Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) – Page 24 – Slugger O'Toole

Reflecting on the numbers behind NI’s General Election results #ge2015ni (updated with individual party analysis)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on May 8, 2015, 11:01 pm

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For some the 2015 Westminster campaign in Northern Ireland was a vision of normalisation, with non-sectarian issues such as homophobia, women’s reproductive rights and austerity at the heart of many political argument. Yet the old us-versus-them crept in late in the day with the use of religious affiliation census data to encourage voters, and anonymous letters being posted. The traditional intra-unionism and intra-nationalism skirmishes were weakened by the four-seat unionist pact and the near complete absence of Alasdair McDonnell from …

Clegg Out – The writing was on the wall … back in 2011!

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on May 8, 2015, 8:07 pm

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Photo taken in Short Strand, 12 July 2011. Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast)Alan Meban. Tweets as @alaninbelfast. Blogs about cinema and theatre over at Alan in Belfast. A freelancer who writes about, reports from, live-tweets and live-streams civic, academic and political events and conferences. He delivers social media training/coaching; produces podcasts and radio programmes; is a FactCheckNI director; a member of Ofcom’s Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland; and a member of the Corrymeela Community. alaninbelfast.blogspot.com

The Dutiful Wife – putting the ‘I’ into ‘We’ while turning a political spouse into a smiling doormat #cqaf15

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on May 3, 2015, 9:00 am

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The Dutiful Wife is a short but explosive piece of contemporary dance theatre by Off The Rails that examines whether a political spouse can hold it together in public while anxiety and unease grows inside? Can a politician’s wife rationalise her husband’s political rhetoric about integrity, loyalty and trust with reports of his unzipped trousers? While NI politicians aren’t always the most charismatic, there’s still a familiar feel to the glad-handing and cheap platitudes handed out by the dancers as …

Post-damage-limitation, challenge for DUP is not whether they choose to change, but how they choose to change

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 27, 2015, 10:23 am

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The boil has been lanced. To borrow from Oscar Wilde: “To become the news story once during an election campaign may be regarded as a misfortune; to do it twice in a week over the same issue looks like carelessness.” NI Executive ministers rarely resign. If it hadn’t been in the middle of an election campaign, I doubt that Jim Wells would have had to inform the First Minister of his intention to stand down from his post as Minister …

Belfast Bikes: gearing up for a spoketacular revolution?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 23, 2015, 4:12 pm

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It’s been 25 years or more since I last rode a bicycle when I was a teenager. Cycling proficiency is a dim memory of riding along a road painted onto the tarmac playground with an arm stuck out to indicate I was about to turn. It doesn’t take long to walk across Belfast. Yet the ten minutes from the Waterfront Hall to the Cathedral Quarter could be halved if who wheels took the strain. And in dry weather, biking across …

Eat Your Children: chasing the lost unicorn of Irish citizen protest #bff15

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 20, 2015, 1:40 pm

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“We’re not Ireland, we will resist” (Greek austerity protest chant) Has Ireland lost its protest mojo? Flatmates Treasa O’Brien and Mary Jane O’Leary bailed out of Ireland to study in London and Barcelona. Partly motivated by the Greek chant and surprised by the contrast behind high profile citizen action in countries like Spain and the lack of news reaching them from Ireland, the friends came back to their homeland and toured around in a white Transit van to make a …

General Election dates and deadlines #ge2015

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 19, 2015, 10:51 am

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If you’re not already on the Electoral Register, the deadline to register to vote in the UK Parliamentary General Election is Monday 20 April. The deadline for run-of-the-mill postal and proxy vote applications has already passed – 5pm on Thursday 16 April. However, it you will be unable to vote at your polling station on 7 May because of circumstances relating to your health and you could not have reasonably foreseen these circumstances before 5pm on 16 April you can …

Follow tonight’s East Belfast Debate at #EBdebate

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 14, 2015, 7:00 pmComments Off | Readers 2800

A handful of NI constituencies are heading towards tight and keenly fought races. Tonight sees Slugger O’Toole’s first ever election debate, with candidates Naomi Long and Gavin Robinson getting the opportunity to answer questions, explain their distinctive policies and visions for the Belfast East constituency. There’s clearly a strong local interest in the East Belfast election. Last night’s five-candidate hustings in Willowfield Parish Church (organised by Evangelical Alliance/CARE) was attended by around 250 people and ran slightly over two hours. …

One all male constituency; 24.6% candidates are female; 2 unionist parties running all male candidates #GE2015 (updated)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 10, 2015, 12:00 am

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Following on from Belfast Barman’s earlier post, some statistics about the 138 candidates nominated for Northern Ireland’s 18 Westminster constituencies. One constituency has all male candidates: Belfast West. Only one constituency has more women than men standing: Fermanagh and South Tyrone. No party has more than 40% female candidates. Overall 24.6% of candidates are female; 75.4% are male. Of the parties running more than 5 candidates, 2 unionist parties have ended up not running any female candidates: DUP (16 male …

#GE2015 List of General Election 2015 hustings in Northern Ireland (updated)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 8, 2015, 10:00 pm

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We’ll keep this page up to date with details of hustings being held in the run up to May 2015’s General Election. Email editor at sluggerotoole dot com if you want yours added to the Slugger’s calendar. Topic-based 14 April at 6pm – MAC Question Time #MACQT – Is there a future for the Arts in Northern Ireland? (free tickets required) East Belfast 13 April at 7.30pm – Willowfield Parish Church facilitated by Evangelical Alliance and CARE 14 April at …

