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October 28, 2005
Smoke and mirrors behind the U-turn...
THE fiasco over the introduction of a smoking ban in the UK doesn't just show how the Government is in complete disarray on the issue, it demonstrates the level of contempt it has for Northern Ireland. Announcing the ban here earlier this month, the Health Minister (a heavy smoker until recently) said "no-one has a right to subject colleagues and workmates to the dangers and hazards of second-hand smoke and passive smoking. No-one has a right to subject members of the public who do not smoke to those same dangers in enclosed public spaces." So if that's true, why not introduce it in England? [more] October 27, 2005
When democracy gets in the way..
In the absence of an operational NI Assembly, the announcement of a smoking ban in all public areas can be made by NIO Minister Shaun Woodward to an invited audience at the Waterfront Hall. Alas, when it comes to a functioning polity, such proposals must negotiate the trickier waters of democratic politics. In this case resulting in a partial smoking ban, described as unworkable in this report, which also notes Tony Blair as being against a total ban.. in England. Harry adds his thoughts here. [more] Lisburn City Council facing legal action on access to Cherry Room The decision by Lisburn District Council to deny the use of the Cherry Room to same-sex [civil] marriage ceremonies, a motion proposed by Alliance Party Councillor Seamus Close, and initially passed by the Council, caused discord among councillors when the issue gathered media coverage. It has also prompted a protest at Wednesday's council meeting by the Gay Rights Association and they may take the council to court to challenge the decision. Rates rise expose another democratic deficit No one, it seems, is happy with the £1 a week rates rise announced by Secretary of State Peter Hain. The Newsletter puts it down to Hain's left wing extravagances. If ever there was an indication of what the term democratic deficit emans, it has to be a sudden 19% jump in the cost of local services! [more] Non government racks up £100 million tag Tom Peterkin examines the cost of a mothballed Stormont, now sitting at £100,000 over the last three years of inactivity. October 25, 2005
liberty, equality and solidarity
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern faces criticism in the Irish Times today - from two different angles. Ronnie Kasrils, the South African Government Minister for intelligence, and South African Communist Party member, who is visiting Northern Ireland as a guest of Sinn Féin, is reported to be shocked that the Taoiseach has been talking about reclaiming republicanism from those who have "debased" and "abused" it. While Fintan O'Toole argues that "The only way to reclaim republicanism, for Fianna Fáil and for everyone else, is to give it meaning by taking liberty, equality and solidarity seriously." [more] More councillors, and others, face bar from public office Recently, while noting the decision by the Local Government Auditor[LGA] that serving and former councillors on Fermanagh District Council were guilty of wilful misconduct and faced being barred from public office, I noted that there had not been an update on a similar case involving Newry and Mourne councillors.. That update is now in. The LGA has upheld the complaint and the councillors have 14 days to appeal. Otherwise it's a £10,000 surcharge and barred from public office for 5 years.. among those affected is SF MLA Davy Hyland. Rates rise announced.. and more to come Secretary of State, Peter Hain, has stepped up pressure on our local politicians by announcing a 19% increase in domestic rates next April. He described the move, on Radio Ulster's Talkback, as doing local politicians a favour - by taking the hard decisions for them. Meanwhile, on the same programme, Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik suggested that a fairer system, than the arbitrary rates system, should be considered.. namely the introduction of a local income tax. October 24, 2005
Interim Commissioner to duplicate government consultation
As predicted yesterday, Secretary of State, Peter Hain, has announced the appointment of Bertha McDougall as the first Victims Commissioner.. except.. it's an Interim post.. with no permanent premises and a dictated, and restricted, remit aimed at producing a review of services within the year.. in spite of the fact that both the then-Victims' Minister, Angela Smith and the then-Secretary of State Paul Murphy, through the Victims Unit of the OFMDFM, have already conducted public consultations on those services. [more] October 23, 2005
Victims Commissioner reduced to bargaining chip
When the creation of a post of Victims Commissioner was first announced I noted that many people disagreed with the move. Today the Sunday Times and the BBC report that Peter Hain will announce tomorrow that Bertha McDougall is to be the first Victims Commissioner. But if the move to create such a post is wrong-headed, which I believe it is, then if this report, from the BBC, is accurate - "The appointment has been approved by the DUP, who see it as one of a number of confidence building measures for unionists." - it can only compound that wrong-headedness. October 22, 2005
Nuclear kite-flying?
