Brian Walker – Page 14 – Slugger O'Toole

In denial over the front stop. Now Boris floored by 4 year old Jack, lying on a hospital floor

Brian Walker on December 9, 2019, 5:48 pm

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The NHS howler of this campaign has hit Boris Johnson so hard he wanted to hide it in his pocket in the middle of an ITV News interview .. And more on another Johnson brazen denial -.the building row over the frontstop. Two Europe editors take his case apart, culled from Twitter. Peter Foster Europe editor of the Daily Telegraph HOW can Whitehall design this new GB-NI border or customs ‘filter’ UNTIL it knows what the shape of the UK-EU …

Distrust in politicians? The answer lies in ourselves

Brian Walker on December 9, 2019, 9:19 am

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PA Media, Reuter’s, AFP Whatever the result of this election, it will be greeted mainly with foreboding outside the ranks of the winning party, an interlude rather than a denouement in the tortured saga of Brexit. Trust will remain as elusive as ever as another chapter of story is opened. The campaign is riven by lies and fantasy. There is a chorus of comment along these lines in the London papers today. What impels politicians in these directions? We can …

On border checks the evidence from his own government mounts but Boris keeps brazening out the denial

Brian Walker on December 8, 2019, 11:39 pm

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It’s more than depressing when the prime minister keeps brazening out denials about checks between GB and NI. He actually contradicts himself between “ no checks” and “the only checks” within a couple of sentences below. When asked on Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday whether there would be checks, in light of the leaked Treasury document, Johnson replied: “No, absolutely not… The deal we’ve done with the EU is a brilliant deal and it allows us to do all …

Back to Stormont soon and Johnson’s deal could work, say DUP and Sinn Fein. Dreams coming true or fake news?

Brian Walker on December 7, 2019, 6:04 pm

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Is there an election on? DUP And Sinn Fein leaders are sounding optimistic notes to tempt waverers into the polling stations. Both party leaderships are also forecasting a return to Stormont any day now – without troubling us with the details of a deal. Here we also have the astounding phenomenon of Nigel Dodds and Mary Lou McDonald both speaking in favour of Boris Johnson’s withdrawal agreement – a worse deal that Theresa May’s and which they were condemning only …

The backtop is back in business after Johnson’s denial is nakedly exposed

Brian Walker on December 6, 2019, 1:06 pm

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It’s not actually news that there will “be a border down the Irish Sea” if Boris Johnson’s withdrawal agreement is passed. But if the document Jeremy Corbyn has been waving this morning is an authentic Treasury paper, it shows that Johnson is lying or at best or in denial. He will surely be pressed to explain himself in tonight’s BBC debate with Jeremy Corbyn. Taken at face value it means Johnson will denounce his own withdrawal agreement as soon as …

The Labour left have won the party battle but with ammunition like this, they look like losing the war

Brian Walker on December 3, 2019, 4:17 pm

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Andrew Murray Andrew Murray is an easy man to demonise. Born to Scottish gentry, he’s a Unite official and former Communist, joining Jeremy Corbyn’s team only in 2016. Accused of being a Russian spy, he claimed he was a victim of the British “deep state.” Nevertheless the Financial Times has paid Murray the compliment of objectively reviewing his new book “The Rise and Fall of the British Left. “ Like it or loathe it, the Left critique of post-recession capitalism …

Johnson blames Labour and Tory predecessors for release of the latest London Bridge bomber

Brian Walker on December 1, 2019, 1:32 pm

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The parochial thought occurs that since the Omagh atrocity of 21 years ago, Northern Ireland has been relatively fortunate in not experiencing more of the dreadful recidivism by released terrorists similar to that which occurred on Friday around London Bridge. Not that recidivism has been entirely absent in the actions of dissident republicans and loyalist mobsters. In both republican and loyalist areas they’ve been schooled and even run by former veterans of the main paramilitary groups. But overall, a negotiated …

The Protestant churches are becoming more anti gay but hoping to conceal it by silence . It won’t work

Brian Walker on November 27, 2019, 1:01 pm

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Late intro . Gladys is an broadminded and sympathetic commentator on church affairs often concentrating on reconciliation and other pastoral efforts which she regularly shares with Slugger. There are other sides to church affairs. Alf McCreary has contributed a column of church news for the Belfast Telegraph for many years which by and large has taken the orthodox view of the place of Christianity and the churches in Northern Ireland without entirely ducking the many controversies within them. In the …

The party leaders are losing control of the election debate

Brian Walker on November 26, 2019, 10:30 pm

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Almost single handedly the BBC interviewer Andrew Neil is exposing the thinness of the main party leaders arguments – even those of the normally poised and practiced Nicola Sturgeon. who was rattled as never before. A minority Labour government would not need to be the SNP’s suitor – the SNP have nowhere else to go. A second referendum overturning the result of the first would deprive her of her best argument for Indy Ref 2. Would the EU welcome …

A compelling case for more flexibility from both sides in the next stage of Brexit

Brian Walker on November 19, 2019, 11:45 am

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Anand Menon the director the UK in a Changing Europe and as near to objectivity as it gets, has been issuing correctives to the Brexit positions of both the UK government and the EU Commission. In separate articles his analyses provide sage advice for both sides after the election. Does it mean a smoother passage for all goods in both directions across the Irish Sea? In the Guardian yesterday, with Catharine Barnard Get Brexit done….” The simple answer is that …

For Northern Ireland and the Union, the choices after the election are all to play for

Brian Walker on November 18, 2019, 11:54 am

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Peering into a crystal ball however cloudy is as irresistible for the curious voter as the compulsive gambler. Favourable predictions for the Conservatives range from an overall majority of over 100 to fewer MPs than May won in 2017 but still the largest party. Serious hopes of a Labour majority are round about nil. They are likely to need the support on some basis of minority parties, the SNP, the Lib Dems and who knows? – even the DUP. Johnson’s …

The voters sense that the DUP and Sinn Fein are all at sea. What are they to make of it?

