David Cameron – Slugger O'Toole

Hain accuses Johnson, Cameron, May of NI ‘neglect’ – and Foster for ‘lapdog’ tendency

Paul Gosling on August 13, 2021, 6:00 am

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Boris Johnson, Theresa May and David Cameron must accept part of the responsibility for the continuing “gridlock” of politics in Northern Ireland, through their failure to engage in the political process here, argues former Labour secretary of state Peter Hain. He also allocates blame to Conservative secretaries of state, with the exception of Julian Smith. Hain says that prime ministers must recognise that their role includes strong engagement with the Northern Ireland parties, in order to keep political progress on track. “You …

David Cameron’s very tidy innings as leader of the Conservative party…

Mick Fealty on July 13, 2016, 6:07 pm

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I remember having a bit of a row with colleagues about whether David Cameron was going to be able to steer the Conservative party to success. By the time he took over in the wake of the party’s record third defeat at the hands of a Blair led Labour party, the Tories looked lost. The abiding weakness of his leadership of the Opposition and later his Premiership was the promise he’d had to make to his Eurosceptics to get the …

A modern fable: Goldilocks and the three Labour leaders

Kris Nixon (Belfast Barman) on July 1, 2016, 1:53 pm

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Nobody expected Jeremy Corbyn to win the leadership contest in 2015, I’m not sure even he expected it. Actually, nobody expected Jeremy Corbyn to even be part of the leadership contest in 2015 – he was put on the ballot, as history now tells us, to widen the discussion, to broaden the range of candidates on offer. Well that worked out well. It may however have served a purpose in the long run. “Once upon a time, there was a Parliamentary …

Cameron gambled with national security?

Turgon on May 9, 2016, 7:46 am

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The BBC are announcing that today David Cameron is going to claim that the UK leaving the EU would increase risks to peace. The BBC suggested Elgar or Vaughan Williams should be playing. I suspect Holst’s Mars would be the most appropriate. Turning from the classic music back to the politics. One of the primary responsibilities: probably the prime responsibility of a Prime Minister or the like is maintaining the safety of the population that elected him and as such …

The Remain camp needs some new faces, and quickly

Soapbox on April 20, 2016, 1:20 pm

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Craig Harrison writes for us about the upcoming EU referendum on 23rd June If the latest polls on the EU referendum are anything to go by, then what seemed like a sure thing just a few months ago is now much less certain. Figures from an online survey by Opinium, published by The Guardian at the beginning of April, put the Leave side on 43% – four points ahead of Remain. While we are, rightly, much more sceptical about polls …

Mr Cameron “has intervened, threatening recklessly to destroy a generation of work, in order potentially to gain marginal seats in NI”

David McCann on December 1, 2015, 12:20 pm

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RECKLESS: Interesting report from RTE outlining references to David Cameron’s approach to Northern Ireland during the devolution of policing and justice in 2010 from Hillary Clinton’s advisor Sydney Blumenthal.

As the road to referendum shortens, battle lines are drawn over the EU

Soapbox on November 10, 2015, 5:20 pm

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Craig Harrison writes for us about the EU referendum and David Cameron’s appearance at the CBI The annual conference of the Confederation of British Industry, held recently in London, provided an illustrative snapshot of the wider political debate on the UK’s membership of the EU. David Cameron reiterated his desire to move away from the ‘ever closure union’ concept, downplaying any notion that the UK couldn’t survive outside of the institution. In what is expected to be a key message …

Cartoon – “The unelected and unelectable…”

Brian Spencer on November 1, 2015, 9:18 pm

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The soundbite of the week past probably came from Westminster and from David Cameron at PMQs. Probed repeatedly by the leader of the Opposition on the cost of cuts to tax credits to the ordinary family, the Prime Minister simply said the reform was blocked by an alliance of “the unelected and the unelectable.” Stormont had an eventful week itself, and I suppose you could argue those adjectives apply to the First Minister and new Junior Minister. Brian SpencerBrian is a writer, artist, political cartoonist …

Martin McGuinness: “…it is not conducive to getting a good outcome.”

Pete Baker on October 28, 2015, 4:29 pm

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Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness doesn’t appear to have had much to say today about the behind-closed-doors talks at Stormont – apart from telling the BBC’s Chris Page The timeframe for a deal in Stormont’s inter-party talks is “days, not weeks”, the deputy first minister has said. Martin McGuinness said he believed a deal was “achievable” and that the talks process was “intensifying”. Still, it’s good to see Sinn Féin on the same page as the Prime Minister, David Cameron, at …

Cartoon – Don’t mention the…

Brian Spencer on October 21, 2015, 12:10 pm

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Whitehall has a clear policy on China. It knows there are human rights abuses, you just don’t talk about them. With the sophistication of technology and leven of government surveillance it’s hard to say that the report into paramilitary groups revealed anything new, it just said what people knew. Brian SpencerBrian is a writer, artist, political cartoonist and legal blogger. Actively tweeting from @brianjohnspencr. More information here: http://www.brianjohnspencer.com/ www.brianjohnspencer.com/

