Andy Boal – Page 3 – Slugger O'Toole

Parking tickets. Or here we go again.

Andy Boal on February 17, 2018, 7:26 pm

| Readers 1923

Retail NI has issued their standard response to the news that 94,252 tickets were issued for unlawful on-street parking in 2017. Outrageous. Over-zealous. Clear and negative impact. Neither sensible nor fair. They’ve said it all before. Ten tickets “every single day” of 2016 on the Lisburn Road is apparently horrendously over-zealous. It’s an unfair disparity. But Glyn doesn’t appear to understand something very very simple. Why would a road which is two miles long and is subject to Urban Clearway …

The Customs Union contradiction in a nutshell

Andy Boal on February 6, 2018, 9:01 am

| Readers 1812

Further to Brian’s post on the border fudge, an example I came up with last night… Nobody in the United Kingdom makes red widgets. Which is unfortunate, as the UK makes lots of white and blue widgets. (boom boom) China makes red widgets (and some yellow ones.) Britain reaches a free trade agreement with China that involves no tariffs on red widgets (the puns shall continue until morale improves.) The EU’s agreement with China imposes a 30% tariff on red …

Lord Mayor’s dinner: but who was graceless?

Andy Boal on September 10, 2017, 2:28 pm

| Readers 4387

Disclosure: I’m a member of the Alliance Party. I am also a born-again evangelical Christian. The first I heard was Naomi Long citing Matthew 6:5-6 on Facebook, concerning not praying in a manner to be seen by others. It was later that day that I heard the full story: Nuala McAllister had decided not to invite someone to say grace before the Lord Mayor’s dinner last Saturday night, and great was the gnashing of teeth over this break in tradition …

Why extra competition for Translink could in fact make things worse. Far worse.

Andy Boal on August 2, 2017, 7:35 pm

| Readers 1673

Brian let me see his post before he published it earlier on today, but it lacks context. That context is the purpose of a private company, ie to make money. As I’ve outlined before, here, here and here and probably other places besides, there are several fundamental problems with the operating model in Northern Ireland. The first is that Translink is expected to run loss-making services on no more than the cash it gets in the farebox and for concessionary …

And so the focus shifts…

Andy Boal on June 27, 2017, 1:10 pm

| Readers 2745

And we’re back in Belfast with the main parties and their negotiations. The final deadline is Thursday, but substantial agreement is expected today. The DUP have obtained a deal that is extremely good for infrastructure, bringing things into the possible that were recently all but pipe dreams, although you may excuse my cynicism that the money made available for health is tinkering at the edges (will it be yet another “if you’re going to do this damn silly thing, don’t do it …

So what can we do with £400million for infrastructure projects?

Andy Boal on June 26, 2017, 11:39 pm

| Readers 2196

With thanks to my good friend Wesley Johnston, whose inestimable website is the source for any intelligible figure I can find to help me write this article… I was at the official opening of the A26 two weeks ago, and I think that there is definitely an appetite to get York Street Interchange sorted out – but the next scheme to hit the ground was always going to be the sole decision of the Minister and the Executive rather than …

Tory-DUP deal reached

Andy Boal on June 26, 2017, 12:50 pm

| Readers 2475

Very briefly… source for all information is the Guardian as that was the first place I could find with the detailed documents! The agreement The short version is that the DUP will vote with the Government on the Queen’s Speech, the budget, all finance and money bills, supply and appropriation legislation and Estimates. In return, the Government agreed: No change to pensions triple lock and Winter Fuel Payment 2% of GDP on armed forces as per NATO commitment Implementation of …

A deal reached: May going to the palace

Andy Boal on June 9, 2017, 10:37 am

| Readers 3518

Just in… from the Guardian We wait for the detail, but it’s a reasonable guess that this is a supply and confidence deal. As I noted this morning, the Conservatives and DUP share 328 seats, which is an effective majority of 3. Sinn Fein abstentionism increases it to 6. Andy BoalAndy has a very wide range of interests including Christianity, Lego, transport, music, the Alliance Party, chess and computers. Anything can appear in a post. Andy has abandoned Twitter, needs to …

All over bar the shouting…

Andy Boal on June 9, 2017, 7:26 am

| Readers 583

As I write, the position is as follows:- Party Actual seats Expected final seats 2015-17 parliament Change Vote share Vote share change Conservatives 314 318 330 -12 42.4% +5.6% Labour 261 262 232 +30 40.2% +9.5% SNP 35 35 56 -21 3.0% -1.7% Liberal Democrats 12 12 8 +4 7.1% -0.6% DUP 10 10 8 +2 0.9% +0.3% Sinn Fein 7 7 4 +3 0.8% +0.2% Plaid Cymru 4 4 3 +1 0.5% +0.1% Green 1 1 1 – 1.6% …

