Brian Walker – Page 38 – Slugger O'Toole

Some bold solutions, several welcome “principles” on dealing with the Irish border. The British paper in full is a serious document

Brian Walker on August 16, 2017, 2:17 pm

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The British paper on the border is at last the meaty document long called for. It makes a several bold and practical suggestions for a seamless border but leaves much up in the air, laying down “ principles” for future negotiations. Many of these go far beyond the Irish border issues to the heart of Brexit itself. This is why the Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney thinks he smells a rat, warning almost immediately that Ireland will not become a …

If there is to be a hard border, it will be the EU that imposes it, say the British

Brian Walker on August 16, 2017, 7:57 am

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No surprise then that little new has emerged in the British paper on the border. It’s right that as we shape the unprecedented model, we have some very clear principles. Top of our list is to agree upfront no physical border infrastructure – that would mean a return to the border posts of the past and is completely unacceptable to the UK.” What has become a bit clearer is a key point that the expected chorus of critics from British …

The 70th anniversary of the 1947 Education Act has lessons for the DUP

Brian Walker on August 15, 2017, 5:23 pm

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On a different tack the Bel Tel recently published a second article showing unionists in government in a more favourable light. This time it’s an article by Prof Graham Walker of QUB on the 70th anniversary of the the passage of the 1947 Education Act. Would that today’s Stormont could agree on effective measures to replace that Act’s 11 plus and advance the cause of genuinely secular integrated education. But in its time the ’47 Act was a real advance …

More than a hint of things to come on the Irish border

Brian Walker on August 15, 2017, 4:57 pm

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Once this period expires, the UK will look to agree either a “highly streamlined” border with the EU, or a new “partnership” with no customs border at all. This is the most optimistic reading of London’s proposal for “a temporary customs union.” introduced by David. It gives a pretty broad clue of what they’ll propose shortly for the Irish border. The customs proposal has met with circumspect replies from Brussels ans Dublin. Something more meaty is bound to greet the …

More than a wider vision of unionism is needed to take us through Brexit

Brian Walker on August 14, 2017, 11:38 am

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This article in the Belfast Telegraph by John Wilson Foster is an honourable fret about unionist identity in the light of Brexit. Foster’s answer to the problems of Brexit appears to lie in the creation of a wider unionism closer to British norms. So far so good, but only so far. In his own terms Foster poses the familiar question that has puzzled unionists forever: why is Irish nationalism viewed as “good” and Ulster “nationalism” bad? One sentiment is permissible, …

The UK proposals on the border likely to underwhelm, as the Ref 2 debate hots up

Brian Walker on August 13, 2017, 11:06 am

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Theresa May has had the temporary excuse of being on holiday to explain away the continuing churn over Brexit inside and outside the government. No more. She returns from holiday this week. Little to comfort her awaits. Rather than a produce a rallying cry the promised publication of several major Brexit policy documents by midweek is likely to give both sides of the debate more ammunition to throw at each other. By themselves they cannot constitute a coherent strategy. But …

Major survey shows deep confusion in UK opinion over Brexit

Brian Walker on August 12, 2017, 1:52 pm

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Extracts from the BuzzFeed report Many Remain voters now largely agree that Brexit should mean the UK taking full control over its borders, leaving the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, and paying only a small “divorce bill” to the EU, according to major new academic research. A groundbreaking project by the London School of Economics and Oxford University surveying more than 3,000 people – which BuzzFeed News has seen exclusively ahead of its official publication – reveals that …

Are we seeing spin to reduce the scale of the RHI scandal?

Brian Walker on August 11, 2017, 2:04 pm

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It seems moves are afoot to massage down the estimate of the RHI overspend and thus presumably the damage to Arlene Foster and her official and party advisers. The “ new” information reported by Jonny Bell in the Bel Tel dates from January and is therefore not new but newly exposed, we’re told. (Stand by for a chorus telling us they knew it all along). The scaling down rests on the presented fact that the costs of installing “combined heating …

Active north-south cooperation would be the intelligent unionist response to Sinn Fein’s vision of unity out of Brexit

Brian Walker on August 10, 2017, 1:53 pm

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There has been a delayed reaction of critical comment on the Oireacthas report on the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement in the light of Brexit. The report called for special status for Northern Ireland within the EU but coupled it with a drive to work for unionist consent to a united Ireland. This would include a new New Ireland Forum of the type held in the early 1980s which recognised unionist Britishness but was repudiated by Fianna Fail and …

Kevin McNamara RIP, champion of an old Labour approach to Ireland

Brian Walker on August 7, 2017, 10:43 am

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The late prime minister Jim Callaghan was said to have described Kevin McNamara once as “the Fianna Fail member for Kingston upon Hull North”. Kevin himself recalled how Tony Blair on being elected Labour leader summoned him and told him straight : “I don’t want you in my shadow cabinet.” At which Kevin rose from his seat and walked out. Both anecdotes say a lot about of Kevin’s outlook but not the whole story. He was an unapologetic and consistent …

