Michael Shilliday Last week the Belfast Telegraph published the latest in a series of opinion polls conduced by Public Affairs Company, Inform Communications. They also say that on Tuesday there will be a voting intentions poll conducted by the same firm, which will let us know the state of the parties two days before polling day. Inform Communications are not a polling company. As far as I can tell they are not a member of the British Polling Council, and they are …
On Friday night David Cameron made some remarks regarding the public sector in Northern Ireland. He commented, after saying that some parts of the UK have economies with state sectors of Soviet scale: “In Northern Ireland it is quite clear – and almost every party accepts this –that the size of the state has got too big. We need a bigger private sector. There are other parts of the country, including in the north-east. The aim has got to be …
Horseman contends that Gerry Adams probably has shorter odds than any other candidate in the western world. I thought that was a pretty tall order, but turns out, he might be right. Gerry actually has better odds than Gordon Brown of getting back to parliament, and is no more likely than David Cameron to lose his seat. The question of what benefit West Belfast has derived from making Gerry one of the UK’s safest MPs, is of course one we …
The SDLP’s attitude to Unionists seems to have taken a bit of a step backwards under Ritchie. A few weeks ago Conall McDevitt stated: “The question tonight is whether UUP and Conservative policy is that no Irish person should seek to represent people in this part of Ireland, and if they do will they be opposed at all cost?” Which clearly contradicts the long held nationalist view that Unionists are equal members of the Irish nation. Today the SDLP manifesto contains the following phrase: …
The DUP seek to criticise Sir Reg Empey candidature in South Antrim on the basis that he is not from the area and has represented another. What’s interesting about this argument is the DUP’s own wide experience of similar actions. Nigel Dodds was roundly defeated by Roy Beggs in East Antrim in 1992, no problem with his standing. In the same election Sammy Wilson lost in Strangford, and then moved to East Antrim for the 2001 election while representing East …
Several blogs got here first, but 17 or the 18 joint UUP and Conservative candidates have been announced today. Mike Nesbitt – Strangford Daphne Trimble – Lagan Valley Sandra Overend – Mid Ulster Fred Cobain – North Belfast Ross Hussey – West Tyrone Bill Manwaring – West Belfast Trevor Ringland – East Belfast Harry Hamilton – Upper Bann Danny Kennedy – Newry and Armagh John McAllister – South Down Rodney McCune – East Antrim. Lesley McAuley – East Londonderry. Paula …
There has recently been some erroneous reporting of the situation surrounding the election of the First and deputy First Minister. It might be useful to outline the issues. The relevant legislation is section 16 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998. That section originally had a total of 6 lines that governed the election in subsections one two and three. The procedure was that any two MLAs were to be jointly nominated by two other MLAs for the offices, and the …
Newton Emerson doesn’t often get his facts wrong, however today in his review of the week in the Irish News, he does make a factual error. He asks why the St Andrews Agreement legislation inserted the provision used this week for the First or deputy First Minister to take a 6 week leave of absence, and suggests it was due to Ian Paisley’s health. He is alas wrong to suggest that the provision was negotiated at St Andrews. While section …
Very interesting little snippit buried in an Irish News story today. Lord Morrow told the paper: “There will be no devolution of policing and justice during the lifetime of this assembly….it is not going to happen and that is it. It will not happen before the general election or the assembly election. It is not an issue.” Seems a little out of the blue, and odd clarity to a policy position that has up until now been a little hazy, …
In his first contribution to Comment is Free, Owen Polly takes a swipe at the NIHRC and it’s advice to the Government. Michael ShillidayI used to write and get paid, now I read and don’t. Former UUP staffer, currently living in London. @mjshilliday
Just a quick note that a live blog of the UUP 2009 Conference is on Three Thousand Versts courtsey of Chekov. Michael ShillidayI used to write and get paid, now I read and don’t. Former UUP staffer, currently living in London. @mjshilliday
As the Sun backs the Conservatives on the back of Gordon Brown’s speech, Peter Robinson tells UTV he may stand again for Parliament. During the summer he commented: This is a necessary prelude to the ending of double jobbing. Several months ago I indicated that we would be phasing out dual mandates…….It is simply not possible to sustain and fully perform multiple roles whether they involve other elected positions or indeed interests outside Parliament. What happened to the three year …
A new and collaborative Unionist blog launched earlier this week. Open Unionism will be seeking to draw out some of the debates facing Unionism, and hopes to draw a broad range of contributors, on a range of platforms in time. You will in the short term notice some famaliar faces on the blog, primarily Bob, Chekov, O’Neill and, at some point, me. Michael ShillidayI used to write and get paid, now I read and don’t. Former UUP staffer, currently living …
When I read Peter Robinson’s speech yesterday I at first considered that it may have been a joke. It is very strange in a lot of areas. The most publicity has come from the idea of removing community designation from Assembly voting. This is not a surprise in any way, and if Sinn Fein were thinking about it they, would agree. This would stop the DUP from flagrantly abusing the community designation system as they did to protect Sammy Wilson …
Bob reckons Sir Hugh may have been covertly criticising someone specific in his raft of interviews yesterday. Surely not. Michael ShillidayI used to write and get paid, now I read and don’t. Former UUP staffer, currently living in London. @mjshilliday
Jeffrey Donaldson’s website is back! It looks remarkably similar to the old one, except the DUP logo has been replaced with a Parliamentary one and the invitation to buy a book is gone. Strange that. Michael ShillidayI used to write and get paid, now I read and don’t. Former UUP staffer, currently living in London. @mjshilliday
Mack’s question, “Should the 12th of July be a bank holiday in the Republic of Ireland?” is a fascinating one, because it, to me, highlights the fallacy that Irish Nationalism has put at the centre of it’s existence in the past 100 years. It is not a bad question, nor unreasonable, but the fact that Nationalism, in this case south of the border, has not even begun to consider who Protestants and Unionists are, and why they think like they …
While everyone else is off at the parades, the House of Lords Appointments Commission has nominated Dame Nuala O’Loan to sit as a crossbench peer. She will join Lord Bew, Lord Rana and Baroness O’Neill on the non party cross benches from Northern Ireland. Also appointed today is Sir Jonathan Sachs, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth Michael ShillidayI used to write and get paid, now I read and don’t. Former UUP staffer, currently living in …
Alan in Belfast reports that the DoE have emailed him requesting that he remove a picture of Edwin Poots and his daughter. Firstly, this picture was taken in a public place, does the law or anything else prohibit taking and publishing pictures taken in a public place? Secondly, Alan blogged the picture on June 27th. Edwin Poots became Environment Minister on July 1st. Do all images ever taken of Edwin Poots now fall under the remit of DoE Information Officers? …
As Nevin points out, Jeffrey Donaldson’s website “is currently being upgraded”. However, the website is still online apart from the domain name, with the redirect to the homepage simply being overwritten, so the homepage is still visable. Right at the bottom are the words: “This website is funded from Parliamentary allowances”, a phrase repeated on Mr Donaldson’s flatmate’s website. However Sammy’s website looks somewhat different to Jeffrey’s, as does Mark Durkan’s. For one thing, there is no invitation to buy …
