to be given an odd name change, Glenshane, in the process abolishing Londonderry and making …

Fixed-Term Parliaments Act – on the chopping block ?

Brendan Heading on September 8, 2016, 7:30 am | Readers 1210

One or two eagle-eyed observers on social media noted a development in the House of Lords which has apparently escaped the notice of the media – a new bill which, if enacted, would abolish the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act. It’s worth a quick recap on the background. Until 2011, the power to dissolve Parliament was by the Queen’s prerogative, exercised on the advice of the Prime Minister. It has always been significant as it is, in effect, the power to choose a strategically optimal time to hold …

“rather than trying to pretend that essentially, testing does not exist”

Pete Baker on September 7, 2016, 4:00 pm | Readers 1017

As the BBC notes, the Northern Ireland Education Minister, the DUP’s Peter Weir, has reversed the department’s previous position prohibiting the use of academic selection to decide what post-primary school pupils transfer to. That position was set out in 2008 by then NI Education Minister, Sinn Féin’s Caitríona Ruane, and upheld by the subsequent Minister, Sinn Féin’s John O’Dowd. From the BBC report A circular sent to school principals on Wednesday removes any prohibition on using academic selection to decide what post-primary school pupils …

BBC NI Spotlight opens a can of worms for Northern Ireland’s Mr Fixit…

Mick Fealty on September 7, 2016, 11:48 am | Readers 3562

So, finally, the real story of Nama comes out. It’s not about politicians (except those who were using it trying to shaft other politicians)… It’s about wealthy developers trying to save their impaired assets from Nama by paying one of Nama’s advisors to save their assets. I’ll just let that one lie for a bit… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is …

Meet West Down, Upper Bann and Blackwater, North Tyrone, Glenshane, Dalriada and West Antrim …

Mick Fealty on September 6, 2016, 12:27 am | Readers 5283

The new provisional (and, therefore, consultative) report of the Boundary Commission has just been published, with some fascinating twists on several older themes… You can respond here on Slugger, or possibly more effectively, here… Great to see the Blackwater given equal billing to the Bann. Update: Nicholas has a round up analysis, noting that these proposals not only face public consultation, but a vote in a numerically tight House of Commons. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers …

Máirtín flies a one year budget kite without telling his cabinet colleagues first

Mick Fealty on September 5, 2016, 5:29 pm | Readers 1664

Frenetic start to the week for Northern Ireland’s Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir. At the weekend he was trailed in the media as saying he would try to persuade DUP colleagues to go back to the normal 1 budget a year model to get NI through the Brexit crisis. That’s how most governments do it: Brexit crisis or not. However, despite Fresh Start, Máirtín clearly hasn’t run it past the First Minister. There’s no real block on it, since the reason for doing …

Message for the divided politicians. Read the long list. This is what really matters over Brexit.

Brian Walker on September 3, 2016, 6:53 pm | Readers 2320

Divisions in the Executive and the Assembly contributed to the lack of scenario planning for the referendum outcome and are inhibiting the development of a clear Brexit strategy. These are among the conclusions in a comprehensive briefing paper prepared for the Centre for Peace Building and Democracy ( chair Lord Alderdice) by Queen’s academics Professor David Phinnemore and Dr. Lee McGowan, entitled Establishing the Best Outcome for Northern Ireland. ‘Notoriously, similar strictures apply to Whitehall and Westminster, But party divisions …

“Perhaps it’s time to rethink toughness or at least detach it from hardness…”

Mick Fealty on September 3, 2016, 9:47 am | Readers 1406

Alex Kane talks about the role of Omerta in Sinn Fein’s success. It’s a pejorative description (in common usage) which ties the party to the Tony Soprano end of politics. So, the reasoning goes, there is no hope of clarity on the McKay-Bryson affair because everyone will stand to and keep quiet. But there’s another side to success in politics, and that’s an anchor in a shared common purpose. It applies to most successful political parties, Sinn Fein and the DUP …

Brokenshire dispenses with Villiers hands off approach to Stormont…

Mick Fealty on September 2, 2016, 5:48 pm | Readers 1376

What? A UK SoS holding talks about what he and the Executive might collectively do about job losses in Northern Ireland? It wouldn’t have happened under Theresa Villiers watch, so we might deduce that this is a deliberate policy switch. It looks like the Sos is going to stay very much involved in the domesticNI politics rather than adopting what Brian Feeney likes to lapoon as the stately Pro Consul role. But I also suspect this is on foot of …

“…basic responsibility of government is to maximise welfare of citizens, not an abstract concept of global good”

Mick Fealty on September 2, 2016, 1:27 pm | Readers 391

Brilliant description of what’s happened to the elite advocates of the benefits of globalisation (note to self: tag under ‘Political Trilemma‘) from Larry Summers in the FT: The mainstream approach starts with a combination of rational argument and inflated rhetoric about the economic consequences of international integration. Studies are produced about the jobs created by trade agreements, the benefits of immigration and the costs of restrictions. In most cases the overall economic merits are clear. But there is a kind …

David Davis’s bland assurances on an open border reveal only poverty of thinking. Where is the cunning plan?

Brian Walker on September 2, 2016, 11:34 am | Readers 1807

In his flying visit to Belfast yesterday, the Brexit Secretary David Davis failed to square the circle of pledging to keep an open border and controlling immigration. He seemed to equate an open border with the common travel area which of course predates EU membership. But they are not the same thing. In the old days international non-Irish immigration barely existed. The border was also a tariff wall of varying heights from 1923 onwards. While the DUP’s verdict on Arlene …