Parties – Page 36 – Slugger O'Toole

The Assembly shuns reform despite UK government pressure

Brian Walker on July 3, 2013, 12:21 pm

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The news from the Assembly and Executive Review Committee that the political parties in the Assembly have been unable to agree on reforming the political system will hardly shake the world. “No Consensus” is the mantra apart from minor concessions towards an opposition. There is not much here to tempt the SDLP or the Ulster Unionists into quitting the Executive, even in the proposals from those parties themselves, especially the SDLP. This will hardly impress the British government which was …

Military covenant: “I may need your help publicly on this…”

Pete Baker on July 2, 2013, 7:39 pm

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For the second year in a row, an Irish Government Minister has taken part in the Battle of the Somme commemoration at Belfast City Hall – this time it was the turn of Labour TD, Joe Costello. Also present were the Northern Ireland First Minister, the DUP’s Peter Robinson, and representatives from the Ulster Unionists, the Alliance Party and the SDLP. The Lord Mayor of Belfast, Sinn Féin’s Máirtín Ó’Muilleoir, has continued his party’s boycott of the official ceremony. [Are you serious?! – Ed] As the …

G8 Summit: “Of course, the event did not come for free…”

Pete Baker on July 2, 2013, 4:09 pm

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As the BBC reports, the Northern Ireland Finance Minister, the DUP’s Sammy Wilson, has revised, upwards, his estimate of the cost of the recent G8 Summit in Fermanagh. Here’s the relevant extract from Hansard There has been much focus on the cost of the G8 event. The most important thing is that we successfully delivered a safe and secure event, and, for that, I give my sincere thanks to the PSNI. Of course, the event did not come for free, and, …

Chief Constable: “You can’t separate the counter-terrorism efforts from organised crime.”

Pete Baker on June 27, 2013, 4:24 pm

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The PSNI has already warned of the potential consequences of the Northern Ireland Assembly’s restricting of the activities of the UK’s new National Crime Agency here. Now, as the Belfast Telegraph reports, it’s the turn of the Chief Constable, Matt Baggott, to address the issue. Speaking at the launch of the Organised Crime Task Force’s (OCTF) annual report at Crumlin Road jail yesterday, Mr Baggott said any NCA work carried out in Northern Ireland would be done “with complete transparency”. And he warned …

Labour’s troubles compounded with the first TD to completely depart the party…

Mick Fealty on June 21, 2013, 1:20 pm

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Irish governing coalitions are notorious brittle… There are fragments of former Fianna Fail deputies from the last government still hanging on to their independent status (which is one reason we know FF are still a long way off their former glories). But the news that Patrick Nulty (who took Brian Lenihan’s Dublin West seat at the bye election in October 2011) is leaving the Labour party does nothing to allay the impression that the party is fracturing under the pressure. Nulty’s success …

“Adding more weapons to this volatile situation could destabilise the entire region…”

Pete Baker on June 15, 2013, 6:42 pm

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The Northern Ireland First and deputy First Ministers were in a sunny Downing Street garden yesterday, welcoming that suspect package, and extolling the virtues of demonstrating “peacefully, positively, constructively” [Is that with, or without, a Thompson sub-machine gun? – Ed] Without, probably… ANYhoo, on the same day Sinn Féin released the text of what appears to be a different speech to that delivered in Downing Street by the Mid Ulster MP Northern Ireland deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness – made at …

For the sake of the future, the Assembly needs reform

Brian Walker on June 13, 2013, 2:47 pm

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You could be forgiven for failing to notice that the Assembly’s Assembly and Executive Review Committee has been holding a review on “D’Hondt; Community Designation and Provisions for Opposition” over the past four months. As the committee is due to report about now we’ve not got long to contain our excitement. The sweeping nature of the inquiry contrasts with its brevity and limited response (according to information on the website) and has been held I suspect under Westminster pressure. It therefore augurs poorly for the …

“It is the politics of self-interest, exclusion, and fear…”

Pete Baker on June 12, 2013, 10:36 pm

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Less than a week after MLAs Basil McCrea and John McCallister announced the launch of their new party, NI21, and the Northern Ireland Assembly’s Business Committee has changed the number of MLAs a party requires to be eligible for a first round place in the order of party speaking rights in the assembly. A change that affects only the newly formed party… [“Meetings of the Committee are held in private” – Ed] From the BBC report From 2006, parties with two or more MLAs would be …

“still much to be done in those communities that have not previously, or only partially, engaged in peace building and reconciliation activities…”

Pete Baker on June 5, 2013, 2:57 pm

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The Irish Times reports on, what would appear to be, the International Fund for Ireland’s (IFI) response to the Northern Ireland First and deputy First Ministers bullshit distraction about “Building a United Community”. From the Irish Times report “The community transformation strategy recognises the new reality on the ground and looks to support communities that are still affected by the threat of violence,” said the IFI chairman Dr Adrian Johnston. “It is particularly focused on addressing the root causes of sectarianism and, in …

#SpAdBill controversy proves cross community politics CAN work

Mick Fealty on June 4, 2013, 6:04 pm

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listen to ‘Jude Collins and Malachi ODoherty discuss the passing of the SPAD bill at Stormont last night’ on Audioboo Via Jude Collins, a fascinating spat on Nolan this morning between himself and Malachi O’Doherty. For the most part the argument was over the framing of the SpAd Bill, with Malachi confessing his belief that it was an argument better not having. Effectively, Jude sees it as a double punishment for past… …the Allister-Alasdair bill has hurled us back into …

SpAd debate: Winners, losers and the SDLP’s tough call on the matter of victims

Mick Fealty on June 4, 2013, 1:03 pm

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First and foremost was the great (by Stormont standards) opening filibuster from former Slugger Award winner Daithi McKay. He demonstrates the value of investing young parliamentary talent. A classic Boycott opener which gave his party a respectable base from which to bat. This was one of the few free ranging debates in the Assembly in six whole years of sittings. When bills travel through the House at any stage, there is no limit on contributions from Members. It was spattered …

SDLP’s problem: “depends too much on the force of changing winds rather than any chartered course.”

