Brian Walker – Page 12 – Slugger O'Toole

A coalition pact in the Republic awaits wider approval

Brian Walker on April 15, 2020, 4:41 pm

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So the two traditional parties of government in the Republic have struck their coalition deal. They’ve taken their time. Southern government formation now looks more continental than ever. They’ve had the great excuse of tackling something even more important than creating a new government after an election. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael profess the need for a national coalition in response to Covid 19. But in truth the emergency does no more than give them cover for what would have …

Update on abortion. Stormont and the medical establishment will obey the law

Brian Walker on April 9, 2020, 9:29 pm

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According to BBC NI, Stormont has today complied with UK law. Women will not have to travel by ferry to GB for the procedure after all. Medical professionals in NI can now “terminate pregnancies lawfully”, the Department of Health has said. Last month, abortion laws changed to permit terminations up to 12 weeks, but this had not been put into practice. Some of NI’s health trusts had been told by the department not to proceed with temporary plans. The department has now said …

Breakthrough news on the Troubles legacy. Legal critics of the UK government recommend a case by case amnesty

Brian Walker on April 9, 2020, 9:06 pm

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Prof Kieran McEvoy A get out of jail card has been produced by a group of academic lawyers who have spent years wrestling with the intractable problems of the Troubles legacy. The card would not only work for former soldiers facing charges, but also for the British government which is likely to face years in court if it tries to discriminate in their favour. Three weeks ago the government suddenly abandoned the long discussed and much consulted on plans originally …

Is the coronavirus emergency an excuse not to implement the new abortion regulations?

Brian Walker on April 8, 2020, 10:23 pm

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Are Northern Ireland civil servants and health trusts stalling on implementing abortion regulations passed by Westminster during Stormont’s suspension because of DUP pressure? Perhaps not, they have a lot else on their plate; but it doesn’t look good. How will GP surgeries react? Will there be a significant number of conscientious objectors to abortion referrals and prescribing morning after pills? The Executive – wouldn’t you know it – is split. Arlene Foster has made no secret of her opposition but …

Better news after Swann’s savaging. But we need more local reporting in depth. Urgently

Brian Walker on April 4, 2020, 2:38 pm

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We’ve now received more positive news about the running story in the last 24 hours, like Randox is now supplying NI directly. The running story is course essential. but needs to be set in context Why aren’t the regular media producing the sort of comparative analysis just supplied by Ian James Parsley?. The political argy bargy distorts the real story that matters. It’s amazing the Executive can’t get this act together to produce this sort of report as a matter …

By all means, hold the UK government’s feet to the fire. But collaboration with the Republic is no magic bullet.

Brian Walker on April 3, 2020, 12:56 pm

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We can hardly be surprised when the fault lines opened during this emergency. As a society still in recovery from a different sort of crisis, let’s admit we all – all – need help to avoid reverting to the old sectarian ding dong. Social media is a virus in itself and social distancing is its incubator. The first thing to hold onto is that we really are all in this together. The second is that things can only get worse …

As pressure mounts over the delay on UK testing, potential solutions seem neglected by the UK government. Peston asks: Why did Michael Gove lie?

Brian Walker on March 31, 2020, 8:52 pm

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This post is lengthy but I make no apologies. Scroll through it if you will. I concentrate on the vexed issue of “test, test test.” First a caveat. We must accept that western countries were much less prepared than eastern countries for another plague because they unlike the east they were barely affected by SARS . Nevertheless this fails to explain the still mystifying reasons why the UK in particular has failed to mobilise the resources that are actually available. …

How are we really doing compared to the south and GB? The public health and economic positions of coronavirus for Northern Ireland need more searching inquiry

Brian Walker on March 31, 2020, 2:14 pm

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North -south differences of approach to Covid 19 are hampering the chances of saving lives, according to an epidemiologist Prof Gabriel Scally. He brings apparent authority to differences which have been aired politically but not as far as I’ve seen among other experts. These differences should surely be resolved at a north-south ministerial meeting today. Scally writes in the Irish News.. The advice to someone in Lifford with symptoms of the disease is to self-isolate for a minimum of 14 …

Varadkar is having a good crisis. This it seems, is not the time to object.

Brian Walker on March 29, 2020, 11:57 am

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The Republic are doing things a little differently: joining an EU initiative to procure much needed ventilators, sending an Aer Lingus plane to China for hospital workers’ PPE; the Gardai Commissioner calling for people in the streets to produce IDs, off licences to stay open in contrast with GB. The North at first followed the GB rules but has now fallen into line with the south. The consequences if the northern ban remained in force if a hard Prohibition border …

From abortion to coronavirus, Westminster rule is still decisive – if they choose to exercise it

Brian Walker on March 26, 2020, 2:58 pm

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The situation is replete with irony. In the absence of the Assembly a formerly inert Westminster sprung into life to enact three controversial reforms; on same sex marriage, victims’ pensions (pending) and most controversially of all, abortion. Sinn Fein which only acknowledges any legal British authority over Northern Ireland with the greatest reluctance warmly welcomed Westminster’s imposition of the most radical shift possible from the most restrictive to the most sweeping abortion regulations in these islands; while the defenders of …

Major battle likely over the UK government’s latest Legacy plans.

