Colum Eastwood, you may not know that much about him, but he is the man set to take on the sitting SDLP leader, Alasdair McDonnell. If memory serves me right, I think he is the first person to challenge a sitting SDLP leader. I know Patsy McGlone was preparing to challenge Ritchie in 2011 but she stepped aside before anything got going. Eastwood has been active in elected politics for a decade now, being elected to Derry City Council in …
Just in from the Irish News political correspondent, John Manley Foyle MLA @columeastwood will confirm challenge against @AlasdairMcD_MP for @SDLPlive leadership on Monday — Irish News Politics (@politicsIN) September 27, 2015 I would imagine some backers of his push will involved Mark Durkan MP and Claire Hanna. Backers of McDonnell will include Fearghal McKinney and Alban Maginess. Some key folks to watch in terms of who they side with are the former leader Margaret Ritchie, former minister Alex Attwood and …
The North Belfast News caught Alasdair McDonnell saying that “they [the DUP] don’t want a taig about the place”. It’s likely that some SDLP colleagues will be saying the same of the current leader. Brian SpencerBrian is a writer, artist, political cartoonist and legal blogger. Actively tweeting from @brianjohnspencr. More information here: http://www.brianjohnspencer.com/ www.brianjohnspencer.com/
Really crap morning for periscope this morning, so I had to do it in three bites, all of which break off abruptly before the end… Premise is that whether Big Al attack on SF and the SDLP was a gaffe or not, but that the North Belfast News scoop captured the real Alasdair McDonnell, blunt, forthright and intentionally revealing. As one senior nationalist strategist put it to me, “this is what I recommended to the party a few years ago …
Great scoop from the North Belfast News who have recorded comments from the SDLP leader, Alasdair McDonnell who was speaking at the opening of an office in Glengormley, North Belfast. The paper reports the SDLP making comments about the DUP and their attitudes to Nationalists where he said; The DUP don’t want partnership – they don’t want a taig about the place. I’m sorry, it’s as brutal as that. I’m not divisive, I don’t like to be like that but …
The collapse of devolution has happened before in Northern Ireland and whilst we await the pending demise of the current Executive I thought it’d be interesting courtesy of AP to take a trip down memory lane to see other collapses in the past. Direct rule introduced in March 1972. Here is the outgoing Prime Minister, Brian Faulkner protesting the British governments security policies. Brian Faulkner following the UWC Strike in May 1974. The first power-sharing coalition between the Official Unionists, …
Peter Robinson set out his plan today that seems to indicate the beginning of the end for the Executive. Flanked by his parliamentary party, he told reporters; For our part we will take steps to ensure that pending a satisfactory resolution of the outstanding issues business will not be as usual. As a first step there will be no further meetings of the Northern Ireland Executive unless we deem there are exceptional circumstances. In addition there will be no North …
On a day when the front page of most of the newspapers on these islands carried a heart-wrenching photograph of a little boy drowned on a Turkish beach, we really need to catch ourselves on and make sure our politicians do likewise. Like Jude Collins, I heard PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton on the news setting out that the IRA does not exist as a paramilitary organisation and that its members are pursuing their goals through exclusively peaceful means. You …
David McKittrick emerges from retirement to pass a magisterial verdict on the Assembly in the Newsletter, while the paper has just run a long and fascinating interview with David Trimble by Alex Kane. His view of the history since 1998 is not a million miles from the familiar saying that Sinn Fein were clever enough to play their weaknesses to advantage while unionists were too stupid and bigoted to realise that they’d won. Presumably recorded before the latest developments in …
It is now pretty much seen as very likely that our government will fall at some point in the next few months. In this fit of pessimism I thought I would take a look back at the record of this Assembly since it was elected back in May 2011. I must confess the Irish News political correspondent, John Manley back in March 2013 did take a look at this and found that the Assembly had passed just 11 bills in …
