Government – Page 15 – Slugger O'Toole

Northern Ireland must not be left behind – Why I’m supporting a Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill

Soapbox on November 3, 2021, 1:08 pm

| Readers 2056

Claire Hanna is the MP for South Belfast We are currently living through a series of emergencies; from the destruction of natural habitats and the tragic emergence of displaced peoples and refugees to most recently, the spread of the COVID19 pandemic. It should go without saying that we will do everything in our power to address and eradicate these immediate crises and to ensure that future generations are not forced to act in perpetual calamity. It is for that reason, …

Biggest threat no longer climate denial, but delay.

Soapbox on November 2, 2021, 5:58 pm

| Readers 1670

Eoin Tennyson is an Alliance Party Councillor for Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council In Glasgow this week, COP26 delegates will pore over past climate pledges and calculate how they will impact global warming. The answer will be clear: the promises made to date and efforts to meet them have been woefully inadequate. 2015’s Paris climate agreement committed nations to holding global temperature rises well below 2C from pre-industrial levels, while endeavouring to keep that increase nearer to 1.5C. …

There really is nothing to fear in an Irish language act…

Soapbox on November 2, 2021, 10:39 am

| Readers 4526

drop, splash, impact

Réamonn Ó Ciaráin is Director of Education with Gael Linn. Nobody will be disadvantaged for not being able to speak Irish. No school children will be forced to learn Irish against their will and no street name signs will be erected in Irish where they are not wanted. It will not cost too much; somewhere in the region of £4m per annum initially, it is estimated. Neither will there be employment quotas on language grounds. The proposed legislation will however, …

Would radical reform of Council’s powers restore political stability?

Brian Pope on November 1, 2021, 8:12 am

| Readers 2127

argory, armagh, irish

The novelist Edward G. Bulwer Lytton once said, ‘A reform is a correction of abuses; a revolution is a transfer of power.’ The continuing instability at Stormont, the extremely long hospital waiting lists and despair at the state of our local infrastructure should challenge us to decide who is best placed to deliver our public services. Like a performance in a Greek tragedy, we have witnessed Stormont’s collapse, threats to bring down the structures, and constant stalemates. The protagonists include …

The geothermal energy potential of Northern Ireland…

Soapbox on October 29, 2021, 8:26 am

| Readers 2824

power plant, geothermal, geothermal energy

On the 3rd February 2020, the Northern Ireland Assembly declared a climate emergency and called for immediate measures to tackle it. One such measure outlined in the New Decade New Approach agreement is the new Energy Strategy for Northern Ireland. This strategy is being led by the Department for the Economy (DfE), with the purpose of achieving net zero carbon and affordable energy for all. This new Energy Strategy signals the beginning of our energy transition, during which we will …

Somewhere along a slightly different path is a better future for the union, if we look for it now…

Terry Wright on October 25, 2021, 7:09 am

| Readers 2877

phone, old, year of construction 1955

“I don’t care what religion you are. I don’t care what gender you are. I don’t care what your ethnic background is. You can be Unionist and will be welcome in a Union of people?” – Doug Beattie, Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, 2021 Is this as inclusive, diverse and progressive as political Unionism gets? Is there deeper meaning in saying to those of diverse ethnicity, gender and religion that as a Unionist…….. I do care? Individuals in Northern Ireland …

Does Northern Ireland Need Another City?

Steve Bradley on October 23, 2021, 2:13 pm

| Readers 4203

cars, road, street

An unspecified number of towns across the UK are due to have city status bestowed upon them next year as part of the Queen’s Platinum (70 years) Jubilee, which means that the wait is on to see if Northern Ireland will gain its sixth (and possibly even its seventh ?) city. Under UK law cities can only be created if they are chartered by the monarch – or more accurately in modern times, via an Act of Parliament. Local authorities …

Police raid the headquarters of Mid and East Antrim Borough Council offices…

Brian O'Neill on October 21, 2021, 10:24 am

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A low-hanging sun combined with an incoming winter storm created this beautiful sunset over Whitehead on the coast of Belfast Lough. The coast of County Down, on the far side of the lough, can be seen on the horizon (Jan., 2020).

In theory, running a council should be a simple enough process. You take out the bins, you keep the parks pretty, you work to ensure your ratepayers are content with their lot. But a touch of Rotten Boroughs seems to have infected Mid and East Antrim Borough Council over the past few years and they are often embroiled in one controversy or another. From Brendan Hughes in the Daily Mirror: A PSNI spokeswoman said: “Detectives from Criminal Investigation Branch visited …

Most significant thing today is the EU has recognised the Protocol’s drag on NI’s East West trade…

Mick Fealty on October 14, 2021, 2:33 pm

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delivery, shipping, transportation

So, there’s some actual news today. My guess is that the EU’s announcement today of the compromises it’s prepared to make. Although much of it is still unquantified, the scope of the pragmatic changes are impressively wide. Some provisions, like medicines, are technically difficult to achieve and will take much more time, but the direction of travel seems to be in the direction seems to be freeing up distribution between Britain and Northern Ireland. There has barely been any acknowledgement …

The Union will not survive the end of the NI Protocol

Brendan Heading on October 11, 2021, 10:49 pm

| Readers 15590

I’m sure everyone must be feeling as exhausted and frustrated as I am to see that once again we’re back to groundhog day once again with the European Union and the UK launching into another period of tense negotiations. I don’t want to spend a lot of time going over what is currently going on when there is plenty of fine – and infinitely more qualified – commentary available elsewhere, except to say that it sounds like the UK is …

Make Irish teaching almost impossible and then claim there’s no demand!

