DUP – Page 34 – Slugger O'Toole

Cllr Graham Craig defects to the DUP

David McCann on October 28, 2016, 10:08 am

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Another man overboard for the UUP as Botanic Councillor, Graham Craig defects to the DUP. This is particularly bad news in South Belfast where the party lost their only seat to the DUP’s Christopher Stalford. Craig was formerly a SPAD to Sammy Wilson when he served as Minister for Finance and had some very harsh criticism of his former leader and party in the Belfast Telegraph. Speaking about her new councillor, Arlene Foster said I am delighted that Graham has …

Foster says DUP will use POC to block marriage equality + criticises Equality Commission

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on October 27, 2016, 10:02 pm

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DUP leader and First Minister Arlene Foster says DUP will continue to use Petition of Concern to block Equal Marriage legislation. In the same pre-conference interview with Press Association, she criticised the Equality Commission’s handling of the Ashers case, saying that they “need to have a long hard look at how they work with faith communities in Northern Ireland”.

Cllr Aaron Callan defects to the DUP

David McCann on October 27, 2016, 11:57 am

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Limavady Councillor, Aaron Callan has defected from the UUP to the DUP. He cites what he claims as the UUP ignoring his constituency and lack of confidence in his former leader as the main reasons. Speaking about his decision to leave he says; Some people may be asking why I have decided to leave the Ulster Unionist Party to join the Democratic Unionist Party. I have thought long and hard about this decision. It has become clear over the last …

State of the State Report praises the creation of opposition and has concerns about Brexit

David McCann on October 26, 2016, 7:43 pm

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Around this time of year Deloitte release their State of the State report which reviews the performance of the UK government and the devolved administrations. You can read the full report here, but here I wanted to highlight the reports analysis of recent developments in Northern Ireland. The report last year was critical of the stop/start nature of policy making within the Executive and the political impasse that had engulfed Stormont over welfare reform. This year however, the report is …

Tackling Paramilitary Activity: “government funding will not be released until the Executive agrees a more detailed action plan”

Pete Baker on October 25, 2016, 6:23 pm

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As I noted in a post in September In July, the NI First and deputy First Ministers and Justice Minister, Claire Sugden announced the publication of the NI Executive’s Action Plan for Tackling Paramilitary Activity, Criminality and Organised Crime – 147kb pdf file here. Costing £50 million over 5 years, it’s jointly funded, £25 million each, by the NI Executive and the Brits the British Government. At the launch of that action plan The [Northern Ireland First Minister, Arlene Foster, deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness and Justice Minister, …

Taoiseach Enda Kenny: “I need to know what it is that the Executive in Northern Ireland is actually seeking”

Pete Baker on October 19, 2016, 4:26 pm

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With the Northern Ireland First Minister over-praising a letter of acknowledgement from the UK Prime Minister, and the deputy First Minister sounding off [again? – Ed] about his lack of trust in “this British government”, it’s worth noting this exchange between Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams in the Dáil yesterday high-lighting the dysfunctional approach of the NI Executive to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. From the Dáil record 18 Oct. [The Taoiseach:] I want Deputy Adams to …

Amnesty NI poll displays attitudes of party voters towards abortion laws

David McCann on October 18, 2016, 10:41 pm

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An interesting poll conducted by Millward Brown for Amnesty International has surveyed the attitudes of voters of various parties towards abortion legislation in Northern Ireland with some noteworthy statistics Overall the poll found that attitudes in Northern Ireland as whole favour reform. Full details can be found here. David McCannDavid McCann holds a PhD in North-South relations from University of Ulster. You can follow him on twitter @dmcbfs

So the DUP are leaving it all up to Theresa May to sort out our Brexit deal are they?

Brian Walker on October 18, 2016, 1:58 pm

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At last! Only two months later, a reply from Theresa May to the joint concerns of FM and DFM on the impact of Brexit. Searching for detail in the Nolan “scoop” I can only find this on the BBC website. In her letter, Mrs May says the future of the border is “an important priority for the UK as a whole.” She also says she recognises the “unique issues” raised by the Single Electricity Market and that resolving these will …

DUP and Tories playing footsie in Birmingham over a Parliamentary pact?

Mick Fealty on October 5, 2016, 7:34 am

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Interesting blog from Gary Gibbon who’s been in Birmingham, which speculates that there’s a deal in the offing between the Conservative party and the DUP to ensure that the party has an extra bit of insurance in Parliament for the times ahead. It’s not the first time a UK government has come calling, and it won’t be the last. Fragmentation in party representation puts an essentially pragmatist, pro-Union party like the DUP in a usefully powerful position until at least 2020 …

Ireland will have to spell out what they mean by special status for the North – assuming they know what it is.

