DUP – Page 23 – Slugger O'Toole

The postwar ID requirement between Northern Ireland and Great Britain

Brendan Heading on November 23, 2017, 8:36 am

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Reading through some old Wikipedia articles pointed me to an interesting exchange in the House of Commons, back in 1948. Ulster Unionist MPs Conolly Gage and Major Samuel Gillmor Haughton rose during an adjournment debate to complain about the requirement for a permit or passport to be presented for travel between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. Mr Gage opens by highlighting the inconvenience of this arrangement : As everyone knows, Ulster is as much a part of …

The government need to come clean urgently on their bungled proposal for a security forces amnesty

Brian Walker on November 21, 2017, 8:22 pm

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After Sinn Fein held their meeting with Theresa May this afternoon, Gerry Adams diverted from the apparent failure to make progress on restoring Stormont with a genuine issue: a potential amnesty from prosecution for security force members who served in the Troubles is to be floated by the British government. The Irish News carries the fullest version of the story by the PA. What’s being floated is a statute of limitations in a fundamental and unilateral amendment to the 2014 Stormont …

Brexit and the border is widening the gap between London and Dublin and depressing further the chances of a return to Stormont

Brian Walker on November 21, 2017, 11:31 am

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It has started to happen. Will it continue? Can it be reversed? The politics of Brexit is openly dividing the UK and Irish governments and further polarising the DUP and Sinn Fein, making a return to the Executive less likely than ever. Predictably Brexit is increasingly becoming domesticated as the new big theme in a revived unionist v nationalist struggle. What’s just happened? The sequence was best described in a cool- headed column in the Indo by Dan O’Brien, chief …

Gerry Adams and Robert Mugabe have something in common

Brian Walker on November 20, 2017, 10:18 am

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How ironic that the eras of Mugabe and Adams are drawing to a close at roughly the same time. Both are men of blood. Both remained in office for unhealthily long periods of time, reflecting the essentially undemocratic nature of their political machines and their origins in armed insurgency. It now turns out that neither is departing immediately. Of course there are significant differences. Adams will go with the adulation of his followers and continuing influence. Mugabe led the majority …

The reception for the Loughinisland documentary No Stone Unturned shows that legacy issues will stay marginalised

Brian Walker on November 16, 2017, 10:59 am

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The low key reception given to the documentary No Stone Unturned, the film documentary on the UVF murders of six randomly selected Catholics in their local Loughinisland pub in 1994 which is currently being given a brief screening at the Queen’s Film Theatre, is the latest example of how presumed familiarity with the underlying problems of Northern Ireland has produced if not quite contempt, at least widespread deadening indifference. Warm congratulations nevertheless go to The Detail team especially their reporter …

First part of the DUP deal funds goes to Health & Education

David McCann on November 13, 2017, 7:39 pm

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The Secretary of State has announced the first part of the DUP deal will go to Health & Education, the amount will come to £50 million. From the BBC The announcement was made as Mr Brokenshire brought a Northern Ireland budget before the House of Commons. The secretary of state told MPs that civil servants can decide how to spend the extra £50m earmarked for health and education. Here is the DUP Deputy Leader; Roll out of the first part …

Michelle O’Neill “Theresa May has prioritised her own electoral survival via the Tory/DUP pact over the interest of all of the people in the North”

David McCann on November 13, 2017, 2:21 pm

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Michelle O’Neill remarks at the end of the talks process today; The British Secretary of State will today move to introduce a budget to finance public services here. This is an acknowledgement by the British Government that agreement has not been possible. “The reason for this is the DUP opposition to a rights-based society. While some progress was made, the denial of rights would not be tolerated in Dublin and London and should not be tolerated here. We met …

#StateofState “The billion pound deal negotiated by the DUP to support the Conservative Government was well designed”

David McCann on November 9, 2017, 2:44 pm

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This is the time of year Deloitte release their State of the State report which reviews the performance of the UK government and the devolved administrations. The report in its entirety can be read here. What I will focus in here is the findings from Northern Ireland. Austerity The report points out the general public tiredness with austerity by noting the following; After the June 2017 general election, Chancellor Philip Hammond reflected that voters had become “weary of the long …

Real work to restore the Executive has yet to begin. For the public to make an impact, proposals and pressure from the governments are essential

Brian Walker on November 8, 2017, 11:51 am

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As a comparative outsider I’m struck by how most commentators are obsessed with speculating about political positioning and identity narratives. This has produced numbing negativism and despair rather than the energy needed to approach the daunting but practical problem of trying to restore the Executive. Being case hardened and calloused, they endlessly refine their own explanations for obvious failure. They accept the parameters set by the DUP and SF too readily. To be fair, this is often the default caused by a …

“broken promises are – sometimes – necessary for good government.”

