Parties

“I think that at the moment we let them off the hook…”

| Readers 5

The BBC notes the Prime Minister’s comments during Question Time in the Commons on the issue of Sinn Féin MPs’ expenses – which we have previously been told is a matter for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA). The comments themselves leave few hostages to fortune.  From Hansard [scroll down] Q11. [3692] Dr William McCrea (South Antrim) (DUP): Yesterday, we were told that resolute action was necessary to deal decisively with our country’s debt. Does the Prime Minister believe that …

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Has the DUP already switched back on ‘double jobbing’?

| Readers 33

Anyone watching Sammy Wilson last night on Stormont Today last night, may have noticed he devolved upwards the decision over his future as Finance Minister. It is, he said, a matter for his party leader. Well, the last time we looked it was DUP party policy was to unilaterally bring an end double jobbing. Or in Peter Robinson’s own words: “any of our Assembly Members elected to Westminster will give up their Assembly seats.” Even Sammy himself told Gerry Moriarty …

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Austerity budget must prompt radical approaches in Northern Ireland

| Readers 8

　We are facing the first truly austerity budget for a generation. Cuts of 25% over 4 years in all departments except health (why ringfence Health?) are truly frightening and require radical reform in delivery. We need a radical approach that challenges the shape of our politics. Peter Robinson has already warned: A fundamental reassessment of spending commitments will be required as Northern Ireland seeks to meet £128 million cuts imposed from Westminster…This does not include almost £400 million of separate spending …

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Dysfunctional? Or just incompetent?

| Readers 14

Northern Ireland Assembly Speaker has called on the NI Education Minister, Sinn Féin’s Caitriona Ruane, to apologise to the House after the minister failed to make a scheduled statement on her department’s programme of capital building schemes.  From the BBC report The minister later explained she had mistakenly stayed in another meeting until 1033 BST, three minutes after she should have been addressing MLA’s. She also failed to supply MLAs with a copy of her statement half an hour before she was due …

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Enda Kenny to Gerry Adams: “no party require[s] an army council in a time of peace”

| Readers 41

Having survived an attempted leadership coup last week, Enda Kenny was in Belfast today.  The BBC reports that the Fine Gael leader again ruled out any possibility of his party forming a coalition government with Sinn Féin because the Provisional IRA army council has not been ‘stood down’.  Gerry Adams is “hugely” offended.  From the BBC report The Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has again said he would not share power with Sinn Fein because the IRA army council has not been stood down. Mr Kenny is …

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NI Minister of State confirms 2011 local elections for 26 councils

| Readers 28

The BBC notes confirmation from the NI Minister of State, Hugo Swire, MP, that local elections will be held in 2011 for the existing 26 councils.  The decision follows the dysfunctional NI Executive’s semi-detached polit-bureau’s failure to agree on the proposed local government reform.  From the report Mr Swire said he had written to the first and deputy first ministers confirming local elections in 2011 will be held to the existing 26 councils. The Minister said: “Like many, I am disappointed …

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Where’s the government’s response to Eames/Bradley?

| Readers 4

Brian’s suggestion to “Look again now at the legacy commission” pre-empted Mark Devenport’s discussion of that topic on Inside Politics with, among others, the former Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Peter Hain.  From Mark Devenport’s blog On cost, Mr Hain argued that now justice has been devolved the expense of whatever truth recovery process is embarked upon will have to be borne by the devolved budget. This echoes the sentiment of the Westminster Northern Ireland Affairs Committee which argued in its …

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Worrying signs…

| Readers 4

On the one hand, two teenagers are charged after police were attacked with petrol bombs and paint during a disturbance in west Belfast yesterday evening. On the other, army bomb experts made safe a viable pipe bomb thrown at a police station in Craigavon.  And around 350 people were evacuated in Aughnacloy, County Tyrone, last night, when a van containing a 300lbs bomb was left at the police station there. That bomb has also now been made safe.  From the RTÉ report …

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Kenny survives confidence vote

| Readers 3

As RTÉ reports Enda Kenny has survived the vote of confidence as leader of Fine Gael. Fine Gael parliamentary party chairman Padraic McCormack said the motion was carried after a very thorough and full debate. He said the decision had been made not to disclose the vote results and that the ballot papers would be ‘shredded’. Mr McCormack said the party was damaged in the short-term but will recover and will come stronger out of this episode. The problem is, …

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Canning trial gets underway

| Readers 125

Yesterday’s Irish News reported the opening remarks at the Belfast Crown Court trial of Marvin Canning – the brother-in-law of Northern Ireland deputy First Minister, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness.  Canning, who has been out on bail since March 2008, faces seven charges relating to the abduction and assault of a businessman and his partner from their home in Mullingar, County Westmeath, in April 2007.  The couple were later found in the High Park area of Creggan, Londonderry.  The man had been shot in both ankles and subsequently lost …

