Brian Walker

I see the Commons Northern Ireland Committee has fallen for vigorous lobbying by the small but perfectly formed local broadcasting industry. Good luck to them, so long as we don’t take some the committee’s suggestions too seriously, as posted by Pete. One is self evidently bonkers financially and constitutes unacceptable political intervention. The Committee has called for the government to provide a fund for non-news programmes to be administered by the NI Assembly. Another sounds reasonable to the uninitiated but …

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Tony Blair’s appearance at the Iraq inquiry was a blast from the past that ought to stay there. It prompted no wistful thoughts of the maestro staging a comeback to rescue the Assembly again. Not that I sympathise for a second with any revisionist thinking that he made a terrible mistake in drawing Sinn Fein into a new political system. I rate his “acts of completion speech” his best ever. Whatever guarantees we need to give that we will implement …

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Picking up from Mick here, is it good or back luck that the latest Stormont cliffhanger has been overshadowed outside by just about everything, from a feeble end to the recession, a widening poverty gap, and a week of Middle East obsessions, from Yemen and Afghanistan to Blair? Probably only inasmuch as it prevented Gordon Brown keeping up the pressure in person and shortening his life by, I make it, getting only 8 hours sleep in 72 hours. Whatever the …

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Professor Colin Harvey is right in believing that Northern Ireland should have its own Bill of Human Rights but he faces a long struggle to get it. In his article, he might have paid more attention to how an NI Bill would relate to the Big Brother versions for the whole UK both main parties are planning. But it’s important to guarantee rights on matters distinctive to NI whether the Assembly survives or not. This is so even though structural …

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I ‘d prefer us to learn to live together through governing together anyday. But this rant from Kevin Myers barks loudly up the wrong tree. Usually Kevin is the great knocker of republican myths but here he warns: At bottom, it’s the very Englishness of the English which is the impediment to their good government of the Irish. The Irish remember a great deal — to be sure, most of it wrongly: either way, an active historical imagination is a …

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Doesn’t the immediate silence after the PMs left speak volumes? Even Slugger was struck dumb when I last looked. The MSM is little different. From London, what can I do but risk a rare bout of Nolan. Cognitive group therapy or torture chamber, take your pick. There’s an appalling fascination in how the speechjock is now confidently installed as the maestro of a discordant orchestra of the People’s Voice, goading them on one minute and jerking them back the next. …

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Henry has the crispest line of the late night reports cautiously peering at light at the end of the tunnel. The two leaders presented Northern Ireland’s political parties with a position paper promising devolution of policing and justice powers by 4 May. They also offered unionists changes in how controversial parades are ruled on. The plan is similar to how marches are dealt with in Derry, where the issue has been largely resolved. The prime minister enlisted the help of …

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Radio 4 has just jogged my memory. I’ve found the perfect governors for a new bout of direct rule. Questions still remain as to what exactly Mervyn Patterson and Michael Semple were doing in Helmand. The Irish national, Michael Semple, works for the EU. He has the appearance of a man who could have stepped out of 19th century colonial Afghanistan. He is a bearded, Dari speaker, known for wearing traditional local clothes. His 18 years of living and working …

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I’d like to take a main post rather than make a comment to reply to Sir Reg Empey. Not for a moment would I accuse Sir Reg of being Machiavellian. I would say however that the failure to close local deals quickly with the small band of Conservatives cuts to the heart of the problem. The long winded shuffling about over Uncunf exposes tensions within Ulster unionism. With three months to go before the general election, joint candidates should have …

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It puzzled me to hear that the two prime ministers decided on the spur of the moment to fly to Belfast yesterday afternoon. Everybody in Belfast could have told them that’s what they were going to do. The rattles had been thrown right out of the pram and nursey was needed. Mark Hennessy makes the correction in the Irish Times. But why did they gather in Downing St at all and waste the best part of a day? They could …

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Did Owen Paterson realise what a can of worms he was opening when he got that historic opponent of the Republic’s involvement in the north, the wily Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury to facilitate talks with the unionist parties – assuming Salisbury (or Cranborne as we knew him better) didn’t get there first? The very name throbs with significance, as its Victorian bearer the Prime Minister was the great opponent of Home Rule. The only half-tangible result so far has …

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As a scene set for the Downing St talks, two commentators argue strongly against settling for the superficially attractive option of an early Assembly election. Maurice Hayes’s essay inspired by the South African example is a plea for leadership on both sides. He argues that a realignment of unionism is inevitable. Many predicted that, in the post-Paisley DUP, the traditionalists and the churchmen would go one way, and the politicians and modernisers another. Eventually, the modernisers will merge in some …

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Eamonn quotes a Conservative: They want blood from the DUP not handshakes. Not very enligthened talk is it? Sounds just like the old politics we want to leave behind. In my earlier post highlighting the sectarian angle, I made my dismay clear enough. But a ferment is happening which is worth exploiting. The Cons and others may have some leverage here. Don’t jump to conclusions. Ask what would be the terms for any pan unionist alliance or understanding. All parties …

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Henry McDonald reports in the Observer that West Belfast Catholic and former Top Gear producer Peter McCann – a totemic figure if ever there was one -. has launched an Exocet at the pan unionist- conservative electoral strategy even before it’s been properly launched. Sir Reg was washing his hands of it as purely a matter for the Conservative side of Ucunf. That won’t wash. It looks as if Reg is prepared to sacrifice two prominent Catholics on the altar …

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My old colleague the excellent award-winning David Gordon has run into a DUP brick wall over who donated the money to buy Peter Robinson an armour plated limo once owned by the deposed Shah of Iran. Was it the late Fred Fraser who you’ll recall coughed up 25k start-up funding for Iris’s young lover’s now famous cafe ? The DUP declines to say who was responsible for this piece of south American-style grandiose Robinsoniana. Are the DUP hiding behind the …

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Thanks to William Crawley for posting some rare reflections from Ian Paisley at an Out to Lunch interview at Queen’s. which deserve wider circulation. Here is Paisley presenting himself as a loner doing the right thing at St Andrews, in that respect uncannily like Tony Blair whom he appears to distrust here. A whole generation has grown up without any personal knowledge of the other side of a personality who bears so much responsibility for stoking the troubles he eventually …

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What’s the most important matter the Executive should be tackling? Your starter for 10. Wrong. It’s the economy stupid. Sammy has finally announced massive £400m cuts – and they’re only the taster. How did they come up with the figures? How were spending ministers involved? Weirdly, consultation will start now – after the cuts have been calculated and will go on for all of two months. Sammy tell us: I have asked all Departments to provide further details on the …

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To borrow a phrase Antipodeans love to use to put down the British. On our small rain-swept island in the north Atlantic ( Ireland this time), where we obsess over political symbolism, I was intrigued to learn what the Australians and New Zealanders made of Prince William’s debut visit. British observer the Guardian (centre -left leaning, remember), judges that a brilliantly staged managed royal charm offensive pulled off a minor triumph. The Aussies and Kiwis are generous about giving the …

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I’ll just post a selection and leave the rest to you. In the UK national coverage, it’s good to see the Causeway tops the list of the latest lottery grants. The architects’ review approves the design from the Dublin – based architects. If it were needed, the Belfast Telegraph’s backgrounder reminds us why it took so very very long. Please remember to stay within the law if you insist on reopening old sores. And let’s look forward cheerfully to a …

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