So,here’s last night’s opening PEB from the SDLP… My own brief thoughts divide roughly like this… Good opening with a focus on what a ‘sitting MP’ brings you the voter from their latest recruit in Fermanagh… Then lots of shots of the same people in different combinations (to be slightly unkind, like Beau Geste arranging bodies in the fort to create the illusion of there being more people than there actually is) walking towards the camera in different streets in …
As Mark Devenport noted at the time, in March this year Sinn Féin’s Daithí McKay had been keen to dismiss the suggestion, by Northern Ireland Culture Environment Minister, the DUP’s Edwin Poots, that video-conferencing would be more appropriate for some North-South Ministerial meetings than travelling to any specific venue. In the NI Assembly today, the under-prepared Sinn Féin MLA clearly didn’t enjoy being, metaphorically, gently slapped around the chamber by the DUP minister when he pursued a question on the …
Timed to coincide with the proposed creation of 11 new councils in 2011 there is currently a public consultation underway which should produce significant changes to the current local accountability mechanisms on policing. The consultation document doesn’t appear to online at the NIO, but the recommended option it proposed would see the 26 Community Safety Partnerships and the 26 District Policing Partnerships, and 4 Belfast sub-groups, replaced by 11 single “Crime Reduction Partnerships” each with a separate Policing Monitoring Committee …
From the Sunday Times, here’s Newton Emerson’s succinct summing up of the general election ahead. In short, we are in for an election where a lot will go on but nothing will change. Isn’t that always the way around here? Pete Baker
With reported talks between Anglo Irish and the Irish Financial Regulator, the Quinn Group’s ongoing campaign against the regulator’s intervention looks set to lawyer up. Eamonn McCann takes on the “forelocking tugging”, and electioneering, interfering ‘foreigners’. And WorldbyStorm points to an Irish Times article by John McManus last Monday that’s well worth a read. The only amazing thing about Quinn Insurance – and sadly it’s not that amazing in the Irish context – is that the company was not seized …
Following the decision to field a Pan-Unionist/ Conservative candidate in Fermanagh South Tyrone, the electoral math in the constituency has altered considerably. In the event of the SDLP’s candidate deciding to remain in the contest, then Michelle Gildernew would be facing a mammoth challenge to retain the seat. As of the 2005 Westminster election, Sinn Fein’s Michelle Gildernew held 72% of the combined nationalist vote- some 18,638 votes compared to the SDLP candidate’s 7,230 votes. In that election the combined …
Nice piece from Ben Lowry in the Newsletter looking at the sectarian demography of Fermanagh South Tyrone and South Belfast in which he notes nationalist voter behaviour in seats previously seen as being unionist. Remember when South Down and Newry and Armagh were actually held by unionists? But now a mixture of demographic change — a gradually increasing Catholic vote — and an increase in Catholic confidence has made those seats so safe for nationalists that it is hard to …
With so many powers devolved to Northern Ireland we will only become a factor at Westminster in the event of a hung parliament. And even then Northern Ireland political parties shouldn’t get too carried away with their importance. In such circumstances the Lib/Dems are morel likely to have the real clout way ahead of any local party here. Peter Robinson summed up the positions of local parties apart from his own when it comes to Westminster. • The Ulster Unionists …
A few weeks back Bobballs reported a rumour to the effect that the DUP would pull out of South Belfast. That rumour is still doing the rounds. It seems there are people talking between the two parties for some kind of a deal on a similar basis to the one just concluded in Fermanagh South Tyrone: ie for an independent candidate… But even people in the constituency, who might have been expected a few months back to support a unity …
By my limited reckoning the Tories are ahead in the buzz war in Britain, but as for Northern Ireland, well… Here’s another DUP mash up with Theresa May really struggling quite badly to remember where her party is running and ducking the Adrian Watson (ahem, Chris Grayling) question… Adds: The link to the whole thing courtesy of commenter 2two below… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and …
