After a third night of attacks on police in nationalist areas across Northern Ireland, the NI First and deputy First Ministers have emerged to warn about some people’s “complacency about the peace process”. From the BBC report Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness met at Stormont Castle on Thursday to discuss recent rioting. Mr Robinson said “as a society we have begun to get a bit careless about how hard won the peace was”. Mr McGuinness said the riots “should shake …
Today’s Irish News reports a deal to resolve the ongoing dispute in Magheraberry gaol between prison authorities and Republican inmates, meant to have been resolved a year ago, has yet again fallen apart. This time the dispute was unresolved due to intransigence from Peter Robinson and the DUP: Sources say the Department of Justice agreed to the compromise in principle and the proposal was put to OFMDFM. Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness is also believed to have agreed …
The Devolved leaders’ statements from Scotland Alex Salmond, Carwyn Jones, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuiness set their stall for next week’s Joint Ministerial Committee meeting. There’s a bit of tension between Salmond and Jones on the next steps. To use one of those terrible business phrases it’s important to be on the same page….maybe I’m reading too much into it but unlike the FM and dFM Jones didn’t thank Salmond for his hospitality. Anyway – again from the BBC here’s …
It may be more two weeks now since Peter Robinson’s triumph at the polls but although time may make people more blazé about it that does not change the nature of his victory. I have frequently argued that Peter Robinson was a master tactician but not a brilliant strategist. However, the tactics have now become so good, so long term and so apparently successful that they have effectively become a strategy. The whole thing looked so unbelievably different a year …
While DUP leader Peter Robinson has dedicated his party victory in the Assembly election to PSNI Constable Ronan Kerr. Constable Kerr’s brother Cathair has rounded on UUP leader Tom Elliott describing his comments on SF as prehistoric, prejudiced and questioning if voters would support them. @EamonnMallie prehistoric comments. Ppl need to move forward. Would his voters still vote for him nw? I would strongly doubt they all think that?? They are prejudiced comments at the end of the day. Blank
I’m not sure that the scales fell from the DUP leader’s eyes, but when Peter Robinson fell into his fish pond this afternoon, it certainly gave us all a laugh. And by the string of tweets that followed, his iPhone wasn’t in his pocket when he slipped. 1) The Good Lord punishes any desecration of His day. I’ve been busy these last weeks and feeling guilty that my Koi Carp were neglected. 2) What harm could it be to remove …
Until recently the DUP has played down the danger of Martin McGuinness becoming First Minister. They had suggested that this election was not about such things but about the economy, jobs etc. and have recently listed their “40 achievements in 4 years.” Last year Ian Paisley seemed less than worried by the prospect of Martin McGuinness as First Minister. Now, however, Peter Robinson has announced that who gets the First Ministership is a matter of vital importance and that the …
The Northern Ireland First and deputy First Ministers’ separately declared commitment to reverse the NI Health Minister’s decision to postpone the funding of a new radiotherapy unit at Altnagelvin hospital is yet another populist move without regard to budgetary considerations – this time just ahead of an election. It also undermines the position of the smaller parties at the NI Executive table and the authority of the Executive itself. From the BBC report Mr Robinson said it could be overturned on the …
Ignore my first utterance in the embedded video. The DUP had assembled their 44 Assembly candidates in Ormeau Baths Gallery to launch their election campaign. Their manifesto won’t appear for another fortnight. I asked Peter Robinson about how their performance in delivering their 2007 manifesto and the ongoing need to produce them. Ormeau Baths’ last exhibition just finished at the weekend. But there was no sign of “Expecting the Terror” at this morning’s launch. (The “Terror” in question was “HMS …
The visit by the British Labour Party leader, Ed Miliband, to Stormont today may have come as a surprise to the press [and the NI Labour Party… – Ed], but the Northern Ireland First and deputy First Ministers were ready with their latest whinge. Apparently the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, isn’t prepared to meet them just to listen to their special little pleading. From the breakingnews.ie report Also accusing the coalition British government of backtracking on financial commitments made during the peace …
