OFMdFM

“making tough choices for the good of the country…”

| Readers 6

And so it came to pass…  After weeks of political posturing the Northern Ireland Executive stayed up late last night to discuss DUP/Sinn Féin proposals for the draft NI Budget. And with those two parties having enough votes in the Executive – the UUP and SDLP abstained with the Alliance Party’s minister agreeing the proposals – today the Assembly is being immediately bumped into passing agreeing the draft ahead of a public consultation… The title quote is Jim Fitzpatrick’s prediction of the spin from …

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“Hollow nationalist rhetoric will not do.”

| Readers 35

In the Belfast Telegraph Sinn Féin MLA Mitchel McLaughlin responds to Ed Curran’s question on the cost of a united Ireland with some hollow nationalist rhetoric, and indulges in some fantasy economics. An analysis of the expenditure by ‘regions’ along with a series of estimates of the revenues from the regions by Oxford Economics shines some light on the actual subvention by the British Exchequer. The main findings demonstrate that total ‘identifiable expenditure’ for the North was £14.1bn in 2004/05. This is …

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“No party should be playing politics [with the NI budget].”

| Readers 4

With anonymous “republican sources” briefing anyone who will listen about tensions between the DUP and Sinn Féin over the still-to-be-agreed draft Northern Ireland budget, and while noting the DUP’s response reported here “The DUP has one approach to the budget,” [a DUP spokesman] said. “We are confident a budget will be put in place. “We are not playing politics with the budget. This is too important. “Families are struggling to pay mortgages. People are wondering if they are going to …

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“Devolution, though, is the theme.”

| Readers 4

The Daily Telegraph‘s Benedict Brogan has some interesting thoughts on the Scotland Act, and he opens with an observation of something we’ve noted here before.  From the Telegraph blog Is there anything more unnerving than a prime minister who believes in devolution? The political leaders of Northern Ireland must be beginning to doubt it. They keep writing to David Cameron demanding a meeting, but their letters are passed on to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, who replies and …

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Owen Paterson: “A settlement is precisely that – a settlement. It is not the opening round of a negotiation.”

| Readers 5

You might have thought that when the Northern Ireland First and deputy First Ministers met yesterday with NI Secretary of State, Owen Paterson, and Treasury Finance Secretary, Mark Hoban, the first item on the agenda would be the still-to-be-agreed NI draft budget. After all, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness did tell us that the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, had assured them that the NIO and the Treasury would be re-examining the figures. Strangely, there’s no mention of that in the OFMDFM …

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Owen Paterson: “in facing the challenges and exploiting every opportunity offered we function best when we are a team”

| Readers 3

While the Irish Government struggles to cope with the game of geo-political hardball they are engaged in, the BBC reports that our own special little pleaders – the Northern Ireland First and deputy First Ministers – have issued a statement following a meeting of the UK Joint Ministerial Committee. In case you didn’t know The Joint Ministerial Committee is established by the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK Government and the devolved administrations in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Its purpose …

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Owen Paterson: “This is absolutely pathetic…”

| Readers 34

The Northern Ireland Executive met on Thursday, although you’d be forgiven for not noticing. Not that there aren’t plenty of items which are, or which should be, on their agenda.  Most pressingly the still-to-be-agreed draft NI budget. And as economist Neil Gibson told the Assembly this week “I want to be clear that what’s in front of us is challenging,” [Mr Gibson] told members of the Finance and Personnel Committee. “I don’t want to underplay how hard it’s going to be to make savings, but …

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Let’s make a list of what’s buried under the carpet of the Executive and OFMdFM

| Readers 5

After last Wednesday night’s euphoric display of maturity and backslapping, time to look at what’s really going on – or not going on – up at OFMdFM. At East Belfast Speaks Out, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness made one of their rare joint appearances speaking as individual MLAs rather than as the double headed chiefs of the Northern Ireland Executive. But while they were publicly agreeing and supporting each other on the panel, that’s not the full story around the …

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“I do think it would be seen as a failure of the assembly…”

| Readers 4

The BBC reports the concerns of Northern Ireland Finance Minister, the DUP’s Sammy Wilson, about the potential need for an emergency budget if the NI Executive fails to agree a draft budget.  From the BBC report Mr Wilson said some ministers had been co-operating with his department. “It would be wrong to blame everybody and I hope everyone doesn’t get tarred with the one brush,” he said. “I do think it would be seen as a failure of the assembly …

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“They’re not putting a time scale on it”

| Readers 4

It shouldn’t be a surprise that as the BBC reports, “Northern Ireland to be last UK nation to fix a budget”. A mandatory coalition, by its nature, will generally find such a process more difficult than a voluntary coalition. But according to that BBC report On Friday, the Sinn Fein [Northern Ireland] Regional Development Minister [Sinn Féin’s] Conor Murphy said no budget would be agreed within the next two weeks. Mr Murphy said a draft budget “cannot be about a …

