The current 2011-2016 Assembly mandate is over and now we are getting into election mode. However, before we get into thinking about the next Assembly, I wanted to pause for a moment to reflect on the one that has just passed and some of the people departing from it. Out of the current 108 MLAs, 16 are standing down at this election. That doesn’t include MLAs like Pat Ramsey, Conall McDevitt, Joe Byrne, Neil Somerville and Sue Ramsay who all …
After the release of the Committee for Standards and Privileges’ report earlier in March, Basil McCrea said he would fight the Assembly election as NI21’s sole candidate. Now the Lagan Valley MLA has done a U-turn and told the Belfast Telegraph that he is to quit Stormont, disillusioned with the political process.
DOCTORED PHOTOGRAPHS were ignored in last night’s uncomfortable interview between Mark Carruthers and Basil McCrea on The View. It should have been the Lagan Valley MLA’s opportunity to quickly draw a line under the last two years of allegations, accept that he could be more patient with staff and pivot the narrative back onto the electoral hopes for himself and his party.
Johnny McCarthy – at one stage NI21’s only councillor and the party’s deputy leader before he resigned from the party in late 2015 – has joined the SDLP.
Jonny McCarthy, councillor on Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council has resigned from NI21 as of this morning. Cllr McCarthy, also deputy leader of the party for just over a year, announced on his facebook page this morning that he was leaving NI21 as he feels he “could do the job better (if) independent of the party.” With party leader Basil McCrea now remaining as the only elected official within the party following a series of high profile party departures, John McCallister …
At Thursday night’s Slugger O’Toole Tweet Up in the Hudson Bar, Basil McCrea took the opportunity to deliver a more elaborate speech than the informal remarks I’d expected. (Earlier in the evening Máirtín Ó Muilleoir also stopped by for some casual craic.) The NI21 leader has been unusually quiet for a protracted period, though answered a few media questions after his party’s conference in December, and has been speaking much less sporadically [Ed – you mean, speaking more often?] in …
Tonight our esteemed elected representatives in the Northern Ireland Assembly are due to debate driving licences. Good news – I hear you cry – at last some action may be taken to address the disparity in the cost of driving licences between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Last week there was much consternation when it was revealed that learner drivers in Northern Ireland pay nearly twice the price for a provisional licence compared to elsewhere in the UK – £62.50 …
The rising poverty rates in the Western world have been hitting the headlines. Writing for Slugger the NI21 Leader, Basil McCrea writes about what can be down about this issue President Obama has been criticised for plans in his State Of The Union Address aimed at introducing tax benefits for childcare, college education and retirement. His crime? The initiatives would be funded by raising funds from banks and rich families and pumping the estimated $300bn. raised into initiatives which would …
What do the DUP, PUP, NI21, Protestant Coalition, NI Conservatives, TUV, UKIP, Irish Republican Socialist Party, Workers Party, SDLP, 32 County Sovereignty Movement, Alliance, Socialist Party, Green Party, Socialist Workers Party, People Before Profit & the Workers Party of Ireland have in common? Every single one of the mentioned parties have formed from another party. In fact there is not a single party currently registered in Northern Ireland that didn’t exist prior to the troubles (or possibly even world war …
1. Expect Mitchel McLaughlin to be finally elected as Speaker of the NI Assembly. If the Welfare Reform Bill passes its Consideration Stage by the end of February (as the financial package requires), will the DUP withdraw their objection and allow Sinn Féin’s Mitchel McLaughlin to be elected as Speaker? They’ll surely not wait until the Bill receives Royal Assent? Mitchel’s elevation will create a vacancy for a Deputy Speaker. Who will the DUP nominate from within their ranks? Realistically …
Shortly after this afternoon’s special meeting – or AGM – of NI21 finished, the party’s leader Basil McCrea MLA, chair Olive Buckley and newly-elected deputy leader shadow Councillor Johnny McCarthy agreed to a short interview. It was a joint interview with Adam Kula from the News Letter, so you’ll hear his voice at times. [audio|video] listen to ‘NI21 chair Olive Buckley @Olive1309, deputy leader @paralisamour & leader @BasilMcCrea after AGM’ on audioBoom This afternoon’s meeting of NI21 members was characterised …
NI21 have been out of the headlines in the six months or so. But this afternoon’s meeting of members will be the first opportunity they’ve had to gather in the one place and talk as a party since the events of May 2014. Why hold an AGM now? With only 26 days to go before the beginning of 2015, NI21 had to hold an Annual Conference (or AGM) given the current constitution’s stipulation that “there shall be at least one …
Today on BBC Talkback, DUP councillor Lee Reynolds finally publicly confirmed that the DUP and UUP had paid for and distributed leaflets described by authors of the QUB report as having a ‘catalytic effect’ in the run-up to the city hall vote,” The report states “It was this, more than anything else, which inflamed the mood at that point” listen to ‘Ownership of leaflet that provided ‘catalyst’ for flag protests confirmed by DUP councillor’ on audioBoom // The protests as …
Platform for Change launched in February 2010 to push “a positive political agenda which does not endlessly replay arguments linked to Northern Ireland’s ‘troubles’”. It wanted politics and politicians to serve the entire community and not to stymie progress and development. … the politics of recent years has too often looked backwards rather than forwards, inwards rather than outwards to the wider world. This makes no sense to a new generation of voters. In a blog post reflecting on the …
John McCallister may be ex-UUP and ex-NI21, but he’s not planning to be ex-politics. I spoke to the South Down independent unionist late last week. He’s rebuilding his profile and perhaps also his reputation after been seen as the person who pulled the plug on NI21 a day or two before the May 2014 elections. On top of “a fairly hefty workload of constituency work” he’s ploughing effort into a Private Members Bill to address Assembly and Executive Reform. After …
It says something about a political party when the satirical website to which is has been linked is more important than the party. Or that the revelation of that link is more significant than an interview with its former deputy leader and a former leadership contender for a major NI political party. That it seems is the fate of NI21 and John McCallister respectively. Alex Kane has a long interview with John McCallister in the News Letter today with Sam …
Last week I sat down with two of the brains behind Loyalists Against Democracy (LAD), Billy and Ron. I was interested to catch up with the guys since we last spoke in February about the group’s foundation and how they approach certain issues. This time, however, I was interested to speak to them about some of the issues that they group has been involved in since we spoke, namely; the departure of Winston Smith, Pastor McConnell and where does LAD …
Basil McCrea will once again be without an effective constituency organisation in Lagan Valley. This evening the executive of his local NI21 constituency group have all resigned from the faltering party. [David Cairns, chair of the LV Exec remains.] It’s a pretty bad show of confidence when the party leader’s local group desert him … though given the lack of meaningful communication during the drawn out crisis, it is hardly surprising. Local NI21 councillor Johnny McCarthy wasn’t on the Lagan …
Tommy Maguire who is a member of NI21 writes for Slugger about his belief that there is still a bright future for the party What I am going to write is my opinion alone, not NI21’s, and I certainly do not speak on behalf of any individual member other than myself. NI21 is not about the two leaders. Listen, does anyone join any political party because of who is leading them? Surely that in itself is a flawed logic, leadership …
Well here we go again! The ongoing civil war within NI21 has courted a great deal of friction between the party executive and the deputy leader. Tonight Slugger has obtained a letter from Carecall outlining the investigation process until its eventual suspension. The letter was addressed to the deputy leader, John McCallister and the current party chair, Jayne Howson. Below unedited is a copy of that letter (only thing taken out is the name of the person signing the letter): …
