Britain – Page 4 – Slugger O'Toole

UK splits over university fees and taxation

Brian Walker on December 1, 2010, 11:47 am

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This is turning out to be quite a week for the fissiparous tendency in the British body politic. As students demonstrated against the prospect of 80% cuts in tuition funding throughout the nation, it was the Welsh Assembly government which stole the march on the others by promising to pay the difference between the present fees and the £6 to 9,000 a year universities will soon be able to charge. What’s more, the subsidy will extend to Welsh students studying anywhere in …

Ireland can’t afford to bail out European banks

Mack on November 30, 2010, 2:41 pm

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I think this point is worth highlighting more clearly. Below – Simon Johnson ex-CEO of the IMF – on who is owed money by the Irish banks German banks are owed $139 billion, which is 4.2 percent of German G.D.P. British banks are owed $131 billion, or about 5 percent of Britain’s G.D.P. French banks are owed $43.5 billion, which is approaching 2 percent of French G.D.P. But the eye-catching numbers are for Belgium, which is owed $29 billion – …

CT seems safe – and don’t forget the North and GB

Brian Walker on November 22, 2010, 12:35 pm

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Nerves will be stretched until the exact terms of the deal are known. Meanwhile government spin continues to minimise the extent of the damage. The bond markets at least seem satisfied for the moment but what about the Irish people, still much in the dark?. A huge sigh of relief will go up at the one bit of good news for Ireland. At least for the first year, the EU terms will be no worse than the Croke Park agreement. …

Clash looms with Westminster over welfare to work

Brian Walker on November 8, 2010, 9:00 pm

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This could be a very thorny issue for the Assembly and Executive. Nearly all the local parties will hate the coalition’s welfare to work policies. Politically they wouldn’t dare do otherwise. But this pushes them right up against their limitations. Alex Attwood the SDLP’s Social Development minister has branded as “Thatcherite” the coalition’s plans to cut welfare payments for at least three months if voluntary work is not accepted. The Scots are also up in arms. But the Scots appear to …

Britain’s “Abu Ghraib.” Lessons of internment ignored

Brian Walker on November 5, 2010, 7:04 pm

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I’m not usually in favour of projecting the past onto the present but in this case the usual mantra,” lessons have been learned” has been totally ignored. First came the relatively mild strictures of the Compton Report We consider that the following actions constitute physical ill-treatment; posture on the wall, hooding, noise, deprivation of sleep, diet of bread and water. On 8 February 1977, in proceedings before the ECHR, and in line with the findings of the Parker …

Don’t abandon the idea of a university

Brian Walker on November 5, 2010, 11:13 am

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It’s a pity Simon Jenkins doesn’t run his own blog as ace controversialist as well as Chair of the National Trust. This champion of that oxymoron the civilising market is in fine form today, denouncing in a dozen ways in as many paragraphs not only the UK government’s proposed university settlement but the thinking behind it and the basic concept of what’s being financed: There is not an arts course invented that could not be completed in 18 months, and …

Charge against the French over Falklands Exocets part of a pattern of Anglo-French myths

Brian Walker on November 3, 2010, 5:07 pm

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A rewriting of history over the role of the French in the Falklands conflict has gone unchallenged in the coverage of the Anglo-French treaty signed in London yesterday. I’ll come to that in a moment. That episode was part of the tissue of stereotyping, misunderstanding and rivalry that still lingers in the prickly relationship between Britain and France that was given full vent in the pop press. Newtownards’ favourite son Col Tim Collins led the charge in the Daily Mail, as …

Wrangles over spending cuts expose flaws in political relationships

Brian Walker on November 2, 2010, 1:10 pm

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Northern Ireland’s only regular press commentator on economics John Simpson is the latest to pour cold water on harmonising corporation tax with the Republic. ( though as usual John does it very gently). Any extra foreign direct investment (FDI) gained would fail to make up the consequent shortfall in block grant revenues of about £200m a year and we haven’t got the range of skills base to attract enough FDI anyway. One suggestion he makes is to opt for a lower but not matching …

Our deadly version of the pronunciation game

Brian Walker on October 28, 2010, 3:54 pm

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The British library and the Today programme were having a little innocent fun over new trends in pronunciation today. ‘Haitch’ or ‘aitch’? How do you pronounce ‘H’? We remember with a shudder the local version. Like saacrifice, maass, AA B.C. – Your turn at compulsory Russian roulette… Brian WalkerFormer BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC Radio 4; Editor Political and Parliamentary Programmes, BBC Westminster; former London …

“The events of 1641 transformed Irish history and, as a result, can be justly said to have transformed British and world history as well.”

Pete Baker on October 24, 2010, 2:50 pm

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The BBC notes the online publication of controversial historical accounts of the 1641 rebellion in Ireland. It’s the result of a three-year project, led by researchers at the Universities of University of Cambridge and The University of Aberdeen and Trinity College Dublin, in which 19,000 pages of the original depositions were transcribed. From the 1641 depositions website Traditionally the rebellion was thought to be sufficiently explained as an inevitable response to the plantation in Ulster. Nowadays most scholars see that as an oversimplification and …

Does Andy Marr’s cap fit?

