England – Page 6 – Slugger O'Toole

“Swallow your doubts and take a pew in the reformed national church of Brexit…”

Mick Fealty on October 6, 2016, 7:49 pm

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This needs to be blogged, just for the record. It’s Rafael Behr, who’s been on fire for some time at the Guardian. Not the burning of heretics type on fire, but his reading of that quarter of history is pleasingly precise. He goes back to the last of the Tudors for his exemplar: the unfanatical Virgin, the first Elizabeth… This is nothing less than a reformation in the Church of Conservatism, with the authority of Brussels cast as a modern-day …

The Irish in GB are offered Brexit reassurances. Do they really need them?

Brian Walker on October 6, 2016, 10:11 am

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The Times (£) is carrying a story ” Irish NHS staff reassured over hard Brexit” reporting that Irish nurses and doctors will remain a key part of the NHS in England, ” despite plans to make the “British” ( sic – they mean English) health service self sufficient within ten years.” This is typical of stories in the London press which are confused about devolution and lump together Irish immigrants with others as foreign. Much of officialdom is ignorant about …

English nationalism drove Brexit and now supercharges the Tories. What about the UK?

Mick Fealty on October 5, 2016, 2:41 pm

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Interesting presentation from Richard Wynne Jones at an event in Birmingham yesterday on how English nationalism is driving UK politics… He said: “We are entering a new era in UK politics in which the traditional textbook understanding of the nature of the UK is basically wrong – and actually England [and] Englishness is coming into play in ways which we haven’t seen before.” Prof Jones said there is now a “great deal of unhappiness as to how England is treated within …

Since Corbynistas joined @UKLabour digitally, it looks like they prefer to fight their battles that way too.

Mick Fealty on September 27, 2016, 2:14 pm

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Strong piece from Polly Toynbee at the Labour Party conference today, where she’s been fielding puzzled inquiries from fervent Corbyn-ites as to why she’s anti-Jeremy Corbyn when both she and he stand for roughly the same things. It’s more than a decent and comprehensive response. Corbyn could apply a little balm to the great gash in his party. If he meant peace and unity, he could stop dead all talk of deselecting MPs, and protect MPs such as Walthamstow’s Stella Creasy and …

Corbyn’s problem is that he’s much less well liked than his own party…

Mick Fealty on September 15, 2016, 12:57 pm

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The Evening Standard have a lot of detail in the latest Ipsos Mori poll. But the interesting bit lies in the fact that the Conservative party is still disliked by more people than like it (55%-38%), whilst the Labour has people evenly split between the two (45% – 46%). The real difference arises in the leaders’ ratings, with May’s positives (60%) towering over both her own negatives (33%) and that of her party’s (55%), whilst Corbyn’s are somewhat reversed with …

Will Theresa May’s support for grammar schools help or hinder schools sharing in Northern Ireland?

Brian Walker on September 9, 2016, 12:09 pm

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Now we know why Theresa May has been so vague about Brexit. All along she has been preoccupied with – grammar schools and lifting restrictions of faith schools especially Catholic schools! Schools will be allowed to select children on the basis of ability at 14 and 16 as well as 11, Theresa May said today, as she outlined the biggest reform of the education system in 50 years. The prime minister presented her plans to allow new and expanded grammar …

Barbers, Car Dealers, Printers: The “Olympic” Small Businesses Around Ireland and the World, and How They’re Watching Rio

Pádraig Belton on August 20, 2016, 11:47 am

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DUBLIN. When Farrell O’Boy launched his Olympic Cars in Maynooth, Co. Kildare, he thought he’d chosen ‘a strong name, and people would remember it’, says Danny McCabe, today its sales manager. Across the Irish Sea, Antonio Leto had emigrated from Sicily and worked as a barber when he set up his own shop, Olympic Barbers, in 1982. ‘He just wanted it to be an international barbershop—multinational, a barber for everyone‘, says his son, Ross, who now runs the shop, cutting …

An answer to Rentoul. Referendums like terrorism can shape events, but not always in the ways expected

Brian Walker on August 19, 2016, 6:40 pm

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Alerted by Mick on the thoughts on referendums by the Independent’s political commentator John Rentoul, I took in his part 2 “Should Referendums be banned?” This is a rhetorical question which is really in support of Rentoul’s contention that they make very little difference to the course of political events. His pieces prompted my following thoughts. Referendums like terrorism typically make considerable differences but not necessarily as intended. It is not true they never settle anything. It depends on the …

Time cannot silence the Voices of the Somme

Ian Malcolm on July 31, 2016, 10:36 pm

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At the start of July I posted on Slugger O’Toole to introduce Somme Voices, a month-long series of daily tweets in remembrance of that dreadful World War One battle. I’m returning to Slugger to bring the Somme Voices project to a close with a final poem. The reason is that I’d like to quote this one in its entirety and Twitter is a less-than-perfect medium for something of considerable length. It does, however, give me the chance to make a …

O’Leary’s Dalriada proposal keeps Northern Ireland and Scotland in the UK and the EU

