Government – Page 6 – Slugger O'Toole

On key issues, the general election survey shows the uncommitted or don’t knows are growing in number

Brian Walker on March 7, 2020, 11:12 am

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Mick has dug deep for his reflections into the Northern Ireland general election survey commissioned by Liverpool University’s Institute of Irish Studies and conducted by Social Market Research (SMR). In this piece I wrote before I logged into Slugger (and I frankly don’t want to waste it) I gnaw more at the bone of opinion on unity. The survey and its questions surely show how sensitive to events is general opinion and how volatile the events affecting long lasting themes. …

Opinion on a border poll “on a knife edge” – the latest from The Detail

Brian Walker on February 24, 2020, 1:28 pm

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Here we go again. Just a bit of cross posting here to draw attention m to a special edition of The Detail, about a border poll. The comment is based a Lucid Talk opinion poll conducted north and south, showing opinion “ on a knife edge” – 46.8% to stay in the UK and 45.4 % for a United Ireland. The disparity now among three polls in succession can partly be accounted for by different methodology, this one on line, …

How will they square the circle of unfettered access to Northern Ireland ports? Check it out on – Thursday now

Brian Walker on February 23, 2020, 8:14 pm

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David Frost ( no, not that one, now deceased) According to the Sunday Times we will know the approach the UK will adopt for the next stage of EU withdrawal in a couple of days, now that the country has left the organisation and we are in the transition phase of less than a year. The UK government are taking up a position of maximum distance from the EU procedures and laws quite different from the erratic harder no softer …

A border poll yields pride of place to good government at Stormont. Will the parties get the message?

Brian Walker on February 18, 2020, 9:14 pm

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We’re told it’s the most thorough survey of political attitudes in years (what, more than the NI Life and Times surveys?). It shows the graph has tilted over a just a little more in favour of united Ireland, confirming that those who Don’t Know or declined to answer – an odd description of the middle ground – hold the balance. I’m caught between concern about growing tension as the day …

Sinn Fein deserve their chance to satisfy the huge expectations their victory has aroused

Brian Walker on February 11, 2020, 12:53 am

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Let’s stand back. With just one seat fewer than Fianna Fail but with quotas to spare, Sinn Fein’s claim to have gained the moral advantage has credibility in spades. Another reading is just possible. The two centrist parties outnumber them by rather less than 2 to 1. Twice in France the right and left united to defeat the far right in the second round of a presidential election, once by joining together and last time by forming a new political …

Asking the right questions for a better-informed public

Allan LEONARD (Mr Ulster) on February 4, 2020, 2:03 pm

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Asking the right questions for a better-informed public by Allan LEONARD 28 January 2020 Representing FactCheckNI and as part of a four-person panel, I was invited to give evidence to the UK House of Lords Select Committee on Democracy and Digital Technologies. Fellow witnesses were Ed Humpherson (Director General for Regulation, Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR)), Will Moy (Chief Executive, Full Fact), and Jenni Sargent (Managing Director, First Draft). This was an extension of the committee’s previous call for written …

A way can be found between the EU rock and the GB hard place. But will Boris Johnson let us take it?

Brian Walker on February 4, 2020, 9:09 am

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Katy Hayward We are literally at sea over what Northern Ireland’s special status with the EU will mean in practice. Our Brexit guru – or should I now say, our Guru on Trading Relations with GB and the EU Katy Hayward writing in the Belfast Telegraph explains neatly why Northern Ireland is between a rock and a hard place In the past Katy was keen to repeat assurances that NI’s different economic relationship with the EU from GB had …

Martin and Varadkar and playing a game of chicken, with Sinn Fein trying to get inside the coop

Brian Walker on February 3, 2020, 11:49 am

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Now I may have got this wrong because I haven’t been catching Irish TV election coverage here in London. But am the only one thinking that the parties in the election are sleepwalking through the campaign? Varadkar and Martin are playing for margins as if they were German party leaders. Who in GB could imagine a party leader speculating about a grand coalition in the first week of the campaign? Coalitions can be deadly for its members and confidence and …

In the brave new world outside the EU, the DUP have no survival strategy for the Union

Brian Walker on February 1, 2020, 7:00 am

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The quivering projection of Big Ben onto the facade of Downing St accompanied by its tinny recorded chimes while the Brexit deliverer skulked inside, said it all. Boris Johnson did not want to be visibly identified with the big moment in case it all goes pear shaped. In former times retreats on such a scale were the result of war. That’s about best thing that can be said about Brexit; the worst is that it’s heading for a bigger reverse, …

#BrexitDay-Nothing but damage

Sarah Creighton on January 31, 2020, 8:27 am

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In Jan Carson’s The Fire Starters, there is a quote: “There is never enough silence to contain all our talking…….we continue to believe that across the sea, Europe (and also the world) is holding its breath for the next chapter in our sad story. The world is not waiting.” More than anywhere else in the UK, Brexit shifted the ground beneath Northern Ireland. It threw us down on different sides, sides that were also the battle lines that came before. …

We have a piece of paper… it looks like a Stormont deal, tbc

Brian Walker on January 10, 2020, 12:51 am

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Have we got a deal that the DUP and Sinn Fein sign up to or not? By Thursday midnight, it wasn’t clear. Will all parties turn up to the reconvened Assembly? By the time you read this we should know. In the meantime we have – a document .. But Arlene Foster’s verdict looks favourable.. “On balance we believe there is a basis upon which the Assembly and Executive can re-established in a fair and balanced way… This is not …

Medical school plan for Derry Campus now “oven ready” if only an Executive minister signs it off, says NIO minister. Will it happen?

