Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) 
ASSEMBLY SPEAKER snubbed during visit of Queen Mother. Jim Kilfedder refused to join other VIPs in the overflow lunch marquee and left Ballymena stating that “the TA would never again be allowed to fire a 21 gun salute from Stormont grounds”!
1983’s FIRST DAY BRIEF for a new Secretary of State included pen pictures of local political figures they might meet, the parties and a handy potted history of Northern Ireland, starting in 1920.
FILES RELEASED TODAY under the 20 Year Rule reveal the Northern Ireland Office’s policy on communicating with Sinn Féin during the 1980s. No phone calls, no ministerial meetings and letters to be sent by Private Secretaries with a curt, formal and short tone.
QUESTION: How many politicians in 1975 needed to ring up the Permanent Secretary to get the Union Flag raised over Parliament Buildings to mark sittings of the NI Constitutional Convention?
20 YEAR RULE – Some reflections ahead of Friday’s release of public records under the ‘20 Year Rule’ that allow files from 1990 (and before) to be examined. It’s an era of handwritten, typewritten and word-processed documents, with Telex still used to communicate internationally.
Behind the RHI headline figure of £400 million over twenty years, how large are some of the individual business profits likely to be? For most it’ll be £5-10,000 a year. But for a small number, the figures are huge, perhaps (quite legitimately) £800,000 over 20 years. An enormous state intervention.
SINN FEIN will table an amendment to tomorrow morning’s motion of no confidence requiring the First Minister only to step aside while a four week preliminary report is produced, but expanding the remit of the inquiry to cover special advisers and civil servants. They threaten grave consequences if the DUP disregard the joint authority of the Executive Office.
MEASURE WHAT MATTERS. Is GDP fit for purpose asked Professor Diane Coyle who was in Belfast to deliver the annual Donal Nevin Lecture at an event organised by the Nevin Economic Research Institute (NERI).
The TUV’s election results in May were disappointing, but the party took great cheer from the EU Referendum result (and the recent US Presidential election result). Taking credit for long-time lobbying for the creation of an Opposition, Jim Allister encouraged the two opposition parties to make it sustainable and help lobby for a permanent change to voluntary rather than mandatory coalition.
This morning Sinn Féin (re)launched a policy document on reconciliation and healing that had been endorsed by their ard fheis in Dublin back in April. You can watch or read the full speech given by Canon David Porter in response to the document, as well as the remarks made by Sinn Féin’s Declan Kearney and Martin McGuinness.
Contact NI’s annual suicide prevention conference will be held on Thursday in Belfast. In a Northern Ireland where government departments and bodies often seem more keen on obfuscation and face-saving than data-sharing and truth-telling, switching from suicide reduction to a zero suicide approach that requires honest sharing and learning seems a large step. But a very worthwhile one in a place which continues to lose lives with the long-lasting ripples of the conflict.
The Presbyterian Moderator, Rt Rev Dr Frank Sellar, delivered the 2016 Ulster University Chaplaincy lecture last night. Speaking under the title of “A City of Hope, Leadership and Compassion”, his comments on bonfires attracted a lot of attention this morning.
PEACE MONITORING REPORT – The almanac of progress and regress in Northern Ireland is back with its fourth edition, this time authored by Robin Wilson, and surveying security and safety, equality, cohesion and politics, with the independence to call out a few naked emperors.
What is public art’s role in reimagining Northern Ireland’s post-conflict identity? What was the social impact of the 1941 Belfast Blitz? A look at the OU’s prisons oral history project. The role of sport in society – transformative or not? And discussing being an parent with an autistic child.
DUP CONFERENCE celebrated Assembly election success and demonstrated party unity as it poked fun at the Opposition, criticised the Irish Government, and set out the DUP’s principles for Brexit negotiations. The leader’s speech was light on policy – perhaps understandable in the vacuum before specific Programme for Government action plans are announced.
Green Party leader Steven Agnew has commented on Arlene Foster’s recent statements about using POCs to block marriage equality. “I am therefore calling on DUP MLAs to show courage, to be true to themselves, to risk alienating their family, friends and colleagues, and to “come out” in favour of marriage equality. Their party conference this weekend provides them with the perfect platform at which to do so.”
DUP leader and First Minister Arlene Foster says DUP will continue to use Petition of Concern to block Equal Marriage legislation. In the same pre-conference interview with Press Association, she criticised the Equality Commission’s handling of the Ashers case, saying that they “need to have a long hard look at how they work with faith communities in Northern Ireland”.
I, DANIEL BLAKE offers a bruising critique of the UK’s welfare system, but no answers. That’s not the point. It’s a cry for help, a plea for common sense and injection of humanity as the unfeeling social welfare system is laid bare. QFT until 3 November.
COURT OF APPEAL found that Ashers Baking Company is not allowed to only provide a service to people who agree with their religious beliefs: “In the present case the appellants might elect not to provide a service that involves any religious or political message. What they may not do is provide a service that only reflects their own political or religious message in relation to sexual orientation.”
GREEN AND BLUE is a thoughtful and respectful dramatisation of oral history, illuminating life of officers and their families. While there are many moments of laughter throughout, it’s not all levity: the performance doesn’t shy away from the deadly aspects of Troubles policing, and the mounting personal trauma of policing terrorism and being terrorised, of shooting being shot at.
