Wales – Page 7 – Slugger O'Toole

Silk Commission, Sammy Wilson and the DUP’s impromptu dismissal of tax varying powers…

Mick Fealty on November 7, 2013, 6:08 pm

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Newton Emerson today usefully points at Wales and the recent work of the Silk Commission on the devolution of further powers to raise and lower taxes. It’s worth looking more closely at Wales. For a country that only just squeaked devolution (there was about 7k votes majority in favour in a voting electorate of just over a million), the levels of trust in the Senedd seem remarkably high: 62% of the respondents would like to see increased powers for the …

Is the UK government serious about the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly?

Gary Kent on October 23, 2013, 10:34 am

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There have been 47 plenary sessions of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly and its predecessor body since 1990. They usually take place in Ireland or GB. Many Taoisigh have addressed the meeting and underlined their support for its work. But never has a British Prime Minister done the same. Being in London it would have been a golden opportunity for the British PM, David Cameron to break the mould. Or Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister with formal responsibility for the …

Ever heard of “Operation Irish” in Wales?

Gary Kent on October 22, 2013, 4:30 pm

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The Sh!t hit the fan, literally, at the end of this week’s British Irish Parliamentary Assembly in London today. A group of Welsh and Irish parliamentarians urged the Assembly to condemn the offensive use of the term “Operation Irish” as the code for a South Wales police operation to persuade schoolchildren to clear up dog mess. The police have apologised and say that “operational names are randomly assigned to policing operations for administrative purposes.” This rather misses the point which is …

The decline of traditional patriotism in Britain and Ireland

Brian Walker on September 21, 2013, 10:17 pm

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Remember the great closing episode of Blackadder from the trenches of the Great War where the artful dodger meets his nemesis at last : “ We need a futile gesture?” The “futile gesture” being that he was to lead his men over the top to be mown down by the German machine guns. But it was in Ireland that the futile gesture worked best, in the blood sacrifice of 1916. The Irish Times had some fun at the taoiseach’s expense …

DUP man criticises poor DARD performance on Bovine TB…

Mick Fealty on August 28, 2013, 8:50 am

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Not trying to add to the giddy zephyrs of pure conjecture, or anything, but I was struck by a presser from Paul Frew yesterday which took the DRD to task for dithering over how to deal with Bovine TB. In it he says: There is no doubt that Bovine TB cannot be attributed to a single factor, but we cannot escape the fact either that every country which has successfully tackled this disease has put a focus on the reservoir …

England and Scotland – growing farther apart anyway?

Brian Walker on August 21, 2013, 11:11 am

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Good to see some real debate emerging over the Scottish independence at last. But is this happening to late, when the result is all over bar the shouting, with the No vote 20 points ahead, as American polling guru Nate Silver has been telling them at the Edinburgh Festival? Not so with 44 % registering undecided, according to Ipsos Mori. Looking behind the stats, commentators warn against relentless negativity from the Better Together campaign, including Andrew Marr recovering from his stroke, …

The population continues to rise but so does the brain drain

Brian Walker on August 8, 2013, 6:26 pm

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The UK is experiencing a baby boom as the number of births hits the highest level in 40 years, according to mid year figures just out. Only a small fraction of the country’s higher population is now due to foreign immigration. In Northern Ireland where the population has continued to increase, more people left than arrived last year. But the facts about bouncing babies fail to conceal a continuing severe problem of emigration among Northern Ireland’s young people, which a …

An Ynys Môn by-election – a psephologist’s dream.

Dewi on July 31, 2013, 12:17 pm

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Tomorrow sees an Assembly by-election in Ynys Môn as Ieuan Wyn Jones seeks pastures new. (from the BBC). I won’t dream of predicting the result as Anglesey people taught thrawn to you lot… There’s only one rule that the islanders follow. Once elected you only lose by retiring, dying or being thrown in clink…. Here’s the list of UK Parliament MPS since the war: 1929 – 51 Megan Lloyd George Liberal 1951 – 1979 Cledwyn Hughes Labour (the exception to …

MPs with a slim majority are more likely to tweet: crunching numbers of tweeting elected representatives

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on July 29, 2013, 10:05 pm

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Democratic Audit UK today posted a summary of results of research by James Donald who has been looking at the tweeting characteristics of Westminster MPs. It made me wonder about our local politicians. But first, the highlights from the UK-wide findings. Nearly 63% of MPs (408) had Twitter accounts in January 2013, while 37% were still abstaining. (Today, Tweetminster suggests the figure has risen marginally!) The findings showed that the younger an MP is, the more likely she/he is to …

Local party finances revealed as Electoral Commission publish statement of accounts

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on July 25, 2013, 9:30 pm

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The Electoral Commission have now published details about the 2012 accounts for all local political parties. Smaller parties with income and expenditure less than £250k were released in May and the larger parties today. This is a quick post to highlight the numbers with a variety of charts. I’ll leave it to others to start to tell the stories behind the figures … perhaps starting with the size of Sinn Féin’s legal fees and the continued lack of transparency around …