Brian Walker on October 16, 2010, 12:07 am

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　A lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed, young men sitting in their mother’s basements and ranting. They are very angry people… Terrible things are said on line because they are anonymous. People say things on line that they wouldn’t dream of saying in person. – Andrew Marr Surely not! “Oh dear an overpaid washed-up TV hack has a tantrum. Poor didums, his pal Tony is no longer a force in British Politics …

Bloody Sunday debate exposes doubt and disagreement over dealing with Northern Ireland’s past

Brian Walker on October 14, 2010, 10:40 am

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No points to the Commons and Lords for the scheduling clash between the debate on lessons from the Bloody Sunday inquiry in the Upper House and Lord Saville’s personal appearance before the NI Select Committee yesterday. MPs failed to lay a glove on the now retired Supreme Court member over the epic 10 year time scale and £190 million cost of an inquiry whose impact casts a long shadow over the whole public inquiry system.. MPs were naturally caught between …

Whitehall ” too busy ” to deal with First Ministers – claim

Brian Walker on October 7, 2010, 9:25 pm

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The fairly dismissive Verdict of my colleague, devolution expert Alan Trench, on the rainbow coalition of FMs’ call to scale down the cuts. But note the flier in the FT that the phasing may be changed in a direction they favour. Adds Friday. Warm words from deputy PM Nick Clegg about the likely impact of the cuts on a familiarisation visit. Extracts: The First Minister and Deputy First Minister raised with me in very clear terms their concerns about the …

A flawed start for Ed, as David’s mask slips

Brian Walker on September 28, 2010, 9:10 pm

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It maybe an oldie’s prejudice but I just can’t warm to him. Why is that although we’ve overturned old taboos about gays and women, Ed Miliband seems a bit of a shit for upsetting the natural order of things by taking on and besting big brother? Because I think he still seems defined by his opposition to David and the heavier weight of ministerial office he bore. Also by the fact that David was slightly damaged goods for rightly opting …

Titanic sinking sensation – the real story at last?

Brian Walker on September 25, 2010, 1:20 pm

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After so much myth and legend, the Titanic story can still rock us with surprise. Only now have we got the hidden story of how Titanic really sank. A left turn order ( “hard a -starboard)” meant turn right on steamships, contrary to helmsmanship on sailing ships. But the helmsman got it wrong. Naturally, this is disputed… (see Channel 4 News story). You push the tiller right, the rudder swings left, and if the boat were in a pond it …

The secret world from one Ulster historian

Brian Walker on September 22, 2010, 12:02 am

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　I know it’s a stale hangover from the Troubles. But I still get a kick out of hearing the Ulster accent used to talk about something completely different and not thank God about US all the time. No, it’s not Jimmy or Fergal Sharkey on UK Music or broadcasters like Colin Murray, Peter Curran or our own Lady Gagga to Gloria’s Madonna, Christine Bleakley, but the deeply serious but very witty Keith Jeffrey letting rip on his history of MI6. …

British toleration guaranteed Benedict a good show

Brian Walker on September 19, 2010, 8:36 pm

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As the wall to wall coverage subsides, I’d guess that not much will change as a result of the Pope’s visit. The secular and religious events were just about pitch perfect if like me, you enjoy that sort of thing. The faithful seemed to turn out in greater numbers to proclaim that Catholicism had not collapsed on account of the abuse scandals, which in any case affected Britain less severely than many other countries. The kids cheered and whooped just as …

Don’t go back to the bad old days

Brian Walker on September 13, 2010, 9:24 pm

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The question discussed by BBC NI religion presenter Will Crawley of whether the Irish Presbyterian moderator should attend on the Pope reminds me of the stern warning issued by the Skibbereen Eagle in west Cork in the 1850s, Skibereen has its eye on the Czar.” Not many outside Skib noticed until the headline became a cute byword for inflated self importance. But it sure takes you back to the old days. Paisley can’t resist reliving the glory of those flour sacks at the back …

Attacking Blair only steers political reform into a cul-de-sac

Brian Walker on September 6, 2010, 11:11 pm

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Robin Wilson’s dismissal ( link repaired) of Tony Blair’s handling of the peace process is misconceived. It’s not clear what his precise objections are. For Robin the form of power sharing which was adopted only institutionalised sectarianism. Can we really heap all that on Blair’s head? In one vital respect the prophets of doom were wrong. The system did not collapse when the “extremes ” became the majority in each bloc. With all its faults, Model 2 looks more stable …

The abuse crisis is no excuse for anti-Catholic bigotry

Brian Walker on August 29, 2010, 1:24 pm

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The Scottish composer James MacMillan has composed a congregational Mass for the Blessed John Henry Newman which is to be featured at the venues of the Pope’s forthcoming visit to Great Britain. No surprise there. But what’s novel I think, is that MacMillan, unusually for a composer, is a bold controversialist and an unorthodox defender of British Catholicism who has started his own blog to comment on his own press interviews. MacMillan first slammed sectarianism as “Scotland’s Shame” 11 years …