O’Neill must go Carla? Aye, but Unionism will pay all the costs and Michelle will be back by May
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Carla Lockhart borrows from Paisley and Thatcher, but she isn’t speaking from strength. Pulling the deputy First Minister to remove Michelle O’Neill would freeze budgets at 95%, lose Barnett money from today’s UK Budget, and leave the DUP carrying the blame for a gesture voters would reverse in May.
Business As Usual
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Last week, there was a ‘Dallas’ joke. This week, a ‘Derry Girls’ joke. However ‘Blue Lights’ remained no laughing matter as the show reached the penultimate episode of its fourth series. Before we get into that.. well, you know the …
Go East, Old Man, Part III: Are you ‘this’ or ‘that’?
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In 1988, a Moscow paper called Nagorno-Karabakh “our Northern Ireland.” In Part III, Peter Emerson asks why “this or that?” questions divide us, from Belfast to the Balkans, and makes the case for multi-option, preferential voting instead.
CS Lewis author of Narnia reclaimed for Norn Irn.
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Ahead of Netflix’s version of the Chroncles of Narnia to be shown early next year, Patrick Little in the Guardian has reclaimed the celebrated writer and visionary scholar Clive Staples ( always known as CS) Lewis for his specifically east …
What ‘Before the Vote’ gets right and wrong about health…
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John Doyle’s Before the Vote: Planning for a united Ireland devotes a chapter to the island’s two health systems, and its main finding is hard to dispute. On the figures he reports, a far larger share of Northern Ireland’s population …
Playing today’s game of aggrieved victimhood should be called out as sectarianism
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While the unionist parties may be trying out a new game at Stormont portraying restraint as strength rather than weakness, what is the temper of the times among the people? Will something far worse that Drumcree be repeated on the …
After Garvaghy recklessness has a price: Burrows and the new unionist competition
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For a generation, unionist parties competed on who looked toughest. The Garvaghy Road standoff suggests that has changed. Jon Burrows has made restraint look like strength, and the DUP now faces pressure from both sides. A game-theory look at how the three unionist parties responded.
Chambré Weekly Bulletin
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The Executive remains without an agreed Budget as talks continued this week. While the parties maintain that NI is underfunded, they have until January to come to a settlement, otherwise NI Secretary Chris Bryant MP has threatened to withdraw an …
No Matter Who Wins, the Palestinians Lose.
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There are few foreign countries whose elections are of interest to us. We don’t follow the elections in Japan or Greece or Mexico all that much. We do follow those in France and in Germany given the impact they can …
Open Sunday – discuss what you like…
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The idea for Open Sunday is to let you discuss what you like. Just two rules. Keep it civil and no man/woman playing. Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday.