Britain – Page 9 – Slugger O'Toole

Could UKIP (and Lisbon) cost Cameron his comfortable majority…?

Mick Fealty on November 18, 2009, 4:36 pm

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I’ve a pretty chipper Tory mate who did have his party pegged for a 90 seat majority in the next parliament. But Simon Heffer probably raises an issue that most Tories don’t want to talk about in public… a possibly deleterious drift to UKIP in their long prepared and highly funded effort in the southern English marginals as a result of David Cameron’s climb down over Lisbon… I’ve not checked with my Tory mate since then… I keep meeting Tory …

PCC Chair gunning for the blogs…

Mick Fealty on November 18, 2009, 3:31 pm

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I am the last to defend the kind of bad manners that are rife on the blogosphere. Particularly on heated occasion here in Slugger’s comment zone. Even some (though only one or two) of our own bloggers are guilty of breaking the site’s own commenting rule: “Play the ball and not the man“… But as Roy Greenslade notes (BTW Roy, you missed Scary Duck) the PCC, under its new chair Baroness Buscombe, wants to clean up blogs before attending to …

And how was your weekend?

Pete Baker on November 17, 2009, 5:52 pm

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Did anything happen at the weekend’s “nice diversion” for the First and deputy First Ministers, et al, of the 13th British-Irish Council summit in Jersey? Apparently Peter Hain vetoed Edinburgh as a proposed site for the permanent secretariat, but on the theme of the summit – indigenous, minority and lesser-used languages? Here’s Northern Ireland Minister Paul Goggins’ statement The Minister also welcomed recent comments by the Northern Ireland Culture Minister Nelson McCausland. “The St Andrews Agreement acknowledged the importance of …

Would you be a Labour plotter quitter or fighter?

Mick Fealty on November 16, 2009, 8:43 pm

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Not sure I’d like to be in the current Labour government, but Nick Robinson casts those members into three different camps: Plotters; Quitters; and Fighters.. But along the way he notes something I’m not sure many mainstream commenters have fully recognised. The reason many of us are thinking in terms of a guaranteed sizeable Tory majority, is not the fact that the Tories have not hit the 50% + rating that Blair got, but that Brown lags Major by a …

“It was organised by Soca which is a front for the MI5..”

Pete Baker on November 15, 2009, 11:14 pm

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On the Politics Show today Sinn Féin’s John O’Dowd clarified his party’s position on the seizure of the assets of Sean Hughes and the previous comments by Northern Ireland Executive Ministers, SF’s Michelle Gildernew and Hughes’ “good friend” Conor Murphy. [John O’Dowd] “The concerns around the raid on Sean Hughes house is this. It was organised by Soca which is a front for the MI5 and other organisations who still believe that they can defeat republicanism whether it be in …

The uncomfortably sectarian ‘global village’ of the Internet…

Mick Fealty on November 11, 2009, 10:36 pm

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According to Cass R Sunstein (thanks for the correct ‘exile’)one of the problems with internet politics is that it tends to atomise and draw people into informal social networks which then adopt much less moderate politics than they would if they were more directly engaged by mainstream democratic politics… Laurie Penny in the Samoza examines (amongst things) the importance of moderation in keeping a civil peace between those who profoundly disagree on their core political values: It is a truth …

Rupert Murdoch: A wealthy Don Quixote tilting at virtual windmills (or redeemer of the MSM)?

Mick Fealty on November 11, 2009, 2:11 pm

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Young Mr Murdoch has been at the we need to make money of these here interwebby things line for a while now. As Brian noted back in early August, Rupert’s out on his own at the moment. So junior’s been blaming the BBC (oh, and ‘the Da’ wants to sue them (says he)… But Jack Shafer reckons when Rupert’s talking, that’s all it is. Talk: If it were in News Corp.’s economic interests to dig an Internet moat around its …

Did Murdoch’s man illegally phone tap the PM?

Mick Fealty on November 10, 2009, 9:15 pm

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At base, Gordon Brown is the architect of his own latest misfortune. At least that’s the only way his PR team can/should handle the latest attack on the British PM. How can a PM who sent soldiers to war in Afghanistan win a PR war with the grieving mother (who is behaving in her grief as any political enemy might) of a son killed that he sent into battle? That the guy was trying to quietly communicate with the families …

“And no other approach is acceptable to Sinn Féin.”

Pete Baker on November 9, 2009, 6:20 am

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No word yet from the weekend chat with Gordon Brown, but after ushering out a little known placeman, followed by a slightly better known placewoman, on Sunday Sinn Féin passed the script to Northern Ireland Regional Development Minister, Conor Murphy, MP, MLA [Perhaps he had a different hat on – Ed]. He was speaking at the annual SF Edentubber commemoration of five men who “kept faith with the republican past” – they died in 1957 when the bomb they had …

House of Lords: No happy Christians here please…

Mick Fealty on November 6, 2009, 10:03 pm

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Nice spot in Hansard from Jeff Peel… Lord Kilclooney: My Lords, I had not intended to speak in this debate, but having heard some of the contributions, I find it very interesting. I speak as a happy Christian, an Ulster Protestant and a great friend of Islam. The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Colwyn): My Lords, I think that the noble Lord has missed the opportunity to speak in the gap, which was before the noble Lord, Lord Taverne. I …

Afghanistan: a masterclass in political misdirection?

