#SluggerReport: Trump and grown up politics, and #AE17 in South Belfast and North Down

So yesterday’s #SluggerReport featured commentary on the Trump issue (and should Kenny and/or May protest, in the former’s case not go to the Whitehouse for March 17th).  Kevin Meagher on Labour Uncut nails it for me: We need to properly accept that Brexit means we are living in an age of realpolitik. Idealists who want to wag their fingers at Donald Trump are free to do so; but they should not pretend this is anything other than idle posturing. Britain is …

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#AE17 #SluggerReport: SF’s “snap election” to get DUP off the RHI hook, and a Mid Ulster profile

So in today’s #SluggerReport, three main points: Will the DUP pay for the RHI scandal? There’s always events dear boy, but SF’s snap election eight months after the last one, helps bury it. No opposition party is ready to either exploit this story yet, or fight an election.  So too does Hamilton’s rescue plan (passed by the Assembly this week). O’Muilleoir’s belated calling of a Public Inquiry (which now take six months, not the many years he previously predicted) too. The DUP’s …

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#SluggerReport: What these post #AE16 shootings tell us about wicked problems in West Belfast

I would definitely listen back to the first half hour of the Nolan Show this morning. Some of the reaction from some callers was pretty chilling in their comments on four shootings since voting at Assembly elections finished. One suggested that within six or seven days no one but the families would care. In the meantime here’s some thoughts on the wicked problems that communities like those in West Belfast face and which enforcer violence like this perpetuates… Mick FealtyMick …

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#SluggerReport: #AE16 is likely to be transitional rather a transformational election…

It’s been my view from the very start of this election campaign that it would be of very little consequence. The stop-start first nine years of Stormont have been little more than a throat-clearing exercise which its proudest boast is that it didn’t fall down. In preparing my constituency report on East Londonderry, one of the UUP candidates Aaron Callan suggested that whilst this election would not be transformational, it would prove to be transitional. Indeed whilst tribal politics is …

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‪#‎AE16‬ ‪#‎SluggerReport:‬ Unionist dilemmas around Martin McGuinness as First Minister?

On the #SluggerReport this morning I ask three questions about unionist fears over Martin McGuinness becoming First Minister: Firstly, who is it that’s fearful? It’s not primarily those on the extreme edge of Unionism/Loyalism to whom the DUP are making this regular pitch since, these days at least, they are likely to be unmoved by such a pitch (given the DUP already work with Sinn Fein on day by day basis). Secondly, what is it that they are fearful of? …

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#AE16 #SluggerReport: Whose election bubble is it anyway?

Here’s this morning’s first edition of a revived SluggerReport broadcast live on the Slugger Facebook page (so please do give it a “Like” if you want to keep up with them). Three questions: – Who is responsible for what must count as a third boring Assembly election in row? The parties (and if so, in what measure each)? Or a much-depleted press corps who’s attitude is becoming more “entertain us”, a la Kurt Cobain than ‘come on and tell us, …

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#SluggerReport Election Special: How is it for you? #AE16

So, I’m back with the daily SluggerReport, daily at the slightly later time of 10.30 on the Slugger Facebook Page. Tomorrow, I’ll be asking whether political journalists are taking the Assembly election contest seriously; reviewing some of the Constituency profiles that have been published so far; and wrapping with a quick diary of the day’s lead election news and events. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and …

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#SluggerReport – Can Loyalism come in from the cold, and what’s a Republican worth the name?

Had to decamp to the back garden for this one, and had a few disruptions, so it takes a wee while to get going… Also this clip from last night’s The View in which Peter Sheridan and Sophie Long discuss how Loyalist paramilitarism can be made to go away… Is there a subtle admission there that heretofore the authorities have been turning a blind eye to Loyalist criminality (no comments on that point unless you watch the whole thing please?)… …

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#SluggerReport – Is our “political sensemaking” turning politics into the proverbial dog’s breakfast?

This morning’s SluggerReport took as an anchor piece Janan Ganesh’s excellent column on the neutral radicalism of David Cameron. In particular he has this bit spot on… In Manchester, the right’s purists nag about Tory plagiarism of “unsound” Labour ideas: the national infrastructure commission, paid grandparental leave, the living wage. Neutrals are taken in by the show of heterodoxy. But these statist gestures are rounding errors next to the cuts and structural upheaval. They provide political cover for the real …

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And, here, what about a rent cap for MLA constituency offices (in case you missed it)?

For yesterday morning’s #SluggerReport I decided to return to a matter which seemed to have been sidelined by the flag/political signage controversy, the IFRP report on MLA expenses, which represents a bold attempt to tighten rules. listen to ‘What about the IFRP's rent cap proposal for MLAs?’ on audioBoom For example, it targets the controversial arrangements surrounding the DUP Ballymena office – long covered by Slugger and also featured in the recent Spotlight payroll expose. In short, DUP MLAs and …

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Manifestos and how to avoid dealing in meaningless small minded political tropes?

listen to ‘#SluggerReport Daily: “Manifestos, costed but meaningless?”’ on audioBoom Ah I think I have finally got my workflow right. So here’s an audio copy of this morning’s #SluggerReport Daily (213 LIVE viewers). You can pick up most of them on Audioboom here. The local anchor for today’s report is the apparently bonkers proposal from the DUP manifesto to build a tunnel from Northern Ireland to Scotland, more broadly though it is this excellent piece from academic, former Labour spad …

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#SluggerDaily Report: Two wee dugs called the SNP and Scottish Labour…

listen to ‘#SluggerReport Daily – Scotland's Biggest Winners and Losers…’ on audioBoom This morning’s #SluggerReport Daily on Scotland, keep an ear out for my two wee dug’s theory towards the end… iPhone users can hear the ‪#‎SluggerReport‬ LIVE every weekday at 10am only on the Periscope app. This is a ‘redux’ version which you can also find on Slugger’s new Audioboom channel: http://buff.ly/1F19vVv. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet …

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