Brian Walker – Page 52 – Slugger O'Toole

A new shape to power sharing for Northern Ireland’s government but no clear role for opposition

Brian Walker on May 26, 2016, 1:21 pm

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First, let’s salute the continuing generational change. Apart from the lone venerable figure of dFM himself, the old warriors have all but departed and the main members of the DUP awkward squad are safely ensconsed in Westminster. In the first flush of change, it’s being said that our politics are becoming more normal. What sort of new normality will it be? What differences will emerge from the end inclusive power sharing and its replacement by a two party coalition with …

Boring to say so perhaps, but a stable DUP- Sinn Fein partnership matters more than hopes for the opposition or changes in voter behaviour

Brian Walker on May 23, 2016, 2:53 pm

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While we wait on developments, our thoughts might profitably turn to a the immediate future in which the key signifier is nearly 50:50 but the electorate is becoming somewhat more diverse than that and looking for “delivery.” What sort of cross community politics may be emerging? Which will be the more important: a better DUP/SF relationship in government than before; or the challenge from a developing opposition? It’s pretty obvious that the clear initiative lies with the duopoly with its …

Alliance grip tightens? Or hold hands with Sugden?

Brian Walker on May 21, 2016, 4:51 pm

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Waiting for the FA Cup Final the Newsletter has made a simple inquiry to the renamed OFMDFM. Presumably they passed the information onto the office holders who will respond accordingly. My job share suggestion won’t fly apparently. Brendan Heading is not the only one interested…But how about SF and DUP one after the other, like Israel’s Shimon Peres and Yitzak Shamir? ( a grandiose parallel I admit.). In the 1984 elections, the Alignment won more seats than any other party but failed …

The failure of the DUP and Sinn Fein to agree on the big issues is giving Alliance more leverage than they could have ever dreamt of .

Brian Walker on May 20, 2016, 7:32 pm

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Listening to Radio Ulster’s Inside Politics, little Alliance seems to have the joint leaders on a hook. It appears that the main sticking point for David Ford was Foster and McGuinness’s refusal to accept reform of the blocking mechanism of the petition of concern. Ford has been campaigning for reform for a long time, most recently over the DUP’s use of it to block an abortion amendment and earlier its use against the Welfare Reform Bill by SF, the SDLP …

Let’s wait for a clear outcome before proclaiming a new dynamic at Stormont

Brian Walker on May 20, 2016, 12:00 pm

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Am I right in thinking that the small avalanche started by Mike Nesbitt has taken the DUP and Sinn Fein entirely by surprise? Not to mention the distinguished local commentariat who failed to clock that the smaller parties were as serious as this about the opposition option? So what do we know? First, very little detail over precise sticking points. This has not been an open negotiation – until perhaps today. It seems that the smaller parties were even …

Assembly brinkmanship must end soon

Brian Walker on May 19, 2016, 10:30 am

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In the last mandate David Ford liked to boast that the Alliance party was unique because they had been finally chosen to occupy the Justice department by the whole Assembly rather than selected by the mechanism of D’Hondt. Because of their status they are more essential to the formation of the Executive than the SDLP despite their fewer numbers. So what’s changed? A bit of bargaining is ok at a time of maximum leverage but the brinkmanship should end soon. …

Integrating education would give the SDLP purpose and set the target for others to follow

Brian Walker on May 18, 2016, 9:21 pm

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So much comment about tactics and process! If they are to capitalise on a public mood for change, the SDLP like all the parties will have to concentrate on what they stand for beyond the old definitions. Reforming the education system to promote social integration and a diverse identity would be one big bold and creative approach to “making Northern Ireland work” And it’s actually in their manifesto. The SDLP appear to acknowledge that preserving the elements of the traditional …

Nesbitt’s gamble: at last the Ulster Unionists (and the SDLP) will have to decide what they stand for or face oblivion in the next Assembly

Brian Walker on May 14, 2016, 11:15 am

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Since the election and even before it, commentators have been casting around desperately for anything that suggests that the old muscle- bound duopoly is starting to crumble. Even the DUP “victory” is being hyped as a harbinger of change alongside the Sinn Fein “ defeat”. Something, anything that might mean fresh movement or greater stability. So the zeitgeist has moved in the direction of a more “normal “ democracy that an opposition signifies, and yet an opposition that doesn’t threaten …

Ten years after Cory: has the human rights case been lost?

Brian Walker on May 13, 2016, 12:58 pm

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The Committee for the Administration of Justice (CAJ) have just published a long delayed report on a conference held two years ago to review the state of accountability for covert policing for the controversial UK Investigatory Powers Bill, against the background of what went on during the Troubles. They began by noting that the UK national security and crime institutions MI5 the National Crime Agency operate in the province without specific accountability to the local institutions. This is hardly news. …

To oppose or not oppose? Good government is the real priority

Brian Walker on May 11, 2016, 12:10 pm

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I hope wrangling over whether there should be an opposition or not doesn’t overshadow the important business of agreeing an outline programme for government. Now is exactly the right time for all parties to pitch in on more or less equal terms with their ideas free of immediate electoral constraints. The election is over, Mike Nesbitt. Of course Alliance should be in on the talks unless you think the UUP is going to be awarded Justice. The good news is …

Paramilitary violence and intimidation greater than admitted – The Detail. How will the parties deal with it?