How our MPs have voted since 1997

Andy Boal on June 3, 2017, 5:33 pm

| Readers 1635

I ran the concept past Mick. “Vote DUP, you get the Tories. Vote Sinn Fein, you get the Tories anyway.” All because of my impression that the DUP tend to vote with the Conservatives, and Sinn Fein’s absentionism means that the Government of the day enjoys an artificially increased majority – their 4 MPs from 2015 to 2017 means that there were only 645 normal seats actually taken in the House of Commons (650 less the Speaker), and therefore 323 …

The political capital of asking for what you will not get…

Andy Boal on March 22, 2017, 8:59 am

| Readers 1651

Brexit has led to increasing demands for IndyRef2 and an NI border poll, and on principle, the British Government has not exactly been slow to rule them out. Nicola Sturgeon is making the case that Brexit is changing the opinion of a large number of people in Scotland [A major change of circumstances? – Ed] and Sinn Fein have made a similar case. However, all of this is apparently for nothing, because James Brokenshire has to be persuaded that the …

So what of those 27 trade deals?

Andy Boal on January 10, 2017, 8:05 pm

| Readers 1276

Time for a little light relief. Much is made of the 27 countries queuing up to make trade deals with the UK, but as ever the devil is in the detail. The first observation is that two or three of the countries concerned are not in a position to enter into bilaterals with the United Kingdom, as this would conflict with Germany and Ireland’s membership of the EU and possibly (although I can’t quite be sure) Switzerland’s bilateral treaties with …

Contradicting Carl’s constitutional conundrum

Andy Boal on November 6, 2016, 6:04 pm

| Readers 560

Picking up on Mick’s post regarding comments by Carl Gardner, I thought it might be helpful to give another perspective, having like Carl read the full judgement, but I don’t think he has quite picked up on some of the most significant points. This is what I posted yesterday on another site… I’ve read the judgement (not all in one go, though!) There are several key points, but it comes down to one thing: The European Communities Act 1972 grants …

The NHS prescription: £22 billion of efficiency savings

Andy Boal on October 16, 2016, 10:14 am

| Readers 682

At what point can an organisation which has undergone many years of reorganisations and “efficiency savings” actually create any more efficiencies and still comply with the regulatory regime? Leave aside the arguments about the £350 million lie of the Leave campaign, because it’s not actually relevant until Brexit is complete. Even if every penny we actually pay into the EU were diverted to the NHS, apart from the inability to fund agricultural subsidies and infrastructure funding, that is a long …

City council recommends no free Christmas parking

Andy Boal on October 13, 2016, 6:11 pm

| Readers 985

This is a rare post from myself that is almost entirely from the perspective of being a motorist. As Belfast City Council’s Growth and Regeneration committee recommends that they do not offer free parking after 6pm or on Saturdays coming up to Christmas, my first reaction is that in fact we are only really discussing one thing: free parking on a Saturday. But what about parking for late night shopping? Well, only three council car parks charge after 6pm – …

Interview with Translink CEO Chris Conway

Andy Boal on September 20, 2016, 9:28 am

| Readers 926

Thursday afternoon in the Europa Buscentre, and knowing I’ve been scooped by the Business Telegraph (the price of blogging), I meet with Chris Conway in the conference room. We’ve met before, as I happened to be at Stormont for an Autism event on the day Translink launched Train and Bus week, but this chat has been pre-arranged to talk about the new ticketing systems. Phone is recording the audio (no boos today), and we dive fairly quickly into the new …

Reflections on Johnson and Davis

Andy Boal on July 14, 2016, 1:32 pm

| Readers 1379

As we learn that we have a new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (but not, as I write, knowing who), I wanted to reflect on the two most controversial appointments to Theresa May’s cabinet. Either the appointment of Boris Johnson and David Davis as Foreign Secretary and Secretary of State for Brexit respectively is a stroke of brilliance or they will be an unmitigated disaster. Davis wrote an essay on Conservative Home with his thoughts on how the Brexit …

Devolved legislatures and the EU

Andy Boal on June 26, 2016, 7:50 am

| Readers 918

Jim Fitzpatrick drew our attention to an interesting possibility the other day: (extract from Chapter 7 of The process of withdrawing from the European Union) The key issue here is the competency of Westminster to amend the Northern Ireland Act 1998, the Scotland Act 1998 and the Government of Wales Act 2006 (and 1998 to the extent that it is still in force) to remove the obligation to act within EU law without the consent of the relevant devolved legislature …

So what happens now?

Andy Boal on June 24, 2016, 8:04 am

| Readers 1992

Well, the markets are currently having their say, but I would strongly advise that we look at them in a week and a half and see if they recover from the initial shock. Now for Andy’s predictions on what happens from here. Negotiating our way out The next step is Article 50 notice to leave the EU, which by the look of it requires an Act of Parliament, which may or may not happen before the summer recess in July. …

Farm subsidies post Brexit

Andy Boal on May 13, 2016, 6:53 pm

| Readers 1719

What would happen in the event of Brexit depends on who is on the media at that particular time, and I confess to being almost as fed up listening to the remain side telling us how awful things would be in the event of Brexit as I am listening to the relentless optimism of the Brexiteers telling us how wonderful everything will be without the EU shackling us. Me, I like dealing in facts. I even like dealing in statistics, …