Brian Walker – Page 55 – Slugger O'Toole

The centre cannot hold? Don’t be so fainthearted! Revolution is not ahead

Brian Walker on August 1, 2015, 1:27 pm

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Some reflections on the state of the centre of politics culled from recent writing. We begin with a focus on Ireland in two pieces which reveal the underlying fear of the further rise of Sinn Fein, although the main topic in each case is wider. First, an excellent survey of the ongoing study of the period of the 1916 rising and its contemporary resonance by the English historian David Reynolds, in the News Statesman. Perhaps in 2016, a century on, …

Irish ambassador’s latest move in the Republic’s role in the campaign to keep the UK in the EU

Brian Walker on July 30, 2015, 3:10 pm

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The FT (£,unfortunately) reports a strategically timed interview with the Irish ambassador to the UK , the Yeats-loving Dermot Mulhall. Remember when the Irish people reversed their “ wrong” answer in the first referendum on the Lisbon Treaty? It was the bold Dermot who fund the way through, apparently. Now he’s recommending that the UK follows a similar route to avoid the calamity – for both islands – of Brexit . But eventually the rest of the EU agreed to the …

The Irish Times deserves to see off the Murdoch threat but needs to do better, especially on the North

Brian Walker on July 30, 2015, 11:56 am

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The Irish Times reports that it is launching “ full proceedings” against the Times ( of London ) following its failure to win an injunction against the Murdoch- owned paper in its bid to use the title “The Times Irish edition” for a new digital edition of the paper linked to a subscription for Sunday Times version which already exists. This move will be very expensive and a sign that the Irish Times board believes much is at stake. For …

Reality checks of north-south comparisons should be welcomed

Brian Walker on July 29, 2015, 8:20 pm

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This piece by Aaron McKenna , businessman and columnist in the Journal.ie is not holy writ but it does make some interesting north-south comparisons. The UK government spends 24% more per head in Northern Ireland than it does in England, some £10,876 for every person in the province. If we got Northern Ireland tomorrow, that would translate to €15,464. In the Republic, we spend €11,120 per head. Of course, the Northerners could spend what they like if they earned it. …

The continuing welfare impasse shows that peace will survive the suspension of the Assembly

Brian Walker on July 29, 2015, 11:45 am

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On the surface at least, few outside the place are noticing. The public seem to be ignoring it, as if in a dream. Civil society stays generally schtum, like jobsworths in the old Soviet society. The parties are crying for attention. Gerry Adams has been polishing up his narrative of entitlement “By slashing hundreds of millions of pounds from the finances of the North’s Executive, the British government has attacked the ability of the political institutions to deliver for citizens.” …

The Irish in Britain no longer need to think of themselves as emigrants

Brian Walker on July 28, 2015, 12:21 pm

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This acute essay by Niamh Mulvey is the first I’ve read to question directly the very idea – very politely – that young Irish who come over here to GB for a job should classify themselves as emigrants. I am an emigrant, I suppose, but often that feels far too grandiose a term for a white girl who works in a shiny office in central London and can afford to come home a couple of times a year. Yes I know the rich literature …

Raking up “London”again is dead against modern Derry’s practical interests

Brian Walker on July 25, 2015, 12:31 pm

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Sinn Fein recently produced a round- up of Uncomfortable Conversations intended by promote reconciliation. With that in mind, is dropping the “London” prefix from the official name of the traditional city within the boundaries of the newly expanded local government district, really one we need to have again? Particularly as it’s doomed to failure. In a local government sense Londonderry may be said not exist any more , just as the old six counties don’t either. And just as “Belfast Co …

Abortion law is pawn in a Tory-SNP power game

Brian Walker on July 25, 2015, 10:12 am

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The Herald reports that the Conservatives are thinking about devolving abortion law to Scotland where a strong Catholic lobby is opposed to the 1967 Act. What the point of doing it unless the aim is to repeal it? Not necessarily apparently. It’s really about the power game between Westminster and Holyrood, not about little matters such as rights, ethics, women and embryos. Earlier this year, the Scottish Government quietly dropped a demand for new powers over abortion, saying it had other …

It’s authenticity, not left or right wing, that’s scoring with oppositions

Brian Walker on July 23, 2015, 12:18 pm

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Donald Trump and Jeremy Corbyn although poles apart, have nevertheless more in common than Corbyn would like to admit (Trump wouldn’t take Corbyn under his notice). Not as political ideologues but as icons of “authenticity,” that holy grail of reality politics which itself is ironically becoming a marketing category. Authenticity works for Labour’s Alan Johnson because with equal irony, he has resisted attempts to recruit him for the Labour leadership. The message is clear. Authenticity is a quality that thrives …

Discovery of files on named politicians raises the stakes on the Kincora abuse scandal

Brian Walker on July 22, 2015, 9:03 pm

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At last . Papers naming prominent politicians of the 1970s and 80s as suspects which couldn’t be found at first have at last turned up in boxes marked “Miscellaneous” in the Cabinet Office in Whitehall. The local interest couldn’t be higher, after being stimulated by media persistence. The papers also reveal that the Kincora children’s home in Northern Ireland was at the heart of further correspondence involving the security services. Allegations of abuse and trafficking of children to England have …

