Brian Walker – Page 138 – Slugger O'Toole

Costs of dealing with the past, “unsustainable” says Commons NI Committee

Brian Walker on July 7, 2008, 3:25 pm

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Update. “ We are fast approaching decision time on what we do about the past and how much we are prepared to pay for not moving beyond it.” Gregory Campbell MP (more below the fold) Are costs to be cut in the running of public inquiries and other bodies responsible of unearthing the dark events of the Troubles? The Common’s Northern Ireland Select Committee clearly think they should be, according to a report now being unveiled in Belfast and available …

Ruth Kelly on the wrack

Brian Walker on July 7, 2008, 12:01 pm

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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 …

Knife crime a bigger threat than terrorism

Brian Walker on July 6, 2008, 10:04 pm

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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 …

Labour meltdown in Scotland part 2

Brian Walker on July 6, 2008, 1:39 pm

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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 …

McGuinness in Iraq – latest

Brian Walker on July 5, 2008, 1:21 pm

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Picking up on Turgon’s post on Martin McGuinness’s peace mission to Iraq, I see the BBC are rating it highly in the newsmaking stakes. They’ve sent Paul Adams a news correspondent to follow in his footsteps. For the Today programme, Wood interviewed the DFM last night for broadcast just after his plane touched down this morning. McGuinness was asked some pointed questions, about his attitude to killing British troops in Basra and planting car bombs. I hope his companion on …

Sir Charles Wheeler, the greatest broadcasting reporter of our time

Brian Walker on July 5, 2008, 11:20 am

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Sir Charles Wheeler who died of lung cancer yesterday aged 85 had no connection with Ireland and as far as I remember, never reported there. But wherever great reporting is valued, he will be remembered. Highlights give just a flavour of some of the big events he covered. As a young reporter I knew Charles on Newsnight when I was floundering in the big world, fresh out of Belfast where you could lean over and touch the story. When he …

BADGER CULLING- ULSTER VIEW WINS

Brian Walker on July 4, 2008, 3:56 pm

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In a very busy news day, it’s interesting to note that the decision not to cull badgers in NI is the one that has prevailed for England. And this in spite of advice to cull from the last Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK government. If you relish controversies, this is the mother and father of them all. Brian WalkerFormer BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC …

NHS at 60. What about NI?

Brian Walker on July 4, 2008, 3:08 pm

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Update. Credit where it’s due. BBC News tonight published a comparison of the four health services – and NI comes out quite well. You’d think the Executive would make more of it. I’m glad to see some signs of life in Dundonald House about the Health Service, after all the fanfares in England that greeted the launch of an “NHS Constitution” increasing patients’ rights. Whether this was in stealthy response to Slugger’s goading, I can’t say. They would never admit …

“MPs keep snouts in the trough”

Brian Walker on July 4, 2008, 1:20 pm

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UPDATE. Nigel Dodds “disappointed by MP’s expenses vote”- DUP statement. So why did none of the NI MPs turn up and vote, then? ( see below the fold) Inevitably, it was the Mail which struck the classic headline. In a sensational Commons move, Gordon Brown suffered another devastating blow when 33 of his ministers voted against a Commons committee recommendation to submit to external audit and cut their allowances by 3k. Amazingly, Brown himself didn’t even turn up for the …

Big U Turn in Green Policies

Brian Walker on July 4, 2008, 12:55 pm

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Talk about the good driving out the best… The shift to biofuels is now found to be responsible for a 75% rise in world food prices, says World Bank. The hope that biofuels might be a magic bullet to reduce dependency on oil has long been dashed. But the scale of biofuels’ responsibility for soaring world food prices comes as a shock. The news punches a hole in Gordon Brown’s green strategy and couldn’t come at a worst time, when …

The Irish Language, a story of non-communication

Brian Walker on July 3, 2008, 5:49 pm

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The running sore of Irish language policy needs attention on its merits. Across the party divide, it seems to be arousing more bad feeling than any other single subject. Policing and Justice may be devolved sooner than the language policy is settled. Gerry Adams put it at the top of his recent speech in London. The outstanding issues from St. Andrews including the Irish Language Act can be sorted out if there is the necessary political leadership and resolve. But …

I’m the only man alive who didn’t notice Gemma..