“Human Rights and Human Wrongs” – Rt Hon John Bercow delivers Amnesty International Pride Lecture in Belfast

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on July 5, 2013, 3:45 pm

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As Speaker of the House of Commons, the Rt Hon John Bercow has taken on the external roles of being an ambassador for Parliament and an advocate for democratic politics. A frequent speaker around the world, last night’s delivery of the annual Amnesty international lecture at Belfast Pride was his third visit to the city. On his previous trip to the PSA 2012 conference he asked what a 21st century parliament should look like? Last night in a speech entitled …

Comprehensive Spending Review offers to cut Northern Ireland’s budget by a mere 2%…

Mick Fealty on June 26, 2013, 2:15 pm

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Odd things Comprehensive Spending Reviews. They are more a statement of intent, than a finalised corporate plan. Thus it is an entirely political decision as to when they are timed. From the Guardian’s round up of George Osborne’s Review (applicable in the first term of the next government, if the coalition are re-elected), here’s the headline figures for the devolved Assemblies/Parliament: The governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are required to find resource savings of 2%, with a budget …

Lions…..Lucky

Dewi on June 22, 2013, 4:27 pm

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Crikey that Israel bloke on the wing looks tasty…..how we won that I really don’t know….. DewiWelsh Nationalist. Rugby Fan. Know a bit about History and Railways…

The Lions Test Team – how were our predictions?

Dewi on June 20, 2013, 5:32 am

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Here’s the team: Leigh Halfpenny (Wales),Alex Cuthbert (Wales), Brian O’Driscoll (Ireland) Jonathan Davies (Wales), George North (Wales), Jonathan Sexton (Ireland), Mike Phillips (Wales); Alex Corbisiero (England), Tom Youngs (England), Adam Jones (Wales), Alun Wyn Jones (Wales), Paul O’Connell (Ireland), Tom Croft (England), Sam Warburton (Wales, capt), Jamie Heaslip (Ireland). Subs: Richard Hibbard (Wales), Mako Vunipola (England), Dan Cole (England), Geoff Parling (England), Dan Lydiate (Wales), Ben Youngs (England), Owen Farrell (England), Sean Maitland (Scotland). Astonished at Maitland as sub, very strange. …

A Lions tour – predict the first test team please.

Dewi on May 27, 2013, 6:45 am

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So it was just a bad dream for Rory Best – in the Lions squad…and I reckon a test starter. How about the other 14? Rules are simple. I need the names of the fifteen starters in the first test on June 22nd. 1 point for every correct name. Here’s my guess: 15 Halfpenny 14 Bowe 13 Roberts 12 O’Driscoll 11 North 10 Sexton 9 Phillips 8 Faletau 7 Warburton 6 Lydiate 5 O’Connell 4 AW Jones 3 A Jones 2 …

Gove calls for a split with Wales and NI on GCSE and A Level reform…

Mick Fealty on May 21, 2013, 11:18 am

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Here’s one to put on the long term forecast. Michael Gove was over last week (not that our Education Minister was very forthcoming on what they actually talked about)… and now he has announced there is such a gap between his reforms in GCSE and the way it is done in Wales and Northern Ireland that there may have to be a split. John O’Dowd has said that he has no principled objection to the change. But that’s not been …

The new old firm…

Dewi on April 16, 2013, 9:56 pm

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Right – Cardiff City in the Premiership…looking forward to the South Wales Derby. Seriously – fabulous for the city. DewiWelsh Nationalist. Rugby Fan. Know a bit about History and Railways…

The pro-Union wheels are starting to turn in Scotland. But they could still come off the bus

Brian Walker on March 27, 2013, 11:08 am

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Not before time, the wheels may be turning at last in the creaking pro-union machine to craft an effective reply to the SNP’s delivery vehicle for Scottish independence. The leader of the Scottish Conservatives Ruth Davidson has done a U-turn (£) to explore the idea of more and greater taxation powers for Holyrood. I wonder if The Herald’s editorial is right, that this is as much a problem as an opportunity for Ms Davidson? The problem for the Tory leader is …

So what went wrong in the first half against Ireland?

Dewi on March 17, 2013, 1:26 am

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Wonderful day…in Cardiff anyway ! DewiWelsh Nationalist. Rugby Fan. Know a bit about History and Railways…

Embarrassment over Stormont Executive’s shameful failiure to support UK wide free speech and libel reform

Brian Walker on March 13, 2013, 4:23 pm

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I’m obliged to Jeff Dudgeon for drawing attention to the latest failure by the Executive. It has come to light that the Stormont powers that be failed to agree on bringing Northern Ireland into line with the English Defamation Bill and so bring much needed reform to the libel laws – if the Bill isn’t messed up by confusing the issues with the quite distinct ones of press regulation and the Leveson agenda. No reason was given apparently. The Bill’s main plank is …