Scotland – Page 8 – Slugger O'Toole

Theresa May’s new assurances on the border and consultation raise more questions than provide answers

Brian Walker on September 30, 2016, 6:13 pm

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In advance of the Conservative party conference and with speculation running about a hard Brexit, Theresa May has given an interview to BBC Scotland and BBC Northern Ireland to try to assure their governments that they won’t be ignored in formulating the UK Brexit strategy. This is in spite of the UK government’s insistence in court that Brexit is a matter reserved to Westminster and there is no legal requirement to consult them. Politics however is a different matter. I …

Towards a politics of emergence: Can wellbeing shift the political conversation?

Peter Doran on September 29, 2016, 1:31 am

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The Carnegie United Kingdom Trust (CUKT) convened a high-level Conference at the Girdwood Community Hub in Belfast Wednesday to take stock of the Trust’s joint work with QUB School of Law on advancing the case for a wellbeing outcomes framework in the Programme for Government. A feature of the conversation at the packed venue was the blend of local and global themes and speakers. We heard from Rolf Alter, Director for Public Governance and Territorial Development at the influential inter-governmental think-tank, …

Reflections on the British-Irish Association in Oxford

Brian Walker on September 19, 2016, 5:46 pm

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A tale of two Unions: can circles be squared by a new devolution settlement? This was written for the blog of the Constitution Unit of University College London. In the wake of the Brexit vote there has been much discussion about the possibility of Scotland and Northern Ireland, where there were Remain majorities in June, preserving closer relationships with the EU than the UK as a whole. The idea that Scotland and Northern Ireland could be entirely exempted from …

David Davis’s bland assurances on an open border reveal only poverty of thinking. Where is the cunning plan?

Brian Walker on September 2, 2016, 11:34 am

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In his flying visit to Belfast yesterday, the Brexit Secretary David Davis failed to square the circle of pledging to keep an open border and controlling immigration. He seemed to equate an open border with the common travel area which of course predates EU membership. But they are not the same thing. In the old days international non-Irish immigration barely existed. The border was also a tariff wall of varying heights from 1923 onwards. While the DUP’s verdict on Arlene …

Big effort is needed to avoid polarising Brexit along Orange and Green lines

Brian Walker on September 1, 2016, 1:17 pm

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Yesterday Theresa May made it clear that while the devolved administrations will be consulted the decisions on Brexit will be taken by the UK government. The triggering of Article 50 will not require parliamentary consent and it will happen probably in January or February next year. A Norway-type deal looks ruled out because it entails free movement of people. Some immigration controls are a requirement for what Downing St is calling a “ bespoke “ solution for the UK. And …

Gordon Brown’s Modest Proposal for Scottish Home Rule

Mick Fealty on September 1, 2016, 10:58 am

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How’s this for weird? Gordon Brown now backs Home Rule for Scotland… Using terms like “co-decision making,” and suggesting Scotland could unilaterally sign up to international agreements on those policy areas the Edinburgh Parliament controlled, Mr Brown spoke of a more federal structure to the UK while recognising the benefits of pooling and sharing resources while part of the Union. He also noted how even leading Nationalists had to accept in light of the Brexit vote that “independence is far …

Revived plan to scrap the Human Rights Act adds fuel to the fires of Brexit controversy

Brian Walker on August 23, 2016, 11:13 am

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The surprising recommitment of the new UK Justice Secretary Liz Truss to a new British Bill of Rights to replace the Human Rights Act adds a new complexity to the Brexit debate. If there are disagreements over the legitimacy of applying the Brexit referendum result to Northern Ireland and Scotland, there can be none about the central importance of the HRA to the Good Friday Agreement. Yes it’s true that the HRA is not part of the EU but EU …

An answer to Rentoul. Referendums like terrorism can shape events, but not always in the ways expected

Brian Walker on August 19, 2016, 6:40 pm

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Alerted by Mick on the thoughts on referendums by the Independent’s political commentator John Rentoul, I took in his part 2 “Should Referendums be banned?” This is a rhetorical question which is really in support of Rentoul’s contention that they make very little difference to the course of political events. His pieces prompted my following thoughts. Referendums like terrorism typically make considerable differences but not necessarily as intended. It is not true they never settle anything. It depends on the …

David Cameron and the problem of setting real political choices

Soapbox on August 4, 2016, 10:04 am

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David Cameron’s referendums were regarded as reflections of ‘the will of the people’. But is that true? Here Peter Emerson of the de Borda Insitute questions that assumption then proposes a better methodology. 2011 Referendum on the Electoral System. Cameron’s first problem? “Those damned Lib-Dems and the voting system!” Hence the first ‘which’, to silence dissent in the coalition cabinet. Many people wanted proportional representation, pr, either pr-list as in Denmark, the Irish pr-single transferable vote, pr-stv, or whatever. …

Time cannot silence the Voices of the Somme

Ian Malcolm on July 31, 2016, 10:36 pm

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At the start of July I posted on Slugger O’Toole to introduce Somme Voices, a month-long series of daily tweets in remembrance of that dreadful World War One battle. I’m returning to Slugger to bring the Somme Voices project to a close with a final poem. The reason is that I’d like to quote this one in its entirety and Twitter is a less-than-perfect medium for something of considerable length. It does, however, give me the chance to make a …

