Brian Walker – Page 66 – Slugger O'Toole

Giant’s Causeway dispute heightens

Brian Walker on May 24, 2013, 6:40 pm

| Readers 113

The plot thickens over the controversial plan to build a golf course and hotel complex at Runkerry just outside the perimeter of the Giant’s Causeway World Heritage site. Now UNESCO which awards this designation is weighing in behind the National Trust to try to stop it. From memory this is land the behind the lovely beach that stretches from just outside Portballintrae beginning at the brackish outflow of the river Bush. Would the beach be closed off too I wonder? …

Exploit Building a United Community to call the Executive to account, not to let them off the hook

Brian Walker on May 23, 2013, 8:22 pm

| Readers 13

Statement by the First and deputy First Minister “As our first move in implementing our new strategy “Together: building a United Community “ we are delivering a political bombshell. We solemnly declare that, following the precedent set by the former IRA which made stable power sharing possible, we intend as soon as possible to dismantle our respective parties, the DUP and Sinn Fein. We call on the other parties to do the same and join us in forming new centre …

End now the old pretence that we want to deal with the past

Brian Walker on May 23, 2013, 11:40 am

| Readers 49

Another conference, another raking over old ground? Perhaps – but the DPP Barra McGrory made an interesting speech at the well-cast transitional justice conference in Belfast. “I think society has got to make a choice. Either it decides now to go down the route, the very difficult route, of determining that we are going to forego the investigation and prosecution of the past in favour of embedding the political institutions or the peace process, or between that and deciding whether …

Flaws in Enda Kenny’s case on abortion exposed as the hierarchy brings out the ex factor

Brian Walker on May 19, 2013, 12:52 pm

| Readers 58

The next Catholic primate of Ireland Archbishop Eamon Martin has told the Sunday Times( £ ) “You cannot regard yourself as a person of faith and support abortion,” Martin said in an interview with The Sunday Times. “You cannot believe you are with your church and directly help someone to procure an abortion. This includes medical professionals and the legislators. If a legislator comes to me and says, ‘Can I be a faithful Catholic and support abortion?’ I would say …

Drama shows best how much Northern Ireland has changed

Brian Walker on May 15, 2013, 3:00 pm

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The distinguished Arts commentator Mark Lawson has an interesting blog post in the Guardian pegged to the new BBC2 thriller series “The Fall,” set in Belfast and launched on Monday night. He uses it to discuss the impact of “British ” in the BBC. He rightly observes the big change, that it’s now Scotland with its independence debate where the “British” in” BBC” expresses more of an issue than it does in today’s Northern Ireland. However I think he gets “The Fall” slightly wrong, although the headline …

Seize the opportunities opened up by the Good Relations strategy. Don’t write it off

Brian Walker on May 11, 2013, 3:51 pm

| Readers 52

Mick’s last post is probably representative of the muted reaction to the long awaited initiative. All the same I’d rather take a more positive approach and – yes!- begin with accepting it at face value. So I’m asking: are critics justified in writing off already the Cohesion Sharing and Integration statement ( not yet a strategy and not actually labelled CSI)? Do we pin all the blame for its gaps and evasions on Peter Robinson and the DUP and Martin McGuinness and Sinn …

It’s Derry again – with London and Liverpool, commemorating the Battle of the Atlantic

Brian Walker on May 8, 2013, 9:51 pm

| Readers 218

From the Dalai Lama to a “ VVIP” at the weekend, Londonderry is proving quite a venue, one of three for commemorating the Battle of the Atlantic this weekend. Good to see the UK City of Culture grafting this on to the programme and the recognition given to its role as a major port for the destroyer escorts of the convoys in and out of Liverpool and the Clyde. I recommend the absorbing selection of memoir writing on Derry in …

Celebrated in London, Sam Thompson’s “Over the Bridge” is as powerful today as ever

Brian Walker on May 7, 2013, 7:18 pm

| Readers 138

Last Sunday the great James Ellis, still rockin’ at 82, poet, translator and household name in the 1960s and 70s as Bert Lynch in the gritty TV cops series Z Cars, saluted the cast of the London revival of the late Sam Thompson’s prophetic shipyard play Over the Bridge, just after the performance . Jimmy had special cause to salute and be saluted. He was the play’s first director in the Belfast of 1961 and thereby hangs a tale I’ll come to shortly. …

“Win a weekend break for two in Londonderry”

Brian Walker on May 4, 2013, 11:18 am

| Readers 38

Hi yous’uns, just marvel at this Daily Telegraph headline as it echoes round your brain 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

The struggle for abortion and other reform north and south is far from over

Brian Walker on May 4, 2013, 9:17 am

| Readers 50

John O Neill identifies the interesting paradox that while abortion and civil marriage appears to have united north and south Catholic and mainstream Protestant politicians, it’s the all- Ireland parties, above all Sinn Fein or elements of it , that have making the “progressive” case. Not that the advocacy has been clear or consistent, as Slugger posts have lovingly traced. But now, the raging debates have even attracted the attention of the Economist in an article where it identifies the new …

Only united challenges from civil society to government and grass roots campaigns will bring about a shared future

