DUP – Page 10 – Slugger O'Toole

A clear Boris Johnson majority could be in Northern Ireland’s interests. What are the chances?

Brian Walker on July 28, 2019, 11:43 pm

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Planning for No Deal is the government’s No 1 priority, says Michael Gove. “So we need a new approach and a different relationship. Critically, we need to abolish the backstop and ensure we find a different way to handle trade, and other important relations, on the island of Ireland”. Some ERG hardliners would oppose a deal even if it eliminated the backstop. They sense a trap in alleged talk of EU concessions and plots around every corner in Whitehall, according …

Julian Smith’s role – to keep the DUP happy and step up plans for No Deal including direct rule

Brian Walker on July 25, 2019, 7:00 am

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Boris Johnson being ” clapped in” by staff on entering No 10 Julian Smith may not be a household name in Northern Ireland but his name resounds in every Conservative MP’s household and generally throughout Westminster. He was Theresa May’s last chief whip tasked with trying and failing three times to pass her withdrawal agreement. Bemoaning the scale of his task, he told the BBC’s Laura Kunnesberg in April.. that when his party failed to get a majority in the …

We’re heading for an autumn general election, the postponement of NI abortion reform and temporary direct rule

Brian Walker on July 17, 2019, 11:23 am

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No to time limits or unilateral escape hatches or all these elaborate devices, glosses, codicils and so on that you could apply to the backstop,” he told a debate hosted by The Sun on Monday.

Former 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 Editor Belfast Telegraph. Hon Senior Research Fellow, The Constitution Unit, Univ Coll. London

By acting on abortion and equal marriage, Westminster has changed the dynamic of the talks

Sarah Creighton on July 10, 2019, 9:27 am

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One day in politics can change everything. The Northern Ireland Executive Formations Bill was, until the 9th July, an uninteresting piece of legislation. It proposes to amend the Northern Ireland (Executive and Exercise of Formations Bill) 2018, a law passed in the wake of the collapse of the Assembly. The Secretary of State introduced the 2019 Bill to extend the period in which an Executive must be formed until the 21st October 2019. There’s a clause allowing an extension of …

Westminster stuns the local parties with the challenge: pass abortion and equal marriage laws or we’ll do it instead

Brian Walker on July 9, 2019, 7:47 pm

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You’ve read about the campaigns. Now read about the victory. The day started with an anti climax. Dominic Grieve’s bid to thwart any attempt to deny parliament a vote on No Deal wasn’t called by the Speaker. The attempts by Co Armagh born Labour MP’s Conor McGinn and Stella Creasy to legislate for abortion and same sex marriage were certain to fail for antagonising the DUP, for coming at the wrong time with all this Brexit stuff about and for being …

We’re in crisis now. Armageddon on Brexit and the Union may take a little longer

Brian Walker on July 7, 2019, 12:39 pm

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So the Stormont talks are in limbo. Why should they be different? Everything else is, including the future of the Union. The reputation of failed prime ministers can rise after they retire defeated and the problems continue to confound their successors. Even Theresa May is starting to look just a bit better. Straight after he lost two elections in quick succession in 1974 ,Ted Heath’s reputation as a statesman seemed secure when his historic achievement of EEC entry that would …

Laws against flags on lamp posts are mere gestures unless the unionist parties start championing local people’s interests with the UVF and UDA

Brian Walker on July 3, 2019, 12:53 pm

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Each marching season begins with familiar tensions and flashpoints old and new. They combine in the modest environment of Cantrell Close, back for a third year with the added twist of the Soldier F campaign. Legal action is the knee jerk reaction, superficially attractive until it comes to examining where the law stands and how to enforce it. The civil servants opposed to it needn’t worry; they cannot exercise powers they haven’t got. But is legal action the right response …

How often do the parties in Belfast City Hall actually vote together?

Niall Kelly on July 1, 2019, 11:40 am

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One of the great debates, and I use that term loosely, we have had over the past decade in Northern Irish politics is whether the Alliance Party are more nationalist or unionist. Instead of letting Alliance, and the people who vote for them, define what the party stands for, certain elements of the political establishment, in particular political unionism, have gone out of their way to attempt to define Alliance as being somewhere on the spectrum between anti-unionist and pro-republican. …

Simon Hamilton to step down as an MLA

David McCann on June 28, 2019, 8:31 pm

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The former Finance Minister, Simon Hamilton has announced he will step down as an MLA to take up a role with the Belfast Chamber Speaking about his departure, DUP Leader Arlene Foster said; I have known Simon as a friend and colleague for many years. He has played an important and positive role both within the DUP and particularly during his time within the Northern Ireland Executive. Whilst I am disappointed to be losing Simon as a Party colleague and …

The DUP may have to chose between the Union and a hard Brexit

Brian Walker on June 27, 2019, 10:24 pm

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When Boris Johnson says we must leave the EU on 31 October “do or die,” he’s suspected of pandering to party voters. When Arlene Foster says “the Union of the United Kingdom is more important than any other political aspiration” I for one believe her. But the gap between them may be widening. At a Policy Exchange seminar yesterday Foster said “ “you have to keep no deal on the table to get a better deal…and we shouldn’t go for …