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Owen Paterson: “it is appropriate that the First Minister and Deputy First Minister first discuss that with me”

| Readers 12

Just in case there was any doubt, during Northern Ireland Questions in the House of Commons today, the NI Secretary of State, Owen Paterson, took the opportunity to set out the new ground rules for the NI First and deputy First Ministers.  Interestingly, it was in response to what appears to have been an attempt by former NI Secretary of State, Shaun Woodward, to provide a false pretext for a meeting between OFMDFM and the Prime Minister – where budgetary concerns could then be raised. Here are the …

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“it’s up to the Executive whether to sell assets like Belfast harbour”

| Readers 19

The Northern Ireland Executive met today [To decide what planet they’re living on? – Ed] to discuss the outcome of the 2010 Spending Review.  Apparently, they now want to meet with either the “Coalition Government” or the “London Government”.  In their statement they can’t decide which. Perhaps the UK Government would do?  How about the Northern Ireland Secretary of State?  He is a member of that government, after all. And as the NI Secretary of State, Owen Paterson, told the BBC “This is …

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Owen Paterson: “I don’t know what planet they’re living on.”

| Readers 17

That was Northern Ireland Secretary of State Owen Paterson’s reported response to the reaction of our special little pleaders to the outcome of the UK Government’s 2010 Spending Review.  And he has a point. The NI First Minister, the DUP’s Peter Robinson, claimed the cuts were ‘worse than feared’ . But his party colleague, and NI Finance Minister, Sammy Wilson, has stated that “Whilst the level of budget reductions we are facing is unwelcome, and will present a serious challenge, it comes as …

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“There can be no greater endorsement of our world class skills and knowledge base…”

| Readers 3

I’d welcome Peter Robinson’s call to end state-funding of faith-based schools if I thought he was serious about separating church and state. But he’s just as unlikely now, as he was then, to intervene whenever a supernaturalist Minister attempts to influence what’s on display in our museums, or at our World Heritage site, or in schools within the Lurgan District Council area. And what is Sinn Féin’s position on the DUP leader’s de-segregated objective? The Northern Ireland deputy First Minister, Sinn Féin’s …

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Robinson: “This will test the enthusiasm of the Executive for making savings in local government.”

| Readers 8

As Brian has already noted, Northern Ireland First Minister, the DUP’s Peter Robinson, has set out his views on the desirability of a “single educational system” here.  As, previously, did the NI Secretary of State.  We’ll wait to see if the deputy First Minister is still “all for it”. But in his speech Peter Robinson also tackled some of Sinn Féin’s recent economic proposals. From the DUP leader’s speech Another red herring thrown across the debate to deflect attention from the issue …

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OFMDFM’s aspiration for the future – “why bother?”

| Readers 14

In the Belfast Telegraph, Eamonn McCann picks up on the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust’s criticism of the “simplistic view” of culture and identity evident in the OFMDFM’s Cohesion, Sharing and Integration proposals. [added link] From the Belfast Telegraph article Policy could be aimed at bringing reality into alignment with existing aspirations, imagining what might be and asking: why not? The CSI document seems designed to bring aspirations down to the mundane here-and-now, asking: why bother? Conventional politics are constructed around a communal …

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“However we can’t invite ourselves…”

| Readers 4

Northern Ireland deputy First Minister, Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness, was quick to claim a victory for OFMDFM’s “united case” after NI Secretary of State Owen Paterson said “Having had discussions with the treasury, we are confident that having spent £9.8bn since 2005, that by 2017-18, we will be on track for Northern Ireland to have spent £18bn.” But economist John Simpson was already looking at the potential small print Economist John Simpson told the BBC that he believed a total of £14bn will …

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“this may suit political parties with a deeply rooted sense of conflicting priorities based on ethnic division”

| Readers 11

The BBC reports criticism of the DUP/Sinn Féin drafted Programme for Cohesion, Sharing and Integration, all ‘motherhood and apple pie’, by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.  The Trust’s report is available here [pdf file].  And from the Trust’s press release [pdf file] The study, carried out by the Institute for British Irish Studies at UCD, Dublin, identifies three key areas of concern. Celia McKeon of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust discusses: “Firstly, the research has indicated that the new policy framework …

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Bill Clinton’s Big [Economic] Ideas for NI…

| Readers 4

Or, as I think I heard it described on the fawning UTV report, his “special insight” on developing the local Northern Ireland economy, ahead of next month’s one-day US economic forum on NI.  According to the BBC report Mr Clinton said new jobs could be created through greater investment in renewable energy and rebranding the local fishing industry [as “organic”]. The second is hardly a unique selling point. And I’m sure I’ve seen the first suggested somewhere else before… But we, including …

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FMdFM: “It was important that we were there and right that we were there…”

| Readers 24

The First and deputy First Ministers continue their evasive response to criticism of their failure to accept their invitation to attend Pope Benedict XVI’s official welcome on the first-ever papal state visit to the UK. One’s clinging to his political psychosis/comfort blanket, the other’s claiming they were double-booked.  That’s why you have junior ministers, guys. As for the Northern Ireland deputy First Minister’s claim that he “also [has] some grounds for believing [a Papal visit to Ireland] could happen as soon as 2012”.  What grounds would …

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