Brian Walker – Page 44 – Slugger O'Toole

Skids under Arlene?

Brian Walker on March 6, 2017, 10:07 am

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Will she be gone by tonight? Temporarily or permanently? No one better than historian Eamonn Phoenix to put it into context. The resulting loss of a Unionist majority at Stormont for the first time has shocked Unionism to its core. The political and, especially, the psychological implications of this as the centenary of Partition approaches in 2021, should not be underestimated. Is there any more to say except wait on events? And perhaps spare a thought for Mike Nesbitt. Did he …

All very exciting, Sandra and Sean. But in the cold light of day the election changed nothing except dreams and nightmares

Brian Walker on March 4, 2017, 1:00 pm

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Now that the election is over, all the politicians have turned into commentators tweeting all over the place, giving pious little lectures about what the other guy should do now. Not a word about what they themselves should do to reach agreement. In the cold light of day the undoubted Sinn Fein victory makes neither them nor the DUP more amenable to compromise: rather the reverse. The mutual veto is rock solid. The centre ground was rescued from oblivion at …

Is Theresa May boosting the case for an independent Scotland?

Brian Walker on March 4, 2017, 10:17 am

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In Scotland a much bigger story is brewing than ours. Theresa May is taking Nicola Sturgeon head on and may come a cropper. She’s behaving as if the Tories’ clean sweep in England boosts their authority in Scotland. Nothing could be further from the truth. Despite winning 25% of the vote in Scotland, it only emphasises the Conservatives as the party of pro-Brexit England. The Nats are up in arms claiming that May now wants to revisit the whole devolution …

Theresa May launches high stakes confrontation with Nicola Sturgeon

Brian Walker on March 3, 2017, 12:21 pm

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The pace of big politics is quickening in the run-up to pulling the trigger of Art 50. In advance of addressing the Scottish Conservatives today, Theresa May says “politics is not a game and the management of devolved public services in Scotland is too important to be neglected.” But it’s high risk, high stakes poker that the prime minister and the first minister are in fact now locking themselves into. May is calling Nicola Sturgeon’s bluff over the first …

Despite going to the polls today, the Northern Ireland voters will have no say in the outcome. The two governments’ hands- off approach to Stormont will have to change

Brian Walker on March 2, 2017, 10:53 am

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People going to the polls today are being sold badly short. They do not know whether they are electing members to an Assembly that will function again. Northern Ireland is facing not an existential crisis but a failure of politicians to work a workable system consistently. The trouble is that no effective means of calling them to account has yet been developed. Most people, the public and politicians alike don’t seem to realise how appalling this looks to outsiders and …

EU nationals are going through 85 pages of hell to claim their right to remain

Brian Walker on March 1, 2017, 1:59 pm

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In the atmosphere of increasing tension as we enter the month of triggering Article 50, the government faces at least a temporary defeat in the Lords over the status of EU nationals. Peers are unlikely to accept home secretary Amber Rudd’s claim in a letter to each peer that: a guarantee of EU nationals’ right to stay, however “well-intentioned”, would not help the hundreds of thousands of UK citizens living on the continent as it could leave them in potential …

New Brexit bombshell. Irish citizen rights to live and work in Great Britain may change within a month, even for northerners. The answer so far- take out a British passport if you can, quick

Brian Walker on February 27, 2017, 2:15 pm

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My thanks to commenter Jag for drawing attention to a quite a different Brexit bombshell from No 10 in the Daily Telegraph. The Prime Minister is expected to say that EU citizens who travel to Britain after she triggers Article 50 will no longer have the automatic right to stay in the UK permanently. They will instead be subject to migration curbs after Britain leaves the European Union, which could include a new visa regime and restricted access to benefits. …

Scotland and Northern Ireland move centre stage, says Downing St. ” Save the Union” is the mission

Brian Walker on February 27, 2017, 9:35 am

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Well what do you know? At the beginning of a very busy news week, the Times leads with a real revelation from right under their noses. After months of patting the wee Celts on the head with bland assurances that Brexit will be fine all round, “sources “ now say that “concerns about Scotland and Northern Ireland were discussed at last week’s cabinet.. and the impact of Brexit on the UKs devolution settlement is the government’s greatest concern about the exit …

“The potential to be the most important election in NI’s history?” A neck and neck result could be just what we need

Brian Walker on February 24, 2017, 12:35 pm

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“The potential to be the most important election in Northern Ireland’s history,” claims the peripatetic columnist Alex Kane, writing this time in the Newsletter today. Alex is reflecting unionist collywobbles at the prospect of DUP/SF neck and neck. It raises the existential fear of the “known unknown” of unionist nemesis which is paradoxically more nerve wracking for many of them than waiting impatiently for the conclusive end of their long period as a minority is for nationalists.