Brexit breakthrough in Prosperity UK report? No Deal rejected and the backstop stays until final deal, says group including Foster, Dodds and Rees Mogg. But thumbs down from NI business leaders

Brian Walker on June 24, 2019, 5:39 pm

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A leading Tory Brexit adviser tipped for No 10 who was part of the team who wrote the Prosperity UK report has told a news conference that No Deal is “not politically acceptable”. The report accepts the backstop but its recommendations are designed to ensure it never happens. The verdict coming in is that Prosperity UK’s interim report is a serious piece of work devoid of unicorns. It this catches on, it will be a breakthrough. Singham’s line sounds the …

New Tory proposals on the backstop are no magic bullet but worth discussing to check a Hallowe’en crashout

Brian Walker on June 24, 2019, 10:21 am

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How realistic are the “alternative arrangements” proposed by the Prosperity UK report backed by Tory MPs desperate to avoid a complete crash out and political meltdown by the autumn? The answer – in the details, less than seemed likely months ago. They are for the most part familiar ingredients in a slightly different recipe. But details are not the main point. What matters more is the legal framework. We’re struck with the basic bone of contention. Prosperity UK believe they …

Breaking the Union: Brexit, Boris and the Backstop

Chris McKee on June 22, 2019, 6:30 pm

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Analysed too closely, the Tory leadership race and its implications becomes more surreal by the day. Understanding its rules, relating to this, is futile: we can only observe and remark, our noses pressed with disbelief against a window of a strange and distant court that will soon decide our immediate fate. At this crucial point, we can all agree whatever is coming will mean something for us. The only questions are what, how and when. The who will likely be Boris Johnson, less probably Jeremy Hunt. Both Eton …

‘Citizens’ Assembly could help progress with health reform’, suggests Simon Hamilton

Paul Gosling on June 3, 2019, 7:00 am

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The adoption of a citizens’ assembly could assist with making progress with reform of the health service in Northern Ireland, says Simon Hamilton – a DUP MLA and former health and finance minister. He was interviewed in the latest ‘Forward Together’ podcast. Speaking about the use of citizens’ assemblies in the Republic of Ireland, Simon explains: “They shouldn’t be dismissed instantly just because you didn’t like what some other jurisdiction was doing with them.” He adds: “I know from my …

Cracking the deadlock over an Irish language Act will test whether a new political order is emerging

Brian Walker on June 1, 2019, 8:11 pm

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If a Tele article by Nelson Mc Causland and Newsletter reports are anything to go by, agreement on an Irish Language Act and therefore the return of Stormont are as far away as ever. The problem remains over an acht na Gaelige that stands alone. As unionists perceive it, this constitutes a claim superior to their cultural needs. It was supposed to have been sorted by the draft agreement of February last year but the DUP refused to sign off, …

The implications of Alliance’s successes for how our people are represented and governed can mean win:win all round

Brian Walker on May 30, 2019, 3:12 pm

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Good to see Newton following up the implications of Alliance’s electoral successes From the Irish Times Sinn Féin and the DUP both want to preserve the veto for their own purposes. How sustainable would that be if Alliance doubled its Assembly representation, given it has just doubled its council and European votes? In theory, none of this would break the rules. In practice, it would make designation – a foundation of devolution – look redundant and perverse. Alliance’s breakthrough could …

The Tory leadership debate is becoming vicious, with Brexit realism sidelined

Brian Walker on May 30, 2019, 2:27 pm

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It’s painful to watch Tory leadership runners tying themselves up in knots over the choice of Deal or No Deal. Some of them are ducking and diving, others go in for the full kamikaze. The situation is so dire that the Chancellor Philip Hammond is offering himself as the fallback voice of sanity candidate. All of them so obviously want to keep sweet the hard line activists who’ll decide their fate that it’s almost unkind to keep baiting them. But …

Brexit reality has yet to dawn with the Conservatives and Labour. It will get worse before it gets better

Brian Walker on May 28, 2019, 6:16 pm

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As a result of their severe beating in the European election that was itself the product of their internal disarray, the two parties of UK government are evolving into the Conservatives as the party of Leave and Labour the party of Remain. Newly conventional wisdom says the middling choices are disappearing between the main parties and within them. But the starkness of the choices – if that’s what they prove to be – is making them no easier to accept. …

Without getting carried away, we should dare to hope that the Alliance surge will spark a positive response from the DUP and Sinn Fein

Brian Walker on May 28, 2019, 11:56 am

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Photo-PA After the European election – zombie or real life, who knows? – we’re in the even odder position of politics in Northern Ireland looking ever so slightly healthier than the politics of the UK as a whole. I compare NI with “UK” rather than “GB” because the Westminster scene presents the DUP with tough choices I’ll come to later. While I haven’t heard a cheep from the Stormont talks as they (presumably) prepare to resume, the Alliance surge in …

#EP2019-Tell them again: Northern Ireland voted Remain

Sarah Creighton on May 28, 2019, 10:38 am

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There are certainties in Northern Ireland. Everyone goes on holiday in July. A single crash on the Westlink will halt traffic across the country. An Ulster Fry is the best breakfast. The final truth: politics follows a script, the same story over and over again. We have our moments but we tell people that nothing ever really changes. May has been an extraordinary month for Northern Irish politics. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the past few …