The welfare crisis deepens. The DUP are making common cause with Sinn Fein over George Osborne’s cuts

Brian Walker on July 21, 2015, 11:43 am

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The Guardian’s Politics Live feature reports an analysis of the impact of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill on the working poor. Read across locally, it has the effect of adding the DUP’s opposition to the UK’s government’s budget strategy to Sinn Fein’s, albeit on more limited grounds. The analysis was made by the highly reputable, unbiased House of Commons library and commissioned by Frank Field, the veteran free thinking Labour MP who is a leading authority on welfare and social policy. …

The poignant comparison between Mhairi Black and Bernadette Devlin

Brian Walker on July 18, 2015, 1:23 pm

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The reception given to Mhairi Black, the SNP MP who at 20 is the youngest MP since the 1830s brings to mind the similar reception given to another Baby of the House, Bernadette Devlin who was elected in the byelection of April 1969 a few days short of her 22nd birthday. The contrasts are of course vast. With Bernadette we have the advantage of hindsight to have followed the course of a damaged, even tragic life and embittered politics, affected no …

Theresa Villiers is a semi-detached secretary of state. She needs to focus up, or go.

Brian Walker on July 16, 2015, 11:54 am

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Mick’s post brings out the striking ontrast between this debate in the Dail and how Westminster is currently dealing with Northern Ireland. There is a powerful irony that Dublin is far more interested in our affairs than London, even though London as the paymasters has the overwhelming responsibility. In NI questions on the same day,Theresa Villiers limited herself to a fatalistic statement of the position on deadlock. Although she has met the parties there have been no serious attempts at …

What the Greek diktat says about the future of Europe.

Brian Walker on July 14, 2015, 10:39 am

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Away from the political turmoil, the bewildering complexity and the human misery at the root of it all, a couple of interesting overviews. First, the shock of final disillusionment from Fintan O’Toole. already scarred by the experience of the Irish bailout. What’s the difference between the Mafia and the current European leadership? The Mafia makes you an offer you can’t refuse. The leaders of the European Union offer you a deal you can neither refuse nor accept without destroying yourself. …

Conversations about the future require candour, not platitudes

Brian Walker on July 12, 2015, 2:48 pm

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Because of a clash of commitments I’m having to miss out on the Westminster launch on Tuesday of Uncomfortable Conversations: An Initiative for Dialogue Towards Reconciliation edited by the Sinn Fein chair Declan Kearney. It will follow a similar launch in the Linenhall Library in Belfast which Sinn Fein covered on YouTube in April. It is also the second bite of a cherry first produced as long ago as October 2012.The words “trust”, “genuine “ and “dialogue” figured prominently but specific …

How to get Martin McGuinness off the hook

Brian Walker on June 21, 2015, 2:04 pm

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Despite the mockery that greeted it, Arlene Foster’s “phantom budget” has, in the now familiar phrase of financial crises, “kicked the can down the road,” even as Robinson and McGuinness have been ramping up the rhetoric in the game of chicken. This has bought time. However, it’s now clear that quite a big road block awaits the battered can in the form of the UK emergency budget – the real budget, George Osborne’s – in three weeks’ time and the …

As austerity is set to continue whatever, it’s time for civil society to call for a halt in the game of chicken over the budget

Brian Walker on June 17, 2015, 2:24 pm

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The silence from local economists and business people has been deplorably deafening about the game of chicken being played out in the Assembly over the budget and the welfare Bill. Rather than mixing it with the politicians they can perhaps be forgiven for turning to bigger pictures and hoping that the Assembly will do likewise. But time is running out for this passive attitude and a bolder line should be taken soon by those who keep the economic show on the …

After RTE’s Prime Time on collusion, will the Irish government dare to put pressure on the British?

Brian Walker on June 16, 2015, 1:05 pm

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One of the frustrations of the TV market in these multichannel days is that we’re a long way from “open skies” broadcasting for viewing on demand. This applies to BBCi Player if you live in the Republic and the RTE Player if you live as I do in Britain. This means I don’t get to see the RTE Prime Time documentary on Collusion. People in the Republic are much more likely to access the two BBC documentaries on Britain’s Secret …

Abortion pressure continues slowly, slowly

Brian Walker on June 11, 2015, 12:13 pm

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Two interesting blasts from non-natives in the abortion debate have appeared in – can you guess? Yes! – in the Guardian and the Independent. In the Indy, London-based Siobhan Fenton has been combing the statistics just out, to find that that 828 women who had abortions in England and Wales last year gave Northern Ireland addresses and 3754 were recorded as coming from the Republic. Almost certainly these figures are an underestimate, the real NI figure being around 2000, according …

Henry Patterson is half right, but dealing with the past must be broadly based

Brian Walker on June 6, 2015, 12:42 pm

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. Henry Patterson, a historian of high repute from the unionist tradition has entered the debate sparked by the Panorama on collusion, Britain’s Secret Deals. He laments what he sees as unionism’s “parochialism and defensiveness “in failing to challenge the republican narrative of the Troubles as a struggle for freedom and justice in common with similar struggles elsewhere. The recent publication in the News Letter of a graph detailing deaths caused by paramilitary organisations and the state (showing that deaths by the state …