Nice line from Reg Empey at the weekend, in response to the Unionist Unity candidate question of who gets to run in South Belfast and Fermanagh South Tyrone: “The honourable thing to do is to let us have the opportunity to win them back for unionism,” he said. “If this is done perhaps we can take seriously the calls for unionist unity. As the DUP do not hold either of these seats and never have held them, they have nothing …
Interesting quotes from Ian Paisley in the Newsletter this morning, who when asked to comment on the possibility that Sinn Fein might take the First Minister’s role had this to say: “I don’t think there is going to be a day when the unionist parties will be so disordered that Sinn Fein will be the largest party. There has been a swing to unionism and I believe we’ll not have that.” Checking the figures over at Ark, there is a …
Not at all connected to anything any other blogger might have posted recently… Pete Baker
In October 2008, the “culmination of intensive investigations by the Criminal Assets Bureau and the UK’s Serious and Organised Crime Agency” saw more than €625,000 in cash and cheques confiscated in Ireland as the proceeds of crime, while £445,000 (573,000 euro) and nine properties in the north-west of England were recovered by UK authorities. There were also reported tax settlements with the Criminal Assets Bureau “for a figure understood to be over €1m” by Patrick and Frank Murphy, brothers of …
If people in and around Fianna Fail are sanguine about their party’s future, there may be good reason… Despite the many troubles besetting the Cowen regime, the money is still flowing into the party’s coffers in good measure… The bad news is that, according to Aine Kerr, it may not help when they go to the polls: According to the Standards in Public Office Commission, Fianna Fail topped the league for disclosed donations, taking in €94,983, compared to Fine Gael’s …
Via Newshound. I agree with Eamonn McCann’s acknowledgement of “the aptness of Lord Ken Maginnis of [Drumglass] (if I may be so familiar) in asking last week who had sanctioned and/or worded the question put to the public in the opinion poll just before the vote on devolution of policiing.” That would be this poll. Not that the OFMDFM poll was any more rigorous. Hansard records the written questions and answers here. Although, I’d point out that the cost of …
It’s getting close to election time, and suddenly everything is an issue. Two questions floating about at the moment are: If, how, when or by whom Peter Robinson was selected in East Belfast… And in North Down, some local members are concerned that party headquarters are planning to give Sylvia Hermon a free run (they have been several warm contacts between the now independent MP and the party over the last six months)… Slugger understands that in fact decision has …
As Mark Devenport noted earlier, launching the DUP election slogan – “Let’s keep Northern Ireland moving forward” – in Belfast today, Peter Robinson declared “Our party executive last night approved an officer recommendation that will mean any of our Assembly Members elected to Westminster will give up their Assembly seats. However the party believe that it is important, especially at this time, with the prospect of a hung Parliament that the party leader should remain at Westminster. “While personally I …
MP for North Down, Sylvia Hermon, has resigned from the UUP and declared herself as an independent candidate in the forthcoming General Election. The DUP have yet to react… From the BBC report Lady Hermon said she felt “profound sadness” at leaving the party. “I have taken a considerable amount of time to think and to reflect before coming to this decision, but I believe it to be the right one for the Party and for me,” she said. “The …
Yesterday the DUP were running spoilers on the UUP’s expected announcement that they would be backing an SDLP candidate for the Justice Ministry. It’s thought by some that this was the ‘big announcement’ flagged up for 2pm Tuesday that failed to materialise. In today’s Newsletter Sam McBride reveals that senior party members argued for the SDLP man, because he was a barrister, and that if deHondt were reactivated, the next post would naturally fall to that party. As Gonzo noted …
There has long been a name for Catholics who graze on the parts of the Church’s theology they like, whilst disavowing the bits they don’t. Judging by the reactions I was privy to after Mass on Sunday, the bits many don’t like are getting larger with each Sunday that passes… But one reader draws my attention to this statement from the Orange Order and its protest at the visit of the Pope to Britain. Which I guess poses a question …
The BBC notes that Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness were in Downing St today. The topics they wanted to talk to the Prime Minister about, we are told, were the proposals for a Northern Ireland Bill of Rights [Going nowhere fast – Ed], the Saville Inquiry’s report [It’s with the lawyers – Ed] and “the role of British Intelligence” [Drop by anytime! – Ed]. And, for the benefit of clarity, the “Northern Ireland deputy First Minister” was not …
I get the impression that Miriam Lord was less than impressed by Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s reshuffle “nervous nudging of chairs around the Cabinet table”. From the Irish Times sketch The upshot? Three middle-aged men in navy suits replacing three middle-aged men in navy suits and an extra half car for the Greens. Nobody axed and just three hopefuls plucked from the back benches and given a start in the junior ranks. Biffo’s night of the rubber knives won’t go down …
As the UTV hosted PA report notes, the House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee has published an interim statement on its inquiry into a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland. From the interim statement 8. When we launched this inquiry early in 2009, it was our intention to comment on the proposals made by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and on the Government’s response to them in the expectation that legislation might be forthcoming within the lifetime of …
UTV’s Ken Reid makes an interesting point regarding the independently minded MP for North Down, Lady Hermon, and her positioning against the party she, currently, belongs to. But that’s politics… From Ken’s blog. Almost certainly Lady Sylvia’s name will be on the ballot paper with an independent label. But not as independent as many think. The DUP is unlikely to field a candidate which will make the sitting MP the hot favourite to retain her seat. It was noticeable, the …
The Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Shaun Woodward, has made a Written Ministerial Statement to Parliament setting out the process which will lead to the publication of the report by the “pointless” Saville Inquiry. Which may be before, or after, the General Election… From the Written Ministerial Statement. I want to publish the report in its entirety. Should any concerns about the safety of any individual arise, my first course of action would be to consider whether these can be …
The culture of secrecy in Northern Ireland runs beyond the Catholic Church, the DUP (remember those automatic resignation letters), or the deadly code of Omerta the predominant culture of both Republican and Loyalist paramilitaries… It also applies to potential candidates in the SDLP, according to the Reverend Gordon Graham, a retired Church of Ireland Minister, who wondered this morning on Good Morning Ulster (50 minute in) why he’d been asked to sign such an agreement before being eliminated early on …
The Watchman is an occasional contributor to Slugger. Today he picks up on the notion that one potential candidate for South Antrim, Adrian Watson, has been excluded because of a hypothetical answer he gave regarding a (hypothetical) gay couple requesting a booking in his wife’s bed and breakfast business… An attitude which he seems to have moderated somewhat in recent times… By The Watchman I can’t compete with Turgon’s historical analogies. So here I will simply predict that the horribly-named …
In the Sunday Times Liam Clarke identifies some of the hypocrisy of those in glasshouses calling on Cardinal Seán Brady to consider his position. From the Sunday Times Think of Liam Adams, the brother of the Sinn Fein president. Liam has not been tried and is entitled to the presumption of innocence in the sex-abuse charges against him, but consider how the allegations were handled. He was moved about the country and for a time lived in America without those …
As a BBC report notes, “Security alerts are continuing in Londonderry after the Real IRA said they left four devices in the city”. Earlier The Guardian described the city’s centre as “paralysed”. And there’s also a security alert in west Belfast after two masked men reportedly threatened a bus driver and left a suspicious object on board the vehicle. They’re just keeping faith with the republican past… Adds “Belfast city centre traffic deadlock gridlock”. And Three trains laid on for …
