Brian Walker

Apart from taking on Justice powers, the end of deadlock over 11 plus school transfer tests will be another big test of a functioning Assembly. Are the parties inching towards a new approach? Thanks to Mick for drawing attention to the Heart and Minds discussion on the fundamentals. The educationist Alastair Walker who used to run the system was surely right to say that the onus is on abolitionists to convince parents that school standards won’t be harmed if academic …

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Malachi is right to suggest that the Ulster Unionists have missed a golden opportunity to create a civic unionism with some Catholic support. In Sylvia Hermon, they threw away the chance they had of a winning candidate without a sectarian bone in her body. The single relevant asset the tiny group of NI Conservatives possessed was the offer of Catholic candidates and they threw that away too. Now they’re trying to outflank the DUP on the right alongside Jim Allister. …

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The conundrum over Ian Paisley’s reasons for cutting a political deal may never be fully answered, but the tributes that accompany each step he takes towards full retirement are fully justified. I’m becoming convinced that the change in Paisley has much deeper roots than seizing the right political moment. The joshing, evasive interview he gave to William Crawley at Queen’s and his Newsletter pronouncements give strong clues of something profounder than the ripening of a political strategy. They suggest a …

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Spare us the egotism of small-minded differences. Gregory says exactly the wrong thing, preferring to dig at Sinn Fein rather than strike a blow for Derry. If I wanted to be facetious, I would say that at the very outset of this bid, the clue was in the name: ‘UK City of Culture. Why on earth would they plump for a city whose elected representatives are divided on whether we should take the accolade if they’re awarded it?” It’s not …

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I admit I’m looking forward with uncomplicated pleasure to the “historic” UK leaders’ debates which will shape and dominate the election campaign. Here, the BBC’s Ric Bailey only reveals the tip of an iceberg of tortuous negotiations. All three debates will be shown on all three bidding channels. I only hope the live audiences used to Question Time defy the politicians’ gagging rules and rough them up a bit. Super-controlled US presidential debates would send you to sleep and are …

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Hillary Clinton’s intervention may be welcome in Northern Ireland but not over Falklands oil, it seems. The world’s busiest shuttle diplomat has been politely rebuffed by the foreign secretary she once called “vibrant.” No government on the brink of an election can afford to resist the pull of jingoism. That applies in London just as much as Buenos Aires. I was disappointed with the globally minded Economist. I thought it would come up with a common sense oil-sharing solution. Instead …

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In the public space everyone is as important and as valuable as everyone else . So says the BBC’s director general Mark Thompson, about to unveil the first ever BBC cuts. It sounds true, right and democratic. But how does it work out in practice? The BBC should concentrate more than ever on being a creator of quality. It should focus even more than it does today on forms of content that most clearly build public value and that are …

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In 50 years of political journalism, one old Tory grandee has never been so desperate for a change of government. Nevertheless on reading the runes, he spots a problem in last month’s polls for the Conservatives. On a 38: 31 percent margin between the two main UK parties, the average for February, William Rees Mogg observes: …even on the poll of polls figures… Labour and the Lib Dems will between them gain enough seats to lock out the Conservatives. It …

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Just under the surface of Mark Devenport’s latest blog, an atmosphere of extreme nervousness is wafting across the water over the fate of the “ agreement” to devolve Justice – witness Nigel Dodd’s backhanded plea for UU support. Quite unnecessarily, unionism seem to be rushing once again to impale itself on a barbed wire fence on this touchstone issue and risking the fate of the Assembly for doubtful party advantage. “Pantomime” is indeed the word for it. The unionist public …

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A mixed reception has greeted David Cameron’s relaunch in Brighton. Why should this blog be interested, apart from the handful who want to integrate with the main UK party system? Because to put it at its narrowest, under devolution the shape and size of the budget for England sets the pattern for spending policies for Stormont to adopt or change for Northern Ireland. Ben Brogan, leading Tory protagonist is certain Cameron did the biz in Brighton – a little moral …

