Parties – Page 37 – Slugger O'Toole

UKIP: We’ve proved we can get votes in Wales, England and Northern Ireland…

Mick Fealty on May 17, 2013, 4:45 pm

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Fascinating little line here (h/t Malc) from Nigel Farage: “We’ve proved we can get votes in Wales, England and Northern Ireland. We’re still untested in Scotland,” he [Farage] said. “We’ve not had an opportunity to test Ukip policies with the Scottish people for a very long time.” Asked about Ukip’s chances, he was optimistic. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we did quite creditably.” Malc writes: My recollection is that UKIP’s entire electoral presence in NI amounts to: — …

PSNI: “if the NCA is unable to operate fully in Northern Ireland, this will have a detrimental impact on our ability to keep people safe”

Pete Baker on May 15, 2013, 6:15 pm

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With continued political deadlock here over the new UK National Crime Agency (NCA) the PSNI have issued a statement warning of potential problems ahead, and proposing a suggested solution to complaints about accountability. From the PSNI statement Criminality has no respect for boundaries. It is therefore vitally important that the PSNI can access both the international reach which the NCA will provide and the ability to draw down on the expertise that the agency will offer. This expertise will include: …

“creating consistency between each of the devolved institutions across the United Kingdom”

Pete Baker on May 13, 2013, 3:50 pm

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While the bullshit distraction that is the DUP/Sinn Féin “Building a United Community” paper [pdf file] was being paraded across the airwaves last week – Think of it as a revamped Contested Space Programme [Don’t tell the International Fund for Ireland – Ed], pre-empting consultation on area-based planning, and Girdwood times 10. [And another non-working working group? – Ed] With 3 representatives from the DUP, 3 from Sinn Féin and 2 each from the other 3 Executive parties… ANYhoo… The NI …

Seize the opportunities opened up by the Good Relations strategy. Don’t write it off

Brian Walker on May 11, 2013, 3:51 pm

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Mick’s last post is probably representative of the muted reaction to the long awaited initiative. All the same I’d rather take a more positive approach and – yes!- begin with accepting it at face value. So I’m asking: are critics justified in writing off already the Cohesion Sharing and Integration statement ( not yet a strategy and not actually labelled CSI)? Do we pin all the blame for its gaps and evasions on Peter Robinson and the DUP and Martin McGuinness and Sinn …

“during the Derry visit, Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson were nowhere to be seen, surely mindful of their upcoming trade mission to China.”

Pete Baker on May 8, 2013, 6:27 pm

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According to an Irish News report today …OFMDFM has refuted any suggestion that the Stormont leaders snubbed the Dalai Lama when he visited Derry last month. A spokesperson for OFMDFM said the ministers were unable to attend “due to prior diary commitments”. Which is fine… After all, “diary pressures” was the same excuse Tony Blair gave in 2004 when he was accused of snubbing the Tibetan leader – although they had already met in 1999 in a “spiritual capacity”. And it appears …

Irish Justice Minister: “a tribute to how far we have come as a society”

Pete Baker on May 7, 2013, 10:27 pm

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As promised by the Irish Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, in June last year, legislation has been passed by Dáil and Seanad providing for the granting of an amnesty and apology for the way the Irish State treated members of its Defence Forces who left to join the Allied Forces during World War II. I’ve noted previously the historical debate in Dáil Éireann in 1945. From the Irish Times report In his closing statement on the Defence Forces (Second World War Amnesty and Immunity Bill 2012) to …

OFMDFM spokeswoman: “The Defamation Bill was never considered by the Executive”

Pete Baker on May 5, 2013, 5:01 pm

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In the Belfast Telegraph, Liam Clarke has a glimpse behind the curtain at ministerial manoeuvring around the failure to consent to the UK Defamation Bill. From the Belfast Telegraph article UK-wide legislation like the Defamation Bill can be extended to here by a motion of ‘Legislative Consent’ passed at the Assembly. A minister, though, must submit proposals to the Executive. The Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP), which is headed by Sammy Wilson, is responsible in this case. On May 22 …

The struggle for abortion and other reform north and south is far from over

Brian Walker on May 4, 2013, 9:17 am

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John O Neill identifies the interesting paradox that while abortion and civil marriage appears to have united north and south Catholic and mainstream Protestant politicians, it’s the all- Ireland parties, above all Sinn Fein or elements of it , that have making the “progressive” case. Not that the advocacy has been clear or consistent, as Slugger posts have lovingly traced. But now, the raging debates have even attracted the attention of the Economist in an article where it identifies the new …

Canning pleads guilty on 2011 Easter Monday charges

Pete Baker on April 29, 2013, 8:46 pm

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The BBC has a report on the on-going trial of one of the three Londonderry men charged, along with Marian Price, in relation to a 32 County Sovereignty Movement Easter Monday parade in the city in 2011 – the charge is of managing a meeting in support of a proscribed organisation, the IRA. And we have a conclusion to the judicial process for two of the accused – including Marvin Canning, the 51-year-old brother-in-law of Northern Ireland deputy First Minister, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness. …

Only united challenges from civil society to government and grass roots campaigns will bring about a shared future

Brian Walker on April 25, 2013, 5:57 pm

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It’s amazing isn’t it, how all the parties are now singing the praise of sharing, integration and Mammy and apple pie? And yet when it comes to agreeing what that might actually mean they stay stuck in deadlock, their real comfort zone. “A shared future” risks becoming debased as a piece of Orwellian double think, our equivalent of the old Communist dictatorships’ “People’s Democracy.” Apart from wringing our hands and scratching our heads, what can we do about it? I’m sorry, …

