Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) – Page 56 – Slugger O'Toole

A question of residency and representation

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 8, 2011, 12:30 pm

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Over in Chicago, they’re going to elect a new mayor this month. President Obama’s former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is one of those running to be chief executive of the third largest city in the US. However, securing his place on the ballot paper hasn’t been plain sailing due to legal challenges around his residency “in the town for a year before the election”. Clearly Emanuel and his family moved to live and work in Washington DC for a …

Graphing online mood & the new online campaigntrail.ie

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 25, 2011, 9:55 pm

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One concept and one website. It’s been a while since we’ve had a graph on Slugger … James Eggers is a 16 year old student from Dublin who exhibited at the recent BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition. By combining a set of different toolkits, he analysed 4 million tweets originating from the island of Ireland between 21 September and 14 December and tagged them as positive, negative or neutral. By using the location information in people’s Twitter profiles, he …

Looking back at Alliance’s conference … who were looking forward

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 24, 2011, 9:30 am

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The basic mood of Saturday’s Alliance conference was upbeat. Very upbeat. Elected representatives, ordinary members and recent joiners alike were proud of their accomplishments in 2010, framing them as positive achievements rather than having beaten other parties or candidates. I didn’t hear a single person gloating about Peter Robinson’s loss in East Belfast or his wider family issues this time last year. About three hundred members turned up for conference. It’s perhaps a sign of the party’s confidence that they’re …

Harry Hamilton (Alliance)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 22, 2011, 3:26 pm

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The higher profile new members of the Alliance Party were today welcomed to the bosom of the conference at the Dunadry. David Ford named them in his speech, and seats had been reserved in the front row of the hall. I caught up with Harry Hamilton during the lunch break. He explained why he was drawn to Alliance and confirmed that he was willing to serve the party in the future if he was required. The official line is that …

Alliance Party Conference live #allconf

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 22, 2011, 10:30 am

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The post has been updated with audio from most of the sessions during the day … and there’s one last post reflecting back on the conference mood, the party’s future and quick interviews with David Ford, Naomi Long and Andrew Muir. — After the award of prizes … … the remaining delegates debated (well, spoke in agreement of) two motions. Neither could be described as the party breaking new policy ground – though both do speak into important issues in …

Alliance Party Conference preview #allconf

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 21, 2011, 8:30 am

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It’s the Alliance Party Conference on Saturday. Their agenda has still not been announced as it is being franticly reshuffled after the late confirmation that Fine Gael’s leader Enda Kenny is able to attend. This time last year, the likelihood that policing and justice would be devolved was much talked about at conference. Behind the scenes, Alliance’s Executive had already discussed how they might approach the new ministry and the potential for David Ford to grab the post. Alliance’s leader …

Another one bites the dust … Harry Hamilton joins Alliance

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 14, 2011, 11:51 pm

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As mentioned in the comments below yesterday’s post by Andrew about the number of members taking advantage of the UUP early leavers’ scheme, Harry Hamilton has joined the Alliance Party. When he quit the UUP on the eve of their party conference, it was noted that he would “be open to an approach from the Alliance Party” that has already become home to fellow UCUNF Westminster Candidate Paula Bradshaw. Having missed the UUP conference, he’s signed up in time for …

DUP website embraces Irish language (ie, hacked)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 12, 2011, 8:31 pm

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The DUP website was briefly hacked tonight before being taken offline. Soon after, PeterRobinson.org and JeffreyDonaldson.org were given a similar makeover. For anyone needing translation of the (most likely criminal) defacement of their homepages, the message reads Irish Now. My name is Peter Robinson and I supported the Irish Language Act. A country without a language, is a country without a soul. Going by the name Hector Ó Hackatdawn and describing himself as “a computer science graduate, Irish language activist, …

Steven Agnew elected as the new leader of Green Party in Northern Ireland

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 10, 2011, 11:01 am

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European/Westminster candidate Steven Agnew is the new leader of the Green Party in Northern Ireland, winning 72% of the votes in the postal ballot. In recent years the party had two co-chairs, one male and one female. In an extraordinary general meeting in the autumn, the party agreed to switch to mirror many of their affiliated European Green parties and elect a “clear and definable leader to act as both figurehead and primary spokesperson, particularly ahead of council and assembly …

Some answers from Steven Agnew

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 10, 2011, 11:00 am

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Ahead of this morning’s announcement, I posed some questions to the winning candidate. (1) What’s the Green Party’s vision for Northern Ireland? The Green Party wants to see all political decisions based on whether they are good for the economy, good for people and good for the environment. That should be the benchmark, but too often the economy is prioritised at the expense of the latter two. The economy must serve the people, not the other way around. We need …