Danny Morrison’s “West Belfast”: a coming of age novel set against the backdrop of a city in conflict

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 8, 2015, 4:35 pm

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I grew up hearing Danny Morrison’s name on the radio at breakfast time as Sinn Féin’s Director of Publicity. More recently I’ve known him as chair of Féile an Phobail and spotted his attendance at many of the festival’s events in St Mary’s and the annual West Belfast Talks Back debate. But I’d never realised he was an author until his book (re)launch earlier this year at the end of January. Spread over a decade, West Belfast is a coming …

Day 1 in Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council: already a leap forward in transparency #lccclive

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 1, 2015, 11:37 pm

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Something wasn’t quite right when I sat down in the council chamber in Lagan Valley Island Centre this morning. In fact, plural: somethings plural weren’t right. The first change was that the laminated cards saying no mobile phones or electronic equipment were no longer sitting on top of every chair in the public gallery. It was okay to take photographs before the council session began but strictly no photos, videos or audio recording once the council was in session. But …

“turning attacks on flags into a tax on flags” – launch of FlagIt app for Apple & Android

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 1, 2015, 7:41 am

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Responding to sustained protests over the absence of the Union Flag above many Northern Ireland public buildings, the FlagIt app has been released in Apple and Android online stores this morning, priced £2.29. Users of FlagIt can add a missing flag to any picture or video that contains an empty flagpole. And if they hold up their mobile device and look through it in front of a public building, the app will seamlessly insert a fluttering Union Flag. FlagIt relies …

How transparent will the new councils be? The story of Belfast and Lisburn & Castlereagh …

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on March 31, 2015, 7:31 pm

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The eleven new councils move from shadow status to the real thing on 1 April. The long-debated Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 2014 sets up the framework on which the new councils work. A new era of openness and transparency has been promised … well, a new era that is more open and more transparent has been promised, although it would be difficult to characterise the new councils as being councils designed for modernity In this post I’m using Belfast …

Who is Leanne Wood?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on March 29, 2015, 9:00 am

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When I posted the link to Radio 4’s Profile of Nigel Dodds last weekend, Nevin commented: I do know of Nigel Dodds but not of Leanne Wood : ) And as if by magic, the Plaid Cymru leader (whose party has a mere 3 MPs in the House of Commons) was the subject of this week’s Profile. Listen and learn … Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast)Alan Meban. Tweets as @alaninbelfast. Blogs about cinema and theatre over at Alan in Belfast. …

Basil’s call to arms issued to a small room of cats (who may be reluctant to be herded) #tweetupni

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on March 28, 2015, 1:38 pm

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At Thursday night’s Slugger O’Toole Tweet Up in the Hudson Bar, Basil McCrea took the opportunity to deliver a more elaborate speech than the informal remarks I’d expected. (Earlier in the evening Máirtín Ó Muilleoir also stopped by for some casual craic.) The NI21 leader has been unusually quiet for a protracted period, though answered a few media questions after his party’s conference in December, and has been speaking much less sporadically [Ed – you mean, speaking more often?] in …

Dave Duggan’s DENIZEN – a dissident republican addresses the court – drama performed in an actual courtroom

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on March 24, 2015, 10:00 pm

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The word ‘denizen’ conjures up the notion of a citizen, yet perhaps one with fewer rights or living somewhere that isn’t home. It’s also the title of Dave Duggan’s new play, a courtroom drama written in verse which opens in the north west this weekend and will be performed in two courthouses. Interviewed last week, the playwright told me: The conceit in the play is that the judges have given Denizen an hour to speak to the court of public …

NI Affairs Committee On The Runs report – an example of something being “hidden in plain sight”

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on March 24, 2015, 11:00 am

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The NI Affairs Committee’s 111-page report into The administrative scheme for “on-the-runs” [PDF] will take some time to read and digest. In the meantime, picking out a few of its 62 conclusions and recommendations … 2. It is clear that Sinn Féin pushed for OTRs to be dealt with at the highest level, and that promises were made by the Prime Minister as a result of the pressure put upon HM Government by Sinn Féin. Over the years, Tony Blair …

Paisley: hundreds of millions…that would ease burdens in Northern Ireland (updated with Donaldson’s comments on Daily Politics)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on March 24, 2015, 9:34 am

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This morning’s Independent [not printed in NI, but article available online] carries an interview by David McKittrick with Ian Paisley Jnr on its front page. The DUP’s shopping list has got longer … On the fifth day of electioneering the DUP said to me: stronger controls on immigration and border security, no more bedroom tax, an EU referendum, two percent of GDP spent on defence, and hundreds of millions to ease the burdens in Northern Ireland. The North Antrim MP …

Full breakdown of Arts Council funding cuts announced today (tables galore)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on March 23, 2015, 3:52 pm

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This morning Arts Council NI released the details of their 2015/6 grants to organisations along with the 2014/5 grants for comparison. Overall there is a year on year drop of 6.2% in funding from ACNI. (For reference, the Department of Culture Arts and Leisure – which funds ACNI as an arm’s length body – lost 10% of its budget for the next financial year.) This post summaries the funding changes. I’ve added columns to the original ACNI information to show …