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Why is the Conservatives’ poll lead shrinking? One underlying reason not picked up clearly in the polls is that the worst fears projected by politicians and the popular media are not being experienced in people’s lives. However hard they try to duck it, opposition parties are fated to deepen gloom more than raise hopes. Take the core Tory theme of “fixing broken Britain.” In spite of all the fears of soaring crime, the magisteral Economist dispassionately walks through the statistical …

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After Gerry the prophet it’s back to the more familiar ground of Gerry the peacemaker, this time in the Basque country, filing his latest Leargas blog in CiF . The impact of the peace process in Ireland is clearly evident in the language used. The resolution, Stand up for Euskal Herria, commits Abertzale Left to using “exclusively political and ­democratic means” to advance its objectives. It seeks to advance political change “in a complete absence of violence and without interference” …

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Platform for Change’s website is a bit shaky at the moment – oversubscribed already perhaps? – but Conall tells us the launch went well. The Bel Tel gives it a fair wind. Its progenitor Robin Wilson has laid out the stall in an op ed piece. Elsewhere some time ago, Robin explained the ambitious aim of replacing entrenched sectarian politics with a vision of a voluntary coalition that shouldn’t excite basic insecurities. Time will tell whether this is the platform …

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A major review of MI5’s accountability and trustworthiness looks inevitable after an historic move in the courts right at the end of the week. The missing paragraph 168 of the English Court of Appeal’s ruling in the Binyam Mohamed torture case has been restored in slightly amended form. Lord Neuberger’s stinging judgement is now spelt out in full, that MI5 has a “dubious record” on human rights and torture, and has “an interest in the suppression” of information about the …

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The niggardly Times view of impending BBC cuts is largely self -serving although they’ll deny it. The idea that selling off Radio 1 and closing BBC3 could produce cuts in the licence fee is absurd. Almost all content on BBC3 and 4 is repeated on the main channels and is then commercially versioned for channels like Dave. Cutting services hardly adds value for money, particularly those which the mass of younger licence fee payers enjoy and pay for. The BBC …

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Do Stormont, Holyrood and Cardiff Bay have a say in a UK Bill of Rights? Read the politics and the answer must be yes. Read the law and you get tangled between strict constructionists like Austen Morgan a Derry born, London based lawyer and sometime Trimble adviser and the recent Justice report, claiming that the GFA requires formal approval for a UK Bill of Rights and Responsibilities. Morgan repeats Pete’s point that the Agreement did not “ provide” for a …

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The extension to the end of March of the consultation period on the NIO’s virtual rejection of the NI Human Rights Commission’s Advice on an HR Bill looks like a small concession to its advocates. It will at least give them a little more time to begin laying down the parameters and benchmarks of a Bill itself for future consideration. Undaunted by the frigid reception, they’ll press on, noting optimistically that no party on either side of the water has …

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I was on hand with oranges and hot towels today at the birth of a new piece of the British Constitution – the first steps in making public how a new government is actually formed, particularly in a Hung Parliament. Constitutional expert Vernon Bogdanor told the Justice Committee hearing that there had been a “lack of explanation” about what could happen and “the public has a right to know what the position is.”. So it was nice of them to …

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After Jim Murphy Labour’s Scottish Secretary had declared: “When the Cardinal speaks, people listen” the leading political analyst Professor John Curtice, presciently warned that appealing to religious values could backfire. How right he was. Within hours of Murphy’s crawl to Canossa, the Ballycastle-born Scottish cardinal dealt Murphy, a devout Catholic, a stinging rebuke. Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the leader of the Roman Catholic church in Scotland, welcomed Mr Murphy’s “recognition of the role played by faith and religion in society….”Instead we …

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Thanks to Seumus Milne, the most radical among Guardian leader writers for supplying a concise account of Sinn Fein’s Irish unity conference. Subscribing to the determinist school on unity, Milne seizes on the counterintuitive argument from economist Michael Burke that the economic case is more compelling than ever. He fairly adds Andy Pollak’s opinion that this is nonsense. ( extracts of the economic arguments below the fold). The SDLPs Conall supplies the inspirational, inclusive vision of Irish Unity in the …

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