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“Martin McGuinness was more likely than not to have been in possession of a Thompson sub-machine gun”

| Readers 152

Saville made no finding on whether Martin McGuinness had “fired a Thompson sub-machine gun from the Rossville Flats”.  But, despite Eamonn’s ‘not proven’ claim, it’s more a case of ‘not [fully] tested’.  From the Saville Inquiry’s Consideration of the evidence relating to Martin McGuinness [scroll down] 147.349 We were unable to obtain a written statement from Infliction, or call him to give oral evidence. Nor was Martin McGuinness able to question him or even be told who he was. The same applies to the …

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Shared future: The ‘popular’ option (almost) no one votes for…

| Readers 6

Fascinating response from Alex Kane to Norman Hamilton’s presentation at our post election breakfast. It’s feisty and combative and he takes on the idea that government should take on the task of creating a shared future that remains deeply unpopular at the polls: What Mr Hamilton, along with a veritable army of heavily funded, self-justifying community workers and peace activists have failed to notice, is that the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland have already agreed upon a ‘community …

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“I had to put a lot of pressure on Tony Blair…”

| Readers 5

On the eve of the publication of the Saville Inquiry report, The Guardian‘s Henry McDonald reports former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s claim of responsibility… Ahern said its impact on the peace process had been critical. “It was immensely important because at that time we were trying to build confidence and help the people of Derry, who had been dealing with this for years,” Ahern said. “I had to put a lot of pressure on Tony Blair. All the advice he was …

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Council reform founders on semi-detached polit-bureau rocks

| Readers 7

The BBC reports that, after a weekend of private talks between the DUP and Sinn Féin, the Northern Ireland Executive semi-detached polit-bureau have failed to agree on the proposed reform of local government.  From the BBC report Next year council elections will be based on the original model of 26. SDLP, Sinn Fein and Alliance ministers all voted for the 11 council model but the three DUP ministers voted against. The UUP ministers did not vote. Michael McGimspey, Sir Reg Empey and …

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Fine Gael’s impending crisis of leadership…

| Readers 9

For understandable reasons tomorrow’s news in Northern Ireland and Britain will be dominated by the long awaited arrival of Lord Saville’s long awaited (and stashed for politically motivated reasons) report on Bloody Sunday. We will no doubt be doing our best to  bring you the coverage. But the big events in Irish politics may be happening south of the border. Part the first: the full meeting tomorrow morning of the Fine Gael parliamentary party who are thought to have been …

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What next for Belgium?

| Readers 6

While The Observer questions the apparent consensus on the need for austerity in the EU, the next country due to take the EU presidency, Belgium, has been holding parliamentary elections. Belgium’s Flemish separatist party, the New Flemish Alliance (NVA), has won more than 20% of the vote in parliamentary elections, according to early unofficial results. If confirmed, the NVA would have the largest share of the vote, bringing the country closer to a split. But, as RTÉ reports, others are less convinced that a split …

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“Is it not the primary duty of states, for all their imperfections, to provide external protection and internal security for their citizens?”

| Readers 4

A good attempt by the Guardian’s Michael White to look beyond the publication of the Saville Inquiry report and to ask, with some historical context, what happens next So Bloody Sunday needs to be placed in context, hard though it must be for those whose lives were utterly changed by it and have found it impossible to move on without first obtaining redress. Should prosecutions be launched 30 years after the event? If viable evidence can be mustered from the …

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Semi-detached polit-bureau at loggerheads over Council reform

| Readers 5

The BBC has the latest on the dysfunctional Northern Ireland Executive’s semi-detached polit-bureau’s failure to agree on local government reform Executive ministers have adjourned five-hour long meeting aimed at resolving the impasse over the future of local government. Ministers are due to meet again on Monday after further discussions over the weekend about a plan to reduce the 26 councils to 11. Pete Baker

Labour tops Irish Times poll with 32%…

| Readers 12

There is already a raging debate over at Politics.ie over the latest Irish Times IPSOS/MRBI Poll: …if there were a general election tomorrow, the adjusted figures for party support, compared with the previous Irish Times poll on January 20th last were: Fianna Fáil, 17 per cent (down five points); Fine Gael, 28 per cent (down four points); Labour, 32 per cent (up eight points); Sinn Féin, 9 per cent (up one point); Green Party, 3 per cent (no change); and …

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Interpreting the Giants’ Causeway…

| Readers 77

A week or so ago, Will Crawley noted that a fundamentalist campaign group, the Caleb Foundation, were claiming that NI Culture Minister Nelson McCausland’s intervention at the Ulster Museum was as a direct result of their lobbying. On Evening Extra today, a representative of the Foundation [it may have been chairman, Wallace Thompson] confirmed that, encouraged by that ‘success’, they had contacted the NI Tourism Minister, the DUP’s Arlene Foster, seeking a similar ministerial intervention in the consultation over the Giants’ Causeway Interpretive Centre.  They had a lobbying campaign already underway. It’s worth noting that …

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