Brian Walker on July 3, 2008, 4:18 pm

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OK I admit it. Sexism and ageism or whatever. Being the right age, I knew all about Belfast’s own crooning idol Ronnie Carroll as one of 25 standing against David Davis in his by-election bid to wake up Britain to a slow erosion of civil rights under Labour. I’ve since woken up to the fact that Davis faces a double Belfast whammy, with Ronnie joined in the candidate list by Ulster and now Great Britain beauty Queen Gemma Garrett. Not …

Sammy Wilson flays Woodward

Brian Walker on July 2, 2008, 9:10 pm

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It’s that man again. A fiery Sammy Wilson let rip against an unctuous Shaun Woodward at an NI Select Committee hearing this afternoon with a host of grudges – over pressure to devolve Justice and Policing, funding Irish language programmes, “gifting” MoD sites, treading on the Executive’s prerogatives and “one-sided behaviour” generally. “You wouldn’t treat Scotland that way!” he complained. After Sammy’s tirades, you’d fear the DUP were about to declare UDI…Woodward had no doubts. About anything. Only polite hesitation …

“Appropriate reward” for backing 42 days – Cameron ambushes Brown with fresh allegations

Brian Walker on July 2, 2008, 4:44 pm

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According to TV presenter Andrew Neil on today’s “Daily Politics” show on BBC 2, at 11.51 this morning nine minutes before Prime Minister’s Questions, the Daily Telegraph posted on its website the leak of a handwritten letter from Labour Chief Whip Geoff Hoon to Home Affairs Committee Chair Keith Vaz. In the letter, Hoon thanks Vaz for his help in persuading fellow Labour MPs to back the crucial vote on a 42 days detention limit without charge for terrorist suspects. …

Andy Murray – uncouth anti-British Scot or new National Icon?

Brian Walker on July 2, 2008, 1:19 pm

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Slugger doesn’t go big on tennis I know, but maybe it’s worth having a quick knock-up of comment on the day of Andy Murray’s mammoth battle with Nadal. We’re told the Wimbledon strawberry bashers have taken him to their hearts at last, after his turn-round win over Gasquet on Monday, also watched until dusk by a rare 10 million TV viewers. Earlier coolness might have been something to do with Murray calling for a Paraguay win over England in the …

Age of Consent to be lowered, despite Assembly opposition

Brian Walker on July 2, 2008, 2:54 am

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“You want the Union, you’ve got the Union even for sex – at least until you can agree to decide these matters for yourselves” That was the message the House of Lords and Westminster as a whole is sending back to Stormont on the vexed question of lowering the age of sexual consent in Northern Ireland from 17 to 16 to bring it into line with England and Wales. In the Lords debate on the NI Sexual Offences Order, to …

Wot – no better quality Health Service for NI?

Brian Walker on July 1, 2008, 3:30 pm

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As far as I can make out, not a cheep from the Northern Ireland Health and Social Services Dept, ( see recent press releases), in response to the big new drive for a higher quality health service in England unveiled yesterday. For instance, one big aim is to speed the validation of new drugs and end the post code lottery for approving their use by NICE, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence. Nice has applied to NI since 2006. What’s …

The Conservatives want to reopen the devolution settlement

Brian Walker on July 1, 2008, 1:09 pm

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Update. I add a demolition of the Clarke scheme from the Unit I work with below the fold. The Conservative veteran Ken Clarke has come up with an ingenious scheme for containing English resentment at the bad deal the British majority are getting out of devolution, as Tories see it anyway. This involves the lesser noticed part of Clarke’s constitutional task force report, the replacement of the Barnett formula for public spending in the devolved areas , including NI. Clarke …

Canterbury fights back

Brian Walker on July 1, 2008, 12:58 pm

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The threat of a split in Anglicanism over sexuality generally – women bishops as well as openly gay behaviour – looks nearer after all. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury has at last spoken out against the Gafcon bishops who are setting up a sort of church within the church. 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 …

Might the UK Ban the Bomb after all?

Brian Walker on June 30, 2008, 4:29 pm

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An unlikely new gang of four have just written a piece in the Times that appears to hint that the UK should go back on the decision to commission a new generation of nuclear subs. The article is by two former Conservative foreign secretaries Douglas Hurd and Matthew Rifkind, one ex-Labour ditto David Owen and Blair’s ex- Defence Secretary and former Nato Sec Gen George Robertson – none of them exactly CND. They give backing to a US initiative led …