A real gentleman with a hearty laugh and a giant in the Alliance party, Addie Morrow served as Alliance’s Deputy Leader, was a Castlereagh councillor between 1973 and 1989, and was also elected in 1982 to represent East Belfast in the Assembly. Addie had a strong vision for peace-building and reconciliation, lived out both through his politics and his long time involvement in the Corrymeela Community. Living up in the East Belfast hills, he was a church elder in his …
How have our local political parties reacted to the outcome of the EU crisis summit? Well, neither the Green Party nor the Alliance Party appear to have noticed… The “Conservative and Unionist” MEP, Jim Nicholson, has, unsurprisingly, “welcomed the use of the British veto over a new EU-wide treaty by Prime Minister David Cameron”. “David Cameron was correct in effectively vetoing a new treaty and keeping the United Kingdom out of this new economic accord agreed at the EU emergency summit, …
Mick has a blog on Alex Kane’s latest column looking at Peter Robinson’s conference speech below as has Chris Donnelly. One line in it struck me that Robinson was a master strategist. I have in the past described Robinson as a good tactician but a poor strategist. However, more recently I have begun to think I was wrong and that the tactics had become so long term that they had become a strategy. Indeed the vision sketched out by Robinson …
Since his election earlier this year Jim Allister has become something of a bête noire for justice minister David Ford. It was Allister who first exposed the possibility of changing the symbols of the prison service and dropping the term “Her Majesty’s Prison” resulting in Peter Robinson’s slap down for Ford. Allister also highlighted the discovery of a large amount of cash being brought to Maghaberry. His latest questions to Ford have produced the revelation that in the past four …
And only two parties, the DUP and Sinn Féin have the necessary votes to trade… ANYhoo, as I mentioned during the Sinn Féin ard fheis when the deputy chair of the Northern Ireland Assembly’s Justice Committee, and noted plagiarist, Raymond McCartney complained that “David Ford’s department [of Justice] is like Jurassic Park.” …if Sinn Féin aren’t happy with David Ford as Northern Ireland Justice Minister then they, and the DUP, can always find someone else to agree on… They, both parties, have to agree on someone …
The short BBC report on the police being attacked with fireworks in the Markets area of Belfast last night, as they investigated the shooting of a 20-year-old man in the legs, has few details to go on. UTV, on the other hand, have a straight-foward statement, condemning both incidents, from local Alliance Councillor Catherine Curran, and something odd from Sinn Féin MLA, Alex Maskey. Mr Maskey explained the initial incident. “Two people went to a house and asked for an individual by Christian …
Apparently, according to BBC NI’s Martina Purdy, Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly, MLA, Northern Ireland Junior Minister Policing Board member, gave “a fiery speech on the Police Ombudsman” at the party’s ard fheis at the weekend. It’s not listed in the party’s collection… [Added by AlaninBelfast …] In the Irish News today, Diana Rusk says he went “off script” when telling the Chief Constable, Matt Baggott, that he “must face down the dinosaurs” in the PSNI. Being “off script” might explain why Gerry Kelly seems to have borrowed his …
Members of the Slugger team who could do the blog title justice seem to be away from the office. In the meantime I hope the following links are a suitable opening for your comments on the passing of Sir Oliver Napier. David Ford pays tribute to party founder BBC obit and some video. Blank
The Alliance Party seem pretty pleased with their election. They received almost 51,000 votes, elected 8 MLAs and saw their share of the vote rise by 2.5% from 5.2 to 7.7%. (The council elections were broadly similar with them getting 7.4% and 44 councillors). They gained 1 MLA in East Belfast (from the PUP’s prodigal leader Dawn Purvis) which was the first time they have ever gained more than one seat in a single constituency in living memory. This success …
…this quote from Joseph Campbell the late American mythographer, who once figuratively described a cautious careerist who “comes to that condition in late middle age: and he’s gotten to the top of the ladder, only to find that it’s against the wrong wall.” For all its many successes in this election the Alliance party might claim that they are nowhere near the top of their ladder. And although they are a year older than the DUP, it may be too …