Mick Fealty on June 3, 2013, 11:37 am

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Excellent piece from Tom Kelly in the Irish News today… It’s worth reading in full, but roughly he’s hopeful the China trip will re-emphasise to the First and deputy First Ministers that economic development is not aided by domestic rows over flags and parades… But then, turning to the Spad Bill affair, he notes: The SDLP’s U Turn on the recent Spad Bill has certainly not enamoured the party to Sinn Fein, but the fact is that the SDLP has …

SDLP “A party not sure of where it is going or who it wants to take with it…”

Mick Fealty on May 31, 2013, 1:08 pm

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When ‘talking’ by email last night, a friend who is far from unsympathetic to the SDLP remarked “you know you’ve a problem in politics and life when its your own efforts that afflict you most!” Alasdair McDonnell has just had a fortnight from hell, and for the most part the hell his party has just gone through was entirely of its own making. In short, someone on McDonnell’s front bench was trying to be just a little too clever with …

SDLP reminded of the real politics of #SpadBill by its own retired politicians…

Mick Fealty on May 28, 2013, 5:14 pm

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So the SDLP will not now launch a petition of concern. Eight days ago, they were firmly set on taking down Jim Allister’s bill. The SDLP press office were briefing over the weekend that there would be no change. So what happened (Alex Attwood’s TV meltdown seems not to have played a part)? Over the weekend Seamus Mallon, the party’s retired former First Minister brought some much needed perspective to the party: Mr Mallon accused the SDLP of “putting two …

Stormont’s falling turnout is the reason it is losing touch with wider public opinion

Mick Fealty on May 24, 2013, 4:22 pm

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This is David McCann arguing that the current malaise in Northern Irish politics has its roots in the fact that no less than 160,000 people stopped voting after 1998. From June 1998 to March 2011 electoral turnout dropped from 70% to 54.5%. Whilst the UUP and the SDLP lost a staggering 84,000 votes each, SF only picked up 35,000 and the DUP 52,000. McCann’s thesis is that this disengagement is a prime cause of the subsequent drift of Stormont politics from the concerns of …

Exploit Building a United Community to call the Executive to account, not to let them off the hook

Brian Walker on May 23, 2013, 8:22 pm

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Statement by the First and deputy First Minister “As our first move in implementing our new strategy “Together: building a United Community “ we are delivering a political bombshell. We solemnly declare that, following the precedent set by the former IRA which made stable power sharing possible, we intend as soon as possible to dismantle our respective parties, the DUP and Sinn Fein. We call on the other parties to do the same and join us in forming new centre …

End now the old pretence that we want to deal with the past

Brian Walker on May 23, 2013, 11:40 am

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Another conference, another raking over old ground? Perhaps – but the DPP Barra McGrory made an interesting speech at the well-cast transitional justice conference in Belfast. “I think society has got to make a choice. Either it decides now to go down the route, the very difficult route, of determining that we are going to forego the investigation and prosecution of the past in favour of embedding the political institutions or the peace process, or between that and deciding whether …

Why any near term coalition between FF and SF is unlikely…

Mick Fealty on May 23, 2013, 9:12 am

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World By Storm has come to the following conclusion… …it is very very unlikely that while the FF party has a heartbeat, so to speak, that it will enter into a unity government with FG. Indeed the very most that might occur would be a sort of reverse ‘Tallaght strategy’. And as demonstrated by FF in recent times they’re not above getting the digs into FG and the government even now in our supposed time of crisis. Still, the Phoenix …

“the current system is inefficient and we need to examine the case for reform of teacher education provision”

Pete Baker on May 21, 2013, 6:41 pm

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The BBC reports on the latest attempt by the Northern Ireland Employment and Learning Minister, the Alliance Party’s Stephen Farry, to reform the teacher training system here. It follows the publication of a report on the first stage of the Study of the Teacher Education Infrastructure in Northern Ireland. From the ministerial press release “The research concluded that Stranmillis and St. Mary’s are the only teacher training establishments in the UK which receive premia additional to their core funding. The cost …

OFMdFM: “as open and transparent as possible”

Pete Baker on May 18, 2013, 7:40 pm

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After much foot-dragging, the Northern Ireland First and deputy First Ministers have released the cost [to date – Ed] of their 12-day March junket trip to Brazil and the USA to “Develop and promote political, investment, trade, university and tourism links” – an eye-watering £155,509. As Mark Devenport tweeted So were FM and DFM’s recent investment trips value for money? Costs breakdown published here tinyurl.com/c75mymq — Mark Devenport (@markdevenport) May 16, 2013 It’s difficult to answer the ‘value-for-money’ question in the …