Pete Baker on November 6, 2017, 1:54 pm

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In Saturday’s Irish Times, Fiach Kelly had some timely advice for Sinn Féin and the DUP – and their supporters. Those who seek to govern will always have to compromise, and those who do not – unless their policies are allowed absolute domination – will always decry whatever deals are made. The electorate is free to choose which type of politician it wants, but if it chooses the former, it should do so in the knowledge that compromises will be …

We have no Executive but we need to face electoral realities

David McCann on November 2, 2017, 4:57 pm

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Since January 2017, Northern Ireland has been in a process of debate about bringing down the government, who is to blame and how our politicians are failing the public. Often I have heard that the fact we have no Executive is seeing failure, which ignores the fact that when we had a devolved administration the constant refrain from most quarters was how it was too populist in its approach and not taking the “difficult decisions” in a whole host of …

Stormont Talks End in Failure

David McCann on November 1, 2017, 5:06 pm

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The current round of Stormont talks have ended in failure today. I will leave it to the comments section below to debate the finer points but here is a summation of the parties statements and comments. NI Secretary, James Brokenshire; I am not therefore in a position to introduce the legislation necessary for an Executive to be formed this week though I must stress we are continuing to work with the parties as they proceed with ongoing talks. “As I …

The DUP’s £1 billion deal looks set for a second stage of direct rule

Brian Walker on October 30, 2017, 11:49 am

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When we’re reduced to praising James Brokenback for masterly inactivity, we’ve surely found rock bottom. One tiny flicker of life turns out to be an illusion after all. DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson has denounced as “fake news” a story from the new Financial Times Ireland correspondent ( and ex-Irish Times ) Arthur Beesley, that “Theresa May’s £1 billion is on hold as to talks falter” (£) There may be less to this than meets the eye. A budget imposed by …

Challenge to Tory/DUP deal fails

David McCann on October 26, 2017, 9:31 pm

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A legal challenge to the £1 billion confidence and supply agreement between the Conservative government and the DUP has failed in the High Court. Speaking about the verdict the DUP Deputy Leader, Nigel Dodds said; This was a ludicrous case which has been rightly rejected at the first stage. The agreement between the DUP and the Conservative party is good for the United Kingdom as a whole and for Northern Ireland in particular. The agreement saw pensioners across the UK …

Slugger TV reviews #UUP17 and the approach of the Unionist Parties towards a deal

David McCann on October 26, 2017, 11:25 am

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Slugger TV is back for October looking at the Unionist Party conference and the approach of the UUP and DUP towards a deal. Going through all of this we have Alex Kane (Commentator), Sam McBride (Political Editor of the News Letter) & Allison Morris (Irish News Security Correspondent). David McCannDavid McCann holds a PhD in North-South relations from University of Ulster. You can follow him on twitter @dmcbfs

Foster “Time and again there is a narrative that blames everyone equally. This narrative must be challenged”

David McCann on October 18, 2017, 8:16 pm

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DUP Leader, Arlene Foster was speaking to party supporters this evening making the following comments On devolution: “Northern Ireland has now been without an effective government since the start of the year. Since the March Assembly election we have been engaged in several rounds of discussions with Sinn Fein and the other Northern Ireland parties to re-establish the local Executive. In recent weeks those discussions have intensified and while solid progress has been made in some areas differences do remain …

On the Stormont deadlock, time now to test party positions and introduce a mediator

Brian Walker on October 18, 2017, 1:55 pm

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If the Irish Times is right, Dublin HQ has prevented Michelle O’Neill from striking a political deal. It is a deplorable fact that throughout this 10 month deadlock, so little is reliably known about party positions beyond nods, winks and notoriously unreliable mood music. At least in the Brexit negotiations the principals give some sort of account after every session. Times have changed since 1998. Then, reasons for secrecy were far more credible. The main agenda for much of the …

More delay over a return to the Assembly needs challenging by the two governments

Brian Walker on October 16, 2017, 12:46 pm

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So the target date for either direct rule or an agreement to revive the Executive has slipped for another week at least. What a surprise! We were told by the two governments yet again that ” progress” had been made, but this has been slapped down by the DUP. Sinn Fein’s agenda as far as I know it is not inherently unfeasible. The problem is that it’s Sinn Fein who’s running with it. Crafty old Gerry for false-footing the DUP? Or …

Will someone spell it out. What role for Dublin under ” direct rule? “

Brian Walker on October 7, 2017, 2:19 pm

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Patrick Murphy’s apt question in the Irish News. “ Why do we think Dublin would be any better than running the North than London?” prompts the even more basic question:. What sort of new Dublin “input” is wanted or even necessary? Later this month, “Direct Rule” in whatever guise would in key respects be inevitably different from the direct rule of 1972 when the two sovereign states had barely begun to cooperate. Today, the British- Irish relationship through governments and …