NI Assembly – Page 2 – Slugger O'Toole

Will unionists ever imagine a more generous vision than Orange culture to match Sinn Fein’s on unity?

Brian Walker on April 5, 2017, 9:37 pm

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Showing good timing and a big bunch of confidence, a warm house for Unionists in a united Ireland within the EU has been imagined once again by Matt Carthy of Sinn Fein. Political positioning, based solely on opposition to Irish unity, is unsustainable. Although he can hardly expect an immediate favourable response, his pitch is directed towards the other participants in the interparty talks. People in Belfast, Derry or Fermanagh need answers to everyday social and economic problems. As the …

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

Brian Walker on April 3, 2017, 8:38 am

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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 …

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

Brian Walker on April 3, 2017, 12:58 am

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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 …

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

Brian Walker on April 2, 2017, 2:47 pm

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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 …

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

Brian Walker on April 1, 2017, 11:26 am

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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 …

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

Brian Walker on March 31, 2017, 3:52 pm

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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 …

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

Brian Walker on March 30, 2017, 2:32 pm

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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 …

Should the other Dublin parties denounce Sinn Fein if they’re gaming the Stormont talks?

Brian Walker on March 30, 2017, 9:40 am

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The Irish Times political editor Stephens Collins enjoys an unusual dual role of senior political reporter and opinionated commentator. It’s not always clear if he’s getting a bead on emerging trends of opinion in politics or simply speaking for himself. Perhaps what Stephen thinks today, many of the guys in Leinster House think tomorrow? Today, he asks the blunt questions about Sinn Fein’s real intentions towards the Assembly. While most of us were struggling with conflicting feelings, he writes off …

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

Brian Walker on March 29, 2017, 9:27 am

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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 …

“I’m a patient man” said Martin McGuinness in a last interview as he defended his strategy of ” making the institutions work”. But Unionists have Rubicons to cross too

Brian Walker on March 22, 2017, 12:05 pm

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So what’s the legacy? His contribution to underlying peace not war was essential, certainly. In the welter of well- rehearsed comment yesterday we can be thankful that there was no suggestion of regression, rather the opposite from the likes of Gerry Kelly. But in politics? To adapt Ian Paisley jnr’s tribute “It’s not how you start your life that’s important, it’s how you finish.” While this is arguable – surely the whole life matters? – Martin McGuinness’s life finished with …

Sinn Féin’s red lines? : “So you had the Irish language act, there was a thing called the bill of rights and there was another issues.”

Pete Baker on February 26, 2017, 8:26 pm

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Launching the Sinn Féin manifesto for the Northern Ireland Assembly election a couple of weeks ago, the party’s appointed ‘leader in the North’, Michelle O’Neill, declared that “You’d be very aware that I won’t be drawing any red line issues…” Since then she has allowed the impression to be created that the one ‘red line’ the party does have is the nomination of the DUP leader, Arlene Foster, as First, or deputy First, Minister before Judge Coughlin’s inquiry into the RHI scheme …

“is Gerry the Genius sure he has thought all this through?”

Pete Baker on February 18, 2017, 4:22 pm

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In today’s Irish News, Newton Emerson asks the impertinent question… Remarks by Mike Nesbitt about cross-community voting distracted from what should have been the major story of the week. Northern Sinn Féin leader Michelle O’Neill has said her party will not return to the executive with Arlene Foster as first or deputy first minister until the DUP leader has been cleared by the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) inquiry. O’Neill added this was a red line issue – something Sinn Féin …

The unsung Assembly achievement of shared education is not the enemy of integration.

Brian Walker on February 10, 2017, 12:43 pm

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As we contemplate the political wreck that is currently the Assembly, we might look around for crumbs of comfort. Although this has not been officially confirmed, I’m assured that the alarm sounded here and in the Irish News that the spend of only £3 million of a £500 million ten year fund pledged by Westminster under Fresh Start doesn’t mean lack of commitment. It is due to “normal” delay in capital start –ups and will be carried over to next …

“I don’t have to be a Sinn Féin republican.”

Pete Baker on February 5, 2017, 5:12 pm

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Despite the efforts of the former Sinn Féin MLA for North Antrim, Daithí McKay to reinvent himself [move along now… – Ed], some of his supporters appear not to be prepared to let it lie. Having resigned from the party over its handling of the Jamie Bryson coaching scandal, and its anointing of Daithí McKay’s successor, former Sinn Féin councillor Monica Digney is standing in the Northern Ireland Assembly election in North Antrim as an independent candidate. As Mick noted in August last year One of the 18 to resign, …

“if Sinn Fein fails to increase its vote and share of Assembly seats under Michelle O’Neill’s leadership…”

Pete Baker on January 24, 2017, 3:30 pm

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With a stagnating vote evident in the last NI Assembly election – just 8 months ago – and a reduced number of seats available this time out, in the Belfast Telegraph Anthony McIntyre highlights a potential problem for Sinn Féin in their election gamble. There is nothing complicated about the DUP pitch: despite the democratic veneer, the appointment of a non-martial politician to lead Sinn Fein in the north, the caudillo and his camarilla are still pulling the strings. A clear declaration …

In a slow and secret transition within Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams, still in charge, appears to be setting high targets for negotiations on the Assembly

Brian Walker on January 21, 2017, 8:28 pm

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At a Sinn Fein conference on a united Ireland in Dublin, Gerry Adams has claimed Brexit is a “ hostile action” that will “destroy the Good Friday Agreement”, although adding that “special status” would not take Northern Ireland out of the UK. Is this to be a sticking point in any talks to restore the Assembly? If so he’d be setting the bar very high and over quite a long timescale for resolution. Although it has been taken to mean …

The glimmer of light seen in Martin McGuinness’s departure can become a beacon of hope

Brian Walker on January 20, 2017, 11:20 am

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So the political establishment and the media are in rare unison praising Martin McGuinness. Illness and the shadow of death – ordinary decent, natural sickness and intimations of mortality – bring out the sentimentalist in all types of the Irish people. Let’s not be too starry eyed. In a longish apologia for the different phases of his career, Martin McGuinness had no apology to make for the armed struggle. It was left to Gregory Campbell from across the Foyle – …

Solutions are negotiable, if there’s the political will

Brian Walker on January 17, 2017, 10:21 am

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There’s something stereotypically Irish about a battle between two parties who are not competing for the same votes, were in one sense on the same side – i.e. the same government – and will end up more or less where we are after the Assembly election. Incisive though it is, Mick’s analysis defers the subject of finding a way through the standoff for another time. In my own pitch to CNN, I noted the switch in morale between the DUP …

Is greater Sinn Fein militancy the right answer to wider voter disillusionment?

Brian Walker on January 16, 2017, 10:29 am

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Chris Donnelly’s analysis of Sinn Fein’s position in the Irish News is welcome as an all- too rare piece of criticism from an independent-minded sympathiser. The DUP would do well to emulate it. But self- criticism has a long way to go. The hope must be that behind the scenes amid the bluster of an election campaign, it will continue and produce realistic positions in the end. Chris does not go far as to say that the party has reached …

On the importance of following careful (and safe) procedure in the Legislative Assembly

Soapbox on January 14, 2017, 12:39 pm

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Re the Speaker’s latest ‘letter’, I anticipate that – either at the start of proceedings, on Monday, or during the ‘no confidence’ debate – the decision to allow Mrs Foster to speak on 19 December, will be challenged, again – but probably even more forcefully. As has been said (more generally), when you are explaining, you are losing. The parties haven’t (and won’t) question his decision to recall the Assembly. It is the capacity in which The parties haven’t (and …