The debate on if, or rather when, nuclear energy is to be seriously considered as an option has barely begun here in Ireland, but, arguably, there are signs that the UK government is much more convinced. In yesterday's Guardian, the UK government's chief scientific advisor, Sir David King, indicated that new nuclear power stations would have to be included in future energy production. [more] October 21, 2005
Green Party et al seek bandwagon
The Irish Times has a short report noting that Irish government Minister of State in the Dept of Foreign Affairs Noel Treacy told the Dáil that Irish Workers' Party President Sean Garland, currently on bail in Northern Ireland pending extradition proceedings to the US on counterfeit charges, had contacted Irish officials in the intergovernmental secretariat in Belfast since his arrest. [more] October 20, 2005
Review of planning permission for John Lewis
NIO minister Lord Rooker's decision, announced in June this year, to grant planning permission for the proposed retail superstore by John Lewis Partnerships at Sprucefield now faces a judicial review by the High Court following the decision by Mr Justice Girvan today. The planning permission announcement in June, opposed in the review by 6 groups including Belfast City Council, and the Belfast Chamber of Trade and Commerce, came after John Lewis threatened to abandon plans for their only retail development scheduled for 2006. October 19, 2005
Councillors' wilful misconduct
Previously, councillors in Newry and Mourne Council faced calls for them to be barred from office, by the UUP's Danny Kennedy, after the Local Government Auditor[LGA] accused them of wilful misconduct. [I'm trying to find an update] Now the LGA has instructed serving and former councillors on Fermanagh Council to pay a £38,178 surcharge and this time, according to the BBC report, the UUP have denied that the councillors are guilty of any wrongdoing - an appeal against the LGA ruling may be imminent. [more] 7th IMC report published The 7th IMC report has been made public, assessing paramilitary and criminal activity from 1 March to 31 August this year. Available here [pdf file]. Its general tone could be accurately described as cautious.. maybe, at a stretch, even cautiously optimistic. But the same [cautious, that is] could not be said for Secretary of State, Peter Hain. [more] October 18, 2005
Remember, violence doesn't pay..
When, following the orchestrated violence in September, Secretary of State, Peter Hain, declared that he "acknowledge[d] the particular needs of loyalist communities" and appointed David Hanson to take the lead in addressing those needs I, somewhat sarcastically [Really?? - Ed], referred to him as the new Minister for Loyalist Alienation. Now, as the BBC report, David Hanson has announced that a Delivery Team to co-ordinate action in disadvantaged loyalist communities is being set up to implement the findings of a Taskforce established in 2004.. which is, allegedly, due to report soon.. [more] October 14, 2005
Empey's empty threat?
So, the UUP leader Reg Empey has threatened to boycott the NI Policing Board should Secretary of State, Peter Hain, appoint two independent members to the positions which would otherwise be taken by Sinn Féin representatives, arguing that "This is a crisis in the making, we will not serve on a quango.". Hmm.. there are some problems with that statement, and potentially with any attempt to replace SF appointees with independents. The first one being, technically, it's already a quango. [more] Nice work if you can get someone else to pay for it The Irish Times highlights the sixth annual Overseas Conference of the Confederation of European Councillors[subs req. love the url - Ed] which began on Wednesday 12th October in Berlin.. previous venues include Brussels, Gibraltar, Prague and Slovakia.. except, as the Confederation website says, "The Confederation of European Councillors is the partnership body that comprises of over 2100 councillors of various political persuasions from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland" [more] October 12, 2005
Come on in, the water's lovely!