Brian Walker on November 17, 2019, 3:52 pm

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Pity the local voter, trying to discover a clear outcome in this election. Anoraks may shiver with anticipation at the prospect of change in a couple of local seats but what are they claiming for turnout? Who could blame the people for staying away? Voting for the Union or Remain or bringing a border poll closer doesn’t come close to guaranteeing any of these outcomes. The secretary of state has floated the idea of deciding on an Assembly election in …

A limited amnesty not only for soldiers but for all? Another case of a Boris Johnson election wheeze, without understanding what he’s proposing?

Brian Walker on November 11, 2019, 11:00 am

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The High Court in Belfast On Armistice Day Boris Johnson is announcing what he would like to think sounds like a partial amnesty for former soldiers involved in the Troubles as well as foreign engagements like Iraq and Afghanistan. The subject is of course emotive but the substance is far from clear. What does the proposal to draw a line under Troubles prosecutions really mean? Mr Johnson said the party will introduce legislation to ensure the Law of Armed Conflict …

The election results may disappoint the early predictions of change

Brian Walker on October 30, 2019, 8:59 pm

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I’m as out of touch as it’s possible to be on the same planet, but for me, behind all the churn, the general election situation is brutally simple. Boris Johnson has a more or less united party behind him, focused on winning the election. He has a deal he can put to the next Parliament. Labour is divided, over Brexit, a second referendum, the party’s wider direction and its leadership. It is also unprepared for the campaign even though the …

Thoughts on unionist options in the general political chaos

Brian Walker on October 29, 2019, 4:09 am

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Henry Patterson has written an excellent explanation in the Guardian of the pressures on the DUP within Northern Ireland rather than at Westminster or from Brussels. As the professional historian of the fate and fortune of border Protestants and much else besides, Henry’s analysis commands respect even from the DUP’s critics who claim they should have backed Remain or at least Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement. Today’s favourite commentator on unionism Alex Kane has also extended his reach into the London …

There are great lessons for Northern Ireland from Down Under in how to think about identity

Brian Walker on October 27, 2019, 12:43 am

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One of great things I’ve noticed about New Zealand and Australia is how people can choose their identity rather than being dominated and shaped by it. This even extends to the grace with which Kiwis generally accepted the All Blacks defeat by an outstanding England team last night, as I can personally testify. Never one of the “anybody but England ” brigade, I was shouting for them well outnumbered in largely Kiwi company and lived to tell the tale, even …

Time to lay off the DUP and to concentrate on what the Deal means

Brian Walker on October 23, 2019, 12:01 pm

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You don’t have to be in Australia where I am just now to be confused about what lessons to draw for Northern Ireland from Johnson’s Withdrawal Bill, worse for NI than the terms May “won” yet on the edge of Commons majority approval. (Incidentally every single one of my incidental contacts here in Oz and NZ when they hear my accent and accept I’m not American have volunteered to me, usually unprompted, to insist we have all gone mad. A …

What lessons will the DUP learn from the demonstable fact that the Union is not all about them?

Brian Walker on October 22, 2019, 9:34 am

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Others have been focusing on the procedural trees rather than political wood involved in the decriminalisation of abortion and the legalisation of equal marriage, marked by a parade of wounded impotence in Stormont afterwards by the stoney-faced DUP leadership. Were they trying on the martyrs’ crown for the benefit of their supporters in the belief that this usually works when the leading local parties fail to get their way by bullying and caucus management? For GB and maybe even for …

Now that the DUP have been checkmated, the two governments have to move on the governance of Northern Ireland

Brian Walker on October 18, 2019, 8:23 pm

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The most the Commons is likely do today is to require a technical extension of withdrawal until all the ps and qs of Johnson’s new Withdrawal Act have been passed. This move would constitute the final protection against No Deal, rather leading to No Brexit. So alas, for the campaign to stop Brexit, it is all over bar some shouting. Personally I bitterly regret this outcome. The second referendum case offering a choice between some deal and Remain was impeccably …

Congratulations DUP for boosting the chances for Remain

Brian Walker on October 17, 2019, 11:34 am

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Tell it not abroad, but at the moment if writing , the DUP have points which have not been properly addressed. The idea that a revived Assembly could approve the proposed deal by simple majority- that is, by leaving out either the DUP or Sinn Fein- is absurd. They would simply adopt the fall back the EU are recommending for Sinn Fein to follow against a DUP veto, that is, withdrawal from the Assembly. As if the threat of …