NI Executive – Page 3 – Slugger O'Toole

Without getting carried away, we should dare to hope that the Alliance surge will spark a positive response from the DUP and Sinn Fein

Brian Walker on May 28, 2019, 11:56 am

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Photo-PA After the European election – zombie or real life, who knows? – we’re in the even odder position of politics in Northern Ireland looking ever so slightly healthier than the politics of the UK as a whole. I compare NI with “UK” rather than “GB” because the Westminster scene presents the DUP with tough choices I’ll come to later. While I haven’t heard a cheep from the Stormont talks as they (presumably) prepare to resume, the Alliance surge in …

The crisis in the suicide rate matches the worst record of Troubles killings

Brian Walker on May 13, 2019, 7:13 am

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As someone who lives outside Northern Ireland, I’m all too aware of how easy it is to be out of touch. I knew in general terms of the mental heath crisis that rages everywhere. But this statistic came as a powerful shock. Am I alone? Is this one of the many ills of society that’s more or less taken for granted? “In the first 18 months without our devolved government, 463 people in Northern Ireland died by suicide.” This is …

The results of consultation on the Legacy Bill are about to be announced. They must be kept apart from the Stormont talks

Brian Walker on May 12, 2019, 8:52 pm

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Bloody Friday BBC image Barnie Rowan has broken important news on EamonnMallie. Com worth repeating at length. Just a few days ago the Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Beattie described as “a staggering omission” the decision to keep the legacy question outside the main talks process – that new negotiation aimed at restoring the political institutions at Stormont and which has now completed the first week of its work. So, what is the thinking behind this? It is this. That to …

Theresa May wants a Stormont deal before she quits; but will Penny Mordaunt queer the pitch over Army prosecutions?

Brian Walker on May 9, 2019, 11:55 pm

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Theresa May is back again looking for DUP support to get the withdrawal Bill through the Commons either before 23 May the day of the Euro parliament elections or in mid- June, if her party haven’t turfed her out by then. Her bid for support presumably features a customs arrangement with regulatory alignment added in order to dispose of the bogey of a border down the Irish Sea. The pitch hasn’t worked so far with the DUP or in those …

Leading human rights expert challenges Sinn Fein on “rights” stance

Brian Walker on May 9, 2019, 1:22 pm

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Brice Dickson, normally a sober sounding academic lawyer and a former head of the NI Human Rights Commission was first famous for recanting on his recommendation for an “all singing, all dancing” NI Bill of Rights. In the Newsletter today Brice has boldly entered the fray of the all party talks at Stormont to point out flaws in Sinn Fein’s starting position. Sinn Fein has abused the concept of human rights by setting up such rights as pre-conditions for …

Sterling, Sweeney,Widdis, McKibbin and Gray. These are the people who could guide Stormont through to restoration

Brian Walker on May 8, 2019, 1:47 pm

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The latest set of Northern Ireland political talks look like a walk in the park compared to struggling through the tangles of Brexit. On the brink of transition, the British government is in a poor position to exert the kind of pressure to nudge the parties towards agreement. Some signs of life can be seen though. British- Irish cooperation has at resumed and is even managing to iron out some of the problems caused by Brexit over the common travel …

Has David Trimble has provided the DUP with the crucial argument for supporting the deal?

Brian Walker on March 18, 2019, 11:22 am

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Has their old enemy David Trimble provided the DUP with useful ammunition to support Mrs May’s deal? We’re told she will only make a third attempt at securing the Common’s agreement this week if she can be sure of winning a majority. And for that DUP support is crucial, not only in terms of numbers but for their influence with the ERG. “It was the Attorney General wot wrecked it” was the Brexiteer verdict after last Tuesday’s debacle, when their …

Every day we stand still, we fall further behind

John Lavery on February 19, 2019, 12:53 pm

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Last week we saw the most recent efforts to kick-start talks to restore devolved government here in the North, and again the efforts seemed to have fallen at the first hurdle with the main parties fairly down on the session and chances of progress. We are now over two years without an Executive, local minsters and various associated committees that form the basis of devolved government here. Many on the street ask “what has changed?”, highlighting that “they didn’t do …

Despite the coyness at dinner in Phoenix Park, Brexit should be no barrier. We cannot escape the urgent need for a resumption of close British-Irish relations

Brian Walker on February 9, 2019, 10:56 am

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However they’re phased and whatever the context, close British Irish engagement on both Brexit and rescuing the GFA are essential. Who with any wit can doubt it? Brexit provides no excuse. Indeed, it’s one of two pressing reasons for close encounters, the other being the Stormont stand-off. Dinner in Farmleigh House may have been in Theresa May’s programme of displacement activity as she mulls over Labour’s offer to talk and runs down the clock, but at least it displayed dim …

The Good Friday Agreement is in the frame for Theresa May’s challenge to the backstop

Brian Walker on January 31, 2019, 3:01 pm

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In their renegotiation campaign the UK government are offering belated assurances that the proposals they’re about to make to replace or qualify their backstop involve no weakening of their commitment to the Good Friday Agreement. The attention-grabbing part of foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt’s BBC interview was his hint – subsequently denied by No 10 – that withdrawal might have to be delayed to after 29 March. While he declined to give details, the “ alternative arrangements include: a “trusted …

“the big message from Saturday was that the Northern nationalist mood of resentment, annoyance and frustration needs to be heeded.”

