UK – Page 8 – Slugger O'Toole

Major battle likely over the UK government’s latest Legacy plans.

Brian Walker on March 24, 2020, 5:02 pm

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For those of us who don’t provide an essential service there will be time and energy to spare for the matters I’ve already drawn attention to, such as the government’s latest Legacy proposals produced last week. They abruptly overturned everything that has gone before, reached after years of tortuous gestation and months of consultation, concluding in July last year. They were contained in a brief statement above the name of the new Secretary of State Brandon Lewis: Reconciliation and information …

What’s in the Coronavirus Bill?

Sarah Creighton on March 23, 2020, 9:13 am

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This week the government intends to push its Coronavirus Bill through Parliament. In its “summary of impacts” document, the government states that the bill is “temporary, emergency legislation” which intends to “provide powers needed to respond to the current coronavirus epidemic.” MPs will be expected to grapple with the 300-page bill over the course of a few days. It will, for as long as it is in operation, fundamentally change our way of life. The legislation represents the biggest diminution …

Is there a spirit of the Troubles that could help see us through Covid 19?

Brian Walker on March 20, 2020, 2:09 pm

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Some people have been invoking “the Blitz spirit” to cope with the “war” against coronavirus. Is there a Troubles spirit that might help too? Perhaps. In the early 70s the threat of the no warning bomb was the terrifying norm. People skirted around incidents and shopkeepers called in council workers and the glaziers, (a highly profitable trade), to clear up the mess. It helped that a chief constable’s certificate rather than insurance became the norm for claiming compensation. Once town …

School closures imminent?

Brian Walker on March 18, 2020, 2:18 pm

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Schools in Wales and Scotland to close on Friday. Nicola Sturgeon says she can’t guarantee Scottish schools will reopen before the summer. General closure including England and Northern Ireland must surely be imminent. Boris Johnson is due to hold a Cobra on issue of school closures this afternoon. Issues to be discussed include: * What happens to children of key workers in NHS and social care and those needed to keep supermarkets open? What happens to vulnerable children?” Jeffery Donaldson …

New Northern Ireland legacy legislation on the way at last, but with fundamental changes

Brian Walker on March 18, 2020, 1:09 pm

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Big other news announcement on the Legacy Bill which on the face of it cuts back significantly on the prospects for new investigations and prosecutions for former security forces and paramilitaries alike. An NIO statement combines the legal investigative functions of the proposed Historical Investigations Unit with the Independent Commission on Information Retrieval. It is proposed that these measures should be carried out by one independent body to ensure the most efficient and joined-up approach, putting the needs of the …

Hold it a minute. Who’s actually in charge here?

Brian Walker on March 15, 2020, 12:47 pm

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Who actually is in charge of Covid 19 measures in Northern Ireland? Just asking. The mainstream media don’t seem that interested. Health is devolved but national emergencies are reserved to Westminster. Arlene Foster looks ahead to closing schools for 16 weeks (Why hit on 16? Why not 20 or 25? Are contingency plans for education ready to roll out? ) Michelle O’Neill with her reflexive approach to crisis thinks they should follow Dublin’s example and be closed already. Does this …

Schools closed for 4 months?, Pensioners to be confined to their homes? The latest in the battle against Covid-19…

Brian O'Neill on March 15, 2020, 8:58 am

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I am sure I am not the only parent who got a shiver down their spine when they head the news that Arlene Foster says the schools might be closed for 4 months. It is bad enough trying to keep them entertained during the weekend never mind for 4 months. The problem I see with this strategy is who normally minds the kids when they are off school? The Grandparents – exactly the people we are most concerned about. If …

There’s more to it than polling. Ireland needs more than one choice of political future.

Brian Walker on March 9, 2020, 6:57 pm

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Although Irish unity has been a common obsession for more a century we can only marvel at how little it has been considered as a realistic proposition. In the Republic Sinn Fein’s surge at the general election has promoted it to a higher but still uncertain place in an agenda preoccupied with economic reform. In the GFA, the issue was from the start insulated from what really mattered at the time, the winning of the peace and the effective operation …

Ahead of the Stormont budget, should the Executive be rethinking its priorities?

Peter Donaghy (Salmon of Data) on March 6, 2020, 9:45 pm

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With the first budget of the newly reconstituted Northern Ireland Executive expected shortly, there will be an opportunity to consider whether public resources are being directed appropriately to deal with Northern Ireland’s priorities for the decade to come. The table above shows UK public spending per person in each UK region for various expenditure categories for the 2018-19 fiscal year, in both monetary terms and expressed as a percentage of the UK average. For example, health spending in Northern Ireland …

A Northern Ireland Rorschach test…

Brian O'Neill on March 6, 2020, 7:35 am

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Tell me what do you see? TRH The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at Salthill Knocknacarra GAA Club in Galway. #RoyalVisitIreland 📸: Getty images pic.twitter.com/HF8Xzl3uok — Isa (@isaguor) March 5, 2020 Leo I’m really sorry but somebody had to do it..#GAA #RoyalVisitIreland pic.twitter.com/BtfOIMkK9Q — Jim Sheridan (@Jim_Sheridan) March 5, 2020 “(Rorschach) II” by dailyinvention is licensed under CC BY Brian O'NeillManaging Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running …

