Negotiations – Page 11 – Slugger O'Toole

Arlene and Mary Lou are at least explaining themselves. But how much does Stormont matter now?

Brian Walker on February 17, 2018, 5:39 pm

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“tiocfaidh ár lá Pat Leahy in the Irish Times The extent to which coaxing the DUP back into powersharing is secondary for Sinn Féin was captured perfectly by McDonald’s speech at her ardfheis coronation at the RDS last weekend. If Sinn Féin was primarily concerned with helping Arlene Foster to bring her party back into Stormont then McDonald wouldn’t have rounded off her peroration with that rousing “Tiocfaidh ár lá!”Never mind that it was unscripted; it wasn’t accidental. Arlene …

London and Dublin must clear their lines for close cooperation on direct rule

Brian Walker on February 16, 2018, 10:52 am

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Clarity rather than coyness is now needed over moves toward direct rule. Working on its scope and duration is one more compelling reason for London and Dublin to stick together. On Monday at the otherwise disastrous Stormont meeting, Theresa May and Leo Varadkar pledged “to work together on a new plan on how to achieve a frictionless Irish border.” Good luck to them with that. On the continuing local stand-off, two elements are essential. Enough action must be taken to …

Next time, the governments must not leave it entirely to the DUP and Sinn Fein in secret

Brian Walker on February 15, 2018, 10:54 am

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It would have been a remarkable feat if the DUP and Sinn Fein could have struck a deal in secret, alone and unaided. Secrecy may be essential for last moves to reach a compromise. But over a year none of the ground had been prepared with the public and it showed. The background was too noisy – RHI, the sudden illness and death of McGuinness, minority governments in London and Dublin with other fish to fry, including monumentally, the throwback …

For a political deal ever to emerge, mutual ignorance needs to faced and mutual respect observed

Brian Walker on February 14, 2018, 4:27 pm

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Mick has rightly just pointed out how tantalising easy the language issue could be to solve, were it not for the politics that expresses a far deeper mutual ignorance ( in both senses) than is often recognised and which 20 years of supposed power sharing has failed to reduce. Politically there must be limits to the management of the voluntary apartheid state we appear to be creating before cohesion collapses altogether. That moment may not be as far off as …

What would yet send them over the top? Or is it all over?

Brian Walker on February 14, 2018, 10:25 am

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While Mick has presented the glass half full argument that Sinn Fein have at least indicated a willingness to return to Stormont, attention is bound to be more focused on hopes dashed or at least seriously dampened . But there’s no point in railing against Arlene Foster for bursting out in public with a negative message against an Irish Language Act (“however packaged”) or speculating that DUP supporters with Jim Allister perched on their shoulder were “spooked “ by …

Sceptical, not cynical about “the long drawn out attempt to breathe life back into the Stormont arrangement”

Pete Baker on February 12, 2018, 9:09 pm

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Whilst on Saturday Brian highlighted the question of “the prospect of Sinn Fein’s return to Stormont as Mr Adams’ parting gift”, today Ed Moloney posits another, equally plausible scenario… You know, a cynic might suspect that the whole thing, at least the long drawn out attempt to breathe life back into the Stormont arrangement, was staged or timed so that the breakthrough would happen just when Sinn Fein want to present a new, Adams-free image to the electorate down South, one …

Could the DUP handle the return to Stormont as Gerry Adams’ parting gift?

Brian Walker on February 10, 2018, 10:38 am

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The papers are at one in running the story that a Stormont deal may be imminent next week. But “with more work to be done” the emphasis ranges from glass half full to glass half empty. The Irish News headlines “ speculation quelled as differences remain ” while Suzanne Breen now bylined as the paper’s political editor, sticks her neck out with the quote from “sources” that, “we may not have an agreement within hours but we are potentially on the …

Irish citizenship may open the door to an extended role for Dublin and Brussels in the North after Brexit

Brian Walker on February 9, 2018, 12:18 pm

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Brian WalkerFormer BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC Radio 4; Editor Political and Parliamentary Programmes, BBC Westminster; former London Editor Belfast Telegraph. Hon Senior Research Fellow, The Constitution Unit, Univ Coll. London

On the border, a cabinet split emerges and UK-Irish tensions are renewed, as negative impact assessments of Brexit options are published in full

Brian Walker on February 7, 2018, 8:59 pm

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Northern Ireland comes out third worst in the full version of regional assessments by HM Treasury of the impact of Brexit region by region. These were leaked to Buzzfeed last week then issued confidentially to MPs and now published by the BBC. The assessments, discounted by Brexiteers as failing properly to model their preferred option of a free trade deal, emerged in full as tensions rose once again over the implications for the border both within the British cabinet and …

Rising expectations? The minority parties should put them to the test tomorrow

Brian Walker on February 7, 2018, 2:07 pm

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“I’m frustrated too, “ Karen Bradley told MPs. “The negotiations are at a very sensitive stage.. very detailed and intense.. I’ve committed to not giving a running commentary .. I’m not going to say anything that would jeopardise the talks.. They will last weeks, not months.. She was echoing the Taoiseach in the Dail yesterday, telling TDs : … he did not want to say anything that might cause offence to anyone at such a crucial juncture in the process …

