Parties – Page 27 – Slugger O'Toole

Gerry Adams: “There is a clear need for more innovative and forward-looking politics…”

Pete Baker on November 23, 2014, 5:41 pm

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By which, the passive-aggressive Sinn Féin president actually means, the SDLP must join Sinn Féin in a sectarian electoral pact in “the next Westminster and Assembly elections”, and the year after that, and the year after that… because… themmuns! To paraphrase, if Sinn Féin can get away with treating all future Northern Ireland elections as a glorified pissing contest pseudo-referendum on ‘Irish Unity’, then we won’t be caught out distracted by actual politics in the north and we can focus all of our efforts and resources …

Sinn Féin MP: “I think this is part of an ongoing process by the BBC of insulting the Irish people…”

Pete Baker on November 18, 2014, 3:04 pm

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The DUP and Sinn Féin have united, again, to complain about the BBC’s use of subtitles during an interview with County Londonderry blacksmith, Barney Devlin, on its Sunday evening Countryfile programme. Of the two parties, the DUP’s Peter Weir, MLA, was relatively restrained The DUP MLA, Peter Weir, told BBC 5Live that he also felt it was wrong. “I felt that what Barney had to say was relatively distinct and that the use of subtitles was both unnecessary and somewhat …

Assembly reform needed but to enable rather than to block

Brian Walker on November 17, 2014, 12:04 pm

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Rick Wilford the recently retired professor of Politics at Queens, provides an analysis in the Belfast Telegraph of the deadlock in power sharing that is as bleak as it is authoritative. “That there is a case for reforming the Assembly and the Executive is irrefutable”… This was recognised by all parties at St Andrews, where they agreed to create an “institutional review committee” charged to examine the operational aspects of the Strand One institutions. This became the Assembly and Executive …

The SDLP needs to find its own voice…

FitzJames Horse on November 16, 2014, 5:00 pm

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As a SDLP member., I think the first thing the SDLP needs to do is start listening to its own voices. It seems to have an obsession with listening to political opponents. But the Party also needs to be honest with itself. Those most critical of the current leadership (Alasdair lost only a single council seat in May 2014) need to look to themselves. The collective leadership lost ten Assembly seats between 1998 and 2011. They also need to understand …

The phoney crisis over the Budget is an indictment of our politics

Brian Walker on November 5, 2014, 10:22 am

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The brinkmanship over the budget is over. The emptiness of a threat to return to Direct Rule has been exposed. Martin McGuinness’s attempts to create a late Hallowe’en scare over the prospects of what Direct Rule might mean in reality amounted to the agenda for future Executive action that still awaits – including water charges and perhaps some hike in university tuition charges for the many who can afford them. The parties belatedly bowed to the inevitable at a cost of an unnecessary …

The Taoiseach: “I will ask them the question that the Deputy will not answer.”

Pete Baker on November 1, 2014, 7:54 pm

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There was a clear attempt at political revisionism this week, as the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, TD, sought to, as Anthony McIntyre put it, “claw back lost ground” following an “unprecedented” Leaders’ questions in the Dáil on Wednesday 22 Oct – aided and abetted by interventions from the legal representative of four of those accused, and acquitted, in the Maíria Cahill case. [added in-line link] This is the position the Sinn Fein president attempted to end the week with “I further understand that Peter …

Sinn Fein’s social media evolution has eroded its old mystique of ‘Leadership’

Mick Fealty on October 29, 2014, 10:37 am

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Exceptionally good piece by Fionnuala O’Connor in the Irish News yesterday. To summarise, she thinks despite it’s obvious successes with social media (Gerry Adams is the most influential politician in Ireland for example), that he and the party have been over communicating: Sinn Fein is resilient, for good reason. Handling the fallout from atrocities over decades taught the fore-runners of today’s machine-minders. Rule number one is still to say whatever needs saying. Much as other parties but with the exceptional element …

Sinn Féin’s Peadar Tóibín: “I have no doubt that in the IRA modus operandi of the time that people were moved…”

Pete Baker on October 24, 2014, 5:25 pm

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With the out-going MP for Newry and Armagh, Sinn Fein’s Conor Murphy, declaring his ignorance of alleged abusers in the republican movement being moved out of Northern Ireland – BBC report “I’ve never heard that in all my life as a republican,” [Conor Murphy] said. …it’s worth extracting from the Fireman’s post some quotes from the interview on Newstalk Breakfast with Sinn Féin TD Peadar Tóibín – who, according to the SF website, is a “current member of the Sinn Féin Ard Comhairle.” Here’s …

“Adams’s claim… is worthy of the most cynical bishop”

Pete Baker on October 21, 2014, 4:20 pm

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From today’s editorial in the Irish Times Adams’s claim that there was “absolutely no cover up by Sinn Féin at any level”, is worthy of the most cynical bishop. It appears to be based on the fact that the IRA came to accept that she had indeed been abused. But its response was not to assist in bringing the culprit to some external forum of justice, or to counsel and assist the victim, but to offer to shoot him. That …

Fianna Fáil: Doomsday is not here

The Bog Man on October 16, 2014, 10:30 pm

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Michael Martin is a capable, hardworking politician. Martin is not a complacent politician. He knew despite May’s good local election results that a significant job of work was still to be done. He has not risen to such lofty political heights because he is a man prone to fits of panic. His party’s members are. Throughout Saturday morning scores of Fianna Fáil party activists and workers phones received a similar message ‘Roscommon SL -we are f**cked- no future?!’. Indeed, anyone …