Pandemics come and go; but smoking, air pollution and poverty are ever present…

Brian O'Neill on March 5, 2020, 12:33 pm

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The always excellent Dr Phil Hammond gives a much-needed sense of perspective on the Coronavirus outbreak in his latest MD column for Private Eye. Click the image below to enlarge it to read the text, read all 3 images. https://twitter.com/Cymroid/status/1235246441523634178?s=20 They estimate there are around 8.8m early deaths a year worldwide caused by outdoor air pollution alone. Locally in Belfast poor air quality has been linked to 178 deaths in a single year. Last December the air pollution in Letterkenny …

Coronavirus kills off Flybe…

Brian O'Neill on March 5, 2020, 12:12 pm

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The troubled airline Flybe which was already on life support for the past few months has gone into administration. Flybe operated 14 routes from George Best airport, making up about 80% of all their scheduled flights. All Flybe flights have been cancelled and its passengers have been advised not to go to the airport. It will likely not be the last business to be hit by the economic downturn following the Coronavirus outbreak. In the short term, it is a …

Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales rank amongst the lowest countries in the developed world for the number of intensive care beds

Peter Donaghy (Salmon of Data) on March 4, 2020, 5:39 pm

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The response to the Covid-19 coronavirus has raised questions regarding the capability of health systems to deal with an influx of patients requiring intensive care. It is estimated that one in seven of those who get Covid-19 will require hospital treatment, and out of those one in five will require ICU care. A widespread outbreak of Covid-19 would therefore put an unprecedented strain on intensive care facilities across the world. The chart above shows the number of ICU beds per …

And the winner of the John Bercow tickets is…

Brian O'Neill on February 26, 2020, 11:51 am

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We had 110 entries for our competition to win 2 tickets for John Bercow this Friday night at the Waterfront. Working with a crack team of data scientists from Queens University we came up with an algorithm to randomly select the winner. Through the power of AI, the chosen winner was Karen Butler. unfortunately, she could not attend due to another commitment, so I asked the wife to give me another number between 1 and 110 we went back to …

Opinion on a border poll “on a knife edge” – the latest from The Detail

Brian Walker on February 24, 2020, 1:28 pm

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Here we go again. Just a bit of cross posting here to draw attention m to a special edition of The Detail, about a border poll. The comment is based a Lucid Talk opinion poll conducted north and south, showing opinion “ on a knife edge” – 46.8% to stay in the UK and 45.4 % for a United Ireland. The disparity now among three polls in succession can partly be accounted for by different methodology, this one on line, …

SOAPBOX: Why university staff are striking…

Soapbox on February 21, 2020, 7:33 am

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Dominic Bryan, is a Professor at the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics at Queen’s University Belfast. You can follow him on Twitter. Staff in Northern Ireland at Queen’s University, the University of Ulster and the Open University, myself included, are on strike again. Staff at Universities all over the UK are on strike again. This is the second time in a year and the third time in three years. It is utterly frustrating that we are back in …

Why do we need foreign labour when we have so many unemployed?

Brian O'Neill on February 19, 2020, 7:43 pm

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A texter to Good Morning Ulster today asked the question: ‘Why do we need cheap foreign labour when we have 100,000 unemployed?’ I voted against Brexit and I also believe it is good to have free movement of labour, but I must admit the texter had a point. It is a strange state of affairs that we import labour from all over the world when we have so many local people economically inactive. From the NISRA Report on Economic Inactivity: …

The great British culture crisis…

Jay Burbank on February 19, 2020, 8:24 am

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Gerald Dawe wrote in a 1994 essay that: “There are parallels that can be pursued between the Northern Protestant situation today, and what might emerge in England in, say, twenty-five years when ordinary English men and women can no longer take for granted the stability and reliability of a given history and a cultural identity based unthinkably upon the post-World War II past.” What is striking is that Dawe foresaw this identity crisis nearly to the year. On his estimate …

Is Brandon Lewis on the periphery of the cabinet and without a special adviser?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 17, 2020, 6:10 pm

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The Guido Fawkes political blog also reports that the new Northern Ireland Secretary of State has yet to appoint a special adviser, saying that he was “spotted returning from his first official trip to his new district thumbing through his ministerial folder containing a document entitled ‘A beginner’s guide to the political scene in Northern Ireland’. Sounds like he urgently needs a hire – any Northern Ireland experts get in touch with him …”

Boris Johnson sacks NI Secretary Julian Smith…

Brian O'Neill on February 13, 2020, 10:09 am

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As predicted Boris Johnson has sacked Julian Smith in his reshuffle. Serving the people of Northern Ireland has been the biggest privilege. I am extremely grateful to @BorisJohnson for giving me the chance to serve this amazing part of our country. The warmth & support from people across NI has been incredible. Thank you so much. — Julian Smith MP (@JulianSmithUK) February 13, 2020 A very risky move from Boris Johnson in removing a Secretary of State who was not …