DUP – Page 55 – Slugger O'Toole

Ian Junior claimed £10,000 in postage in his six last months in office…

Mick Fealty on May 14, 2012, 9:52 am

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Hmmm… First we had Inkgate, then Inkgate II … Now it’s the DUP’s turn to answer some awkward question regarding a spot of free riding by Ian Junior this time… According to Diana Rusk in today’s Irish News that equates to about 112 letters a day… In response the North Antrim MP said that that estimate would be about right, claiming that “I get 220 letters every single days. My post bag is incredibly heavy – ask my postman.” That …

Orange EU Funding: An Opportunity to Exercise Responsible Society

Of This Island on April 20, 2012, 4:01 pm

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Following the news that The Loyal Orange Order have received a grant of almost £900,000 from the European Union to help address the legacy of the Troubles and encourage cross-community interaction, people across the island of Ireland can only stand back in expectation of what is to follow. Unsurprisingly, the decision has been met with support by many members of the Unionist camp, not least in the halls of Stormont. DUP MEP Diane Dodds triumphantly proclaimed that, “this money will …

Cross border education: lay out all the facts please

Brian Walker on April 5, 2012, 12:27 pm

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Is this form of cross border cooperation actually divisive? Contrast two stories about the SF led Education department’s plan for a survey of 50,000 “border families “ (i.e. families on both sides of the border) on the takeup of school places by children from the other side. Liam Clarke’s story records the objections of DUP’s Mervyn Storey, chair of the Assembly Education Committee, to SF minister John O’Dowd’s plan on the grounds that the minister “ has lost all sense of …

“The intention is to appoint a single commissioner…”

Pete Baker on March 30, 2012, 12:43 pm

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Apparently the Northern Ireland Executive OFMDFM are advertising for a single Victims Commissioner to replace the four three current encumbents. According to the UTV report The decision to reduce the number of commissioners is understood to have been prompted by the accomplishments of the previously appointed three. Bertha McDougall, Patricia MacBride and Brendan McAllister – who leave the £65,000 posts in May – are believed to have accomplished so much in establishing initial contact with victims that their workload can …

“I am delighted to hear that the people of Northern Ireland are the happiest in the United Kingdom”

Pete Baker on February 29, 2012, 6:05 pm

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Some good news! [Peter Robinson will be pleased – Ed] Possibly… According to the Office of National Statistics’ analysis of experimental subjective well-being data from the Annual Population Survey, April to September 2011, the people of Northern Ireland are the happiest in the United Kingdom. In fact the, admittedly subjective, data reveals that the people of Northern Ireland had higher average ratings than the rest of the UK on the ‘life satisfaction’, ‘worthwhile’ and ‘happy yesterday’ questions (7.6, 7.8 and 7.5 out of …

Contested Space Programme: “What’s strange is that we haven’t heard anything about this until now…”

Pete Baker on February 6, 2012, 3:48 pm

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On 22 January, after the International Fund for Ireland (IFI) announced their £2million Peace Walls Programme, I asked about the absence of OFMdFM’s £4million Contested Space Programme – announced in March last year. On 27 January the Northern Ireland Executive Junior Minister, Sinn Féin’s Martina Anderson, launched the Early Years Faces and Spaces – Children’s Shared Spaces project – “funded jointly by OFMDFM and Atlantic Philanthropies Contested Spaces programme.” The Junior Minister’s statement is somewhat short on detail, but the ‘notes …

McNarry: “the party will close ranks and anybody who wants to be a hypocrite will get their photograph taken”

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 1, 2012, 9:10 pm

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Tom Eliott wielding scissors at the opening of David McNarry's Saintfield Advice Centre Opening

It’s the story that keeps on giving. And that looks to be David McNarry’s intention. Now free of having to notify the UUP press office about media interviews and statements – something that Tom Elliott has adhered to as Party Leader – David McNarry is everywhere. This morning’s News Letter. The Belfast Telegraph. Though nothing fully authored by him in the Irish News. [Ed: Maybe he’s saving that as a treat for Thursday?] In recent days he has appeared on …

Cryptozoology: Unionist outreach to Catholics

Turgon on January 11, 2012, 9:00 am

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Cryptozoology according to wikipedia is “the search for animals whose existence has not been proven.” Here in Northern Ireland we have our own version of this: not monsters in Lough Erne (though the pike can get pretty big) but rather the political version. The two most sought after fantasy animals are the fabled Garden Centre Prod and the unicorn that is the Unionist Catholic. These creatures probably hide in the Craigantlet and Castlereagh Hills in the case of the Garden …

Vote For Me

John Ó Néill on December 13, 2011, 1:25 am

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You’ll guess how bad this is when I’m going to apologise in advance for it. Dan Boyle, former tweet-master general of the Green Party, has managed to coincide the launch of his album, Third Adolescence, with the 30th anniversary re-launch of the Green Party. Yeah, you read that right, his album. In deference to his chequered electoral history, he has included a track called ‘Vote For Me’ (if you really hate your ears – you can listen to a sample preview on Amazon). Amazingly, he isn’t the first …

Local Political Reaction to EU Crisis Summit Outcome

Pete Baker on December 10, 2011, 4:09 pm

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How have our local political parties reacted to the outcome of the EU crisis summit? Well, neither the Green Party nor the Alliance Party appear to have noticed… The “Conservative and Unionist” MEP, Jim Nicholson, has, unsurprisingly, “welcomed the use of the British veto over a new EU-wide treaty by Prime Minister David Cameron”. “David Cameron was correct in effectively vetoing a new treaty and keeping the United Kingdom out of this new economic accord agreed at the EU emergency summit, …