It is only a year since the Iris Robinson affair rocked the DUP; following that there was the row about the £5 land deal. Many expected the meltdown or at least heavy defeat of the DUP. Then in the Westminster election the challenge of both the UUP and TUV was almost completely defeated. Peter Robinson paid a heavy price and as I noted at the time seemed to act as a lightening conductor taking on himself the damage to the …
We’ll be launching the full set of categories for the Slugger Awards later this morning, but Chris Donnelly makes something of a pitch for two extraordinary come backs over the last year. Gerry Adams, who this time last year was plunged into a personal and political crisis over the allegation by his niece that he’d known of her accusations of abuse against his brother and had done nothing to help. This was followed in fairly short order by a Spotlight …
Peter Robinson’s proposal for a two year pay freeze for public sector workers earning more than the UK average marks a definite start to getting down to local budget negotiations. Gerry Adams’s call in the Assembly last week for a 15% cut in the salaries of MLAs and top civil servants was part of a threadbare offer but at least shares with Peter’s an attack on the public wages bill. Peter’s additional proposal for “an end to “one-step progression” under …
Peter Robinson’s comments on education have opened up a discussion that is solely focusing on the role of the Catholic Maintained Sector. While the discussion is worthwhile, having it without addressing other elements of religious involvement across education is dealing with less than half of the issue. As noted in Tony Macaulay’s report on Churches and Christian Ethos in Integrated Schools: The assumption that integrated schools would solve the sectarianism problem in Northern Ireland was a false one, a speaker …
The First and deputy First Ministers continue their evasive response to criticism of their failure to accept their invitation to attend Pope Benedict XVI’s official welcome on the first-ever papal state visit to the UK. One’s clinging to his political psychosis/comfort blanket, the other’s claiming they were double-booked. That’s why you have junior ministers, guys. As for the Northern Ireland deputy First Minister’s claim that he “also [has] some grounds for believing [a Papal visit to Ireland] could happen as soon as 2012”. What grounds would …
The BBC reports that the Northern Ireland First Minister, Peter Robinson, wearing his other hat as leader of the DUP, and out-going UUP leader Reg Empey have jointly written to the Irish government to object to the proposed sale of NI Electricity (NIE) to the state-owned Electricity Supply Board (ESB). NIE is currently owned, through Viridian, by Arcapita, a Bahrain-based bank. A RTÉ report adds It has emerged that Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson and outgoing UUP leader Reg …
First Minister Peter Robinson has launched a stinging attack on ACC Alistair Finlay who challenged him and Martin Mc Guinness to show a united front against the rioting in recent days. As I noted this morning, Mr Finlay said on the Nolan Show this morning that neither the First or deputy first minister had been in touch with him in the run up to the Twelfth. This afternoon Peter Robinson and Matin Mc Guinness issued a statement. Mr Robinson roundly condemned …
First Minister Peter Robinson says he accepts the findings of the Saville report into Bloody Sunday. He said ” I sincerely hope that the result of that inquiry will give closure and a sense of justice to the families of those that were bereaved as a result of that day and I know waiting for 38 years as they have and no one knows better than they the feeling of those many people who are still waiting for closure. “Closure …
Here’s a nice piece of market making from the entrepreneurial Paddy Power’s odds on a successor to Peter Robinson. Nigel Dodds is 4/5 on, which is probably just about what you might expect for a deputy leader. The boul Paddy says “From a betting point of view it’s beginning to look like a one horse race with eighty percent of the bets placed so far supporting Mr Dodds”. We’ll see if it stays that way when and under what circumstances …
The BBC reports that DUP MLAs and MPs have emerged from their meeting today having unanimously endorsed Peter Robinson as party leader and Northern Ireland First Minister – despite that Portillo moment. Pete Baker
