Now, when it comes to it, we try to the Scottish referendum seriously in its own terms, not simply to use it as a way to open conversations that are not yet viable in Northern Ireland. We’ll have Phil Mac Giolla Bhain on the ground before, during and after the referendum poll blogging live from the ground in Scotland. Phil is a committed Yes supporter, so we are also on the look out for a counterbalancing No blogger. In my …
The Belfast Telegraph has a number of articles about the devolution of control over Corporation Tax: with a timeline here. From the Belfast Telegraph: Finance Minister Simon Hamilton said: “I am optimistic that we will get a positive answer from the Prime Minister. “I think that the Government wants to do this and we have made a very robust case to them.” A senior Tory source concurred with this assessment. However, the cost of cutting the tax is likely to …
In Scotland there’s been talk of little else but the big referendum on whether Scotland should got it alone for two years. In Ireland the cycle of questions pushed out to the people seems to be speeding up… Olivia Kelly in the Irish Times notes they concern “reducing the voting age to 16, reducing the age barrier for presidential candidates from the current 35, and allowing same-sex marriage”, with “a fourth referendum could be held on the establishment of a …
Interesting one from `Cybernat` (his term) Craig Murray regarding the proposed Orange Order demo in Edinburgh shortly before the Independence referendum. The proposed Orange for No march appears plainly to be in contravention of the Public Order Act 1936. This act makes it illegal to wear a uniform to promote a political cause: Section 1 (i) Subject as hereinafter provided, any person who in any public place or at any public meeting wears uniform signifying his association with any political organisation or with, the …
Currency would not be a problem for an independent Scotland if, one, the Eurozone had settled its difference over what a fiscal union might look like; or two, the financial sector did not account for such a large proportion of Scottish GDP. Liam Halligan outlines the problem with some precision… The combined balance sheets of the UK’s banks amounts to a massive five times annual GDP. We have the most bloated banking sector of any major economy, making our public …
À la prochaine fois!, (until next time) declared the separatist premier, Rene Levesque as he conceded defeat on the night the 1980 Quebec sovereignty referendum failed. Standing like a proud general with his supporters weeping as their dream of an independent francophone Quebec went up in smoke, Levesque knew that while his objective of achieving sovereignty was over, he had run a respectable campaign and had garnered enough support (40%) to leave the movement an opportunity have another go at …
Noel Thompson swapped the comfy chair in the Good Morning Ulster studio to be ringmaster at West Belfast Talks Back this evening with Danny Kennedy (UUP, Minister of Regional Development), Fr Tim Bartlett (Catholic Church), Rev Dr Leslie Carroll (Presbyterian) and John O’Down (Sinn Féin, Minister of Education) in front of an audience of three hundred. You can listen back to debate in two halves [two MP3s]. listen to ‘1/2 West Belfast Talks Back at @feilebelfast’ on Audioboo With no …
If you were one of the many who didn’t get to see the STV debate between Alec and Alistair last night, you can catch it here. You can make your own mind up who won the debate, but as both sides were keen to emphasis, debates don’t change the weather. #453220462 / gettyimages.com The results of this one though I suspect will have surprised most people. I don’t know anyone I spoke to about it beforehand who seriously thought Alistair …
I recently asked a Fianna Fail campaigner I met in Dublin recently what he thought of Micheal Martin’s plans to organise in Northern Ireland. “Ah”, he said, “it’s great idea, but most of us would like to see Fianna Fail organised in Dublin and Donegal before that happens.” As Miyamoto Musashi notes of strategy, “it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things.” It’s not something politics has …
There is nothing new about the idea of federalism in Britain. Early last century a Cabinet sub-committee was tasked with drafting a Bill for a federal UK, in an attempt to deal with the Irish question. Federalism has long been a Liberal, then Liberal Democrat, objective. In recent months the idea has attracted more interest, as a possible way forward should Scotland vote No in September’s independence referendum. At its core, federalism is the belief that sovereignty is entrenched at …