Unlike Peter Robinson (who “wants to cling on”), Sir Reg Empey tells the BBC that he will stand down if elected to the Westminster seat for South Antrim: “If I win I will cease to be an MLA…” And a minister to boot… It remains to be seen with his run at South Antrim is a viable one… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider …
An interesting development in Newtownabbey. The BBC reports that an Alliance Party nominated businessman, Brendan Carlin, has been co-opted onto the Borough Council to replace suspended Sinn Féin councillor Briege Meehan. The report, however, fails to mention that Sinn Féin reportedly suspended the councillor from the party following allegations of child abuse – allegations which Briege Meehan denied. It also fails to note that, according to SF, that suspension took place in early 2008 when the allegations were made, although …
As noted yesterday, the Quinn Group’s campaign against the independent Irish Financial Regulator’s decision to appoint administrators to run its Quinn Insurance arm continues. The BBC corrals the interfering ‘foreigners’ into one report, while the Irish Times was on the streets in Cavan – where it’s worth noting the professionally produced protest signs. The administrators’ report is to be given to the regulator today – whom Seán Quinn has grudgingly conceded was “technically” correct in his assessment of the insurance …
With the author’s permission, we have Brian Feeney’s column from yesterday’s Irish News, in which he questions Peter Robinson’s wisdom in looking for an interview over an issue which was slowly dying over the Easter weekend, and in doing so opening up further awkward lines of questioning… Did you see the ‘rope-a-dope’? No, not the 1974 rumble in the jungle one with Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. The Good Friday one with Seamus McKee and Peter ‘they’re all out to …
The Reverend William McCrea took the South Antrim seat in a by election in 2000, fter the death of the UUP incumbent Clifford Forsythe, and then promptly lost it again in 2001 to David Burnside, thanks in part to a swell of anti DUP sentiment that stretched as far as some Alliance and nationalist voters. McCrea then took the seat back in 2005 winning by just 14,507 to 11,059. As announced by Ivor last night, this may Sir Reg Empey’s …
Rather than the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, using “this blog” to call on “the media” to allow “a cross cutting debate on the [bread and butter] issues that are important to citizens” in this election, perhaps he should have a quiet word in the shell-like of his former comrade-in-arms associate in North Belfast, Gerry “the only candidate in the field who can win the Westminster seat for nationalism” Kelly. But does Gerry Adams really want his record on those …
THE Northern Ireland Assembly Members Bill has just been rushed through in the ‘wash-up’ before Parliament is dissolved. UTV’s headline is misleading – Bill to end ‘double-jobbing’ passed – as it will merely encourage members not to become MPs by only paying them one salary. They do, I think, have the ability to draw expenses if they are both an MLA and MP, and so, it is with great pleasure, I hand it over to Northern Ireland’s top experts on …
The Quinn Group’s campaign continues against the Irish Financial Regulator’s decision to appoint administrators to run its Quinn Insurance arm. Its employees have been on the streets and a number of politicians have been holding meetings with just about everyone involved – although its worth noting the careful footwork of the Irish Minister for Agriculture, Brendan Smith, who met the administrators, but not the Regulator. The Financial Regulator Chief Executive, Matthew Elderfield, is emphasising the independence of his position in …
Bobballs’ first blog round-up for the Belfast Telegraph included a suitably sceptical post by Keith Belfast in the face of apparent local political unanimity in support of the banning of mephedrone – despite actual evidence of harm from the drug’s use being largely absent and amid concerns about political interference in the work of the advisory council on the misuse of drugs. At his Guardian blog Roy Greenslade picks up on a column by Simon Jenkins in the same paper …
While the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, made his speech praising “the peoples army” in Belfast on Sunday, his former comrade-in-arms associate, Marian Price, made her speech in Londonderry on Monday. From the Irish Times report The main speaker at the rally, Marian Price, criticised Sinn Féin’s involvement in the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly by saying that “lions cannot be led by donkeys no more than republicans can be led by quislings”. Ms Price said revisionists were working hard …
