The Assembly

Not a bad start – but the Assembly needs the people’s help with the big decisions

Brian Walker on January 17, 2020, 12:23 pm

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I err on the side of optimism. I don’t know about you but I’m constantly frustrated at how the media comment on every cough and squeak of political debate but skate over the actual details of the policies that affect real life. Political chatter is the easy bit; they’ve being doing for decades, ever since politicians insisted they weren’t responsible for anything like the terrible issues of life and death which were always down to somebody else, paramilitaries or the …

Last chance saloon…

Jay Burbank on January 4, 2020, 8:09 am

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On talkback this week there was a fair but cutting analysis of the many manoeuvrings of the 1990s to bring about the peace settlement and the near universal condemnation of how its inheritors in today’s politics have failed at the mission statement set out at this time. Brian Rowan quotes sources calling it a ‘last chance’ for Stormont to prove that it can actually work. For if an institution fails in its adoption of rules of change it becomes finite. …

Whatever you do, don’t handle the debate on a border poll like the politics of Brexit

Brian Walker on January 3, 2020, 3:16 pm

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The decision of the two governments to publish “ the basis of an agreement “ on a return to Stormont next week as recommended here and by others is very welcome. Publication will either expose to your judgement and mine the reasonableness or otherwise of whoever is holding out against agreement, or it will constitute the agreement itself. While an atmosphere of optimism among the parties is being fostered (no pun intended) in the sketchy reporting, there is nothing objective …

Looking forward to an early end to the Stormont deadlock. Christmas cheer, or only a Christmas truce?

Brian Walker on December 23, 2019, 9:07 pm

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How will the parties “reflect” on their stance towards Assembly restoration during the Christmas lull? Will it be peace on earth, good will to all or only a Christmas truce? The finger of fate is pointed at the DUP. Will their resentment spill over into resistance? How dare the secretary of state break precedent and single them out for blame just because all the other parties seem to have supported a deal? Even that is the wrong conclusion because as …

The voters sense that the DUP and Sinn Fein are all at sea. What are they to make of it?

Brian Walker on November 17, 2019, 3:52 pm

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Pity the local voter, trying to discover a clear outcome in this election. Anoraks may shiver with anticipation at the prospect of change in a couple of local seats but what are they claiming for turnout? Who could blame the people for staying away? Voting for the Union or Remain or bringing a border poll closer doesn’t come close to guaranteeing any of these outcomes. The secretary of state has floated the idea of deciding on an Assembly election in …

The present state of Northern Ireland’s governance can no longer be ignored as October deadline looms, says the Institute for Government

Brian Walker on September 26, 2019, 1:55 pm

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The think tank closest to Whitehall the Institute for Government has published the most comprehensive report on the state of government in Northern Ireland since the breakdown of Stormont. Here is its executive summary. It deserves to be read in full. Here is the launch video. Not before time the IfG reminds the UK government of the perils of ignorance and neglect. Rather generously, it attributes blame for failures as much to the persistent and puzzling ignorance of our affairs …

Julian Smith’s role – to keep the DUP happy and step up plans for No Deal including direct rule

Brian Walker on July 25, 2019, 7:00 am

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Boris Johnson being ” clapped in” by staff on entering No 10 Julian Smith may not be a household name in Northern Ireland but his name resounds in every Conservative MP’s household and generally throughout Westminster. He was Theresa May’s last chief whip tasked with trying and failing three times to pass her withdrawal agreement. Bemoaning the scale of his task, he told the BBC’s Laura Kunnesberg in April.. that when his party failed to get a majority in the …

We are now 900 days without an Assembly…

Brian O'Neill on July 5, 2019, 4:15 pm

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Today we hit the milestone of 900 days without a a functioning locally assembly, only 3 months to go before we hit the magic 1000! I imagine the view of most people is a collective shrug of the shoulders. Life goes on, the sun comes up and the bins get emptied. In the interests of promoting recycling (and the fact its a Friday afternoon and I want to go and lie of the sofa), I shall repeat my words from …

Wobbles on the backstop and an eventual Fianna Fail- SDLP merger are new features of the countdown to the day of Brexit reckoning

Brian Walker on January 6, 2019, 2:17 pm

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As Sammy Wilson was among the first to remind us, Brexit wars have resumed again after the Christmas pause. Theresa May has just promised no delay to the meaningful vote scheduled for the week after next. But she declined to speculate on extending Article 50 if as expected MPs finally vote down the withdrawal agreement with the Irish backstop. According to the Irishman who is professor of Constitutional and EU law at University College London, Ronan McCrea.. the UK …

500 days without a government – Do we really care?

Brian O'Neill on May 31, 2018, 5:17 pm

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https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Parliament_Buildings_Stormont.jpg

Today marks 500 days without a government in Northern Ireland. There is a handy website that tracks the days. We only have 89 days to go till we beat the Belgium record (we can do it!). I suspect I am not the only one who could not give a monkies. There are no massive public protests, more a collective shrug of the shoulders. Personally, I am enjoying the quiet. What is interesting is even without a government, life rumbles on …

The direct Westminster route to abortion reform is not the one to follow. It’s time for civil society to step up to the plate

Brian Walker on May 28, 2018, 7:41 pm

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Northern Ireland as a place apart over abortion rights has exposed many English MPs to the complexities of devolution for the first time over something they care about deeply, so much so that they seemed at first to dismiss them altogether. There is a precedent of a kind. On Brexit Westminster is ignoring the SNP government’s refusal to assent to the terms of EU withdrawal on the grounds that this is a reserved matter for Westminster. Although abortion rights are …