State of the southern parties, according to Jason O’Mahoney…

Mick Fealty on October 15, 2014, 10:24 am

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If Jason O’Mahoney is not in your reader, or in your Twitterverse, you should fix that now. Here’s some highlights from his state of the parties (the added emphases are mine): Fine Gael: continue to consolidate themselves as the dominant party of the centre-right, business, stability and the political status quo. That’s not to be disparaging, as that’s a considerable constituency in any western country, and set’s them up to be the largest party in the next Dail. Many of its younger deputies, …

Shirlow on the gap between slowly shifting attitudes and political positions

Brian Walker on October 13, 2014, 12:30 pm

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Peter Shirlow has to deal with politicians and so cannot afford to sound completely exasperated or polemical. Informed by his detailed work in the communities he discusses the perceived gap between public attitudes and the starker political positions in the Belfast Telegraph, in the light of the recent LucidTalk poll commissioned by the paper. I would only add that the gap between slowly shifting attitudes and the political choices available is not necessarily a contradiction. People vote for a bottom line because they …

Kicking the [financial] can down the road, again.

Pete Baker on October 9, 2014, 2:40 pm

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According to the BBC’s Mark Devenport, The Treasury has been asked to supply Stormont with a one-off loan of between £100m and £150m to ease its budgetary crisis, the BBC understands. According to the reports, the proposal was discussed with the UK Treasury by the NI First Minister, the DUP leader Peter Robinson, and the NI Finance Minister, the DUP’s Simon Hamilton. Whether that occurred before, or after, yesterday’s ‘special’ meeting of the NI Executive isn’t entirely clear. From the …

Theresa Villiers: “It is in the interests of everyone affected… that a way forward is found towards a local resolution.”

Pete Baker on October 7, 2014, 2:54 pm

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As the BBC’s Mark Devenport reports, the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers, has proposed that a panel of “experts” be appointed with the objective of mediating “an agreed accommodation between local people in respect of Loyal Order parades in the Twaddell and Ardoyne areas of north Belfast”. The official NIO statement includes the terms of reference, key principles, and the proposed structure of the panel and its timescale. Terms of reference In order to mediate an agreed accommodation between local …

Drop the mawkish “peace process ” label and get down to grown up politics

Brian Walker on October 4, 2014, 12:36 pm

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In The Detail, Stephen McCaffery uses fine, straightforward reporting to bring home who are the real losers in failing to deal with the past exclusively on the basis of need. The Abercorn restaurant bomb was one of the early atrocities which stands as a permanent reproach to those who play party politics with dealing with the past today. That means all parties, those who argue over a hierarchy of victims, and all who demand full disclosure from others without offering …

There Is No Alternative! (to Casement Park development plan)

Pete Baker on September 29, 2014, 11:13 pm

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A fairly desperate argument from lawyers for the Northern Ireland Planning Service in Belfast High Court today, during the judicial review of the planned £70million redevelopment of Casement Park in west Belfast. As the BBC reports The judge heard that DCAL have contributed £62.5m of the £77m cost of rebuilding the stadium as part of a project involving the development of Windsor Park football stadium and Ravenhill rugby ground. A Planning Service lawyer said that if the funds are not spent in time, …

Time to call Sinn Fein’s bluff over welfare

Brian Walker on September 29, 2014, 9:41 pm

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John Simpson, an economist who deserves to be trusted, dismissed the Great Welfare Crisis as essentially bogus months ago – yet his analysis seems to have failed to pass into political debate and comment from the Business pages. It might help if critics of Sinn Fein’s grandstanding spoke on the basis of an agreed analysis. OFFICIAL Treasury figures show that spending on welfare-related topics in Northern Ireland is still increasing and, significantly, will continue to increase in the immediate years ahead. That …

Talks on the past, no talks on the welfare deadlock, a border poll? No prizes for guessing what they amount to.

Brian Walker on September 29, 2014, 12:28 pm

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Government by tweet is a curse as it fends off searching inquiry. Twitter is a blessing for the non-information strategies of government by politburo. I’ve never known a time when it’s been more difficult for political correspondents to do their jobs. Is Liam Clarke of the Belfast Telegraph right when he fears a slow slide to a snap election? What would that change? What about a border poll? Yet another ridiculous distraction. At best it’s a sign that the public would …

Biggest threat to Robinson is that there is nobody left who can say to him, ‘don’t do that’

Mick Fealty on September 29, 2014, 9:41 am

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Still image grab from Peter Robinson talking before DUP's 2011 Assembly Election launch

Cathy Gormley Heenan (author of Political Leadership and the Northern Ireland Peace Process) and columnist Newton Emerson on last Thursday’s The View with some useful insights into last week’s controversy over the DUP’s wobble… …a long term threat to Peter Robinson’s leadership is that there is nobody left who can say to him, ‘don’t do that’, he has surrounded himself, apparently with terrified yes men who won’t prevent him from making these ridiculous media performances. He’s done himself more damage …

Labour Party: “Making no progress on welfare has financial implications. It is not a cost-free choice…”

Pete Baker on September 25, 2014, 2:31 pm

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As Mick mentioned, the repeated attempts to blame the fallout from the Northern Ireland Executive’s deadlock on Welfare Reform on “the right wing Tory/DUP austerity agenda“, or “the British Tory Government“, or, more frequently, “a cabinet of Tory millionaires“, have been dealt a blow by clarification of the Labour Party’s position by the Shadow NI Secretary of State at the party’s conference. From the Irish Times report (23 Sept) The disagreement, said [Labour’s shadow Northern Ireland secretary Ivan Lewis], is “a denial” …