Pete Baker

Abortion Law Must be Clarified

Pete Baker on October 8, 2004, 5:00 pm | Readers 3

After a long battle through the courts, today “in Belfast three senior judges ordered the Department of Health to draw up guidelines on when abortions can be carried out under existing law.” The time and the cost of this legal argument, between the Family Planning Association and the Department of Health, to simply produce guidelines on the current legal position is an indictment of our politicians, of almost all parties, who have obstructed, directly and indirectly, any progress on this …

‘Cult of Gerry is counterproductive’

Pete Baker on October 8, 2004, 3:32 pm | Readers 2

By popular demand, here is Newton Emerson’s recent Irish News article on why he believes “A shy retiring Gerry [Adams would be] good for Irish unity”. (courtesy of Newshound) Pete Baker

The new whistleblowers?

Pete Baker on October 7, 2004, 7:14 pm | Readers 2

The Guardian Online has been running an excellent series of articles on the increasingly varied nature of blogs. Today it’s anonymous job-related blogs – Spilling the beans. Jim McClellan talks to some anonymous bloggers and highlights the inherent restrictions of anonymity as well as the dangers of believing everything you read, or write, online. Pete Baker

A Right to Dignity

Pete Baker on October 7, 2004, 6:25 pm | Readers 2

Tying in with our ongoing debate on the Charter of Rights, two cases currently in the media evidence the absence in that debate of one right that some would describe as the most fundamental of all Human Rights – the right to die with dignity.While the parents of a 11-month old child, who “is fed through a tube because she cannot suck from a bottle and she needs a constant supply of oxygen”, await a court ruling on medical advice …

Bono’s booked, who’s available?

Pete Baker on October 6, 2004, 6:49 pm | Readers 1

OK, so it’s stretching the remit (again) but I couldn’t resist this one. The Labour Party had Bono (that’s a tenuous link, Ed.) for their party conference, so the Conseratives looked high and low for someone to guarantee the same level of coverage – and found… Rick Wakeman! (aka The Caped Crusader) The Guardian extracts the Michael Pete Baker

First of all

Pete Baker on October 6, 2004, 5:19 pm | Readers 1

It was quickly buried under an avalanche of often contradictory spin, but, on Friday, Ireland’s new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern, made the Irish Government’s primary objective for the ongoing negotiations crystal-clear in his first full-length radio interview on Northern Ireland – “We have to keep as a keynote the issue of decommissioning, paramilitarism, the end to that and, at the same time,… we have to ensure that we cannot in any way transgress the key fundamentals in that …

Where are those keys?

Pete Baker on October 6, 2004, 4:17 am | Readers 1

The Alliance Party seem to have spotted a gap in the ongoing public negotiations which the two main Unionist parties have neglected to nail down – the devolution of responsibility for Policing and Justice. According to their Justice spokesman, Stephen Farry, “A target date of two years should be established as part of any deal between the parties and the governments” as part of a “triple-lock” that must be sprung before responsibility for policing and justice is devolved to the …

Seven more years

Pete Baker on October 1, 2004, 6:46 pm | Readers 2

Mary McAleese has been returned unopposed as Irish President for a second term. While some are still smarting from the lack of support for a challenger, the stampede by local politicians to congratulate the Belfast born lawyer seems to be led by David Ervine!?Update Irish Eagle has an interesting take on the lack of opposition. Further Update More congratulations have appeared.. still looks like Ervine got there first though. Pete Baker

Blair pace-maker

Pete Baker on October 1, 2004, 3:18 am | Readers 1

Yes that’s ‘pace-maker’, not ‘peace-maker’ – or at least “a device to steady an irregular heartbeat” – which actually seems to mean a 90 minute “non-surgical procedure under local anaesthetic”. However, if that doesn’t work… According to the BBC report, last year’s health scare has recurred in the last two months… mmm.. now what’s been happening that could have contributed to that, I wonder… Oh, and one more term and that’s it… Gordon.. Oh, Gordon! Pete Baker

Busy Glenn?

Pete Baker on September 30, 2004, 10:33 pm | Readers 1

Glenn Reynolds, of the US political blog Instapundit.com, is now moonlighting as a columnist at Guardian Unlimited – seemingly for the duration of the US Presidential campaign. How does he find time to be a law professor as well? Pete Baker

NUJ concern on anniverary of journalist’s murder

Pete Baker on September 30, 2004, 9:46 pm | Readers 1

Tuesday, 28th September, was the third anniversary of the murder of Martin O’Hagan, the Sunday World journalist and father of three who was shot yards from his Lurgan home by gunmen in a passing car. The Guardian Media section has a report on the NUJ’s concern at the failure of the authorities to bring those responsible to justice. Pete Baker

Where’s that bandwagon?

