Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) – Page 58 – Slugger O'Toole

“three extra votes remain unaccounted for” (Michelle Gildernew remains MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on October 22, 2010, 1:00 pm

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At lunchtime, the Lord Chief Justice delivered his judgment on Rodney Connor’s petition and declared that Michelle Gildernew was duly elected as MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency. He found that “there were some issues with how the counts were conducted” and three extra votes remain unaccounted for. However, the Newsletter report Sir Declan Morgan’s view that Even if those votes were introduced in breach of the rules and if they had all been counted in favour of the …

MP Nadine Dorries – politician or journalist?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on October 21, 2010, 5:00 pm

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Nadine Dorries - image from her website

And the award for political blogger of the year may have to go to … MP Nadine Dorries. Today, the BBC report that she explained away the discrepancy between her online comments that suggested “she spent the majority of her weekends in the constituency” and her statement to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards that “nearly all weekends were spent in her main home” with the memorable phrase: My blog is 70% fiction and 30% fact. Following complaints by a BNP …

Dual mandate (council/MLA) bill passes Consideration Stage – but what are party plans for next spring?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on October 12, 2010, 10:50 pm

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Dawn Purvis’ private member’s bill got through its Consideration Stage this evening and now moves on to the next stage of its arduous journey into the statute books. Update – you can now read the Hansard transcript or watch the proceedings through BBC Democracy Live. In short the NIA Bill 7/09 Local Government (Disqualification) (Amendment) Bill removes the possibility of people holding a dual mandate to serve as an MLA at Stormont and also sit on their local council. It …

Election 1970 rerunning on BBC Parliament this Saturday

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on October 7, 2010, 7:00 am

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Every few months, BBC Parliament rebroadcasts election coverage – as live – over the weekend. Saturday 9th sees the rerun of the 1970 general election, starting at 9am and 4pm. It doesn’t really matter if I spoil the ending and summarise the result as: “… a surprise victory for the Conservative Party under leader Edward Heath, who defeated the Labour Party under Harold Wilson. The election also saw the Liberal Party and its new leader Jeremy Thorpe lose half their …

The Boat Factory – launched in East Belfast last night

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on October 6, 2010, 11:00 am

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The Boat Factory, play by Dan Gordon, produced by Happenstance Theatre Company

Dan Gordon’s new play The Boat Factory opened in the heart of East Belfast last night. Part drama, part documentary, it plots out the development of the shipyard in Belfast, as well as charting the social history of the shipyard workers. Produced by Happenstance Theatre Company and directed by Philip Crawford, it’s the story Davy Gordon – played by Dan Gordon and based on his father – growing up and following his brothers into Harland and Wolff as an apprentice. …

Lough Neagh Incinerator – update on the process

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on October 5, 2010, 8:00 am

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(c) Michael High - image of proposed RoseEngery plant accurately superimposed on Parliament Buildings at Stormont

The main event at last night’s meeting of Lisburn City Council’s planning meeting was a briefing by Communities Against the Lough Neagh Incinerator (CALNI) to update council on progress since their previous visit 12 months ago in October 2009. Over twenty CALNI supporters – some wearing distinctive yellow T-shirts – sat in the public gallery. Councillor Ronnie Crawford, the chairman of the planning committee, explained that the council had run out of process on the issue of the chicken litter …

PUP to debate cutting paramilitary ties this evening (Update – and didn’t)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on September 29, 2010, 2:00 pm

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Councillor John Kyle (PUP)

In today’s Belfast Telegraph, Brian Rowen previews tonight’s meeting of the PUP. Dawn Purvis resigned as leader and member of the PUP in the immediate aftermath of Shankill loyalist Bobby Moffett’s murder in May – “a public execution sanctioned by [UVF] paramilitary leaders”. Dr John Kyle stepped in as interim leader, a bit like a pilot with the aim of stabilising the damaged PUP aeroplane and bringing it down to land in a controlled way at the Harbour Airport, ensuring …

In terms of post-recession employment, the young and the vulnerable are suffering the most – but what will we do about it?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on September 28, 2010, 6:30 am

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In many ways the Equality Commission’s 115 report confirmed my shallow understanding of the recession. People who’ve never worked – eg, the young – are struggling to get jobs. People who have lost jobs are struggling to regain employment. Vulnerable groups are finding it tough. And blue collar has so far been worse than white collar.

