Cartoon – The scalper
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/
Eamon Gilmore
Cartoon – Mine is bigger than yours
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/
Labour in meltdown mode
Who needs negative campaigning when you have the Labour party? While opinion polling seems to have been incessant in the south since the last election, the latest Millward Brown poll published by the Irish Independent over the weekend has brought more grim reading for Labour. But not only does the party now seem to be rooted in single digits (an eye-watering 6% in the latest poll), this morning the fallout has added a new dimension with calls for the resignation of party …
Cartoon – Liquidity crisis
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/
UK Prime Minister: “Let me reassure the right hon. Gentleman that there is absolutely no question of an imposed solution.”
As the Belfast Telegraph reports, and followed up by the BBC. For the benefit of the more excitable commenters [and politicians! – Ed] among us, the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, spelt out the political realité on the Haass proposals during PMQs in the Commons today [Added Permanent link]. Mr Nigel Dodds (Belfast North) (DUP): Does the Prime Minister accept that the remarks of the Irish Foreign Minister about the Haass talks and the possibility of some kind of intervention by …
Gilmore: Two governments may intervene over #Haass
Eamon Gilmore is to give an interview to the Sunday Politics on the failure of the five parties to agree a deal during the Haass talks. I have been critical in the past of the lack of involvement of the two governments throughout the entire process but instead of criticising Gilmore for showing upto the party late, I will just be grateful that he showed up at all. In the interview Gilmore spoke about an urgency that needed to be …
SDLP conference – a party ill at ease with itself over opposition & strategy #sdlp13
Over half the motions at the SDLP policy-making annual conference were addressed on Friday afternoon and evening. Participation in debate was sporadic and the numbers of delegates in the hall were low compared to the number catching up in the hotel corridors and social areas. One observer recalled that not much more than 50 people were in the hall for Friday’s health debate, and a fifth of them were lobbyists! That was a large attendance compared with mid-morning on Saturday. …
“still much to be done in those communities that have not previously, or only partially, engaged in peace building and reconciliation activities…”
The Irish Times reports on, what would appear to be, the International Fund for Ireland’s (IFI) response to the Northern Ireland First and deputy First Ministers bullshit distraction about “Building a United Community”. From the Irish Times report “The community transformation strategy recognises the new reality on the ground and looks to support communities that are still affected by the threat of violence,” said the IFI chairman Dr Adrian Johnston. “It is particularly focused on addressing the root causes of sectarianism and, in …
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore calls for delivery on Northern Ireland Bill of Rights
I was pleased to be at the Alliance Party conference dinner in the La Mon hotel last night to hear the guest speech from Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore TD. He used it to make a strong call for Northern Ireland party leaders to get round a negotiating table to deliver the long-awaited Bill of Rights. As I don’t see it yet published elsewhere, it’s worth reproducing the relevant speech extract at length: Just as history is shared between the communities, so …
Austerity in two halves: #Budget2012
Early next week will finally see the introduction of #Budget2012 to the Dáil, in a novel format with two speeches, one by Brendan Howlin on Monday and one by Michael Noonan on Tuesday. The budget has been heavily trailed, with endless kite-flying over the last few weeks. A brief guide to (some) of the proposed changes was given by Caroline Madden in the Irish Times last Monday. For ease of reference, most of the main suggested budgetary changes are given below. It will be interesting to compare the …
Enda Kenny: “He doth like the ape…”
Your captions please… 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/
Is it Labour’s fate to be Enda’s mudguard?
This post is entirely a rip-off of a post from the under-rated Your Friend in the North blog in which Johnny Guitar acknowledges a … er… ‘third way’ strategic opportunity that leading the Irish opposition could offer to Labour. Aside from the obvious point that the next few years are going to be pretty horrendous for whoever is in government (and that makes it a particularly bad time to perform the mudguard role that damaged Labour so badly in the …