Politics

Great Big Politics Quiz kicks off tomorrow Night (Black Box, Belfast)…

| Readers 6

Last chance to book your place… We have a stack of great prizes, courtesy of our old friends and consistent supporters Stratagem… All proceeds go to charity, in aid of rebuilding homes in Haiti… In fine old Northern Irish tradition the much revered office of Quiz Master will be rolling (d’Hondt has not been used and no politicians have been hurt in the scrupulously fair process)… Mark Devenport, Jim Wells MLA, Naomi Long MP, Basil McCrea MLA, Alban Maginness MLA, …

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“Put aside the rhetoric…”

| Readers 109

A perfect example of how an overly-sound-bite-led politician can undermine his own credibility by refusing to stray from the script.  Indigenous politicians take note. Via Toby Harnden at the Telegraph blogs. And the Guardian has a report based on the interviewer ITV News’ Damon Green’s response In the two-minute 30-second version of the interview seen by the Guardian, Green tries six times to get Miliband to expand on his position about why he believes the strike action is wrong. In …

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Social Media and the Assembly Election

| Readers 12

A number of people have referred to this week’s Assembly Election as the “Twitter Election”. This can be looked at in a number of ways: the number of politicians and parties on Twitter/Facebook, the number of journalists now using social media, as well as members of the public discussing politics and election through these online methods. During the course of last night’s leaders debate 950 tweets were sent using the hashtag #ae11 and 660 sent using #ae11debate (many of those …

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#AE11 Open Thread: West Tyrone (#wt11)

| Readers 15

I had thought about moving on to Foyle, but considering the resignation of former MLA Eugene McMenamin (after he failed to get selected as the official SDLP candidates), things have gotten nicely complicated over in West Tyrone. He’s expected to be one of two former SDLP candidates in the race. Ross Hussey is running this time for the UUP and may provide a much needed gain for the Ulster Unionists, probably at the expense of Alan Bresland of the DUP …

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“Redoubling your effort, when you have forgotten your aim”

| Readers 12

Brian Feeney in the Irish News this morning uses a couple of quotes from George Santayana to point to the essentially apolitical nature of the recent attacks by so called ‘dissident’ Republican paramilitary organisations: “Don’t call them mindless. They are devious and dangerous, armed and ruthless. They are unable to articulate a political purpose. They have forgotten, if they ever knew, the original aims of republicanism where militarism was a tactic, not a principle. “These groups see violence as an …

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Liberal democrats: by elections, Faustian Pacts and Lord of the Rings

| Readers 19

The Barnsley by-election was caused by the conviction of former Labour MP Eric Illsley for dishonestly claiming parliamentary expenses. It has been a safe Labour seat for almost a century but one might have expected a bit of a back lash. Of course there was a back lash: against the Liberal Democrats. The Liberal democrats once the specialists at winning by elections were heavily defeated. In the Oldham East and Saddleworth by election (again called over shenanigans by a Labour …

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Is Fianna Fail the new Woolworths of Irish politics?

| Readers 52

It’s not published until 3rd March, but one book I recommend you place an advance order for from Slugger’s Bookstore is James Harkin’s Niche. Belfast émigré Harkin examines a number of stories from business, culture and politics and comes to a single insight: everywhere the broad middle is collapsing. He offers Woolworths as an iconic exemplar of how a broadly curated High Street offering failed when customers chose instead to draw from a range of highly segmented retail outlets: The big …

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Fred Cobain on the UUP / Tory link

| Readers 74

Sam McBride, the political editor of the News Letter has an interesting article covering an interview with UUP Chief Whip Fred Cobain. Cobain is a trade unionist and a former member of the NI Labour Party which might sort of make him a civic unionist of a generation or more ago. In his interview, however, he suggests that the UUP should break the link with the Conservative Party unless they help change the St Andrew’s legislation to ensure that the …

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Slugger Awards: Give us your political pitches…

| Readers 4

Right, so I have been away for a few weeks and accordingly we seem to have lost a bit of steam on the Slugger Awards front. Now I’d like to inject a little bit of energy into it. But first let me recap on what we’re doing and why we are doing it in this slightly convoluted way. The bugbear of any awards process is how you decide who is the best MLA, the best political journalist, or in fact …

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A flawed start for Ed, as David’s mask slips

| Readers 7

It maybe an oldie’s prejudice but I just can’t warm to him. Why is that although we’ve overturned old taboos about gays and women, Ed Miliband seems a bit of a shit for upsetting the natural order of things by taking on and besting big brother? Because I think he still seems defined by his opposition to David and the heavier weight of ministerial office he bore. Also by the fact that David was slightly damaged goods for rightly opting …