Former 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

Welsh language to be allowed in the Commons

Brian Walker on February 23, 2017, 10:04 am

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The Times (£) has more than one echo today.. After a six month campaign.. The government confirmed yesterday that it would bring forward a motion to allow MPs to speak the language when the Welsh grand committee meets in Westminster, despite rejecting the change last year on cost grounds. The committee, made up of all 40 MPs representing Wales, meets every two months. Chris Bryant, who campaigned for the change when he was shadow leader of the Commons, said he …

Sounds familiar? England’s own cash for ash

Brian Walker on February 23, 2017, 9:39 am

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From the Times today (£) £450m lost over failed green power programme Minister who backed plan now works in sector Britain is wasting hundreds of millions of pounds subsidising power stations to burn American wood pellets that do more harm to the climate than the coal they replaced, a study has found. Chopping down trees and transporting wood across the Atlantic Ocean to feed power stations produces more greenhouse gases than much cheaper coal, according to the report. It blames …

We missed out on Cressida Dick but the links between the NI police and the Met are strong

Brian Walker on February 22, 2017, 7:00 pm

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Congratulations to Cressida Dick who has overcome the pain and controversy of being the Gold commander in the operation which led to the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005, to become the first woman Commissioner of the Met. The Policing Board here passed her over for Chief Constable in 2014, preferring George Hamilton as the first local man to head up the PSNI. Gender therefore isn’t everything, although her application suggested that the PSNI job could still …

No side deal for soldiers, Theresa. If you can legislate for the language, you can legislate for the legacy

Brian Walker on February 22, 2017, 4:40 pm

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It would be hard to find an issue that illustrates how little Northern Ireland matters to some Conservative MPs as the campaign to halt police investigations into cases of alleged army misconduct during the Troubles. It’s not so much calculated indifference as blimpish blindness. This was the question to Theresa May at PMQs today: 22 February 2017 Dr Julian Lewis (New Forest East) (Con) Q9. If she will take steps to introduce legislative proposals to provide legal protection to …

Tony Blair has made the case for a rethink on Brexit and Northern Ireland will need a new financial deal. Is anybody listening?

Brian Walker on February 17, 2017, 6:01 pm

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Hurtling at us like a comet but unnoticed by the local worthies is the prospect for repatriating powers direct from Brussels to Stormont, Holyrood and Cardiff Bay. Among them are powers over agriculture and energy, which in Ireland are linked or integrated north and south. How they’ll be divvied up is hasn’t even been examined. The British government retain a substantial interest in these areas where powers currently rest with Brussels as it negotiates new trading arrangements to replace membership …

Manifesto for abstention or terms for a return to government? Sinn Fein keeps the voters guessing

Brian Walker on February 15, 2017, 11:32 pm

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In the early phases of the Assembly, Sinn Fein had the perfect bargaining chip of the arms decommissioning agenda, turning it on or off at will. Tony Blair spelt it out brutally for SDLP leader Mark Durkan to read across to David Trimble: “ The problem with you guys is you haven’t got guns.” Today most of the guns have gone and with them much of Sinn Fein’s tactical advantage. As they are all too aware, their emphasis on equality …

Mike Nesbitt is pitching to his voters to use their judgement, not to his candidates. It makes perfect sense

Brian Walker on February 15, 2017, 4:30 pm

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Most commentators have stated the obvious. Whistling through their teeth as they praise him for being brave in classic Yes Minister mode – .i.e. suicidal – the best that can be said for him is that he should have looked forward to cooperating with the SDLP after the election and left it at that. But that was to miss the point. What Mike Nesbitt did was break a taboo by daring to propose voting outside the big tent. If not …

Obsessing about vote management is inevitable but shouldn’t distract us from what happens afterwards

Brian Walker on February 14, 2017, 12:40 pm

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Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt has predictably taken a hammering over his personal choice to vote SDLP next. The Newsletter has helpfully quoted 8 UUP candidates who think otherwise. They can hardly be blamed. Most of them rely on DUP transfers to get elected and aren’t expecting SDLP transfers anytime soon. They mortally fear a DUP plump that leaves them high and dry and in some cases, Sinn Fein cosy and warm and elected instead. So why did Mike do …

Arlene’s partial withdrawal will not close the crocodile’s jaws. Remember what happened after a previous DUP leader said “never?”

Brian Walker on February 11, 2017, 11:16 am

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I would contextualise David McCann’s well- balanced report of Arlene Foster’s partial climbdown a little differently. How will she now follow through? Gerry Adams is bursting to know. He or Michelle O’Neill and will challenge her shortly. All the other parties will join in the chorus. When columnist Eilis O’Hanlon, a keen debunker of Sinn Fein positions joins the club of critics and accuses Arlene Foster of lack of commitment to “the long term interests of unionism” we know the …

The unsung Assembly achievement of shared education is not the enemy of integration.

Brian Walker on February 10, 2017, 12:43 pm

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As we contemplate the political wreck that is currently the Assembly, we might look around for crumbs of comfort. Although this has not been officially confirmed, I’m assured that the alarm sounded here and in the Irish News that the spend of only £3 million of a £500 million ten year fund pledged by Westminster under Fresh Start doesn’t mean lack of commitment. It is due to “normal” delay in capital start –ups and will be carried over to next …

Straight comparisons with Wales are barmy. An NI Language Act under Assembly control would be nothing like

Brian Walker on February 7, 2017, 6:39 pm

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Perhaps Arlene Foster deserves a crumb of sympathy when Nelson McCausland makes claims like this about the cost of Sinn Fein’s version of an Irish Language Act. So, we are talking about an annual cost that can be estimated at around £100m a year. That is £2bn over the next 20 years. Shades of RHI Aaaghh!! But it’s nonsense to think that any such Language Act here would be as extensive or as expensive as the Welsh provision. The comparison …