Brian Walker on April 25, 2013, 5:57 pm

| Readers 72

It’s amazing isn’t it, how all the parties are now singing the praise of sharing, integration and Mammy and apple pie? And yet when it comes to agreeing what that might actually mean they stay stuck in deadlock, their real comfort zone. “A shared future” risks becoming debased as a piece of Orwellian double think, our equivalent of the old Communist dictatorships’ “People’s Democracy.” Apart from wringing our hands and scratching our heads, what can we do about it? I’m sorry, …

No parallels with Ireland as a pro-union strategy in Scotland begins to emerge at last

Brian Walker on April 25, 2013, 2:58 pm

| Readers 85

There were risks in sending a posh English boy like George Osborne to Scotland to warn that it might be no doddle for an independent Scotland to continue using sterling as its currency. The move might yet backfire among thrawn Scots if the English try to put the frighteners on them. Like pointing out the supposed difficulties of Scotland continuing more or less automatically as a member of the EU, Osborne’s sally north was part of London’s growing challenge to the …

Is demonising Mrs Thatcher over the hunger strike also being laid to rest?

Brian Walker on April 14, 2013, 9:35 pm

| Readers 66

It was said of the republican “long war “ – (was it by Danny Morrison? – if not it ought to have been) – that one death in Britain was worth about 20 – or 100? in Northern Ireland. The corollary is that one of the lessons repeated in the welter of Thatcher press coverage is how little concentrated attention has tended to be paid in Britain to even the worst horrors of our Troubles. In the list of Thatcherite landmarks …

The Thatcher debate in the Commons

Brian Walker on April 10, 2013, 6:06 pm

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The speeches from our MPs Nigel Dodds and Alastair Macdonnell during the Thatcher tributes were bound to reflect the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. Neither speech was terrible. Both avoided a rant. Alastair McDonnell had the tougher job. His doctor’s experience in the face of death probably helped. But both of them followed the familiar course of judging the performance of others – in this case Mrs Thatcher –against the standards of their own impeccable contrasting rectitude. The element of self …

The pro-Union wheels are starting to turn in Scotland. But they could still come off the bus

Brian Walker on March 27, 2013, 11:08 am

| Readers 52

Not before time, the wheels may be turning at last in the creaking pro-union machine to craft an effective reply to the SNP’s delivery vehicle for Scottish independence. The leader of the Scottish Conservatives Ruth Davidson has done a U-turn (£) to explore the idea of more and greater taxation powers for Holyrood. I wonder if The Herald’s editorial is right, that this is as much a problem as an opportunity for Ms Davidson? The problem for the Tory leader is …

Shane Allen, Belfast’s latest TV mogul. Creative power house or an accident waiting to happen?

Brian Walker on March 25, 2013, 10:21 am

| Readers 210

We always like to know aboout people from the old place who’ve made it, don’t we? Shane Allen is one the most influential people who comes from Northern Ireland. What is he? A politician on the rise (hah!) A journalist/writer (hah again)? A business mogul , a poet? Nope. He’s the BBC’s head of comedy commissioning and so a guy who has the power to shape popular taste. Don’t know him at all but he sounds as edgy as some of the …

What will become of the May 2015 UK Parliament if Scotland votes “Yes” on independence?

Brian Walker on March 23, 2013, 1:49 pm

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Every so often – but not very often – a major theme enters political debate which nobody noticed much at first but when attention is drawn to it, it becomes completely obvious. This topic is one such I’m posting here on how a referendum vote in favour of Scottish independence in September 2014 could greatly complicate the options for transitional UK government up to the general election in May 2015 and even more, the composition and form of the UK government thereafter. …

Salmond prepares to let Westminster take the hit over post-Leveson press regulation

Brian Walker on March 20, 2013, 11:59 am

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It may surprise you to learn that a separate Scottish response to the Leveson report on press regulation is looking unlikely. Stage One was a separate report by an “expert group” headed by the former Scottish judge Lord McCluskey who recommended “draconian “ powers and a regulator appointed by the Scottish government. If the London negotiations fail to produce the necessary statutory underpinning for a Leveson-compliant Regulatory Body with universal jurisdiction, then Scottish Ministers may consider introducing legislation separately to …

Bluff and brinkmanship over press regulation – and blogs?

Brian Walker on March 19, 2013, 6:38 pm

| Readers 43

You won’t find it said in the press as they are all inevitably biased as interested parties. But if most of the UK national newspapers are going to reject even a “dab” of statute in a new tougher but still “ voluntary” system of press regulation, why didn’t they come out and say so ages ago rather than faffing about for months? It’s left to a blog, to make the obvious point – leaving aside the one liner that blogs …

Spirituality and ethics are now in the hands of the people. What difference can the new Pope make?

Brian Walker on March 14, 2013, 10:23 am

| Readers 60

How wise commentators are after the event. How they continue to project their own hopes on the new Pope Francis. Give the man a chance for Heaven’s sake! On the balcony he certainly displayed a confident MC’s touch. But talk of the huge burden of responsibility may be misplaced. Apart from vague goodwill, do many people really expect much from him? Too low expectations will dismay the upholders of the Church’s authority more than too high. The Pope’s attitude to the …