Hacks and Hackers Hack Day Belfast (and Dublin)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on September 27, 2010, 5:00 pm

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Just noticed an event on Saturday 13 November that is likely to be of interest to some Slugger readers and contributors. (I’ve no connection with Scraperwiki or 4iP!) Free ticket booking – for hacks and hackers – over at Eventbrite. To quote from their blurb … What? Scraperwiki, the award-winning new screen scraper and data mining tool, funded by 4iP, is putting on a one day practical hack day* in Belfast at which web developers and designers will pair up …

Leadership elections – the Labour way

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on September 27, 2010, 8:00 am

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Strangely, the (Daily) Telegraph seem to be leading the way on converage post-Labour’s leadership election. First they had Ed Miliband’s article in Sunday’s paper, and this morning they printed a behind-the-scenes look at the choreography and emotions of the announcement and aftermath. Brother David was focussed on winning. After a quick discussion, one of the group was chosen to warn David to prepare himself for the worst. Would it not be wise, the aide suggested, for him to think about …

Smaller books on fewer shelves for shorter opening hours – the reality of DCAL spending cuts

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on September 23, 2010, 5:00 pm

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Greater Belfast libraries plan - final map

Libraries NI Chief Executive Irene Knox explains that spending cuts will close more libraries.

Tom Elliott (updated with video of press conference)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on September 22, 2010, 11:42 pm

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Tom Elliott, UUP

Tom Elliott has won with a comfortable majority. His supporters will be travelling back home to Fermanagh with a feeling of contentment that it was a job well done. Basil and his supporters can take some comfort from his 31.4% share of the vote, which was in his zone of acceptability. The campaign highlighted the need for the UUP to take their brake off and shift out of reverse. Basil’s supporters will be desperately hoping that the party machine doesn’t …

(live blog) And the UUP leader is … Tom

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on September 22, 2010, 5:00 pm

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Tom Elliott, UUP

Tom 643 (68.6%), Basil 294 (31.4%), 937 votes, 1 spoiled ballot

Elliott & McCrea – odds are that one of them will be elected

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on September 21, 2010, 1:00 pm

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A Pint of Unionist Lite notes that Paddy Power’s odds on the UUP leadership race have been changing. Tom Elliott was once “as short as 1/5 to win, whereas McCrea was the rankest of outsiders in a two horse race at 3/1”. This morning, the gap between the two horses candidates had narrowed to Tom Elliott: 4/11 Basil McCrea: 15/8 As part of their coverage of the second largest unionist party’s vacancy-filling process, the Newsletter set the two candidates some …

Sir Reg won’t be voting for the next UUP leader

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on September 19, 2010, 8:43 pm

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Sir Reg Empey is over in New York this week wearing his Minister for Employment and Learning hat. A BBC online news article explains: Sir Reg’s itinerary this week includes a gathering of world leaders and a magazine event honouring the top 50 Irish-Americans working in finance … will visit the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a philanthropic institute set up by the software billionaire … attend a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, which was formed in 2005 to …

UUP leadership interviews – videos, wrap up and getting off the fence

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on September 16, 2010, 10:09 pm

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As I mentioned in the first post in this series, I’m not a member of the UUP, nor any other political party. So I’ve no vote next week when the members gather to elect their new leader. (They’re meeting to vote at the Waterfront Hall. Postal voting was too expensive to organise … and voting online like many of us do for union ballots and shareholder AGMs wasn’t put in place.) In deciding to interview the two candidates I deliberately …

UUP leadership interviews – wider plans, that education pledge, and the public/private sector

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on September 16, 2010, 4:00 pm

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Having so far looked at matters internal to the UUP, I thought it would be interesting to get the candidates’ perspectives on how their leadership would impact and benefit wider society, outside the party. Basil McCrea wants the UUP to better support the kind of politics he believes the public desire. [McCrea] I think the people have moved on a lot faster perhaps than our political class. There is a thirst out there for more progressive, more modern type of …

UUP leadership interviews – restoring unity after a divisive campaign

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on September 16, 2010, 12:30 pm

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Both candidates agreed that the leadership campaign has been divisive. But what would they do to restore unity after the result? [Elliott] At stages it has been divisive. Clearly we’re all big people. We’re in politics so we have to move on. In past times I have differed with other Ulster Unionist Party leaders. But I’m still in the party, clearly because I accepted the will of the majority. [McCrea] It certainly turned into a more divisive and a more …

UUP leadership interviews – making a difference inside the party as leader

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on September 16, 2010, 10:00 am

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Given that it’s a leadership election (and not a beauty contest) it seemed wise to ask the two UUP contenders about the difference they hoped to make as party leader. First up was Basil McCrea who is very much running as the outsider, anti-establishment candidate, making a virtue of the fact that most of the big names in the party machine aren’t supporting him. [McCrea] Well first of all, I thought long and hard before I went into the leadership …

UUP leadership interviews – leadership pitches and the Tory link-up

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on September 15, 2010, 11:11 pm

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For the second post in this short series based on interviews with UUP leadership candidates Tom Elliott and Basil McCrea I take a look at their leadership pitches and their opinions on the UCUNF link-up. Asked for his 60 second leadership pitch, Basil launched into an analysis of past failure and the need for change, describing the type of party be wanted to lead. [McCrea] The party needs change, needs rapid change. We’ve had a number of pretty disappointing electoral …