Soapbox on October 7, 2021, 10:30 am

| Readers 5597

mind, railway, platform

Réamonn Ó Ciaráin is Director of Education with Gael Linn. Here he argues that recent downgrading of language teaching in educational priorities is having a dilatory effect on the numbers learning Irish in Northern Irish schools. There is without doubt a crisis in languages in post-primary schools in Northern Ireland. It is affecting some languages worse than others. The Irish language is traditionally only offered in half the English medium post-primary schools in this jurisdiction. This because of historical and socio-political …

Dublin looking for partners as #SharedIsland Fund doubles and all island investment rises to €3.5billion…

Mick Fealty on October 5, 2021, 11:01 am

| Readers 1619

shaking hands, handshake, teamwork

“The past holds us captive. Even when we succeed in giving up slights, grudges, feuds and pride, we cannot easily give up knowledge, memories and experience.” – David Amerland At the weekend, Colm Tóibín wrote scathingly of some southern politicians that “their talk of a united Ireland ‘in my lifetime’ is mystical blather; another example of politicians saying something they don’t mean”. Ouch. Yet, there are some political leaders in the ‘anglosphere’ who seem to be trying to reconnect to …

The Brexit Solution

Brendan Heading on October 4, 2021, 9:59 pm

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After the end of the transition period The leader of Traditional Unionist Voice Stated at a fringe meeting at the Manchester Convention Centre That the manufacturing sector Had forfeited the confidence of Unionism And could only win it back By redoubled efforts. Would it not in that case be simpler To dissolve the manufacturing sector And appoint another? Brendan Headingcentre-leftish waffler working in IT and living in Belfast Writing in a strictly personal capacity – all opinions are exclusively those …

Unionism needs more than talk about mental health and social injustice, it needs to deliver solutions.

Terry Wright on October 4, 2021, 7:46 am

| Readers 3359

change, arrows, clouds

Holy Grail refers to an elusive goal continuously pursued. For many Unionists, ‘the Holy grail’ is Unionist unity – politically. It harps back to the days of ‘United We Stand, Divided We Fall’; a framed picture of which adorned the walls of many buildings used by the Unionist party when it was, by far, the main political party of Unionism; that, and a picture of the reigning monarch. Hopes will have been raised at the sight of the leaders of four Unionist …

Kindergarten exchanges in the Dáil pit ‘aimless chatter’ against ‘planned, concerted action’.

Mick Fealty on October 1, 2021, 8:07 am

| Readers 2018

goal, target, arrow

Interesting how in the Labour leader’s speech on Wednesday dealt with heckling from a minority of conference delegates. The stand out response was one he had clearly pre-prepared: “chanting slogans or changing lives”. It had an immediate effect on the audience in the hall, and judging by the unusually positive reviews for the UK Labour leader on some beyond, acting as a philosophical razor between ‘aimless chatter’ and ‘planned, concerted action’. Heckling plays a large part in modern politics (Twitter is …

Gazing back 100 years will lead to a crick in the neck rather than the insights we need to grow…

Mick Fealty on September 24, 2021, 4:04 pm

| Readers 3097

highway, mountain, trees

And to finish the week, Newton Emerson throws some light on the politics of the President’s refusal to come Armagh in October as a part of the decade of centenaries… Under his Machnamh centenary programme, described as “inviting reflections on the War of Independence, the Treaty Negotiations, the Civil War and Partition”, the President has spent a year hosting academic seminars on contested commemoration, ethical remembering and, above all, on colonialism as the overriding context for the centenary. It is …

FF rebels should know there’s no home to return to, yet the journey ahead could be transformative

Mick Fealty on September 22, 2021, 1:05 pm

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It’s interesting how Fianna Fáil has almost disappeared from the national consciousness in the Republic for much of the last five or six years. And despite being in office, not much gets into print about current Taoiseach Micheál Martin. However, Theresa Reidy has written thoughtfully on what may lie ahead for a party that, historically, did not have to think about its profile, its image, trajectory and story (which was pretty much one with the story of government). Fianna Fáil’s …

The stance adopted by President Michael D Higgins can feed into reflection, even if he has retreated from the scene.

Terry Wright on September 20, 2021, 11:03 am

| Readers 5539

castle, ruin, exit

It’s unusual for the DUP, and other Unionists for that matter, to be exercised at the non-visit of a President of Ireland. The reaction sounds like a mixture of genuine disappointment, wounded vanity and point-scoring. In the case of the DUP, glass houses come to mind. Whatever the reason, the nature of the clamour achieves little and has launched a tirade of sniping political comment on social media. This is something which Archbishop Eamon Martin, shortly after the low-key launch …

Who Should Run Belfast?

Brian Pope on September 19, 2021, 8:42 am

| Readers 3765

Jim Allister, Simon Hamilton and I all attended the same school in Newtownards, but it’s Simon’s report on Belfast that really caught my eye this week. ‘Empowering Belfast’ is Belfast Chamber’s answer to dealing with the economic fallout from the pandemic and a sense that Belfast is falling behind similarly-sized cities. Behind the glossy cover and upbeat aspirations, there is an impression that the city may have been let down by successive Northern Irish Executives. Rather than focus on the …

Belfast Chamber launches a report on the future of Belfast

David McCann on September 17, 2021, 12:14 pm

| Readers 1603

Yesterday, Belfast Chamber launched a report on the future of the city of Belfast. As many of you know a pet idea of mine is a dramatic overhaul of how the city and it’s wider suburbs are governed. City Mayors have been found in many jurisdictions to be wide net positives for growth and securing investment. The Chamber have examined a number of case studies about powers for the city and what could be achieved from more devolution to local …