Mick Fealty on November 6, 2009, 3:54 am

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Ok, I’ve just spent the last couple of days in meetings in London. One of the things I noticed was the amount of people wearing poppies this year. I cannot say for certain (mostly because I cannot swear I am always in the UK capital that regularly at this time of year), but it seems to me there has been a radical increase in numbers this year over previous years. The reason is clear enough: Afghanistan. The killing of five …

Kelly report highlights double jobbing..

Mick Fealty on November 4, 2009, 6:18 pm

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Here’s the a relevant passage (see also Pete on SF’s complications arising): One aspect of paid employment outside the House is that, partly for reasons of recent history, 16 out of 18 Northern Ireland Westminster MPs are also members of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Five of them currently hold ministerial positions there. The only other example of dual mandates is that the First Minister of the Scottish Parliament is also an MP. He has indicated that he will not be …

Cameron will not be holding a referendum on Lisbon after all…

Mick Fealty on November 3, 2009, 4:16 pm

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(Poster is courtesy of DizzyThinks) With the ratification of Lisbon by Ireland, Poland and the Czech Republic, frankly there is no point. The deal was done when the Irish people kicked the idea of further resistance firmly into touch last month. Most of the rest has been spin. And the pretension that the UK can ‘repatriate’ powers ceded under this and/or other treaties is just that, a pretension. Unless, as Dizzythinks (one of the few Tory inclined blogs to cover …

An ‘old style left’ view on the dignity of labour…

Mick Fealty on November 3, 2009, 1:51 am

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One of the most refreshing pieces I’ve heard on British politics in a long long time was Clive James’ point of view piece on Sunday morning on Radio 4… My politics on this remain where they have always been, on the old style left. I think it is up to management and it always has been. If the management can’t manage to sort it out preferably in advance, then they ought not to be managing. But quite often they haven’t …

A proud Republican can wear the poppy…

Mick Fealty on November 2, 2009, 9:45 pm

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In the first of what I hope will become a series, John McGuirk argues that there is no conflict in interest in an Irish Republican wearing a poppy in remembrance of those who died in past wars… For him it is about standing up for what you believe in, not against what you don’t believe in: specifically, the universal freedom of humanity that saw the liberation of the death camps of Bergin Belsen and other places…By John McGuirk Over the …

Tweet of the Day: WWII Vet to BNP Candidate in Glasgow…

Mick Fealty on October 29, 2009, 10:52 pm

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And speaking of the remembrance of wars past, this came up on Twitter via Stephen Glenn : Glasgow WW2 veteran to BNP candidate: “I used to shoot people like you” http://tr.im/Drcj Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

East-West co-operation on disqualified drivers

Pete Baker on October 28, 2009, 10:02 pm

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As RTÉ reports “A new deal has been made between the UK and Ireland to ensure that disqualified drivers do not use the roads in either country.” Announced by UK Road Safety Minister Paul Clark, MP, it is “the first practical step of its kind in Europe” and is due to come into force in February 2010. The Northern Ireland Environment Minister Edwin Poots borrows some of Paul Clarke’s lines for his press release. [Good to see the government press …

Government 2010: Old politics on new media, and other thoughts…

Mick Fealty on October 27, 2009, 7:47 pm

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More video… More video… This time from last week’s Government 2010 conference in London (an excellent event, organised and convened by Jeff Peel)… It’s about 45 minutes long… though my own rough thoughts on the challenges a future government will face start about 3 mins in… The open Q&A contains some good stuff from a very impressive audience… Look out too for Craig Elder of the Tories for his critical comments on the shortcomings of where were are, and Stephen …

The UK continues to tip towards the Tories…

Mick Fealty on October 27, 2009, 12:11 pm

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If David Cameron is as good as his poll rating it looks to me as though he’s set not just to sneak in front of the other parties, but to romp home in next year’s election. But unlike 1997, this will be a largely joyless first term to go along with a fairly joyless recovery (it’s estimated that up to 80% of Civil Servants vote for parties other than the Conservatives, not to mention the problems some senior appointees who …

“The consequences for jobs and revenue, particularly in the Border region, are profound”

Pete Baker on October 27, 2009, 12:30 am

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The BBC report on the Northern Bank’s Consumer Confidence Index notes that “People in Northern Ireland remain cautious about spending in the run-up to Christmas”. So it’s probably just as well that consumers in Ireland are picking up the slack here. From the Irish Times SOME 250,000 households in the Republic are now regularly doing their grocery shopping in the North, up 25 per cent since the end of last year, according to new figures. There has also been a …