A lot of coverage of the BBC's bid to persuade government to increase the BBC's budget by £5.5bn over seven years from 2007, also here, the proposal would mean a rise in the licence fee from £126.50 to a projected £186.89 in 2013-14 - in the Guardian the figure is reported as £150.50. This follows the cuts announced in December, and an expected 7,000 job cuts over three years, by the new director general, Mark Thompson. Unfortunately, for the BBC, as many have pointed out - including the Chairman of the Commons Media and Sport Select Committee - that's the same Mark Thompson who, when chief executive of Channel 4 accused the BBC of swimming in a jacuzzi of cash. [more] October 11, 2005
The value of North South co-operation?
El Matador, previously of this parish has moved on to his own group blog. One of their number has a decent post on the recent set of proposals from the SDLP pushing for more attention on North South issues: [more] Interminable cost of non government There's an interesting highlights section on the Belfast Telegraph site. Probably most appropriately in a time when few believe the Assembly will be back up and running within a year, this piece provides a compendium of articles on the cost of devolution outside the archive. The cost for the Assembly free year of 2003-4 were £9.2, compares with "2001/02, when the Assembly was fully functioning, the salaries and expenses paid to members came to £10.1m". October 07, 2005
More hype than hope
Noel Whelan, in yesterday's Irish Examiner, looked at the long history of demands for, and rejections of, speaking rights in the Dáil for northern representatives, and on the recent hype on the issue, and concludes - More importantly there are considerable constitutional obstacles which could only be resolved by a referendum. There is no prospect of such a referendum being held and less prospect of it passing. Bertie Ahern knows that. I suspect the SF leadership knows that too. The only people who give SF’s campaign on this issue any credence are unionist politicians who, again, have fallen for Sinn Féin hype. October 06, 2005
Newton's modest proposal
Newton Emerson in excellent form, once again, in today's Irish Times, October 04, 2005
New chairman for Tha Boord o Ulstèr-Scotch
The BBC are reporting that the government have decided to appoint Mark Thompson as the new Chairman of the Ulster-Scots Agency - the role has been vacant for 18 months since September 29, 2005
a classic example.. indeed
The Public Accounts Committee report on the Navan Centre is available online [and as a pdf file here], which the BBC reports here. The Committee concluded that "This case is a classic example of how not to manage a cultural/tourism project" and declares it an expensive failure. But have lessons been learned? The Committee states - "We expect the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure to ensure that the handling of any future projects in this sector fully reflects the experience of this expensive failure." More hope over history.. to coin a phrase.. [more] £7 Billion deficit in investment plan Eamonn McCann, in the Belfast Telegraph, takes issue with the DUP's claim that "Northern Ireland's not for sale".. oh yes it is, says Eamonn.. and reminds us that as well as publicly owned buildings being put on the market, the September 28, 2005
Will tuck shops be banned?
I can accept that a good balanced diet assists learning, especially at primary and secondary school level, it would appear to make sense - although the actual evidence seems more anecdotal than scientific so far. But is it really necessary to introduce new legislation to force schools to apply that understanding to the food they supply to their students? and are NI schools really waiting until that legislation is introduced? "Our vision for Northern Ireland is our vision for Wales" Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and Wales, Peter Hain's speech to the Labour Party conference hasn't exactly generated a lot of coverage beyond a niche market. The Belfast Telegraph reported before the speech was delivered.. and there's not much more beyond what he has said previously - apart from the comparison with Wales.. but the BBC reports Hain's somewhat bizarre claim, made after the speech, that releasing the we should probably juggle at this point Government, according to Prime Minister Tony Blair, is a bit like learning to unicycle.. No, really! The admission came during a Question and Answer session with party delegates in Brighton.. chaired by Eddie Izzard.. whose presence may, or may not, have had something to do with the somewhat surreal flights of fancy between more September 27, 2005
in pursuit of critical mass
IN the Irish Examiner, Fergus Finlay calls yesterday's announcement, of decommissioning, a welcome step.. but not one we should be grateful for. He also has an interesting view of the process so far, and of the still distant prospect of SF in government. [more] |
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