Pete Baker on September 30, 2004, 7:51 pm | Readers 1

Call me cynical if you like, but Sinn Féin’s latest move is perhaps the most distasteful example of using someone else’s grief for self-publicity that I’ve seen for some time.At a fundemental level what’s at work here, in my opinion, is this – Gerry Adams continues to see himself as being of the same political standing as the Irish Taoiseach or the British Prime Minister (or indeed the democratically elected leader of any country). Far from his intended aim of …

Payment will be due

Pete Baker on September 29, 2004, 8:16 pm | Readers 1

Seán Flynn, in The Irish Times, picks up on the Value for Money Report on Grouped Schools project (full report) from the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, published 28th september 2004, focusing on the real cost of Grouped Schools Pilot Partnership Project (summary) for the Department of Education and Science. Rather than the predicted savings to the public of 6% from the Public Private Partnership contract, the C&AG’s Office predict costs to run 8-13% above the cost of …

All-Ireland Proposals All Can Welcome?

Pete Baker on September 27, 2004, 8:22 pm | Readers 1

Moves are being considered to enable the implementation of an All-Ireland Free Travel scheme for pensioners and other groups. The BBC quotes Irish Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Coughlan, “The use of this type of smart card [to be introduced next year] may hold the key to resolving many of the administrative difficulties in operating the proposed All-Ireland Free Travel scheme on both sides of the border”According to Minister Coughlan, “Issuing these new smart cards to pensioners and …

The ‘Old’ on the ‘New’

Pete Baker on September 26, 2004, 6:17 pm | Readers 2

The New York Times magazine has an interesting article on political blogging and the bloggers who blog, Fear and Laptops on the Campaign Trail (free reg. required), focussing on bloggers’ coverage of the US presidential campaigns. With more than a hint of the patronising tone of the “ancient media” that blogging is, for some, a reaction to, the article profiles, in particular, 3 prominent US bloggers – Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall, Wonkette’s Ana Marie Cox and Daily Kos’ Markos …

Pulling the (phone) plug

Pete Baker on September 24, 2004, 8:39 pm | Readers 1

Ireland is to become the first country in the world to block direct-dialled calls to entire countries. The decision, by Commission for Communication Regulation ComReg, is an attempt to stop an internet-based fraud that relies on modem-jacking. But, while the BBC report focuses on the need to counter the fraud, the blocking of entire nations’ phone systems to direct calls is not the only response availableThe move has understandably received world-wide press attention – Canada, US, Australia, as well as …

Cognito ergo blog

Pete Baker on September 24, 2004, 12:23 am | Readers 1

It isn’t just the old media that’s falling for (or being battered by) the charms of the blog – academia is too. Jim McClellan in the Guardian Online section looks at some successful academic blogs, and academic bloggers, who believe blogging can be beneficial to the “developing and sharing ideas, both with academic peers and general readers” – and how some universities are already thinking of ways to close the gates against those general ‘barbarians’ storming the ivory towers. Pete …

Remarkable Progress despite lack of Political Support

Pete Baker on September 22, 2004, 4:21 pm | Readers 1

“Overall accountability and governance structures have shown themselves to be effective, with the PSNI and other bodies driving improvements forward despite the lack of full community support.” – That’s the view of the Police Oversight Commissioner, Al Hutchinson. He went on to say that “The lack of support is really the key barrier to deep change. Those who resist or deny change should understand that the absence of full community support will only impede the necessary reforms, which in turn …

Booker Prize 2004

Pete Baker on September 22, 2004, 12:04 am | Readers 5

The shortlist for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2004 has been announced. Included in the shortlist of 6 is The Master by acclaimed Irish author Colm Tóibín – whose literary output includes the previously shortlisted The Blackwater LightshipAs well as Colm Tóibín, the shortlist includes David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, Achmat Dangor’s Bitter Fruit, Sarah Hall’s The Electric Michelangelo, Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty and Gerard Woodward’s I’ll go to Bed at Noon. In addition to the judges’ prize …

I think he drinks it neat

Pete Baker on September 21, 2004, 9:14 pm | Readers 0

An intriguing article from The Guardian which, in my view, fails to provide sufficient background to the story. A British ‘entrepeneur’ has persuaded General Mikhail Kalashnikov, 83 (yes, that General Kalashnikov), to lend his name to a new brand of vodka, launched at a London club yesterday.While there will, undoubtedly, be some who see this as a tasteless marketing exercise, the General, as the Guardian points out, is simply “not rich enough to pass up the chance of becoming the …