Brian Walker on July 26, 2016, 9:05 am

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The political scientist Professor Brendan O’Leary is one of the strongest supporters of power sharing in Northern Ireland and an deviser of political solutions to ethnic conflict throughout the world. On leave from Pennsylvania University and an old boy of St Macnissi’s Garron Tower, he has produced the Dalriada Document – inspired by the ancient North Antrim- west of Scotland kingdom. The Dalriada document is an ingenious attempt to square the circle of keeping Scotland and Northern Ireland in both …

In the welter of crises at home and abroad, ” calm down dear” is not a bad maxim for comment

Brian Walker on July 17, 2016, 3:49 pm

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Commentators have a natural tendency to over-interpret the world on the basis of the latest developments. I say “natural” because they are bound to feel compelled to rise up to the level of traumatic events like Nice or the Turkish coup attempt. Over Turkey comment has been useful as there’s a lot to explain about the origins of the coup and the political upheaval going on in response. Over Nice, it’s much more difficult. Standby for the political crucifixion of …

Is Jeremy Corbyn slowly turning UK Labour into the ‘nasty party’?

Mick Fealty on July 15, 2016, 6:22 am

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Labour NI AGM table goodies

It is getting hard to know whether Jeremy Corbyn is actually malign, or just a bit ‘slow’. On foot of this and other incidents, no branches of the British Labour party are allowed to meet. Whatever your own definition of leadership is, I doubt it resembles this… That long slow summer of poisoning has well and truly begun… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media …

“If he had, he would know that I voted for Corbyn last year…”

Mick Fealty on July 8, 2016, 11:43 am

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Labour NI AGM table goodies

It’s worth sharing this experience of one Labour Party member who voted in favour of Jeremy Corbyn last year attending a meeting of her local Bristol Labour Party last night. It’s getting very rough in there. To the point at which the Labour party no longer looks like a going concern: Labour’s problem is that it doesn’t seem to know enough to make the arguments needed to preserve itself, any more than it has been able to defend European democracy, or …

So what comes after Farage for UKIP? Labour’s northern base?

Mick Fealty on July 4, 2016, 5:16 pm

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So he’s gone [Has he? Really? Gone, I mean? Like for good? – Ed] Who knows. But for now, Nigel Farage is planning to edge out the rest of his free Belgian beer time in his job quietly in Brussels. What comes after that? Well, the Telegraph is pitching Paul Nuttall and Steven Woolfe, two working class lads from Livepool and Manchester respectively. Nuttall in particular, has been instrumental in the growth of the party in working class areas in the …

The wee nations of these islands show the way in Europe

Brian Walker on July 2, 2016, 1:30 pm

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It was a big week in Europe in more ways than one. Wales is left as the standard bearer of the home nations in the Euros. Northern Ireland and the Republic get honourable mentions in the reputation stakes not only on the field but on the terraces and the pubs. The Somme commemorations recall Britain’s very literal continuing place in Europe (There is a corner of a foreign field etc.”) Modern Ireland is recovering its own memory. In the horrible …

On parliamentary sovereignty and post-Brexit Britain

Gerry Lynch on June 30, 2016, 2:59 pm

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The latest phase in the stages of grieving for Remainers is the idea that parliament can save the UK’s membership of the EU. How would that play in blue-collar England? As 78% of the men on the Clapham omnibus, in the London Borough of Lambeth, voted Remain, we’ll need someone different to act as our ‘typical’ Leave voter. What about the man on the wonderfully-named Jump Circular bus, which really exists in the Borough of Barnsley (68% Leave)? The man …

UK Labour in turmoil: “if I had lost the confidence of 80% of colleagues I would resign…”

Mick Fealty on June 29, 2016, 6:54 am

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Labour MPs vote no confidence in Corbyn 172 to 40. The decision is non-binding, in the sense that according to the rules there are no consequences. At least that’s the way Mr Corbyn is playing it. And in direct consequence of that, the UK Labour Party is having a major meltdown. In fact, the no-confidence motion was much less shocking than the fact that 27 members of his own Shadow Cabinet have resigned. There’s an oddly fallacious impression abroad that this …

Democracy: Referendums, Petitions, and a Reality Check for Leavers and Remainers Alike

Gerry Lynch on June 26, 2016, 12:10 am

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2.5 million people have now signed a petition calling for a second referendum. I won’t be signing it. It’s pathetic. We had the highest turnout in an election for 24 years on Thursday. I think collectively we’ve made a bad decision. But it’s the decision we made. You know what, in democracy, you win some and you lose some. Sometimes the decisions are momentous. There we go. Grow up and get over it. Where were those 2.5 million people when …

Euro 2016: Northern Ireland through to last 16

Pete Baker on June 21, 2016, 9:52 pm

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Despite losing to world champions Germany earlier today, Northern Ireland’s footballers have secured a place in the last 16 of the UEFA European Championship 2016. There they’ll face either France or Wales. A heroic performance by NI’s freelance keeper, Michael McGovern, kept the ball out of the net on all but one occasion and the 1-0 win for Germany left Northern Ireland in third place in Group C on 3 points following their win over Ukraine. Crucially, though, they had …

I’m anti-Brexit but I’m more frightened of living in a country that uses referendums

Paul Evans on June 19, 2016, 9:00 am

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If I were offered a promise that Referendums would be banned in every European state in return for Brexit, it’s a deal I would accept in a heartbeat.