Brian Walker

TREASURY COMMITTEE TO HOLD REGIONAL PUBLIC MEETINGS ON FINANCIAL CRISIS After grim news likely to be delivered to First Ministers tomorrow by Gordon Brown, this should be worth attending. P.S. Will Sinn Fein with so much attention devoted to the south where they have so little influence, have anything relevant to say except to rattle the begging bowl? This , like it or not, is where the focus of power lies. As part of its inquiry into the Banking Crisis …

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“In Britain we had an additional burden: legislators who preferred criminal justice to be an auction of fake toughness, so long as the toughness was not too tough to design. So no one likes terrorists? Let’s bring in lots of terror laws, the tougher the better.” Not your average woooly liberal ranter, but the previous DPP for England and Wales, no less. Yet the heart of a prosecutor still beats strongly. Sir Ken would open up a whole new chapter …

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The latest on “Ruinair,” the runt of the Celtic Tiger litter. Yet the one most is likely to survive? Brian WalkerFormer BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC Radio 4; Editor Political and Parliamentary Programmes, BBC Westminster; former London Editor Belfast Telegraph. Hon Senior Research Fellow, The Constitution Unit, Univ Coll. London

Andreas Whittam Smith is a mere journalist but a former City Editor of the Daily Telegraph who left his safe job 20 years ago to embark on the chancy business of starting up a new serious newspaper, the Independent. The Indy group, now run by Tony O’Reilly is having a hard time in a declining industry but it survives and editorially flourishes. Here, Smith sounds a note of optimism amid the gloom you may find encouraging, based on all sides …

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Following up on Stella Rimington etc., comes this powerful public statement from Lord Bingham, former Lord Chief Justice on England and Wales and recently retired as senior Law Lord, a role which becomes president of the new UK Supreme Court next year. Stand by for a new era of tension, perhaps even confrontation. between the executive and the judiciary. Perhaps the British are content to be the most spied upon people in the democratic world. But this would be surprising …

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The Guardian exclusive comes as no surprise. It always seemed likely that it was the UK Government who asked the US to appear to threaten to withdraw security cooperation if details of the Binyam Mohamed case were disclosed in court. It’s pretty clear now that those details, however redacted, would have led to evidence of the British agents on site obtaining information extracted by Pakistani torturers. And now the Guardian quotes from MI5 evidence. The officer, who can be identified …

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As the whiff of panic rises on a grey February Monday morning, there’s a common factor. The government has been dithering – and fatally. Is this part of the panic and should be ignored? I suggest it should be. The eye of the storm is not the right place to make the judgment, even though you feel the pain most. Lloyds/TSB shares fall 15% in the first 10 minutes of trading after losing 36 billion in a few hours last …

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Sammy Wilson, Environment minister and sage, has attracted UK national media attention for his views on the environment, as closely monitored here by Pete. A Times profile recounts the cavorting, the bike fine, the guy with the jester’s licence etc., all of which made Sammy quite endearing. But as noted, Sammy and his colleagues in power are a different matter. The Times piece is significant as it turns a UK national spotlight on the DUP fundamentalist culture that was overshadowed …

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The row brewing over England People Very Nice, a topical play at the National Theatre, is the latest episode in the confused controversy over free speech and multiculturalism. From the Guardian’s news story : England Very Nice has incestuous, pig-breeding, drunken Irishmen, snooty Frenchmen, farcical Jewish anarchists and the animated presence of a mad mullah ranting about how women must be subservient to men…. England People Very Nice, a new play by the award-winning dramatist Richard Bean about successive waves …

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The BBC Panorama programme has issued a 23 page detailed public rebuttal of the findings of the Intelligence Services Commissioner Sir Peter Gibson, who criticised last September’s edition on the Omagh bomb case. The programme crucially asked why intercept intelligence had not been passed on promptly to the CID in Omagh- with the result of rendering convictions highly unlikely. This is the most thorough public challenge of an official finding I can recall the BBC ever making. Basically in terms, …