There’s a very good interview with Anthony McIntyre on Vice, not least because it provides rather more light than we normally get on the Boston College project. But one aspect relates to Anthony’s characteristic pessimism when it comes to the future of Irish Republicanism: To me, republicanism is over, but can I see a future for republicans if they behave in a rational manner and pursue justice and politics. Unfortunately, there are still people who think that political violence is …
No update yet from Sinn Féin on the meeting they chose to trail a couple of days ago between three of their MEPs, led by the Derry Northern Ireland representative, Martina Anderson, and “the Vice-Chairman of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Jonathan Taylor”. But let’s hope they were better briefed than the 15 July press release suggests, otherwise the only reaction is likely to be a rolling of eyes by Jonathan Taylor, Vice-President of the EIB, formerly Director General for Financial Services at …
Martin Mansergh is a splendid relic of an old Anglo-Irish tradition, a Tipperary landlord, one of a very rare breed of Fianna Fail intellectuals, an adviser on the North to successive Fianna Fail Taoisigh, a minster who never quite fulfilled his promise possibly due to his background, a historian and son of Nicholas, one of the most eminent historians of the Commonwealth and Ireland. In the Irish Times he seeks to sooth nerves being ruffled in the department of Foreign …
So, what’s the latest on Scotland? The fairest assessment is that’s there’s no real change. As John Curtice notes, the issues having polarised are showing no sign of shifting votes either way. However, in one small regard he does hold out some hope for the Yes camp making some progress. It’s the issue of what further changes changes could happen if the vote in September is for a No. First of all 56% of Yes voters now actually think that …
This post most of which I mainly wrote for an academic blog gives anyone interested a heads up on a more sophisticated theatre of devolution – Scotland – assuming it votes No in the referendum. A couple of points to start with. First, taxation is the big theme. How much of its own revenue should a devolved Parliament raise? The Westminster parties are taking their Scottish affiliates at their word and all are promising greater taxation powers, with a corresponding …
The odd thing about yesterday’s dramatic YouGov poll in The Times is that it wasn’t that dramatic. 60/40 is reflective of a settled split in the Scottish people over the last few years, and to be fair, the latest Scotland Thinks Poll of Polls has the Yes camp rating just above that on 43%. The gap seems almost irreducible because among other things, as John Curtice has said, it’s about the economy, stupid. Being the bird in the bush, it’s the Yes …
I’m not sure Kevin McKenna’s experience of Referendum hustings is representative of the whole. The Yes campaign in particular seem to be reaching out in parts right across the vast swathe of land that is Scotland. But he makes a pertinent point about just how unwilling, or unable the country’s political elites are to deal with people who cannot be classed as white, middle class or liberal. Like for instance, the Orange Order: I’ve attended a few referendum gatherings and …
Whatever the outcome, the referendum on Scottish independence on 18 September will have a profound significance for relationships spanning Britain and Ireland. That was the assertion at a one-day conference organised through the Political Studies Association and Queen’s University Belfast today. In his opening lecture “Tangled Histories” Prof Graham Walker (QUB) unravelled some of the historical narrative and timeline of the British Isles and Scotland’s place within the Union. Irish partition and Ulster unionism had a major impact on Scotland. …
Via Peter Curran with a h/t to Phil Mac Giolla Bhain. Fascinating piece of quick and dirty research on the Scottish Sunday Politics Show regarding the effect of flag displays during a detailed online questionnaire from last week… It’s well worth watching the whole way through, but the findings themselves are at the beginning and are interesting enough on their own. They provide, I suspect some very important cues for a very complex soup of identities in modern Britain. Not …
A typically passionate piece from Pat Kane in the Scotsman, arguing that Scottish independence is not something you can enjoy something of if you don’t have it at all. He believes this is a once off opportunity to re-arrange power relations on the island of Britain that won’t be coming back any time soon, if the Yes camp fails. I don’t know for certain whether Pat was inspired to write the piece after reading retired academic David Marquand’s hefty essay …