“they have failed to adopt the responsibility and transparency which goes with power”

Pete Baker on April 22, 2013, 4:45 pm

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In his Irish News column on Saturday, Patrick Murphy identified three “explanations for the failure of Stormont”. That’s all he had time for… From the Irish News article The first is the catch-22 analysis, based on the novel by Joseph Heller. In it, US pilots in the Second World War were deemed crazy to fly any further missions. But if they refused to fly, they were regarded as sane – and therefore fit to fly. The two main parties at …

“it is important that other schemes that may be in a position to be progressed ahead of the A5 are given full consideration by the Executive”

Pete Baker on April 15, 2013, 5:35 pm

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As the BBC report, the Northern Ireland Regional Development Minister, the UUP’s Danny Kennedy, has announced that his department will not be appealing the Belfast High Court ruling quashing the decision to go ahead with the controversial A5 £330m dual carriageway project. A “costly mistake [not appealing] but will not be the end of this project“, according to the “Sinn Féin MLA for West Tyrone and member of the Regional Development Minister [sic], Declan McAleer”. The chair of the NI Assembly’s Regional Development Committee, the …

“the British Government, and the British State, no longer claim jurisdiction over this part of the island”

Pete Baker on April 15, 2013, 3:10 pm

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So claimed Sinn Féin’s Alex Maskey, MLA, in his recent appearance on UTV Live. Here’s the quote again. The fundamental difference between before the Good Friday Agreement and after the Good Friday Agreement is that the British Government, and the British State, no longer claim jurisdiction over this part of the island. That’s very very important, and that’s a very important building block for us to convince those who, at this moment in time, don’t support the idea of a united …

“But we’re still part of the UK…”

Pete Baker on April 10, 2013, 10:02 pm

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The DUP’s Jeffrey Donaldson, MP, and Sinn Féin’s Alex Maskey, MLA, appeared separately on UTV Live this evening to give their thoughts on the 15th anniversary of the 1998 Agreement. Apparently Alex Maskey hadn’t arrived at the studio in time for the first segment… Whether by accident, or design, it was left to presenter Seamus McKee Paul Clark to ask the obvious question to Alex Maskey’s opening assertion. Here’s what the Sinn Féin MLA claimed The fundamental difference between before the …

The Thatcher debate in the Commons

Brian Walker on April 10, 2013, 6:06 pm

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The speeches from our MPs Nigel Dodds and Alastair Macdonnell during the Thatcher tributes were bound to reflect the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. Neither speech was terrible. Both avoided a rant. Alastair McDonnell had the tougher job. His doctor’s experience in the face of death probably helped. But both of them followed the familiar course of judging the performance of others – in this case Mrs Thatcher –against the standards of their own impeccable contrasting rectitude. The element of self …

Margaret Thatcher is like Alex Ferguson…

Pete Baker on April 9, 2013, 5:20 pm

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I don’t intend to comment on the putative legacy of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher [Too early to say? – Ed] Perhaps. And Mick has it covered… But I will point to Tom Chivers’ observations on some of the more, erm, extreme reactions. My own hypothesis, and it’s only a hypothesis, is that she’s hated by some of the less thoughtful elements of the Left in the same way that Sir Alex Ferguson is hated by less thoughtful Liverpool fans: because she …

A5 ruling: “They should not be left in any doubt about what may or may not occur…”

Pete Baker on April 8, 2013, 6:18 pm

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The Northern Ireland Department for Regional Development have 7 days to appeal the Belfast High Court ruling issued today quashing the decision to go ahead with the controversial A5 £330m dual carriageway project. As the BBC reports Following the verdict, lawyers for the department sought to have the court order put on hold. They wanted time to meet a requirement to carry out an appropriate assessment required under the directive. But Mr Justice Stephens refused, citing the potential for a public inquiry and potential scope …

Theresa Villiers: “I’m extremely pleased that we were able to answer the Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill’s request for a military helicopter…”

Pete Baker on March 26, 2013, 9:11 pm

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Following a request yesterday from the Northern Ireland Agriculture Minister, Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill, to the Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers, for “urgent access to helicopter support“, an RAF Chinook flew from its Hampshire base today to airlift supplies in order “to get food on the ground for stranded animals“. [It’s just “a transport helicopter“! – Ed] And the NI Agriculture Minister explained to UTV that the request was made “for helicopter support from the MOD” because it was “becoming very …

“Already, two Sinn Fein special advisers have been submitted to vetting procedures put in place by Sammy Wilson, the finance minister, as a condition for paying them.”

Pete Baker on March 24, 2013, 4:46 pm

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In the Belfast Telegraph, Liam Clarke adds some interesting background detail on Jim Allister’s Bill legislating for the vetting of ministerial special advisers. As he points out, vetting began following the resignation of Sinn Féin’s Mary McArdle – who had been jailed for her part in the 1984 murder of Mary Travers. From the Belfast Telegraph article When Sinn Fein eventually replaced Ms McArdle with Mr Kearney, a journalist, Mr Wilson refused to pay him until he was vetted under special …

What will become of the May 2015 UK Parliament if Scotland votes “Yes” on independence?

Brian Walker on March 23, 2013, 1:49 pm

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Every so often – but not very often – a major theme enters political debate which nobody noticed much at first but when attention is drawn to it, it becomes completely obvious. This topic is one such I’m posting here on how a referendum vote in favour of Scottish independence in September 2014 could greatly complicate the options for transitional UK government up to the general election in May 2015 and even more, the composition and form of the UK government thereafter. …