Brian Walker

Remember how the real story of Gordon Brown’s budgets was often buried in the Red Book? So, amazingly,the real story of Labour’s manifesto day may be written in an obscure newspaper article by the chairman of an insurance company. Labour’s manifesto launch in a brand new Birmingham hospital was cheesy and flat, an uneasy mix of Labour rally and news conference. The political editors were booed by the faithful – not a good start. Sky’s Adam Boulton made the unwelcome …

Read more…

At the beginning of manifesto week and the first leader’s debate on Thursday, voters give a howl of protest at all-party lying in a ComRes poll for the Independent on Sunday. Will the leaders’ come clean? Will they hell. Unless somebody breaks ranks in the leaders’ debates. Of the Big Two, Brown has least to lose but he has never been one for the bold gamble has he? The survey, taken yesterday and on Friday, shows that 63 per cent …

Read more…

In the throes of financial crisis, government is desperate to seem to be in charge and the opposition to be different. As there is no radical difference between them on emergency measures apart from a blame game, they reach out for political reform. Not surprisingly given the extent of their shared political culture, this is true in both the UK and Ireland. The problem is, political reform – more accountability, transparency, better scrutiny in Parliament etc -rather than increase trust, …

Read more…

In what is supposed to be the era of all conquering spin, has it struck you how completely crap are the speeches, slogans and media opportunities in this election campaign? Even before we turn to the quality of “debate”. Great to see that the BBC have the guts to run Have I Got News for You? through the election. I’m just listening to the gentle piss-taking analysis in a Clive Anderson show on Radio 4 called The Heckler ( not …

Read more…

Isn’t it staggering how a bunch of guys who are supposed to be able to speak ex cathedra or at least with some authority find it so difficult to string two effective words together? All they’re doing is exposing their own confusion and incompetence. Had Rowan Williams altered the single word “all” and substituted “ a lot of “ he would have been home and dry. You can hear from the tape he was about to use other words anyway …

Read more…

Dipping from time to time into the Irish Times’ Renewing the Republic debate, summed up in the paper today. I’m struck by the sobriety of the whole exercise. The sign of a mature democracy is a torpid democracy, I’m afraid. Previous generations would have roused to rebellion. Thomas Davis, Michael Davitt, Jim Larkin and James Connolly, where are you now? There’s been a marked absence of the bankers’ equivalent of maiming a landlord’s cattle in Elaine Byrne’s upsum of the …

Read more…

Amid fears that NI securities could be discounted in loan transfers to Nama, an advisory committee will be set up in two weeks to represent NI business interests in the matter, says local Institute of Directors chair Joanne Stuart. Bro McFerran President of the NI Chamber of Commerce warns: There was an assumption previously in Northern Ireland that a business with property loans would be insulated from Nama because it was UK-based, even if that loan was with an Irish …

Read more…

As the Pope’s personal preacher plunges his master into deeper hot water by comparing him to Holocaust victims, the Archbishop of Canterbury declares the Catholic Church in Ireland has lost all credibility.” Commenting for the first time on the crisis gripping the Catholic Church, Dr Williams said that the paedophile priest scandal had been a “colossal trauma” for Ireland in particular. “I was speaking to an Irish friend recently who was saying that it’s quite difficult in some parts of …

Read more…

With the consultation period just ended on the NIO’s response to the draft NI Bill of Rights, the NI and Scottish Human Rights Commissions jointly challenge the big UK parties especially the Conservatives, over their plans to replace the Human Rights Act with a UK Bill of Rights. Monica McWilliams says: Nowhere in the world has the repeal of existing human rights protections been a starting point for discussing a proposed Bill of Rights. It must not be the starting …

Read more…

Dewi will disagree but there’s an air of unreality about the Nat’s bargaining position. For one thing they’d have to do extraordinarily well and the Lib Dems really badly to hold the balance in a hung ( or as they prefer “ balanced” Parliament. For another, as my colleague Alan Trench analyses trenchantly ( sorry) in his authoritative blog Devolution Matters, there’s little to attract either the Conservatives or Labour about their terms. I will give Dewi one point. After …

Read more…

Good to see that the Cabinet Secretary of Ireland takes part in regular in meetings with his peers of the Westminster tradition ( I was nearly going to say the Commonwealth).. Relations have been close for many years. He will have plenty of lore to share over how to handle coalitions. Significantly, Sir Gus is flying to New Zealand next week to meet Maarten Weavers, his opposite number there, and the two are expected to discuss the UK’s new manual. …

Read more…

The role of MI5 under the catchall of “national security” could be a time bomb. After all the twists and turns of years of the peace process it risks handing an initiative to the dissidents. The Kieran Doherty affair keeps rumbling on. The pattern of events is all too familiar. Man with murky associations is murdered, local politicians pin as much of the blame on the authorities as on the group who shot him. The nightmare scenario is that the …

Read more…

Well, I only asked. What an answer I got! For the Chancellor’s debate, Channel 4 reports the Twiiter volume as follows… Channel 4 estimates that the debate generated 20,000 Tweets between 8 and 10pm last night – hitting the number one trending topic in the UK and London on Twitter, and number three worldwide. The television debate alone drew 1.8 million viewers – 750,000 more than watched last week’s Dispatches – but it was the social networking furore surrounding it …

Read more…

What a fateful day for the Republic, as Brian Lenihan bids to draw a line under the financial crisis “ once and for all.” In advance of the Dail statement, the Irish Times confirms that he’s stopping sort of full bank nationalisation. A kind of triumph has been won with an agreed package of no more public sector pay cuts to 2014 with pensions increases pegged to pre-cuts levels for the time being, and a annual review to explore the …

Read more…

For my money the Chancellor’s debate was a draw for the participants and a victory for the idea. But then I’m a political anorak. The Guardian gives the spread of reaction from a panel of committed hacks. St Vince won but he can afford to be frank; Badgerbrows didn’t lose possession of the ball and Boy George didn’t say f*** or fall down so won the Conservatives’ private game of managed low expectations. The really good idea is Channel 4’s …

Read more…

Chief Constable Matt Baggott chose his moment carefully to announce unilaterally a three year time limit for the work of the Historic Enquiries Team. The window just before a new financial year, a general election and the transfer of Justice powers to the Assembly gives him maximum leverage to put down a big marker. It boldly cuts across the Eames Bradley recommendation for a Legacy Commission lasting five years. The decision seems to exceed his operational independence. Although he’s still …

Read more…

Just keeping an eye on progress.. according to the Derry Journal, US Economic envoy Declan Kelly is “embedding ” staff members in the UK City of Culture bid team up to decision time in June. and the city’s Arts Officer has an ingenious solution for the Brits venue. You can’t say they aren’t trying. 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 …

Read more…

Shaun Woodward is now holding out hopes of publishing the Bloody Sunday report the week after next during the “wash-up” period of this Parliament. The BBC’s Ed Stourton offers a text and audio profile of Lord Saville the man and the lawyer who many of m’learned friends believe sacrificed his career for the sake of the Inquiry. Brian WalkerFormer BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC Radio …

Read more…

The career of Heather Brooke is a young researcher’s dream. It was she who started to uncover the MPs’ expenses scandal just by keeping digging, Watergate-style. I’ve just heard her on Radio 4’s Start the Week ( up shortly on iPlayer) discussing her new book The Silent State, giving a sharp and witty account of her great quest and going much further. Despite FOI, the State is still adept at stalling information requests, while it demands ever more information from …

Read more…