Castlereagh Council fails to keep their promise to publish council minutes online

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 5, 2011, 12:00 pm

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I experienced a sense of déjà vu when I browsed across to the minutes section of Castlereagh Borough Council’s website. It was only in the aftermath of the Iris Robinson / Lock Keeper’s Inn cafe revelations this time last year that Castlereagh reversed its previous policy and started to publish its minutes online. I’ve blogged over on Alan in Belfast about Castlereagh’s online presence quite a few times over the past years. The council put out a press release on …

A Very British Coup

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 1, 2011, 9:56 pm

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Having pulled together the video round of the Politics Quiz for Haiti back in October, I’m now going through a backlog of DVDs with a political theme. A Very British Coup tells the story of Harry Perkins, a steel worker from Sheffield turned politician is elected as prime minister of a left-wing Labour government. Though the book behind the screenplay was written by Chris Mullins in 1981, it is a peep into a parallel universe to see what might have …

Tweeting in court (with permission) in England and Wales only for now

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on December 21, 2010, 10:56 pm

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Victory to Tweeters! The UK’s Lord Chief Justice has ruled in my favour to tweet in court! Assembly committees please take note. – @EamonnMallie While the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales yesterday issued interim guidance to clarify that “an application, whether formally or informally made [to a judge] can be made by an individual in court to activate and use a mobile phone, small laptop or similar piece of equipment, solely in order to make live, text-based communications …

Looking back at the UUP

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on December 5, 2010, 10:50 am

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UUP Assembly candidates

Tom Elliott is evolving. He’s more confident speaking than three months ago during the leadership campaign. He has a sense of timing, and avoids forced humour. When interviewed he gives brief answers that avoid waffle. Lots of people at conference described him as honest and genuine. And from within the party, there wasn’t a word said against him yesterday. At times, he appeared a lonely, shy figure, wandering around the emptying conference hall rather than forcing himself out into the …

The elephants in the #uupconf room (updated)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on December 4, 2010, 12:23 pm

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While Lord Craigavon got an mention as proceedings started this morning at the UUP conference, there are other absent friends who will not be toasted. The party chairman laid into the Westminster candidates who have deserted the UUP in recent weeks. Trevor Ringland, Paula Bradshaw and “Flash” Harry Hamilton are off the Christmas card list. The other elephant in the room is Lagan Valley activist John Lund. An anonymous complaint was lodged about comments he made on the Nolan show …

UUP Conference (updated) #uupconf

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on December 4, 2010, 10:29 am

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UUP Assembly candidates

Updated with audio from throughout the day’s conference. Coverage of the conference begins at the bottom of the post.

UUP Conference preview #uupconf

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on December 2, 2010, 12:00 pm

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In a break from tradition, the Ulster Unionist Party is following the example of Barcamp and organising this weekend’s conference as an un-conference. Delegates will register as normal and pick up their name badges on the way into the Ramada Hotel, but may be surprised to be given a pad of post-it notes and a pen too. During the short welcome session, party chairman David Campbell will encourage delegates to propose sessions based on policy areas or common constituency issues …

vote early, check how it was counted often

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on November 30, 2010, 2:30 pm

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Continuing on from a post on 1 November about “faith-based” e-voting. Some interesting ideas from David Bismark at TEDGlobal 2010 about e-voting that tries to simultaneously increases transparency and reduces fraud. One of the main objections to e-voting is that it’s difficult for each voter to know that her vote was recorded accurately and counted correctly, while she remains anonymous. In the system designed by David Bismark and his colleagues, each voter gets a takeaway slip that serves as a …

Who pays for party conferences? (Clue = taxpayers some of the time)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on November 28, 2010, 10:45 pm

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Close up of Translink table at DUP conference

Party conferences are expensive. Occupying the largest halls and rooms within hotels for 1–3 days over a weekend. Catering for hundreds of people. Looking modern and sophisticated with stages, sets, sound and video. But is paying for it? Many party members would say that they do. Their annual subscription to the party covers all kinds of costs. And the admission charge to attend the party conference (could be in the region of £10–25) covers their conference programme pack, food and …

DUP shifting towards the centre – that U-turn – and what Peter Robinson didn’t say in his speech

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on November 27, 2010, 10:58 pm

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Some final thoughts on the DUP conference. Sure there was all of the buzz and razamataz of flag waving, jeering and clapping as well as the conservative morality. It was the DUP’s best-attended conference. The overflow car park overflowed – a local church that was running a craft fair and wasn’t impressed when their car park filled up with non-shoppers! There were cars parked in the hotel’s tennis courts! The men were well dressed and mostly wore ties. The younger …