Brian Walker

Sunday morning reading the newspapers often leaves me feeling like a client for suicide watch, and no time like the present, with recession, even slump threatening, nasty politics. etc. But today, what a pleasant surprise! First, in Scottish politics, what a difference a day makes: good news for Gordon Brown! A 14 point Labour lead in the first poll held specifically in Glasgow East. And from the unlikely quarter of the mainly pro-Tory Sunday Telegraph, from Matthew d’Ancona, the first …

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Update Sunday July 13. Some of you may have had enough of this ( spare us “you’ve said it”, please!) but I can’t resist sharing this post from the sparky Tory Guido Fawkes, that Gemma has made at hit and may even have a Tory future. I almost forgot.. I started so I’ll finish.. Miss Great Britain and former Miss Belfast Gemma Garrett managed to share the limelight with victor David Davis at the count in the Haltemprice and Howden …

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It’s probably a vain hope I have of tearing you away from the Twelfth, but the news that the SNP are nudging four points ahead of Labour for the Glasgow East by-election in a fortnight might add spice to your Orangefest. The Herald “shudders” at the YouGov poll results, while the Scotsman goes the whole hog with an earthquake. It quotes the doyen of political bean counters, John Curtice, putting his finger on the paradox of the SNP: if they’re …

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I though it worthwhile hauling out these two comments from women as a separate post. They were in response to a plea I made for female comment to my post Abortion at home about the Women on Web site for on line abortion material. It’s hard to identify gender if you use pseudonyms. So I invited women to identify themselves as such if necessary anonymously. to test the provenance of comment on the subject of abortion, where gender is of …

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And just when we’d been talking about abortion…a battle within the Labour party between Catholic MPs and the pro-choice majority has resulted in the Monday’s big votes on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill being put off to October. Pro-choice supporters were gearing up to move an amendment making abortion easier by requiring only one doctor to give consent, rather than the present two. The Government is unhappy about yet another internal Labour row and has pulled the Bill for …

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The historian of the Security Service ( MI5) Christopher Andrew threw out some intriguing comments about tackling the IRA at a lecture I went to last night, attended by a formidable line-up of academics and insiders. The main problem with the secret services he said, was that because they were so obsessed with secrecy, they didn’t learn from their own history – and nowhere more than in tackling Irish terrorism. The first problem was that Special Branch was set up …

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It’s inevitable that the web will be used to promote do-it-yourself abortions in countries where elective abortion is banned. And that of course includes Ireland north and south. The BBC’s early lead today woke me up by headlining Northern Ireland in its story about a clinical review of the website Women on Web. Stand by for a flood of demands to close the site down. If the usual course of the abortion debate is followed, women in need will be …

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Update 5% Interest rate held as UK house prices continue to tumble… Ditto NI house prices… The Golden Mile turns into a wasteland, all those blocks of new flats lie empty, half finished building sites are abandoned, the elderly hunch over cold radiators wrapped in blankets, employment queues lengthen for the first time in decades… is this the shape of things to come? A third of the NI population is in fuel poverty, says the Consumer Council, the highest level …

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Start’ em young sounds fine in theory, but the idea of curfews for the under 10s seems a bit grim. Nevertheless, a new trial for a voluntary curfew in Redruth, Cornwall is being hailed as a success by some locals, and Conservatives searching for a Big Idea. Under 10s home by 8pm… OK… but under 16s tucked up by 9? Seems a tall order. And what’s the sanction if junior tells you to sod off? The days of a friendly …

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Who was it again who dared suggest that Belfast-born Miss Great Britain Gemma Garrett was standing in the Haltemprice byelection against top Tory David Davis, just for the exposure? I’ll be accused next of seizing any excuse just to brighten up the look of Slugger with pretty women on a wet summer’s morning. No, there’s a real story here, (or there may be). According to strongly pro-Labour Kevin Maguire of the Mirror, Gemma has exposed anti-42 days detention campaigner Davis …

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On the big issues, it’s the House of Lords not the Commons that so often rises to the level of events. Yesterday’s debate on the counter-terrorism Bill was one of those. We have come a long way it seems, from the bad old days of internment. That “deal” with the DUP was one of the reasons given by former Lord Chancellor and head of the judiciary Lord Falconer for opposing the 42 day detention limit. “I find it worrying that …

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If he doesn’t know already, Gordon Brown will know it now. A PM in political trouble at home is a PM under attack everywhere. Like John Major and Back to Basics, nemesis has caught up with him in the shape of the hacks on his plane to the G8 in Japan. As we know, Brown is a Press-button B Scrooge. He reminds me of that old rogue in “Kidnapped” who fed his ravenous nephew Davy Balfour on “Purrige and small …

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That allegation of a “dirty deal” with the DUP to win the Commons vote on the government’s proposal for a 42 days detention limit for certain suspects, just won’t go away, however much it’s denied. It features again in the skirmishing before tonight’s vote in the Lords, with the Ulster Unionist Ken Maginnis claiming Labour peers ( presumably rebels!) were “spitting nails” over “the dirty Deal.” Two other UU peers, the regular attenders Lords Rogan and Laird will join Ld …

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Latest: From the G8 summit in Japan, Gordon Brown said he still believed he was the best man to steer the country though the current troubled economic times. “I think if we look at the experience I have of dealing with the economic agenda, our ability to talk with world leaders at this difficult time, it is very important,” he added. “The test of leadership is to take people through difficult times.” And Brown crony Baroness Vadera a Business minister …

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I didn’t think they had in them. The Church of England synod has actually voted in favour of appointing women bishops. But the very Anglican compromise devised by the senior hierarchy to prevent a split, the appointment of male super bishops for the thousands who can’t stomach women in episcopal authority failed. A pity, I think.The earlier idea of flying bishops for opponents of women priests was allowing the old peculiars to wither quietly on the vine. Never mind: there’s …

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.. on a lighter note, David McKittrick’s piece on Troubles heritage is a gem 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

Limavady-born Ruth Kelly the Transport Secretary, a devout Catholic, has been put under the cosh from one quarter for being excused from voting in the final stages of the Human Fertilsation and Embryology Bill in its final stages beginning in the Commons today. Free votes allow Labour MPs to opt out from supporting the measure as throughout the Bill’s progress. The exemption will apply to three clauses, governing human admixed embryos, “saviour siblings”, and the “need for a father” during …

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The murder of Ben Kinsella has thrust knife crime to the top of the agenda. The irony that the 16 year old had actually written to Gordon Brown about the epidemic of stabbings and other youth crime makes his murder all the more poignant. Ben leaves behind him a family void that will never be filled and an appeal website Outside of his family, the murder of 68 year old Bangor guest house owner Billy Spence may not have the …

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The signs are that the commentators are hedging their bets just a little over the stakes in the Glasgow East by-election. They’re probably waiting for a rash of opinion polls on the impact of Labour’s preferred candidate refusing the increasingly high fence. In the Scottish steeple chase, is the former champion rider Gordon Brown about to be toppled? As Scotland in Sunday reports, Labour are now feverishly playing catch-up. Not that the London commentators are entirely blind to the events …

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