With Brexit fever, lies,lies and damned polls

Brian Walker on July 30, 2016, 4:30 pm

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Lucid Talk have been conducting a curious self selecting exercise in the Belfast Telegraph and finding that, as Lucid Talk’s Bill White explains, “The poll is currently running at 75% Yes to a border poll, and 70% Yes to a United Ireland, and I don’t need to tell you that common sense, and history, tells us that this is obviously not representative of Northern Ireland. Polling companies like ours are ‘easy’ with these ‘self-selecting’ polls as they’re known – i.e. …

O’Leary’s Dalriada proposal keeps Northern Ireland and Scotland in the UK and the EU

Brian Walker on July 26, 2016, 9:05 am

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The political scientist Professor Brendan O’Leary is one of the strongest supporters of power sharing in Northern Ireland and an deviser of political solutions to ethnic conflict throughout the world. On leave from Pennsylvania University and an old boy of St Macnissi’s Garron Tower, he has produced the Dalriada Document – inspired by the ancient North Antrim- west of Scotland kingdom. The Dalriada document is an ingenious attempt to square the circle of keeping Scotland and Northern Ireland in both …

Brexit will strengthen the Union

Kilsally on July 20, 2016, 8:00 am

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Brexit will strengthen the Union, not weaken it. The vast majority of Scottish & Ulster trade is far and away with the rest of the UK. Scottish trade with the EU is down 20% in the last year with the USA being Scotland’s single biggest export country. The Republic of Ireland accounts for only just over 4% of Northern Ireland sales (which is more than Northern Ireland sales to the rest of the EU put together) A report from Barclays …

In the welter of crises at home and abroad, ” calm down dear” is not a bad maxim for comment

Brian Walker on July 17, 2016, 3:49 pm

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Commentators have a natural tendency to over-interpret the world on the basis of the latest developments. I say “natural” because they are bound to feel compelled to rise up to the level of traumatic events like Nice or the Turkish coup attempt. Over Turkey comment has been useful as there’s a lot to explain about the origins of the coup and the political upheaval going on in response. Over Nice, it’s much more difficult. Standby for the political crucifixion of …

Could the Danish model be applied to the UK?

David McCann on July 10, 2016, 6:07 pm

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Nationalist leaders have been wandering around trying to find possible ways to keep Northern Ireland within the European Union. There has also been considerable debate about an all island forum to examine possibilities. If we are going to look at something, Denmark might offer something for the UK and the Irish government to consider. Ulrik Pram Gad has penned an interesting article for the LSE as to how his own country’s experience might be useful for Northern Ireland and Scotland …

Westminster will find it hard to counter the Brexit case for Scottish independence

Brian Walker on July 10, 2016, 4:41 pm

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The UK Treasury chief who was at the heart of Project Fear during the Scottish independence referendum of 2014 is singing a different tune after the Brexit referendum. In an extraordinary article in the Financial Times (£) summarised here, Sir Nicholas McPherson sweeps away most of economic and financial problems associated with independence.. With the UK leaving the EU, there is a golden opportunity for proponents of Scottish independence to reappraise their economic prospectus. Clearly, membership of the EU will lie …

Northern’s Ireland best chance of leverage rests inevitably at Westminster

Brian Walker on July 8, 2016, 2:18 pm

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Look guys, you’re knocking at an open door. Yes it’s not yet resolved as we haven’t got a new UK government. That will take on the outside 74 days. But the Republic had to wait 69 days for their new government so they know how to wait. What’s the alternative? It isn’t good politics to keep demonising the Tory government before they’ve devised a Brexit strategy and when there plainly isn’t any alternative. One Nation Tories will want to to …

On parliamentary sovereignty and post-Brexit Britain

Gerry Lynch on June 30, 2016, 2:59 pm

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The latest phase in the stages of grieving for Remainers is the idea that parliament can save the UK’s membership of the EU. How would that play in blue-collar England? As 78% of the men on the Clapham omnibus, in the London Borough of Lambeth, voted Remain, we’ll need someone different to act as our ‘typical’ Leave voter. What about the man on the wonderfully-named Jump Circular bus, which really exists in the Borough of Barnsley (68% Leave)? The man …

French President Francois Hollande :”The negotiations will be conducted with the United Kingdom, not with a part of the United Kingdom”

Pete Baker on June 29, 2016, 8:23 pm

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With the UK Parliament sovereign, and Sinn Féin’s calls for a border poll dismissed as an unwelcome distraction, quite where the “very special place” Martin McGuinness thinks Northern Ireland is in isn’t entirely clear. Nor whom he thinks he can press that “case” with in his attempt to ignore the UK-wide referendum result. He should remember, however, that neither he nor his party, alone, speak for the Northern Ireland Executive. He should also pay very close attention to the responses the Scottish First Minister is …

UK Labour in turmoil: “if I had lost the confidence of 80% of colleagues I would resign…”

Mick Fealty on June 29, 2016, 6:54 am

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Labour MPs vote no confidence in Corbyn 172 to 40. The decision is non-binding, in the sense that according to the rules there are no consequences. At least that’s the way Mr Corbyn is playing it. And in direct consequence of that, the UK Labour Party is having a major meltdown. In fact, the no-confidence motion was much less shocking than the fact that 27 members of his own Shadow Cabinet have resigned. There’s an oddly fallacious impression abroad that this …