Cartoon – The In-Out debate

Brian Spencer on October 13, 2015, 9:49 pm

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The ‘In’ and ‘Out’ campaign groups launched their programmes on October 12 2015 ahead of the referendum on EU membership. Meanwhile the DUP is still undecided on whether to be In or Out of Stormont. Brian SpencerBrian is a writer, artist, political cartoonist and legal blogger. Actively tweeting from @brianjohnspencr. More information here: http://www.brianjohnspencer.com/ www.brianjohnspencer.com/

“it all may prove as tough as anything Cameron has faced before”

Mick Fealty on October 7, 2015, 2:16 pm

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Good piece from Danny Finklestein in the Times of London today, which gives you as good a view of what Cameron and Osborne have planned for the next two years: In 2015 the Tories got their timing right. In 2012 George Osborne may have been booed at the Paralympics and criticised for his taxation of Cornish pasties. But in 2015 he was re-elected. Informed by this experience, the Conservatives are deliberately making difficult decisions now. Yet the combination of this …

Nationalist Parties need to shift away from the “blame the Tories” narrative and embrace the Welfare Reform debate

David McCann on May 30, 2015, 1:55 pm

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Nationalism needs a new economic narrative and if you didn’t believe that before, the complete debacle over Welfare Reform is proof positive of the inability to construct a proper narrative on our current economic situation or a long term strategy for fiscal rectitude and a prosperous economy. We are faced at the moment with a budgetary crisis that puts our very institutions in jeopardy. After all the stop/starts, false dawns and talks about talks, we seemingly had broken the pattern …

The first all Conservative cabinet for 18 years meets

David McCann on May 12, 2015, 5:04 pm

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Last Thursday, David Cameron became the first Tory Prime Minister to win a majority since 1992. His narrow margin of just 12 seats in the House of Commons probably means that at some point he will need the Liberal Democrats, DUP or the UUP to get some legislation passed. Today he held the first meeting of his new Conservative cabinet. Courtesy of the BBC, here are the changes from the last cabinet; Amber Rudd is Energy and Climate Change …

The election exposed the faint breath of a desire for change within the sectarian camps.

Brian Walker on May 9, 2015, 4:38 pm

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All true democrats should thrilled to have it confirmed that politics is not dominated by the polls. Real people apparently can think for themselves. Locally LucidTalk’s amazingly hairy exercises with opinion panels fared better in the prediction stakes than the UK national pollsters, even though playing percentages is a whole lot easier than making firm predictions. Small shifts in turnout and opinion made all the difference. Looking at it from across the water, your campaign was generally beyond embarrassment. The …

Jim Wells: Has he damaged the DUP? UPDATED

The Firemen on April 24, 2015, 9:47 pm

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Any hopes that the DUP had that last night’s ill-judged comments by Health Minister Jim Wells would be quickly forgotten appear to be fast receding. If anything the ‘apology’ by Mr. Wells betrays ignorance on the part of the Health Minister more than anything else. Sadly the PSNI have now confirmed that they are now investigating comments made by Mr. Wells’ – perhaps the new laws suggested by the Ulster Fry would be more appropriate. UPDATE: Tonight (Sunday April 26th, 2015) …

Mr Cameron, The Tories & ‘compassionate’ conservatism: compelled to justify neoliberal politics at #ge2015?

Chaminda Weerawardhana on April 22, 2015, 9:26 pm

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As the 2015 British general election campaign gathers momentum, the prospect of a hung parliament looms large. Concerning Scotland, the 2014 Scottish Referendum may have produced a result that was to the satisfaction of supporters of the ‘no’ campaign, but the Scottish National Party’s subsequent rise as an extremely decisive contender in national-level politics could be described as the seminal consequence of #Indyref. Irrespective of the ultimate election result, the SNP, led by the articulate Nicola Sturgeon, is definitely set …

#LeadersDebate: Blame it on the boogie

The Firemen on April 2, 2015, 7:52 pm

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UPDATED A depressingly accurate piece on politics in Northern Ireland from Chris Buckler has been played repeatedly on the BBC news channel during the course of today. It comes on a day when seven party leaders in Great Britain fought it out in a televised debate /gameshow tonight . Despite protestations the DUP were NOT included in the debate. Peter Robinson tweeted his outrage last month: Perhaps after viewing the BBC piece we should be grateful for small mercies. The otherwise depressing report …

YouGov’s Peter Kellner: The DUP unlikely to hold the balance of power but could be influential

David McCann on January 29, 2015, 11:54 pm

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The President of one of the UK’s most reputable polling companies YouGov, Peter Kellner, was in Belfast at an event hosted by Chambre Public Affairs and Lucid Talk. I began by asking him what we should be looking out for at this point in the parliamentary year? Kellner highlighted a few things to watch out for. Can either Labour or the Conservatives break the dead lock that they are currently facing in the polls? Over the last few months both …