British monarchy under threat of being opened up to [Roman] Catholics

John Ó Néill on December 8, 2011, 12:01 am

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It looks like we could be in for yet another installment of false rage now the DUP has endorsed a shared (sic) future platform. The Telegraph is reporting that the political and constitutional reform committee have said that: “The scenario does beg the question of whether it remains appropriate for the monarch to be required to be in communion with the Church of England. “The most obvious difficulty in having a Catholic monarch — beyond the purely statutory obstacles — is the crown’s role as supreme governor of the …

“The Committee views this matter with the utmost seriousness…”

Pete Baker on December 7, 2011, 2:57 pm

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The BBC reports the Northern Ireland Assembly Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) press release on their report in response to NI Audit Office report into the Farm Nutrient Management Scheme – the actual PAC report is here. In general there’s little new information on the NI Department of Agriculture’s mishandling of the Farm Nutrient Management Scheme – the largest capital grant scheme ever run by the Department of Agriculture, through which some 4000 farmers received grants worth £121million – an earlier draft PAC report was leaked to the …

“a shared future/shared society will require a natural, evolutionary breaking down of barriers – be they psychological or physical.”

Pete Baker on December 5, 2011, 4:21 pm

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In the News Letter Alex Kane revisits the topic of his last column, the shared future section of Peter Robinson’s speech at the DUP’s annual conference, and takes on Chris’ criticism of that speech. From the News Letter article. What struck me most about the comment is that the writer seems to object to the fact that unionism should try and reach out to Roman Catholics at all. Indeed, he seems to believe that the only purpose of such an outreach …

Sinn Fein are the tomorrow people and the yesterday people.

Turgon on December 4, 2011, 8:31 pm

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Most of the excitement regarding the DUP conference centred on Peter Robinson’s speech (or Sammy Wilson’s). In contrast Nigel Dodds’s has received less attention. The moving forward narrative was again played up with the repeated claim that the DUP are the party of Northern Ireland and the party to move Northern Ireland forward. There were swipes at the UUP and TUV as well as nationalists and republicans. Dodds’s moving forward was couched in somewhat more traditional unionist terms. His remarks …

“The Committee, of course, will lend itself to that farce…”

Pete Baker on December 1, 2011, 8:43 pm

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Having been tasked by the Northern Ireland Assembly to review the initial ministerial provision for the Department of Justice and to “make recommendations relating to the provision that should exist from 1 May 2012”, the Assembly and Executive Review Committee failed to complete their task. From the AER Committee’s report 8. Following Committee discussion, a proposal was made, on the basis that there was no broad consensus on any of the options, that the Committee draft a Report that outlines …

Peter Robinson tactics, strategy and Stranmillis

Turgon on November 30, 2011, 10:16 pm

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Mick has a blog on Alex Kane’s latest column looking at Peter Robinson’s conference speech below as has Chris Donnelly. One line in it struck me that Robinson was a master strategist. I have in the past described Robinson as a good tactician but a poor strategist. However, more recently I have begun to think I was wrong and that the tactics had become so long term that they had become a strategy. Indeed the vision sketched out by Robinson …

Peter Robinson: tactics, strategy and prisons

Turgon on November 23, 2011, 9:23 pm

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Peter Robinson’s recent comments about attracting Catholic votes are not especially new though he has developed his views a little further in his latest interview. I noted his attempts in such a direction some months ago following the assembly elections. Some have sought to juxtapose negatively these seemingly liberal comments with Robinson’s threat to resign as First Minister if David Ford made changes to the prison service such as removing the crown from the uniform and dropping the term “Her …

Robinson reaching out to nationalists … just not through the Irish News

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on November 21, 2011, 3:00 pm

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Peter Robinson has “declined every request for an interview from The Irish News over the past two years” In an editorial titled “Robinson ways contradictory”, this morning’s Irish News [behind a paywall] accuses the DUP leader of speaking with forked tongue when he calls for votes from the Catholic and nationalist tradition to maintain the link with Britain. The first minister said that the time had come for all our citizens to stop seeing everything through the prism of religion …

Unionists highlight Troubles border murders

Turgon on November 19, 2011, 7:42 pm

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The Belfast Telegraph is reporting that at the meeting of government ministers from Northern Ireland and the RoI in Armagh, Arlene Kelly and Danny Kennedy presented Enda Kenny with details of more than 150 republican murders in border areas during the Troubles. They have called on the RoI government to apologise for the fact that the IRA killers were able to escape across the border following these murders. Mrs. Kelly said: …that they should remind the Irish Government of today …

McGuinness: “It’s fair to say [A5 upgrade is] back on track again”

Pete Baker on November 11, 2011, 10:43 pm

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No, really!! Following the Irish Government’s decision to postpone their £400million contribution to the £850million cost of the proposed A5 upgrade, the Northern Ireland First and deputy First Ministers announced they would be seeking “maximum clarity on this issue” in talks with Taoiseach Enda Kenny, while they were in Dublin today. After the meeting, the NI deputy First Minister, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, was accentuating the positive to UTV’s Ken Reid. “It’s far from dead,” Mr McGuinness told UTV. “I think, …