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The backlash could get really ugly. Or else the inquisition will move on so fast that most will escape its lash. There are so many imponderables, like the length and depth of the recession itself. One person’s quest for social justice is another’s politics of envy. The old question arises – quis custodiet ipsos custodes? – who supervises the elites but other bankers, other politicians, other civil servants? Set a thief to catch a thief. Bonuses for bankers are a …

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It is hard to see how the deadlock over holding a public inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane can ever be broken. Amnesty International’s renewed call for one on the 20th anniversary of the Belfast solicitor’s murder in terms that well-qualified legal family would accept is I guess, unlikely to be heeded by the British Government. Ministers were privately dismayed by the decision of the retired Canadian judge Peter Cory to recommend PIs in all four “collusion “ cases …

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“Dealing with the past is a process and not an event,” warned Eames and Bradley. Yet that injunction seems to have been rejected in early reactions to their report. The authors’ pleas for careful consideration of the whole package was swept aside in the storm of critical comment in Slugger and elsewhere. Comment from even before the launch event was dominated by a single hot topic, the denunciation of the proposal for reconciliation payments as “blood money.” Firing off criticism …

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The tectonic plates could be moving on Scottish Home Rule, far further than David Trimble seems to realise. Rather than taking his advice ( which suggests he might not be as close to David Cameron as some people think), the main tartan Sunday heavies report that the Conservative leader is moving towards a deal with Alex Salmond and trump Labour, said to be divided over more powers for Holyrood, while reducing what could be a growing threat to the Union. …

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Glad to see milord Trimble pronouncing confidently on how to handle devolution – in Scotland, and against Alex Salmond Alex is the Artful Dodger of politics and he will have a charmed existence for some time, but he can’t actually deliver a solution to the real problems. Lord Trimble said he was confident the Tories would win the next UK election – and make gains in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. On suggestions that only English MPs should vote on …

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Newtownabbey- raised Sharon Shoesmith, the head of social services in Haringey, sacked over the shocking death of Baby P, has lashed out at the media and Children’s Secretary Ed Balls. She left without compensation and is now dependent on relatives. In a Guardian interview, Shoesmith rejects suggestions, made by Ofsted chief Christine Gilbert in a Guardian interview in December, that Haringey had given inspectors false data to achieve a “good” annual assessment in November 2007. “I deeply objected to being …

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“I want to thank my good friend Tony Blair for coming today, somebody who did it first and perhaps did it better than I will do. He has been an example for so many people around the world of what dedicated leadership can accomplish. And we are very grateful to him.” What “dedicated leadership”did Obama have in mind from Tony Blair? Might it have been by any chance the GFA – more in tune with Obama than the Iraq war …

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“McAleese jaunts cost NI Policing half a million over four years, according to figures obtained by the DUP’s Peter Weir and just issued in a press release. “Since her election as Irish President, Mary McAleese has had a disconcerting habit of treating Northern Ireland as an extension of her nations territory, and indulged in frequent and regular jaunts north of the border. While this attitude and behaviour has been regarded as inappropriate by many unionists, it is only now that …

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Although I’m as repelled by fanatics as anyone, I’m pretty sure justice has been done by allowing Caroline Petrie to go back to work. Her suspension was using a jackhammer to crack a nut. Would it have happened without the outcry in her favour, I wonder? The charge against her was truly Orwellian – who says citizens must show commitment to equality and diversity as distinct from obeying the law? But the controversy aint over. Note that it’s the trade …

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In covering the unfolding financial crisis, journalists duck and weave along with the people who have to bear the burden of policy making but without carrying any of the real responsibility. They have the privilege and the freedom of non-responsibility and the daily churn – today’s oracle is tomorrow’s fish and chips wrappings and all that. (Though if you’re interested in the latest foray into the theme of journalists’ responsibility for financial collapse, read this report of the Treasury Select …

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