Negotiations

Special status for the North is a possibility from Barnier’s speech. Would the UK agree?

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EU negotiator Michel Barnier and the Irish government seem to be inching their way towards special status – sorry – arrangements, for the North. The EU is there for you, Ireland and so is a close partnership with the UK based on a fair free trade agreement – but ( only!) after sufficient progress on EU citizens’ rights and the financial settlement. So declared Michel Barnier in a speech to the Oireachtas that seemed designed to calm the worst Irish …

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“Brexit has become a central question in the identity conversation and that is dangerous”

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In a commentary  “Brexit and Northern Ireland” on the EPC discussion paper( see below) the  legal academic Chris McCrudden  asserts the primacy  of the Brexit question and laments the  “ tone deafness” of the UK government to  Northern Ireland’s interests. But while he rightly sees the need to set priorities in the interparty talks, he doesn’t discuss here the reasons given for SF’s withdrawal from the Assembly such as an Irish Language Act and the legacy and other  issues  SF insist …

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On Brexit, the Irish are caught between two opposing forces, but at least they’re showing more invention and concern about the North than the British and northerners themselves

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The ritual opening shots in the Brexit campaign must leave the Republic feeling caught in a trap in a dialogue of the deaf between two opposing forces. So much, so sadly predictable, in spite of all the warm words- although the crudeness of the exchanges is perhaps surprising. It’s pretty clear that the Irish government don’t favour the aggressive opening approach by the Commission and confirmed this morning by its chief negotiator Michel Barnier. On the detail of the FT’s …

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Citizens’ assemblies in Northern Ireland planned to influence the Brexit debate

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Three academics, John Garry and John Coakley of Queen’s and Brendan O’Leary of the University of Pennsylvania are planning citizens’ assemblies to feed into the Brexit debate in the absence of the elected Assembly. Good idea. We await an announcement which I hope will not be confined to academe, which is where I picked it up – you know, the liberal elite and all that. Their pitch is: How NI voted in the EU referendum – and what it means for …

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On Enda’s fondness for the precedent of German reunification, be careful of what you wish for

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 The Irish government are entitled to congratulate themselves on their achievement in persuading the EU 26 to declare that if the North joined the Republic the new state would automatically inherit the Republic’s membership. Dublin hastens to add that this incorporates the  consent principle enshrined in the GFA and they are opposed to an early border poll. But the future of the open border is a completely different issue. Irish Times coverage ranges from euphoria about the declaration to nervousness …

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Out of respect to the voters, the governments and parties must spell out in detail where they stand on the Assembly by next week. Otherwise the election is an insult to democracy.

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Although only one of 13 MPs  to deny Theresa May the green light for calling a Westminster general election, Mark Durkan MP surely got it right for  Northern Ireland.    I was not asking for an election last week or the week before; I was arguing that any move to an election in the near future would not help the negotiations in Northern Ireland. My mind has not changed, so why should I pretend that it has? Of course, this …

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Arlene’s statement on Irish may be crucial to the defusing of the nasty culture bomb that is blocking NI democracy 

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One of the most depressing milestones in the pre Christmas crisis was Paul Given’s pointless and counterproductive cutting of the tiny Liofa bursary fund for funding poorer kids to attend Gaeltacht courses in the summer colleges in Donegal (predominantly attended by kids from NI). Even for those of us determined to resist the casual vilification of unionist politics that’s so commonplace amongst the NI commentatiat that was a hard one to take.  The health of the language in NI has …

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Opportunity Costs of an Impasse include Welfare Reform and Marriage Equality Abolition of the Hated PoC

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Sinn Fein says agreement must be reached by Friday or its another (to nowhere). In fact, the only thing that will be forced by then is that Westminster will have to legislate for a new rate to be set. So the talks will be paused today, not ended. It’s a fairly run of the mill attempt by the SF leader to frame the narrative of these periodic breakdowns (of which this is just the most recent and severe). That it …

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If they let it drift too long, we could be back to 1969

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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

Left to themselves, the parties won’t agree. The time has come for the governments to bring forward solutions which involve the people directly

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Observed from London, the political atmosphere at home is surreal.  The volume of comment on the talks is in inverse proportion to hard information. Expectations of agreement by Good Friday are so low that  the local media can barely be roused from torpor. Emergency action for feeding the Stormont cats occupied more space in the Belfast Telegraph the other day.  Further emergency action to fund the regional government must be taken within a week followed by the crunch decision to …

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Bertie’s separate agenda should include warming Theresa May’s ear about the Human Rights Act

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Following in Bertie Ahern footsteps what should the  two governments negotiate about bilaterally as the Brexit talks proceed? In the Irish Times Noel Whelan argues that “ Ireland and UK must renegotiate Belfast Agreement” The EU has been described as a cornerstone of the Belfast Agreement. This is more than just constitutional flannel. The agreement specifically provides, under stand 2, article 17, for the North-South Ministerial Council to facilitate co-operation and co-ordination in EU matters. The council’s remit in this …

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Identity politics is the enemy of good government. Can they be reconciled?