Brian Walker on January 8, 2020, 11:12 pm

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Andrew Adonis, the former Labour cabinet minister and senior adviser to Tony Blair is that rare creature, a British politician who having been introduced to Northern Ireland doesn’t turn away wearily after a short while. He has decided to champion our interests. He’s been mocked recently as a fanatical anti-Brexiteer who has had to face defeat. Undaunted, he has turned to other causes. His speech during a debate in the Lords about the Stormont standoff yesterday triggered an important statement …

Commemorating the RIC and allowing an Irish Language Act are opposite sides of the same coin

Brian Walker on January 7, 2020, 11:58 am

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RTE The Irish government’s decision to commemorate the RIC in a major state ceremony is the right one precisely because it is as controversial as it is fundamental. There is no point in filling an entire decade with an orgy of self congratulation. The modern Irish state was born in insurgency and revolution is always controversial. But it is s also a reminder of that the state born out of revolution was part of a much longer continuum that is …

In 2020, the fate of the Assembly will be one of the simpler issues

Brian Walker on December 29, 2019, 3:48 pm

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In agonising over terms for recreating a functioning Stormont, the old chestnuts of an Irish Language Act and the petition of concern could be the easy bits – which is one reason why the DUP and Sinn Fein if they have any sense at all, should grab at a deal. Truth to tell they are still in their comfort zone. Far more difficult issues are looming just a little way down the track. And it’s doubtful if the Assembly parties …

Looking forward to an early end to the Stormont deadlock. Christmas cheer, or only a Christmas truce?

Brian Walker on December 23, 2019, 9:07 pm

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How will the parties “reflect” on their stance towards Assembly restoration during the Christmas lull? Will it be peace on earth, good will to all or only a Christmas truce? The finger of fate is pointed at the DUP. Will their resentment spill over into resistance? How dare the secretary of state break precedent and single them out for blame just because all the other parties seem to have supported a deal? Even that is the wrong conclusion because as …

If one last heave after Xmas fails, the people should vote to dismantle the mutual DUP/ Sinn veto

Brian Walker on December 20, 2019, 10:13 am

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The Newsletter editorial is full of alarm and self pity. Its vehemence is slightly surprising as the paper has been no critical supporter of the DUP. It has been highlighting their weaknesses throughout. So it cannot be greeted just by schadenfreude. It needs a considered answer. For three years, no Conservative and Unionist (as they sometimes style themselves) minister or prime minister has uttered a word of criticism of Sinn Fein. Think about that. The crisis in the NHS …

Labour’s defeat was their own guilty secret. But Boris Johnson’s matters much more

Brian Walker on December 15, 2019, 3:00 pm

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Andrew Parsons i/Images Now they tell us. Labour moderates had been watching the growth of the Conservative vote in north east of England council elections for years. But so had the Conservatives’ evil genius Dominic Cummings and he knew how to act on it. Forget obsessions with social media, go knock on doors. As Tip O’Neill the old Speaker of the US House of Representatives memorably once said, All politics is local.” And we can add, it transcends ideology alone. …

With the best will in the world, you can’t know what you’re voting for today

Brian Walker on December 12, 2019, 2:37 pm

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Let’s begin at (your) home. After all the mystery and muttering about tactics after the election, do you know which main party the DUP would support in government? I don’t. But Nigel Dodds sounds as if he’s nuzzling up to the Tories again with or without an overall majority There is no doubt that if we reach a tariff-free trade deal with the European Union, that will eliminate the need for most if not all customs checks..I sincerely hope …

While you’re waiting for election results, why not take a look at the state of Brexit from the Irish point of view?

Brian Walker on December 11, 2019, 12:32 pm

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Fairly dramatic conclusions about the future of the Union and stability in Northern Ireland have been produced in the third Brexit Status Report of the Dublin based Institute of European and International Affairs. Rather disappointingly the Report avoids discussing post Brexit strategies for restoring Stormont or if they fail, options such as direct rule, joint authority or an accountability mechanism for the Northern Ireland people on the future of the “frontstop,” assuming it is ratified by Parliament. A border …

This Strangely Misfiring Tory Campaign Just Makes Me Wonder

Gerry Lynch on December 8, 2019, 8:00 am

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This is a very strange election campaign from the Conservatives. The Tory messaging for the final week is all wrong. My browser is full of Tory ads calling on me to “Get Brexit Done” when everyone knows Boris is all about that; if anything, they risk alienating the key group of Remainers who voted Tory in 2017. The Tories are currently hanging on to just five-eighths of these voters, and any further slippage could be fatal. As far as potential …