Signs of life in the SDLP are an interesting sidebar in the great IRA structures kerfuffle. Alasdair McDonnell has taken up the challenge to contradict the Guardian’s Henry McDonald’s charge below in yesterday’s Belfast Telegraph, which is basically that the SDLP has played mini-me to Sinn Fein for far too long. The SDLP may have stopped passively supporting the Sinn Fein line through those tortuous post-Good Friday Agreement negotiations, and the party is no longer perhaps the Shinners’ advert-adjuncts, but its …
The leader of the TUV, Jim Allister MLA is proposing a private members bills to reduce the number of SpAds at Stormont. Writing for Slugger, he sets out his case for reform of the current system After successfully piloted a Special Advisers Bill through the Assembly to remove convicts as SpAds, I have now drafted a further Bill to do three things – (i) reduce the number of SpAds, (ii) cut their salaries and (iii) ensure they are subject to …
Claire Hanna and Fearghal McKinney were tonight selected as the SDLP’s two South Belfast candidates for the Belfast South constituency at May 2016’s NI Assembly election. Claire will also take over from Alasdair McDonnell up on the hill when she is co-opted into his seat on Monday morning. In the end, the selection of the two candidates was uncontested [Ed – so no opportunity for UUP mathematical gaffes?!] and party members in the Wellington Park Hotel room described the atmosphere …
SDLP Cllr, Declan Boyle has pulled out of the race to succeed Alasdair McDonnell as an MLA. Speaking about his decision Boyle said; I have taken this decision after reflecting on the direction on which I want to focus my political career. For many people, it is understandable that the natural progression for a councillor would be towards the Assembly. However since putting my name forward I have realised that my passion for politics resides within the council. This at …
Something that will put the cat the amongst the pigeons emerged today and that is the entry into the race of Botanic Cllr, Declan Boyle to replace the party leader, Alasdair McDonnell. Boyle is up against the Balmoral Cllr, Claire Hanna, who came within just one vote of topping the poll last year and stood to replace Conall McDevitt in 2013, only to lose out to Fearghal McKinney. When the party select a replacement on 25th June it will be …
Three years after opening the MAC’s facade has begun to crumble, a bit like a similarly surnamed politician… Brian SpencerBrian is a writer, artist, political cartoonist and legal blogger. Actively tweeting from @brianjohnspencr. More information here: http://www.brianjohnspencer.com/ www.brianjohnspencer.com/
Belfast City Councillors voted in favour of Same Sex Marriage last night. The motion which was brought by Alliance Party Councillor, Emmet McDonough-Brown and seconded by Sinn Fein’s Jim McVeigh was passed 38 votes in favour to 13 against. Two councillors from the SDLP group abstained on the vote. Speaking on his motion Cllr McDonough-Brown said that people who want to be able to commit to each other should be able to and that fundamentally we had a choice to …
Nationalism needs a new economic narrative and if you didn’t believe that before, the complete debacle over Welfare Reform is proof positive of the inability to construct a proper narrative on our current economic situation or a long term strategy for fiscal rectitude and a prosperous economy. We are faced at the moment with a budgetary crisis that puts our very institutions in jeopardy. After all the stop/starts, false dawns and talks about talks, we seemingly had broken the pattern …
Despite holding his South Belfast seat, there is nothing certain about the Alasdair McDonnell stewardship of the party as SDLP colleagues revolt. Brian SpencerBrian is a writer, artist, political cartoonist and legal blogger. Actively tweeting from @brianjohnspencr. More information here: http://www.brianjohnspencer.com/ www.brianjohnspencer.com/
After last night’s The View it’s hard to know whether to go with MacBeth’s “…art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?” for Durkan, or the Carry on Cleo, “Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it infamy…” route for Alasdair. Neither would quite be fair to either man. It’s hard, despite his protestations, to imagine Alasdair lasting for too much longer after Mallon pulled his support. Yet his reluctance to go quietly may provide the party …