Former UUP MLA, David McClarty, now elected to the NI Assembly as an independent MLA, has just confirmed on UTV Live that he will not be joining the UUP Assembly group. That decision means the UUP will only get one ministerial position and the final, tenth, position on the NI Executive to be distributed under d’Hondt will go to the Alliance Party. Pete Baker
The last time a major Unionist party was lead by anyone from west of Portadown it was Harry West in in 1970’s. That was not a happy period of the UUP’s history. The sense of ‘otherness’ that exists amongst border Unionists is well known, researched and documented. It is not a fictional notion dreamed up to further an argument, it is fair to say they are a different sort of Unionist. It is for that reason that the queston “does …
BBC NI political editor, Mark Devenport, calculates that the Alliance Party are in prime position to pick up the tenth, and final, ministerial position to be distributed under d’Hondt. Now that “the government” have been re-elected… The NI Justice Ministry comes later – and may only be a temporary appointment. From Mark Devenport Steven Agnew’s last gasp victory for the Greens leaves Alliance on 8 seats – exactly half the Ulster Unionist total of 16. Under the D’Hondt system the UUP gets …
The Alliance Manifesto is certainly the longest of any produced. In the summary on page five they commit to: Introduce transparency around political donations What interests me is, has anyone gotten around to asking Alliance if any part of their manifesto is brought to us courtesy of money changing hands? Seems a fair question in the circumstances. Michael ShillidayI used to write and get paid, now I read and don’t. Former UUP staffer, currently living in London. @mjshilliday
In response to Mark McGregors [limited] piece about double jobbing/dual mandates I thought I’d expand it a little and look at a comparative piece on the Alliance Party – candidates who are running for both Local Council and NI Assembly. At the end of this post there are also some percentage figures on MPs who are also running for the Assembly by Party. Choice of party for the first study was simply down to time limitations – I would love …
I have a lot of time for the Alliance Party. Most people have. Forty years of non sectarianism is no mean achievement. Of course they have made mistakes. I think that the “re-designation” fiasco might well have been their biggest and just about every Alliance person I have ever met agrees. It was not their finest hour but they would say…..and I agree….that it was a decision made for the Common Good. Critically they have learned from it. They have …
As BBC NI political editor Mark Devenport reminds us, one of the oddities of our current ‘indigenous’ arrangements is that we can be fairly sure of one outcome of this election for the Alliance Party. As long as at least one member of that party is returned to the NI Assembly it’s virtually guaranteed that they – most likely David Ford – will be the next NI Justice Minister. As Mark Devenport points out. Yesterday, on Inside Politics, I presented the first …
Confirmation that the UK government is to provide an additional £200million to help the PSNI combat the continuing, and increasing, terrorist threat here – over four years with £57.1m in 2011-12, £53.3m in 2012-13, £62.4m in 2013-14 and £26.7m in the final year. And the BBC report carries these comments from the NI Justice Minister, the Alliance Party’s David Ford. David Ford said he had worked closely with the Chief Constable “to ensure that the needs of Northern Ireland are recognised in …
Further to Mick’s post last week, it seems that Harry doesn’t regard his end-of-the-line with the UUP as the end of his political ambitions: From the Beeb: “Harry Hamilton, a well-known Freddie Mercury impersonator, polled more than 10,500 votes in Upper Bann in the general election. However, he was rejected as a candidate for next year’s assembly elections. Mr Hamilton said he was keeping “an open mind” about the future but would be open to an approach from the Alliance …
David Ford was on television last night denouncing the third mistaken prisoner release. Last month two people were released mistakenly. After the first mistaken release Ford ordered an enquiry. After the second release UUP leader Tom Elliott told Mr Ford: “Would the minister accept that in other places senior civil servants and indeed ministers have had to resign for much less?” Now there has been a third mistaken release Lord Morrow the chairman of the justice committee at Stormont has …