Brian Walker on October 4, 2016, 10:58 am

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Reactions have been predictable in Ireland to the“hard Brexit” tone of Theresa May’s brief conference speech in Sunday and her rejection of the idea of giving a Brexit veto to Scotland or Northern Ireland . The Irish government are as worried as they are ignorant of British intentions. The DUP remain defiantly pro-Leave and opposed to all – Ireland consultation at this stage. The Dail as a whole is now gloomier about prospects for an open border. Poor Ireland, bursting with goodwill …

Unionists have to be nudged to talk, with the incentives of common citizenship and other common interests

Brian Walker on September 28, 2016, 10:38 am

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Enda Kenny is surely right to be cautious about setting up an “all-Ireland forum” Better to have a “conversation” at least to start with in November. Even so its ability to speak for all Ireland would be seriously weakened by the absence of unionists, just as it would be counter- productive for the unionists not to take part eventually . As things stand, Northern Ireland’s regional government is therefore neither formally or informally to be represented. A fully fledged forum …

Stormont Holds Its First Ever Opposition Day

David McCann on September 26, 2016, 9:36 pm

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Stormont Today will be worth a watch to see a little bit of history. The Assembly held its first ever opposition day which meant that for around four hours MLAs debated topics selected by the opposition namely rural bank closures, public confidence after the NAMA revelations and Impact on Women of Changes to the State Pension. Often critiqued for a lack of cooperation, the SDLP and UUP released a joint statement on the latter topic; The first Opposition Day saw a …

Brexit is not an alibi for inertia. Executive action within its own powers is needed on the economy

Brian Walker on September 15, 2016, 10:44 am

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The Executive must take action within its own powers to counteract the slowdown effect of Brexit. That’s the consensus among economic commentators. But as yet there’s little sign of that happening. The begging bowl strategy was already failing and bluster against “ austerity “ will have declining impact. And with the replacement of inclusive multi-party power sharing by a two party coalition with an opposition, there are signs that the budget process has become less transparent. According to PWC’s latest …

“rather than trying to pretend that essentially, testing does not exist”

Pete Baker on September 7, 2016, 4:00 pm

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As the BBC notes, the Northern Ireland Education Minister, the DUP’s Peter Weir, has reversed the department’s previous position prohibiting the use of academic selection to decide what post-primary school pupils transfer to. That position was set out in 2008 by then NI Education Minister, Sinn Féin’s Caitríona Ruane, and upheld by the subsequent Minister, Sinn Féin’s John O’Dowd. From the BBC report A circular sent to school principals on Wednesday removes any prohibition on using academic selection to decide what post-primary school pupils …

How Sinn Fein only undermined themselves by turning on their own partners in Government…

Mick Fealty on August 29, 2016, 10:33 am

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In case you missed it, here’s my analysis of the debacle up to and following the resignation of Daithi McKay written for and published by the Irish Independent on Saturday. The nine-year government coalition between Sinn Féin and the DUP has been an odd and largely unproductive affair. In spite of the popular Chuckle Brothers routine between Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness, the positive fruits of that partnership have always been more apparent than evident. And under the skin, relations have often …

A cautious approach to the McKay affair is right. But for the sake of Executive cohesion, O Muilleoir needs to say more or stand aside.

Brian Walker on August 24, 2016, 11:19 am

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So rather than buckle down to the altogether tougher demands of trying the govern the place, the politicians are having themselves a jolly crisis. Far more fun isn’t it? And the more bizarre the better. But might there just be a chance that the Executive will in the end decide not to waste a good crisis, deal with it transparently and emerge stronger as a result? If guilt proves to be limited as is claimed, why should we all suffer? …

In Brexit dialogues the DUP must be included. The Good Friday Agreement requires it.

Brian Walker on July 18, 2016, 11:39 am

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Sadly, the Sunday Politics programmes have registered no closing of the gap between the DUP and Sinn Fein over “Brexit means Brexit.” Inevitably there is a real danger that narrow politics and positioning will confuse already very difficult issues. But at least they are not the ones aggravating the disagreement at the moment. They appear to be waiting on others for constructive responses. In a measured editorial the Irish News has identified “ an overwhelming case for the introduction of …

“The Irish Government will not be negotiating on behalf of Northern Ireland”

Pete Baker on July 4, 2016, 9:22 pm

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In case you were wondering what the Brexit ’10-point plan’ was that the BBC reported the North South Ministerial Council agreed today, it’s in the final joint communique of 4th July [pdf file] FINANCIAL AND EU MATTERS [Implications of UK Referendum] 8. The Council had a detailed discussion on the potential impact of the UK referendum result to leave the EU. In order to optimise joint planning and engagement on key issues arising following the UK referendum result, the NSMC: …

Uniting to mitigate the effects of Brexit is better politics than talk of break up in these islands.

Brian Walker on June 28, 2016, 2:31 pm

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In the absence of any clarity about the terms for Brexit, it’s no surprise that some Remain supporters are dreaming about reversing the result and nationalist politicians are weighing up the chances of the break-up of the UK. They may have to decide soon how realistic are their ambitions for constitutional change if a snap Westminster election is sprung soon. The SNP are the only major party to have anything like a stable negotiating position at the moment. It looks …

Referendum result: DUP in touch with Middle England

Turgon on June 24, 2016, 8:12 am

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Mick has his first thoughts on the EU referendum below. He has pointed out that although the majority of Northern Ireland voted to remain it was close: realistically most unionists voted to leave. To disgress for a moment. Prior to last year’s assembly election people suggested the DUP were beginning to lose touch with substantial parts of the unionist electorate. The victory for the UUP in South Antrim and the fairly close run win for the DUP in East Belfast …