Brian Walker on April 29, 2016, 12:16 pm

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The Detail investigative website continues to create impact by laying it out facts you might suspect the main parties have an interest in playing down with an election in prospect. Paradoxically that comparative reticence may be a form of implied cohesion between the DUP and Sinn Fein. But is it good enough? How should they respond? In their latest report following an inevitably rough audit of the last Assembly mandate the Detail gives a stark account of the level of …

The common thread between Ken Livingstone on the IRA and on Jews and Israel

Brian Walker on April 28, 2016, 2:45 pm

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It looks as if Ken Livingstone faces a tougher time with the Labour party over his “Hitler was a Zionist” remarks than he did over consorting with Gerry Adams when the IRA campaign had ten years to run to the first ceasefire. What was the charge against him in 1983-4? That he gave comfort to the IRA by supporting their key demand of “Brits Out,” without demanding an IRA ceasefire. The evenhandedness of his call for an end to violence …

Do we need the “old ” IRA to contain the “new”?

Brian Walker on April 28, 2016, 10:28 am

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Gang activity labelled “dissident republican” is spreading and is proving very difficult to check. What is the connection between the killings in Dublin and the fatal shooting taxi driver of Michael McGibbon? Perhaps the most chilling aspect of McGibbon “ punishment shooting “ was that, rather than go the the police – or even Gerry Kelly – he went to take his punishment, just as in the worst of the bad old days. The 33-year-old had gone to meet …

David Beresford hunger strike journalist and historian, RIP

Brian Walker on April 23, 2016, 10:31 am

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The best journalists are often oddballs. They can win close access to power, regardless of whether power is of the state or anti -state variety. They lack – and often spurn – status. They tend to walk alone and barely recognise dress codes. Perhaps their greatest quality is persistence against the odds, in which courage and ego play equal parts. If they have to, they skirt round or quietly ignore the rules of the institutions they work for and …

Will SDLP support for integrated education create a new consensus?

Brian Walker on April 14, 2016, 10:24 am

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David McCann has already given his overview of the SDLP manifesto. On delivery, as is usual with these documents, the manifesto strains at being comprehensive without giving away too many hostages to fortune or burdening the reader with costings. And like all parties particularly the smaller ones, the SDLP can indulge in aspirations it knows it won’t be allowed to deliver – and may not always want to anyway. Aiming for (I make it) 26,500 new jobs by 2021, it …

News of investment in NI may be good enough to be true

Brian Walker on April 12, 2016, 11:47 am

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Wow! 36 deals worth £392 million secured in the first quarter of 2016 I admit I don’t really understand what the figures mean and how much accrues to people who live and work in northern Ireland. Still, it seems like good news for the professional classes in high tech. In the first quarter of 2015, there were 42 deals valued at £205.7 million (€256.6m): this year, in the same period, just 36 deals were concluded but at a combined worth …

Time to admit the reduced role of dealing with the past

Brian Walker on April 10, 2016, 12:25 pm

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In the Sunday Times (£) a review by the historian and failed candidate for Canadian PM Michael Ignatieff of a book lets a little air into the deadlocked subject of Dealing with the Past, “ In Praise of Forgetting: Historical Memory and Its Ironies” by David Rieff presents arguments to counter our prevailing orthodoxies of the over-riding claims for justice and healing is remembering. A great Irish historian once said that it would help heal his society if the Irish …

“This is not an abortion war, completely not”. Facebook trolls lay off

Brian Walker on April 6, 2016, 4:35 pm

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This is an exclusive interview with an Ulster woman of a very different character. Deborah McAleese’s interview in the Belfast Telegraph with a housemate of the young woman convicted of self aborting is searing, very hard to read. Oddly the impact was less in voice on the Nolan show ( substitute ) because the housemate was composed two years after the event. In Nolan style she was pressed repeatedly for her reaction but held her ground. Her line was ” You can’t …

The DUP manifesto: a fair start but big issues are left out

Brian Walker on April 6, 2016, 12:52 pm

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In the DUP manifesto,, buzz phrases like better service delivery and the modernisation of government are invoked in support of the business- like appeal of Arlene Foster the party is relying on at the outset of their campaign. There is a marked lack of “shared future” and united community rhetoric. At the same time unionist/loyalist tunes while clearly present are relatively muted. Whatever the claims and counterclaims of the short campaign there’s little doubt that the DUP and Sinn Fein …

The Brexit debate showed how for once, it’s not really about us.

Brian Walker on April 5, 2016, 1:32 pm

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While all involved should be congratulated for staging it, goodness knows what the public made of the streamed Brexit debate. The horrible truth is that we are required to say yes or no to a question which admits of no clear answer. No one knows the cost of “uncertainty,” or the advantages of going it alone Dunkirk style. The Leave campaign is Panglossian, Remain is perilously like Mr Micawber. Call me parochial but the lack of a full time Northern …