What a topsy turvy world is conjured up by the spectre of No Deal. Despite yesterday’s vote to abandon it and with the extension of Article 50 to come, the nail hasn’t been yet driven through its heart. What happens when the usual parameters of behaviour are abandoned, the perverse effect, is every much in evidence. In an openly divided cabinet, a chancellor who defies his prime minister by warning against No Deal and then votes for it. A …
Oh, what a mess. Meet Liz Truss, who is Chief Secretary at the Treasury (ie Chancellor Phil Hammond’s right hand woman) who is in some way responsible for laying out the temporary tariff regime to be invoked in the case of a no deal Brexit… https://twitter.com/mickfealty/status/1105859866676076545 The prospect of tonight’s free vote is already splitting not simply party colleagues, or even members of the cabinet, but ministers within the same critical department charged with delivering Brexit. It is obvious from …
The No Deal scenario announced unilaterally by the UK this morning keeps the Irish border open but at a cost to Northern Ireland business and sets up a border in the Irish Sea for the Republic but not Northern Ireland. And while it’s intended to keep the border open, the Republic would be obliged to levy tariffs on some goods heading from the north to the south. Northern ports would be a back door from the EU including Ireland but …
The image says it all – the Daily Mail’s prediction
Former BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC Radio 4; Editor Political and Parliamentary Programmes, BBC Westminster; former London Editor Belfast Telegraph. Hon Senior Research Fellow, The Constitution Unit, Univ Coll. London
Tony Connelly’s detailed report from the EU side identifies what he regards as a shift of ground by the UK Attorney General Geoffrey Cox to try to satisfy the DUP which is skunnering the chance of a breakthrough. The EU has been shifting towards providing legally binding assurances, through a Joint Interpretative Statement that sets out the obligations to conclude a free trade deal and look at alternatives to the backstop in quick time. But in the Commons earlier this …
“Anti-English sentiment in Ireland had healed. But Brexit has brought it all flooding back.” So writes Irish Times columnist Una Mullally in the Guardian. Is she right? Most comment here will not only echo but amplify Una’s comments. But I think – I hope – she exaggerates and all will be restored when we discover that the legacy of Brexit – or no Brexit- – will not as bad as all that. She makes a big thing about the British …
It’s a snap shot in a febrile atmosphere I know, but who can be surprised? A new poll from the Irish Times and Ipsos/MRBI – in fact parallel polls north and south – find that 59 per cent of Northern Ireland voters want a special arrangement for Northern Ireland for no checks on the border – even if that means some checks on goods travelling between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The poll also found that 67 per cent of voters …
“Cox ‘s codpiece is empty” scoffed a leading Brexiteer tonight in a sign of hardening opinion against the Attorney General’s chances of success to secure a legal formula to satisfy the Tory right and the DUP. Ideas for a convoluted arbitration process now under discussion do not impress. By this reckoning the best that can he hoped for next week is a meaningful vote in favour of extending Article 50. If that happens Brexit is up for grabs. Tonight in …
It is quite an event when a minister has to return to the despatch box of the Commons to correct a misstatement – in this case one so elementary it beggars belief, although in tune with her basic ignorance of local politics. Speaking in the House of Commons, Mrs Bradley was responding to a question from DUP MP Emma Little Pengelly about legacy issues. “Over 90% of the killings during the Troubles were at the hands of terrorists, every single …
So Mark Durkan is following a general trend within northern nationalism and heading south. For an experienced parliamentarian (still in good standing with his ex parliamentary colleagues at Westminster) being unceremoniously dropped for an ingenue must have been hard to take. Durkan has had his faults, not least as leader of the SDLP. But as a Parliamentarian, he knew his craft. Whatever the latent talents of his Sinn Féin replacement Elisha McCallion she is unlikely ever to voice the feelings …
An unpopular Conservative government, a left-wing Labour leader with poor favourability ratings, and a breakaway faction of centrist Labour MPs joined by a Conservative defection a short while afterwards. The parallels between the formation of the Independent Group of MPs in February 2019, and that of the Social Democratic Party in 1981, are clearly apparent. Could a new centrist force make a breakthrough in a Westminster general election, as the alliance between the Liberals and the SDP famously failed to …
Alan and Mick have done sterling work in reporting and commenting on the Alliance and Fianna Fail conferences, with the SDLP in tow for the latter. From me at a distance they prompt the following reflections. Real politics cannot be about endless positioning, it has to be about policies, doing things for the people , how to raise and spend the money – you know, the stuff you read about what happens in other places. The SDLP’s agenda is too …
Full story from the Sunday Times. Would a retrospective amnesty be legal? Army veterans will be protected from prosecution for alleged historic abuses under plans to introduce a 10-year limit on new cases, The Sunday Times can reveal. Gavin Williamson, the defence secretary, is expected to bring forward the proposed legislation in this year’s Queen’s speech after growing pressure on the government to address the legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The disclosure comes amid claims that four army …
Suddenly, over historic cases stretching back almost half a century, legal developments are emerging that inject a new – and to me unexpected – momentum into dealing with the past. The hard pressed PSNI, so eager to hand over its role in historic cases to the proposed Historic Investigations Unit, has done its controversial job over Bloody Sunday and John Downey. Inevitably in Northern Ireland, reaction to this fresh impetus could overtake Brexit as a divisive issue – at least …
Yesterday, on 27th February 2019, an eerily summery winter evening, Ards and North Down Borough Council passed Northern Ireland’s first Climate Emergency motion. Led by Green Party councillors Rachel Woods and Barry McKee, the motion was agreed without changes in a full meeting of the Council chamber. This comes not a moment too soon for a region which is set to face major challenges over the next 10-20 years as temperatures, and sea-levels, rise. Parts of the Ards peninsula, along …
If you are a member of any parents’ social media groups, then you might have heard of “Momo”, apparently a game that challenges children to perform dangerous tasks. The story is often accompanied by a horrifying picture, which is actually a sculpture created by a Japanese special effects company called Link Factory. The story is a well-known hoax, and the urban legend debunking site Snopes article has an excellent article on the subject. At the time of writing, the hoax …
This sort of thing just doesn’t happen in the British political system – a cabinet ultimatum to the prime minister delivered in the Daily Mail If we don’t get a deal next week we MUST delay Brexit’: MPs Amber Rudd, Greg Clark and David Gauke appeal for Tory unity as party is engulfed by bitter in-fighting By David Gauke, Amber Rudd and Greg Clark for the Daily Mail Once the deal is passed, the benefits will be felt nationally. Optimism …
With five weeks to go until Brexit, it is worth stepping back and taking stock of what has happened in the last three years. Shortly after the referendum, I wrote a post here outlining the possible scenarios, together with my (subjective) opinion of their likelihood. It is immediately noticeable that “No Deal by reason of staggering incompetence” did not even make the list; if I were to write that piece again today it would be the clear front runner. I …
So the policing controversy rumbles on. Since 1991 when only 8% of the RUC was Catholic until now when the Irish Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan puts it at 32%. The most salient part of this is that the 50/50 recruitment policy only delivered a 9% increase. The largest part of the change arose from the removal of the threat of death after the official ceasefires. Whilst the SDLP line that the 50/50 recruitment process has merit, the cultural problem with …
It’s become just like the filioque controversy that led to Great Schism of 1054 don’t you think? You know, when the Roman church tried to foist a change of theology on the Orthodox Greeks of Constantinople. In what became the Nicene Creed the Romans insisted on the Holy Spirit “proceeding from the Father and the Son. But the Greeks weren’t having any of “the Son” business, (“filioque” being Latin for “and the son” for all you ignorant Prods.) And never …