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Banging on so much about culture and identity politics is like debating the Resurrection with a famine victim, at best a momentary distraction, at worst an insult. In politics and too much comment,  political rhetoric is easy  macho stuff.  It produces a quick high and the tunnel vision born of  long-term self-satisfaction, while the practical business of government is played out on a sectarian battlefield or put on automatic pilot to look after itself.  At the back of their minds, …

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The Assembly crisis is costing £300 million a year in Health alone

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The Belfast Telegraph has an exclusive on the depth of the health crisis. It shows the real world  gap between the obsessive zero sum game that dominates politics and the practical need for regional government  of some sort. If the RHI scandal broke the Executive, will the long-term health scandal remake it? Northern Ireland’s health service is facing a potential overspend of more than £300m this year – which will worsen already unacceptable hospital waiting lists, a former Northern Ireland …

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Gerry Adams dons the mantle of McGuinness and holds out his hand to unionists

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  In an interview with Sky News on the eve of the resumed interparty talks, Gerry Adams addresses familiar charges levelled against him by more than unionists. In a move clearly designed to  win greater trust, the Sinn Fein president is  at pains to deny that  he is raising the bar so high as to guarantee that the talks will fail, with the  ulterior motive of abandoning the Assembly and exploiting Brexit to pursue a strategy of Irish unity based …

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At last! The British and Irish governments have produced an agreed plan to put to the Assembly parties from Monday 3 April

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Not before time, a detailed talks plan agreed between the two governments has been presented to the Assembly parties and will form the basis of talks over a 10 day period beginning tomorrow.  Brian Rowan, former security correspondent and Assembly candidate, has got sight of it and has summarised it in EamonnMallie.com   As I’ve been arguing for weeks this is the essential move if the talks are to stand any chance of success. At worst it shifts part of  any …

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The political parties should not deceive themselves that the lessons from demographic change are simple and obvious

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“ The morning after the Brexit vote, the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party said that “the constitutional question has been reopened, and we now have people who were content in Northern Ireland thinking again about a united Ireland” Has  this development become  the new driver of politics or is it  still in the background? At this moment the answer cannot be known. Yet it has set the climate for the interparty talks which resume on Monday. The words come from …

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New powers for Stormont? That’ll get’em going!

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James Brokenshire has solemnly warned that if Stormont is to receive new powers as result of Brexit, power sharing must be restored. This blatantly original statement puts him in line for a Nobel Peace Prize or a slot on Pointless. It’s just the sort of threat that will have them rushing to the conference table next Monday. It  puts a small cart before a big horse that is out there somewhere roaming the range. Who cares about powers when what …

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Do tell please DUP. What’s this about a “Culture Act”?

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It would be good to hear more from the DUP about the “Culture  Act”  Gerry Adams told the Dail yesterday  was “meaningless” He’s not necessarily the best conduit for the proposal.  May we decide for ourselves please DUP?  . Most of his speech was an uncanny repetition of Michelle O’Neill’s latest. From Dail Eireann debates Regrettably, the DUP’s approach throughout the talks was to engage in a minimalist way on all of these key issues. There was no substantive progress on …

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Theresa May’s warm words for Ireland do little to calm Irish fears about the implications of Brexit

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A special version for Ireland of Theresa May’s letter to the EU president triggering Art 50 has appeared above her name in the Irish Times. It extends  the same tone of friendly conciliation to Ireland as to the whole of the EU. We are leaving the European Union, but we are not leaving Europe – and we want to remain committed partners and allies of Ireland and all our friends across the continent. The United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland have …

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Sinn Fein hardens position in favour of another election, it says here

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It’s an Orwellian situation when  Sinn Fein claim they “ want to achieve the full implementation of all outstanding commitments made over a 20-year period”  in  just a few more weeks ; the DUP say they would  return to the Executive “ without pre-conditions,”  implying  they won’t  address Sinn Fein’s conditions in advance; and to cap it all, the secretary of state claims there’s “ no appetite for another election”. Well, Sinn Fein has news for him. In a hardening …

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