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Political Innovation 2: The politics of buying things

| Readers 8

This is a guest cross-post by Dominic Campbell – originally posted on the Political Innovation site here: Well, you wouldn’t still be reading had I called it the politics of procurement now would you? (no, stop – don’t go!). No-one who engages with government procurement comes away impressed with it. It’s a process that wastes £billions and rewards process over outcomes. Yet we all know that, deep down, it’s a symptom of a political problem. It is a system set …

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Talking to a brick wall: how to make politicians listen?

| Readers 41

It took me a long time to warm to advertising agencies. The first time I worked with one I was working in sales management on Fairy Washing Up Liquid. I was due to attend a meeting at which I was to be told what consumers really thought of the brand. I remember my reluctance to attend. Surely, I reasoned, we already knew the answer to this question as millions of consumers picked up the dark green bottles off the shelf …

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Fine Gael – Richard Bruton sacked!

| Readers 12

RTE report that in the last hour Enda Kenny has sacked Deputy Leader and Finance Spokesman Richard Bruton. This comes after Bruton had told Kenny he no longer had his support, and certainly brings the matter of a Fine Gael leadership challenge to a head. Per the report The move means Mr Bruton will not be in a position to table a motion of no confidence in his party leader at tomorrow’s front bench meeting. It may indicate that Enda …

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Parnell Summer School and those damned ‘interwebs’…

| Readers 5

Later today I’m going to be at the launch of the Parnell Summer School at Buswell’s in Dublin. I’ve been very kindly invited to give this year’s keynote speech in August. Working title: “New media, politics and culture: Can we ever fix what the Internet seems to have broken?” The core line of my argument is roughly that the new media revolution is actually about culture, not technology. And most of the distress arising from its shift relates to people not fully …

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Diane Abbott and Labour’s political monoculture…

| Readers 4

Diane Abbot for Labour Leader? Well, she’s sneaking up slowly in the amount of backers she’s got, from herself and David Lammy now up to six. But she is still a very long way short of the 33 she needs to make the leadership contest in September. One problem is, she left her announcement a little late. The other is her Campaign Group colleague John McDonnell jumped the gun somewhat and threw his hat in the right before talking to …

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Is the Overthrow of the Constitution and deposing the Head of State true democracy?

| Readers 12

Note: In this article the Constitution is taken to mean a set of parameters within which a state functions. If these parameters are breached  the state will cease to function. It is not the aim of any of my articles to convert anyone to the idea of a Federal Kingdom. It is put forward under freedom of thought mind and expression, and for what the idea is worth. I got an interesting comment to my article on— Whither Nationalism—from Stephen who …

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Why the anti Laws ‘campaign’ was ill conceived and anti democratic

| Readers 9

Brian did a good round up of the journalism surrounding the David Laws resignation. Now, after months and years even of devoting his column to fairly partisan electioneering, Matthew Parris has the best crack I’ve seen so far on what underlay what became a nasty piece of decapitation: No, he did not have to go. No, it was not “always inevitable”. No, Mr Laws was not right to jump “with dignity”, “before he was pushed”. And who, pray, would have …

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Are the Irish people prepared to hold government to account?

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I’m not sure citing cases of media proprietors backing the losers and then commending them as an exemplar was the most inspiring start to Elaine Byrne’s Op Ed today, but in the end, she asks for greater transparency from a political class which is (past as well as present) still reluctant to ante up its dues.  In the same paper, Fintan O’Toole notes that the Irish appetite for policing the probity of its politicians has been short lived in the …

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McGuinness on Brady tomorrow…

| Readers 5

Northern Ireland’s Deputy First minister Martin Mc Guinness called upon Cardinal Brady ‘to consider his position’ when his link to the Fr Brendan Smyth affair broke. Cardinal Brady has “considered his position” and has chosen to remain in office. What does Martin Mc Guinness think now? Coming up tomorrow morning on Slugger an exclusive one to one interview with Mr Mc Guinness. Eamonn Mallie

After the election: Did the Internet make any substantial difference?

| Readers 13

Mark Pack from the LibDem voice blog spoke at an RSA event last week which discussed the degree to which the Internet influenced the outcome of the election. In terms of its basic promise, ie to make politics less hierarchical, he notes just how quickly scale and structure form themselves around what are essentially egalitarian tools like Twitter.