Pete Baker on January 28, 2019, 2:54 pm

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[Having thrown their toys out of the pram two years ago… – Ed] ANYhoo… In the Irish Times, Gerry Moriarty reports from the nationalist “gurn-fest” in Belfast at the weekend. From the Irish Times report Essentially this was nationalism speaking to nationalism although there were few people in the hall from a unionist or Protestant background. Unionist politicians weren’t invited but they will have heard the message nonetheless, and will have been alarmed by it. Southern politicians including Minister for Education …

Backstop terms are in prospect in any final deal. Unionists cannot afford to stand apart

Brian Walker on January 19, 2019, 4:42 pm

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Unfashionable though it may be to ask: do the DUP have a point when they object so strongly to the backstop? Undoubtedly it confers special status on Northern Ireland but in a form nobody likes, even nationalists who called for it. Mrs May’s deal a.k.a. the withdrawal agreement, is presumed dead ; the backstop is only sleeping. The bitter controversy surrounding it dramatically expresses the fundamental difference of outlook between the legalistic approach of people schooled from the beginning in …

Nothing new to offer as Theresa May misfires the last shot in her locker in support of her deal

Brian Walker on January 14, 2019, 12:38 pm

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With her back to the wall Theresa May exposes her own and her speech writers’ monumental ignorance of UK devolution by bizarrely invoking the creation of the Welsh Assembly based on a squeakingly narrow referendum result. as a killer argument against calling a second referendum on Brexit. What a pity that that she is such a poor advocate of what would otherwise be a viable proposal. Extracts from May’s speech released by Downing Street last night show she will invoke …

Peter Robinson urges the DUP to drop their ban on an Irish Language Act and get real about restoring Stormont

Brian Walker on November 24, 2018, 1:37 am

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Elder statesmen a.k.a. retired politicians often grow wiser in retirement after shedding the burdens of office and the cares of party management. Sometimes their advice is welcome; sometimes it’s a stalking horse for a change of direction by their successors; sometimes it’s an embarrassment to them. We will soon know which it is this time. Conforming to type, Peter Robinson, for over forty years the usually steely self- disciplined deputy leader then leader of the DUP has offered some …

“No Minister should be using any private unsecured email accounts for any official business whatsoever…”

Pete Baker on October 24, 2018, 4:45 pm

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Some, presumably, unintentionally revealing details from the former Northern Ireland Finance Minister, Sinn Féin’s Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, who appeared in front of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Inquiry yesterday. This from his written statement [pdf file] 16. The bundle of documents referred to above appears to indicate that you used the email account [email protected] to discuss, share, transact, or otherwise communicate Executive business and Executive policy; and that you discussed, shared, transacted, or otherwise communicated Executive business and Executive policy with …

The odds are narrowly on May surviving the week and staggering through to a withdrawal deal before Christmas

Brian Walker on October 21, 2018, 5:39 pm

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By a long way, more of the public demonstrated for a second referendum yesterday than were threatening the prime minister in lurid language with nemesis on Wednesday. Just now though, it’s the MPs uttering the threats ( at least to journalists), who matter more. One prominent Brexiteer is making a distinctive gesture. In a further headache for May, the former Brexit minister Steve Baker yesterday tabled a series of amendments to the Northern Ireland Bill, which is due in the …

“The ministerial code says all kinds of things about what should happen…”

Pete Baker on October 11, 2018, 1:49 pm

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A couple of quick points to note from the Renewal Heat Inquiry today, where senior civil servant Andrew McCormick has been giving evidence about the lack of minute taking within Northern Ireland Executive departments. From the BBC report On Thursday, the inquiry was told that a key meeting in August 2015, where a decision was taken to delay cost controls to the RHI scheme, had not been formally minuted. Mr McCormick said that was not unusual, as part of the …

The Agreement can only be amended with cross-community support

Sarah Creighton on October 4, 2018, 8:14 am

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Eyebrows were raised on the 2nd October when Arlene Foster commented that the Good Friday Agreement wasn’t sacrosanct, hinting that she would like to amend it to accommodate Brexit. Her words been praised but also widely condemned. Leo Varadkar responded by saying that “the Good Friday Agreement is not up for renegotiation” in the Dail. Anyone paying close attention will notice that Foster’s comments are very similar to statements made by her party colleagues, Jim Allister and Jamie Bryson over the …

Cabinet may be moving towards Canada. Are the DUP about to back No Deal?

Brian Walker on September 28, 2018, 1:15 am

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Not normally the keenest of DUP watchers, the New Statesman have their eyes on Sammy Wilson, who is the DUP’s Brexit spokesman in the Commons when it isn’t Nigel Dodds. Sammy is at heart a No Deal man. While I believe Chequers has the legs to move closer to Norway (these images become more bizarre by the day), Canada is now said to be favoured by a cabinet cabal – but not by Sammy, who has spoken against it . …

Women Won’t Wait: Campaigners for Women’s Rights and Equality Speak Out about the Impact of Stormont Stalemate

Soapbox on August 28, 2018, 7:30 am

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The results of a survey released today by the Women’s Resource and Development Agency reveal the impact of having no government at Stormont on women’s community organisations and campaign groups. 80% of those surveyed said they have continued to lobby decision makers in the 19 months since the collapse of the Executive, but the majority felt that it is now much harder to make progress on the issues that affect their organisations and communities. The 48 respondents to the survey …