UK – Page 12 – Slugger O'Toole

Stormont Consent-what does it mean?

Sarah Creighton on October 4, 2019, 10:57 am

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Angela Merkel gave Boris Johnson 30 days to submit alternative proposals to replace the backstop. After a long wait (where it was speculated that the Prime Minister would merely amend the Withdrawal Agreement with tip-ex) the UK Government has finally submitted its plans. Spanning seven pages, Johnson’s proposals are a mis-mash of different ideas. All the hits you know and love are back. Remember Max Fac? It’s there. Nostalgic for Customs checks? Want a border down the Irish Sea? The …

The Ulsterisation of Brexit: “…the worst of them is the bitter envenomed dislike which they have to each other”

Mick Fealty on October 4, 2019, 10:51 am

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Today in his column, Alex Kane worries about the general polarisation around Brexit and the general rigidity of opinion which has set in. He writes: I once met a woman in Easons in Belfast who told me that she never read my pieces about Brexit (she was a Remainer) because she was ‘scared’ that she might find herself agreeing with me on some points. Her argument was built around her admission that she tended to agree with me on everything …

Boris Johnson to propose a No Deal deal, ask the EU to refuse an extension and challenge his tormentors to an election

Brian Walker on October 1, 2019, 12:47 am

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It reads like a trailer for Boris Johnson’s leaders’ speech on Wednesday. The British “non-papers” have gelled into what is in effect a No Deal plan masquerading as a negotiating position. The BBC, RTE and the Daily Telegraph are all reporting that the UK government will propose checks on either side of the border but away from the border itself. As this in no way acts as a substitute for the backstop it will be rejected by Dublin and the …

Civic engagement can help to heal Northern Ireland’s dislocated society

Paul Gosling on September 30, 2019, 7:01 am

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A discussion on how to strengthen civic society was held as part of a concluding reflection on the Holywell Trust’s series of Forward Together podcasts. The panel was author Julieann Campbell, the commentator Denis Bradley (who was co-chair of the Consultative Group on the Past and former deputy chair of the Northern Ireland Policing Board) and Maureen Hetherington of the Junction, plus myself as the person who conducted the interviews for the 35 podcasts. We began by listening to highlights …

Deal or No Deal- and it’s looking more and more like the latter – the UK could still leave the EU on 31 October

Brian Walker on September 29, 2019, 3:46 pm

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Despite rumours to the contrary, this week will find it hard to match the turbulence of last week. It’s pretty clear that at this point, the combined opposition majority can’t agree on a strategy to turf Johnson out of office. This could prove fatal to their main aim. In the absence of a policy to unite around, passing a vote of confidence against him would only set a clock ticking that would defeat their essential aim of preventing the UK …

What Northern Ireland needs to do to decarbonize its economy

Peter Donaghy (Salmon of Data) on September 28, 2019, 8:08 pm

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Following from the speech given by environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg at the UN General Assembly in New York this week, there has been a significant amount of discussion about the failure to respond to the world’s unfolding climate crisis. Northern Ireland contributes to greenhouse gas emission to a much greater extent than its small size would suggest. The charts at the top of the page show Northern Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 to 2017, compared with the target of …

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 …

Boris’s bullying and bluster blinds him to the chance of agreement behind the sound and fury. He is his own worst enemy

Brian Walker on September 26, 2019, 7:00 am

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This exchange will be remembered… Paula Sheriff Dewsbury, Lab I genuinely do not seek to stifle robust debate, but this evening the Prime Minister has continually used pejorative language to describe an Act of Parliament that was passed by this House. I am sure you would agree, Mr Speaker, that we should not resort to the use of offensive, dangerous or inflammatory language about legislation that we do not like. We stand here, Mr Speaker, under the shield of our …

The Supreme Court decision may be momentous but does it change anything over Brexit? Can a ” government of national unity” unite the country around a New Deal altogether?

Brian Walker on September 24, 2019, 1:02 pm

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Supreme Court President Lady Hale The Supreme Court decision is a constitutional big deal, but has it changed anything in the Brexit timetable? The Conservative party with most if not all of the dissidents included will not overthrow Boris Johnson and plunge themselves into another leadership crisis. The DUP will endorse that. If Johnson wants to continue slash’n burn, he challenges Corbyn to an immediate general election tomorrow. This means he’s compelled to abandon withdrawal “ no if’s not buts …

Basic flaw in Labour’s referendum plan makes it unworkable

Brian Walker on September 22, 2019, 1:22 pm

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We have arrived at one of those moments when something that’s agonising lots of clever people for years has a basic flaw which people caught up in controversy have been more or less blind to. Corbyn’s fence sitting has been well and truly exposed as absurd. Why should the EU offer Labour a Brexit deal if most of its members want to campaign against it? But if they somehow succeed, how could the leadership stay neutral on the deal they’ve …

Brexit blues take over again as confusion reigns

Brian Walker on September 21, 2019, 1:38 pm

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Confused? Join the club which I believe includes the principals, the British and Irish governments and the EU. The idea of “non-papers” from the UK government expresses the confusion perfectly. Do they mean what they say or not? Are they the last word in the last ditch or feints in a game ? We last left off on an upward note when Foster met Varadkar. The direction of travel seemed to be towards NI as a special economic zone between …

