A choice, not a crisis: why Stormont still has no budget
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Seven months into the year, Stormont still has no budget, and this time there is no collapse to blame. Ministers are sitting and a £1.5bn offer is on the table, but the Finance Minister has made more money from London a precondition. That is a choice, not a crisis.
Diehards Under Pressure: The DUP and Education…
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Helen Armstrong lives in the North West and is a psychotherapist, executive coach and trainer. Well, here I go again on the campaign path to help end our system of academic selection as the next round of tests is looming: it’s …
One Road, Two Perspectives: Hughie Beag and Macha on Drumcree
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Fellow Slugger poster Hughie Beag and I have crossed swords a few times in the comments section, particularly over my attempts to understand unionism and his challenges to how I’ve approached it. We’ve occasionally managed to get under each other’s …
Does the Secretary of State’s decision about Drumcree serve social justice, or victors’ justice?
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Gadfly is a political geographer from Belfast with a particular interest in the relationship between democracy and the creation of more sustainable futures. Northern nationalists and republicans have long aimed to differentiate themselves from unionists through a strong commitment to …
Drumcree: What does Northern Ireland think?
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Conleth Burns is Associate Director (Ireland and Northern Ireland) at More in Common. More in Common is a research agency that aims to help leaders understand and better navigate public opinion. You can reach out to Conleth directly on: [email protected] …
A new opinion poll on Drumcree…
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The first survey of opinion on Drumcree has been published by polling organisation More In Common in an extensive report. To a large extent the results will not provoke much surprise. In general, the picture is one of hardening opinions …
Maurice Hayes remembered. From a nationalist background the paragon of all public servants and the pathfinder to an integrating Northern Ireland
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The Royal Irish Academy’ s Dictionary of Irish Biography has just published its entry for Maurice Hayes. in my book Maurice was a principal hero of the Troubles, the very model for adapting a Catholic nationalist background to an instrument …
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.