British position papers on customs union and Northern Ireland imminent – Politico website exclusive

Brian Walker on August 7, 2017, 9:19 am

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Britain is about to show its hand in Brexit negotiations in plans that reveal the U.K. wants a smooth route out of the European Union. The U.K. will seek a transitional customs agreement with the EU before moving to a new permanent relationship under plans sent to relevant members of Theresa May’s Cabinet for agreement before being published later this month, according to senior government officials. The proposal — if it is agreed politically — will be set out in an …

Full circle: Kevin Myers takes the rap and offers full contrition

Brian Walker on August 1, 2017, 5:22 pm

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But Kevin is right: editors should edit and take responsibility for all copy. What more is there to say? Except that I hope he has a good pension plan. In his first comments on the issue, Myers said he believed “five or six” people would have seen the copy before it went to press. “I am the author of my own misery, I am the master of my soul, the author of my own misfortune. I must answer for what …

Do the Irish papers emerge with credit over how they handled Kevin Myers? You decide

Brian Walker on August 1, 2017, 10:23 am

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The Irish Independent has at last joined the Irish Times in entering the row over Kevin Myers, who has written for both papers in his time. Former Indo editor Gerry O’Regan resorts to psychology and family background in Leicester and Ireland to explain Kevin’s “ inner rage.” As his editor O’Regan says their relations were…. “unnecessarily uneasy and strained; his propensity to take umbrage at even the slightest criticism in time simply became tiresome. It is a character trait which …

The limited case for Kevin

Brian Walker on July 31, 2017, 9:11 pm

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The Irish Times for which he once wrote and even more significantly the Jewish Council of Ireland have mounted a limited defence of Kevin Myers. As I labelled him a disgrace for the bonkers claim that two BBC presenters won bigger contracts because they were Jewish, I’m very happy to carry here the case for Kevin warts and all, such as it can be made. There is indeed more to him than this but it’s a pretty unsightly wart. The …

Kevin Myers disgraced

Brian Walker on July 30, 2017, 1:46 pm

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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

A reply on Brexit to Nicholas Whyte

Brian Walker on July 30, 2017, 12:12 pm

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I don’t think I did leave out “the important dimension” of the Irish border, one of three issues identified by the EU before trade talks can begin. On this I agreed with the Brexit Secretary David Davis who asked how the border issue could possibly be settled in advance. A settlement on the Irish border has surely to be compatible with a wider deal and the EU I suspect will not allow an Irish tail to wag the EU dog. …

Sharper words from Varadakar but no change in substance. But here’s a new idea.

Brian Walker on July 29, 2017, 9:00 am

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It’s hardly a surprise that the Dublin government’s latest expressions of concern about Brexit are focused on Ireland. But why should the Irish expect greater clarity and urgency from London on the border when London has been so vague about everything else? By itself, lack of clarity needn’t be taken as a sign of indifference. Leo Varadkar’s comments may be a mite sharper than Enda Kenny’s, but in substance there is not an iota of difference between them. Mr Varadkar, …

A border down the Irish Sea is a straw man

Brian Walker on July 28, 2017, 11:15 am

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The Times of London lead “Irish want sea border after Brexit” is probably plugging a line from Dublin harder than it deserves, in claiming that the Irish government under new leadership is calling for an economic border down the Irish Sea as the only viable alternative to an unacceptable hardening of the land border. Sir Jeffrey immediately shot down that kite on behalf of the DUP on the Today programme, (although BBC NI’s habitually sleepy news website has yet to …

Changes foreshadowed in the integrated energy and agriculture markets, leaving Stormont behind

Brian Walker on July 26, 2017, 11:20 am

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The local vacuum of practical debate over Brexit continues, while real events move on.. I confess I hadn’t heard of “the Celtic interconnector “ before coming across it in a story in the Financial Times. The EU commission made this announcement at the end of June. A project to build an interconnector linking for the first time the French and Irish electricity systems will today be awarded a €4 million grant from the European Commission… At 4 million euros, it …

Pressure on Sinn Fein to return to the Assembly was the message from the Dublin establishment at the Magill

Brian Walker on July 24, 2017, 11:45 am

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As the John Hewitt gets under way today, the summer school season had already been launched in Glenties. I spent a few days in the area the previous week so I missed out on this year’s Magill summer school which was as usual these days, highly political. On Brexit you can have too much of a good thing especially when Narin strand and Nancy’s bar down the road in Ardara are beckoning. The School will publish speakers’ papers shortly but …