A mockery of a negotiation so far

Brian Walker on February 6, 2018, 10:33 am

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So “huge differences remain” if you’re the DUP but “good progress” was made if you’re a novice British minister reading off the pre-prepared NIO script. What else don’t we know that the political correspondents can’t be bothered to say? The role of the chair is unknown – co-chairs, facilitators or dynamic leaders with a cunning plan ready to view? “We do not negotiate in public” said Sinn Fein’s Conor Murphy last week as if for all the world this was …

The border fudge ” will not survive”

Brian Walker on February 6, 2018, 7:29 am

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Michel Barnier’s warning that trade barriers are “ unavoidable” if Britain leaves the single market and the customs union has been reinforced by EU briefings that December’s fudge on Irish border options will be difficult to sustain. The Irish Times report puts it gently. EU and British officials are working to translate December’s political agreement – which includes guarantees from the British government that there would be no return to a hard border in Ireland – into a legal text …

The British government are contemplating an all-round amnesty, claims Denis Bradley. If so, it’a too hot to handle for the local parties and should become a big ticket item for Westminster

Brian Walker on February 2, 2018, 11:46 am

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Denis Bradley has been spelling out a basic home truth about dealing with the past in discussion on BBC NI’s The View with his partner in the still definitive Eames Bradley report. “Tough love” for victims is overdue. Writing in the Irish News, he has also made some startling assertions. That families should be given truth pertains to knowing what and why a death or injury happened during the four decades of the troubles. But there is something out and …

Could reform of the petition of concern hold the key to surprise success in the Stormont talks?

Brian Walker on January 30, 2018, 10:01 am

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Following up on Mick’s post on Colum Eastwood, let’s hear it for his SDLP deputy Nichola Mallon who’s called for the reform of the notorious blocking instrument of the petition of concern. It had been supposedly been agreed in the abortive Fresh Start agreement of November 2015 that it should be used only “in exceptional circumstances,” stating – importantly – “the grounds upon which it is being tabled and the nature of the detriment”. After which nothing happened. The investigative …

Pressure to resume the responsibilities of government is not a winning card

Brian Walker on January 24, 2018, 5:49 pm

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So how are the prospects for the talks being trailed? Are three women, Arlene, Michelle and late joiner Karen are up the creek with Simon but without a paddle? Or will they brave the towering waves of cynicism to ride them out and make it home to everyone’s huge surprise? Karen – as we must get used to calling the secretary of state for the time being -, repeats the standard stale brief, that agreement is close if only.. She …

The extra £1 billion promised to the DUP is still a card to play in the renewed party talks

Brian Walker on January 20, 2018, 11:14 am

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Because of the DUP’s pact with the Conservatives, Nationalists chose to believe that the DUP have the Conservative government in their pocket and write off the secretary of state as an impartial mediator. But Sam Coates, the Times correspondent with arguably the closest contacts with the Tories, throws a different light to reveal a much more complicated relationship. Relations between the DUP and the Tories are under increasing strain amid uncertainty over when the £1 billion promised as part of …

Reform proposals ready and waiting must be put to the renewed party talks – and the public

Brian Walker on January 19, 2018, 12:15 pm

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https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Parliament_Buildings_Stormont.jpg

The Irish News reports that a basket of reform proposals have been withheld from public view because there are no ministers to sign them off. This is height of exquisite absurdity. Here we have material for the agenda for the renewed party talks to get their teeth into. Once these papers have been presented to the parties to consider for a week or two, ( if they haven’t been already), they should be signalled for early publication by the supervising …

A new round of Stormont talks can succeed only if they focus on the need to govern. And British-Irish passivity must end

Brian Walker on January 18, 2018, 11:23 am

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The local media are reporting po-faced that another “last chance” round of talks about restoring the Executive is about to begin. The interesting fact is that all five Assembly parties will be invited. Other than that, further comment seems redundant for now. The replies will be pored over for clues about any shifts of position. Nothing has emerged so far about the chairing role, neutral, mediating or steered, and whether the two governments or one of them will present any …

Is the whole McElduff episode, the act, the debate and the resolution, the best we can do?

Brian Walker on January 15, 2018, 9:50 pm

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Alex Kane, the former UU press officer who writes for just about everyone, shared the benefits of his research on both sides with Irish Times readers this morning, before McElduff’s resignation. His point about “blind spots” was simple and deadly.

Former BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC Radio 4; Editor Political and Parliamentary Programmes, BBC Westminster; former London Editor Belfast Telegraph. Hon Senior Research Fellow, The Constitution Unit, Univ Coll. London

Arlene Foster spoke no empty words. The road to renewed cross community cooperation may run through Dublin and Brussels

Brian Walker on January 14, 2018, 2:17 pm

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Arlene Foster’s demarche surely marks a truce or even peace between the Irish government and the DUP in the squabbles over Brexit. It will also consolidate Dublin’s improving relations with Westminster. All this is welcome. Neither wants a hard land border on the island or trade barriers between the Republic and Great Britain. It was just that Dublin’s priority was elevating no hard border to a position of veto over the UK government’s whole strategy, while the DUP had a …