Henry McDonald has revealed that a parallel academic project to capture to oral history of security personnel working during the Troubles collapsed when the PSNI won their case to get access to ‘Boston Tapes’ interviews with republican and loyalist paramilitaries.
The Constitution Unit of University College London headed up by Meg Russell has posed seven questions about a possible second referendum on Brexit in a blog post. Last month the Unit published the report of the Independent Commission on Referendums which can be read here. The summary… Would it be possible to hold a referendum in the time available? Isextending Article 50 feasible? How could a referendum be triggered? What might the options be? What form should the question …
Coming late to the Peter Robinson speech at Glenties and its aftermath, I’m struck by two elements of it, one of which has been hardly picked up. In the text I was offered, the discussion of a border poll which overshadowed the rest of it didn’t appear at all. Tommie Gorman of RTE has explained. I chaired the Friday evening session (27 July) in the Glenties Highlands Hotel where Peter Robinson was the guest speaker. The references to a united Ireland …
So if the hard realities being expressed in Dublin are changing around Brexit, so too in Westminster, where the arithmetic remains eye-wateringly tight. An old friend once told me that with any 50/50 decision as things inevitably get harder, the slim positive majority melts and the will to carry it forward gets much tougher maintain. Very quickly. The last general election delivered just such a scenario. No one has a mandate to undo Brexit, but no one has the electoral …
An interesting couple of pieces in the Sindo at the weekend, regarding the confidence and supply arrangements between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and the growing tensions in their confidence and supply arrangement. Before Christmas, average polling showed little difference between the two parties: both averaging around the 30% mark in November. There’s been slippage since for Fianna Fáil: the party most divided over the abortion referendum. The terms of the arrangement are such that Fianna Fáil’s support for the government should last for …
Just putting this here as a supplementary to the idea that Brexit won’t (and indeed cannot) end on March 29th, 2019: Relationships change. The “transitional period” won’t end in 2020. It’ll carry on for as long as the UK and EU exist. This is no mere pedantry. One of the key aspects of good negotiations is to see that agreements can be provisional, not final. Theresa May should be saying to all sides in the Tory party: “This isn’t the …
The Sun and the Guardian, raucous tabloid and campaigning broadsheet on either side of the Brexit trauma are united: Barnier has killed off the Chequers plan. The FT however is more circumspect. We have doubts it can be done without putting at risk the integrity of the customs union, our common commercial policy, regulatory policy and fiscal revenue,” said Mr Barnier. Mr Barnier and Mr Raab also said they had agreed to work on a model for financial services co-operation …
In Ireland (north and south), Summer is the time for thinking and rethinking politics. For the most part, I will be reading a number of review copies of books I’ve been sent over the last month or so. One I don’t yet have is Mary C Murphy’s Europe and Northern Ireland’s Future (Comparative Political Economy), which Micheal Martin officially launched last night in Dublin. But it worth highlighting a couple of points he made in his speech, some of which builds …
An Ulsterman Considers His Passport … and also considers what we can learn from other complicated borders in Europe, like those Austria shares with its eastern European neighbours. Watch back Prof Arthur Aughey’s Centre for Cross-border Studies lecture at the John Hewitt International Summer School in Armagh.
It’s worth drawing out some of the material from Glenties the other night. On the night, the intellectual heavy lifting was done by Micheal Martin, who as leader of the opposition: one, has time to think; and two is not hemmed in by reality. However, the Tanaiste and Foreign Minister Simon Coveney did make several important observations: …to some degree, on the Irish issues at least, it ground to a halt in March. The UK then turned its focus to the …
Both the British and Irish Governments have this week warned their people of the dangers (however seemingly remote) of a no-deal Brexit. No doubt there have been junior staff on both sides beavering away in basements to plan for the possibility, whether or not their superiors took them seriously. And the probability of those contingency plans being dusted off has surely increased in the last few days. But we must also entertain the even smaller chance of a perfect storm, …
Theresa May and Michel Barnier have spoken. Barnier has picked his way critically through the UK White Paper with its “facilitated customs arrangement” and common rule book, asking all the pertinent questions but turning nothing down. 80% of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU is now agreed, but the EU’s version of the backstop remains the bugbear. The black scenario is: no agreement on the border, no withdrawal agreement, therefore no transition and no deal. To be honest, nobody except …
For MPs at Westminster, the long hot summer ends on Tuesday week. In the short time remaining, the government will scrape a majority for the Trade Bill. Over the next couple of days David Davis and perhaps Boris Johnson will make resignation statements in the Chamber that will fuel speculation about a coup. But time is tight to mount a leadership challenge against Theresa May before the adjournment. The political journalists’ lobby know this but want to keep the pot …
I am a Northern Irish Protestant who has lived in Dublin for the past twenty five years. I am proud to be from the Protestant community and proud to be from Northern Ireland. But I have never been so proud to be part of a society, as I have been to be part of the Republic of Ireland in recent years. A society that voted, myself included, in favour of marriage equality and a woman’s right to choose. I have a friend …
Boris is the latest to jump due to the burning platform that is Brexit. Who will be next? Will there be a leadership contest? Popcorn at the ready… Johnson quits amid Brexit row https://t.co/STjaliDISs — BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) July 9, 2018 Brian O'NeillManaging Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road …
David Davis: “Theresa May and I both want to deliver the best Brexit. She’s offered a diluted version of it.” Watch again ▼@JuliaHB1 | https://t.co/sv3MZUm41c pic.twitter.com/Qe6UsXKt9a — talkRADIO (@talkRADIO) July 9, 2018 David Davis: “I will not run for leadership of the Conservative party.” Watch the full interview between Julia Hartley-Brewer and former Brexit Secretary David Davis on our YouTube channel ► https://t.co/Cpr3QLEXla@JuliaHB1 pic.twitter.com/0LR0ly9VK5 — talkRADIO (@talkRADIO) July 9, 2018 David McCannDavid McCann holds a PhD in North-South relations from …
Majority reaction to the Chequers summit is cautiously optimistic, most reservations from all but the Brexiteer fanatics being postponed, using the alibi of next Thursday’s publication of the 120 page government White Paper before they fully respond. If you’re naturally positive, you’ll see it as an undoubtedly soft Brexit; if you’re a cynic whether Leaver or Remainer, you may call it a fake Brexit. The outcome can be summed up by saying that on goods and regulations, the UK will …
Writing in the News Letter yesterday, Owen Polley makes the case for winning over the centre ground to the Union in an article which is surely a classic of the genre. Airily dismissing his own contribution to the debate as a commentator, he spends most of his article heaping scorn upon NI’s centre ground for openly considering the idea of constitutional change, and then goes onto scold Unionist politicians for their failure to win support for the status quo. Once …
The FT reports Theresa May is to present a new post-Brexit customs plan to her cabinet this week, in an increasingly desperate attempt to find a solution that can unite her feuding ministers and find favour with a sceptical EU. Details of the new plan have not been set out, but its existence — confirmed by Number 10 — demonstrates that Mrs May has concluded that neither of the two customs options under consideration by ministers for almost a year …
Try as I might I’m unable to understand the appeal of Brexit for the UK, never mind Ireland north or south. I say “understand “deliberately rather than “appreciate”, as it is possible to see where people are coming from even if you don’t join them on the journey. Therefore I’m often a humble passenger on Fintan O’Toole’s train of thought. The greatly admired Fintan is among the most sophisticated critics of Brexit on either island from the high vantage point …