Brian Walker on March 24, 2020, 5:02 pm

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For those of us who don’t provide an essential service there will be time and energy to spare for the matters I’ve already drawn attention to, such as the government’s latest Legacy proposals produced last week. They abruptly overturned everything that has gone before, reached after years of tortuous gestation and months of consultation, concluding in July last year. They were contained in a brief statement above the name of the new Secretary of State Brandon Lewis: Reconciliation and information …

Is there a spirit of the Troubles that could help see us through Covid 19?

Brian Walker on March 20, 2020, 2:09 pm

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Some people have been invoking “the Blitz spirit” to cope with the “war” against coronavirus. Is there a Troubles spirit that might help too? Perhaps. In the early 70s the threat of the no warning bomb was the terrifying norm. People skirted around incidents and shopkeepers called in council workers and the glaziers, (a highly profitable trade), to clear up the mess. It helped that a chief constable’s certificate rather than insurance became the norm for claiming compensation. Once town …

Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan: a recollection of the origins of the Peace People

Brian Walker on March 19, 2020, 12:44 pm

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As a young reporter at the Finaghy Road North scene of the tragic death of her sister’s three children, I inadvertently broke the news on camera to Mairead Corrigan that the third child had died. It was a moment that echoed the horror of the terrible event itself. After Mairead’s powerful appeal for peace – one of so many from victims and survivors in those years – there followed the scathing interview with a near neighbour across the invisible interface, …

School closures imminent?

Brian Walker on March 18, 2020, 2:18 pm

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Schools in Wales and Scotland to close on Friday. Nicola Sturgeon says she can’t guarantee Scottish schools will reopen before the summer. General closure including England and Northern Ireland must surely be imminent. Boris Johnson is due to hold a Cobra on issue of school closures this afternoon. Issues to be discussed include: * What happens to children of key workers in NHS and social care and those needed to keep supermarkets open? What happens to vulnerable children?” Jeffery Donaldson …

New Northern Ireland legacy legislation on the way at last, but with fundamental changes

Brian Walker on March 18, 2020, 1:09 pm

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Big other news announcement on the Legacy Bill which on the face of it cuts back significantly on the prospects for new investigations and prosecutions for former security forces and paramilitaries alike. An NIO statement combines the legal investigative functions of the proposed Historical Investigations Unit with the Independent Commission on Information Retrieval. It is proposed that these measures should be carried out by one independent body to ensure the most efficient and joined-up approach, putting the needs of the …

Hold it a minute. Who’s actually in charge here?

Brian Walker on March 15, 2020, 12:47 pm

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Who actually is in charge of Covid 19 measures in Northern Ireland? Just asking. The mainstream media don’t seem that interested. Health is devolved but national emergencies are reserved to Westminster. Arlene Foster looks ahead to closing schools for 16 weeks (Why hit on 16? Why not 20 or 25? Are contingency plans for education ready to roll out? ) Michelle O’Neill with her reflexive approach to crisis thinks they should follow Dublin’s example and be closed already. Does this …

There’s more to it than polling. Ireland needs more than one choice of political future.

Brian Walker on March 9, 2020, 6:57 pm

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Although Irish unity has been a common obsession for more a century we can only marvel at how little it has been considered as a realistic proposition. In the Republic Sinn Fein’s surge at the general election has promoted it to a higher but still uncertain place in an agenda preoccupied with economic reform. In the GFA, the issue was from the start insulated from what really mattered at the time, the winning of the peace and the effective operation …

On key issues, the general election survey shows the uncommitted or don’t knows are growing in number

Brian Walker on March 7, 2020, 11:12 am

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Mick has dug deep for his reflections into the Northern Ireland general election survey commissioned by Liverpool University’s Institute of Irish Studies and conducted by Social Market Research (SMR). In this piece I wrote before I logged into Slugger (and I frankly don’t want to waste it) I gnaw more at the bone of opinion on unity. The survey and its questions surely show how sensitive to events is general opinion and how volatile the events affecting long lasting themes. …

Opinion on a border poll “on a knife edge” – the latest from The Detail

Brian Walker on February 24, 2020, 1:28 pm

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Here we go again. Just a bit of cross posting here to draw attention m to a special edition of The Detail, about a border poll. The comment is based a Lucid Talk opinion poll conducted north and south, showing opinion “ on a knife edge” – 46.8% to stay in the UK and 45.4 % for a United Ireland. The disparity now among three polls in succession can partly be accounted for by different methodology, this one on line, …

How will they square the circle of unfettered access to Northern Ireland ports? Check it out on – Thursday now

Brian Walker on February 23, 2020, 8:14 pm

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David Frost ( no, not that one, now deceased) According to the Sunday Times we will know the approach the UK will adopt for the next stage of EU withdrawal in a couple of days, now that the country has left the organisation and we are in the transition phase of less than a year. The UK government are taking up a position of maximum distance from the EU procedures and laws quite different from the erratic harder no softer …