Northern Ireland outpatient waiting lists are 100 times more than England’s…

Brian O'Neill on September 20, 2019, 12:04 pm

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FactCheckNI confirms Mark H Durkins comment on the health waiting lists: From the article: CLAIM: 105,486 people were waiting over a year for a consultant-led outpatient appointment in Northern Ireland, which is 100 times more than in England, with its population 30 times greater. CONCLUSION: ACCURATE. 105,486 and 1,089 people were waiting over a year for a consultant-led outpatient appointment in Northern Ireland and England, respectively. The estimated population of Northern Ireland and England is 55,977,178 and 1,881,600, respectively. The …

The NI Department of Justice #EndingTheHarm campaign viewed over a million times on Snapchat in August 2019

Peter Donaghy (Salmon of Data) on September 19, 2019, 10:36 pm

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Transparency data released this week by ephemeral messaging app Snapchat has shown that the NI Department of Justice #EndingTheHarm campaign made over a million impressions over an 18 day period last month. The campaign, part of the Tackling Paramilitarism programme, made 1,138,048 impressions over the course of the campaign. Of the 15 organizations who had political campaigns on the social network in the UK over the course of 2019 so far, it ranked 8th in terms of impressions behind Police …

Arlene Foster and Leo Varadkar must do business together on Brexit after last night’s ice breaker

Brian Walker on September 19, 2019, 12:12 am

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The most important thing that Arlene Foster has just done is to talk to Leo Varadkar for the first time in ages. This was a meeting that was apparently kept under wraps until it had happened. Only a short time before, the Dublin government were saying they were hoping for a meeting “soon.” This brief encounter opens up the possibility of genuine north-south cooperation to help hammer out an agreement on the border – and perhaps the Assembly – that …

The downsides of no devolution for the DUP

Brendan Heading on September 18, 2019, 8:48 pm

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Yesterday, the BBC reported details of an NUJ rebuke for the North Antrim DUP MP, Ian Paisley, following “unwarranted and unworthy” personalised remarks made on Facebook about News Letter reporter Sam McBride. The source of Mr Paisley’s resentment appears to have been the implication that the DUP were indirectly culpable for the forthcoming sweeping liberalisation of abortion law in Northern Ireland by blocking a deal to restore the assembly which requires the introduction of an Irish Language Act. An objective …

Is this really it? ” Northern Ireland would effectively become a special economic zone inside both the UK and the EU”

Brian Walker on September 18, 2019, 7:00 am

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Too much for the DUP, too little for Dublin and the EU but enough to keep going? The direction of travel has seemed clear for some time. These reports bring it out into the open. Johnson has been talking up a deal based on an expansion of the original agri foods proposal. An actual outline has been show to the EU negotiators, but not to take home with them . (Why did they tamely agree to only a sneak preview?) …

Spotlight on the Troubles #2: intermediaries, talks, ceasefires and a mounting death toll (Tue 17 Sep at 9pm on BBC One NI and BBC Four)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on September 17, 2019, 12:04 am

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The second episode in BBC Spotlight’s seven-part series A Secret History of the Troubles picks up the conflict timeline in 1972 and runs through to 1979. The programme will be broadcast tonight at 9pm on BBC One NI and BBC Four. The key themes explored are the changing of the guard within the IRA that hardened attitudes towards ceasefires and opened the door to ‘the long war’; figures and initiatives that kept communication channels between the British and the IRA …

“You want to do them justice and to do their stories justice.” Telling the stories of the children who died in the Troubles.

Paul Gosling on September 16, 2019, 7:02 am

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“We’ve done interviews with just shy of 100 families who lost children during the Troubles,” explains Freya McClements. “And you feel like you know them. The thing above all is that you want to do them justice and to do their stories justice.” Freya is discussing the research that she and Joe Duffy have done for their book Children of the Troubles, which is published in October. She describes the opportunity to write the book as “a privilege”. Freya admits …

Only if Johnson comes up with a firm proposal can the DUP’s true position be revealed

Brian Walker on September 14, 2019, 11:25 am

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Despite Arlene Foster’s public denials, the Times stands by its story that ahead of any return to Stormont ,the DUP would support the idea of the Assembly signing off on a deal to replace the backstop that would involve some ( no doubt de-dramatised) “checks in the Irish Sea” . This is based on the hope that DUP all-Ireland agreement on agri foods is only a stage on a journey rather than the final destination. It would mean the DUP …

The Conservatives are failing to make headway in the Brexit supporting North and Midlands

Peter Donaghy (Salmon of Data) on September 13, 2019, 9:52 pm

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At the next general election, the Conservatives’ hopes of regaining the overall majority in the House of Commons will rest on winning a substantial number of seats from Labour in Brexit supporting areas in the North and Midlands of England. This is especially true given that they can expect to lose seats in Remain voting areas in London, the South East and Scotland. The map above compares the results of the 2016 EU referendum on a constituency basis (with seats …