But, as LBJ once famously pointed out, politics is about numbers. Right now not only does Sunak have almost all of his party, he also has the full throated backing Labour, Lib Dems and the SNP meaning the House divided: Ayes 515 to Noes 29.
Slugger live-streamed the book launch of Professor Padraig O’Malley latest work – Perils and Prospects of a United Ireland – part of the Imagine! Festival of Ideas and Politics. As part of the event, Belfast Telegraph journalist Sam McBride talked to O’Malley about his fourth book on the politics of Northern Ireland, with nearly 100 interviews with leaders and commentators reflecting on the social, economic, and political changes afoot in both parts of the island. You can stuill watch it …
Latest is that DUP MPs are not going to vote for the Windsor Framework in Westminster. It’s tempting to jump to the conclusion that this is where they’re going to land at the end of the month, but (a little) premature. They’ve chosen an awkward (Peter Robinson like) device that doesn’t make the party leader’s position particularly easy whilst the panel deliberate in the background. My own suspicion is that they’re probably busy taking soundings from they voter base. LucidTalk …
“A medium is not something neutral—it does something to people.” -Marshall McLuhan I was on Nolan this morning to discuss an Irish News story about a 29 year old candidate standing for the DUP called Tyler Hoey. It featured some awful FB quotes (which I won’t repeat here) from just three years ago favourably mentioning the UDA. The paper notes that Ian Paisley “previously said” he took action to make sure the posts were removed, an apology made and “a real …
Gary Lineker, eh? I’m not so much of a soccer head that I missed either edition of Match of the Day this weekend. It’s more a nostalgia act for me from the days when it was the closest thing we could get to watching live soccer on television. As for the larger question of whether we should be listening to football commentators for our political analyses, I’m kinda with Julie Birchill writing in The Spectator: When I was a girl, …
For Malachi O’Doherty, the question of Irish unity is less about when there might be a border poll or what the result of a plebiscite would be, but whether this deeply divided island can actually ever be truly united. It’s the topic he has examined in a recently published book: Can Ireland Be One? As part of Look North! The North Belfast Festival, Malachi chatted to UU’s Prof Duncan Morrow. Filmed by Alan Meban @alaninbelfast in Ulster University on …
The Imagine! Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics is seeking to provide ‘brain food’ to all and sundry over seven days in March. The packed programme is a veritable feast of ‘ideas for a better world’. Now in its ninth year, the festival has over 130 in-person and online events, and the majority are free. While politics is often to the fore, politicians themselves aren’t usually platformed at the non-partisan festival’s events. But this year, one event will be exploring …
Brian has a point when he argues that the DUP may struggle to oversell the complications of this Brexit deal. Of course they should be given time to look over the car and kick the tyres. Sammy Wilson and others are entitled to point out the shortfalls. But this deal changes the overall degree to which any UK government is willing and prepared to go out on a limb to salvage things for the DUP in particular and unionism in …
There are a number of important signals from yesterday’s publication of the Windsor Framework document that have little enough to do with Northern Ireland per se but rather mark the beginning of the end of a Brexiteer fantasy Brexit. There will be many concerns arising and not all of them are being expressed by unionists. Using a mechanism like the petition of concern, which has been subject of a lot of controversial issues for a close to final arbiter has raised …
On the RTÉ Six One News just now, Tanaiste Micheál Martin has said that credit is due to the DUP for raising key flaws within the previous Northern Ireland Protocol. It’s a rare admission from the wider nationalist leadership, but an important one. As someone who usually keeps schtum about his own private views of Irish politics in favour of a more connected analysis of what we know at any one time it took Brexit to drive me off the …
The latest in regular Post-Brexit Clinics run by Queen’s University was run on Friday morning. If you missed it, here’s a chance to catch up with both the opinion polling that the academics have been using to track sentiment and reaction to Brexit and the Protocol, and to get an update on legal action around the Protocol, and dynamic regulatory alignment. Clinic regulars Professors David Phinnemore and Katy Hayward were joined by Dr Billy Melo Araujo and Dr Lisa Whitten. …
Newton Emerson points out in the Irish Times yesterday… Bad news for everyone exhausted by the DUP’s protocol drama: there are at least three more months to go. Northern Ireland has council elections on May 18th, two weeks later than originally scheduled to avoid clashing with the coronation of King Charles. The DUP is strongly motivated to take no definitive stance on a protocol deal, let alone return to Stormont, before this date. In Conservative Home, former SpAd to Arlene …
No matter how we look at it, or from what community perspective we look at it, the next few days are likely to be pivotal ones. I want to look at the next few days from an unapologetically pro-union perspective and what I think the DUP leader needs to do to secure the strongest possible outcome for unionism and for Northern Ireland. It’s hard for anyone to argue that the DUP hasn’t had a decent few weeks. Whether by design …
Interesting story on Sinn Féin’s unique approach to managing its own political expenses in the Irish Times this weekend. This time it’s blown up in the south, where SIPO is investigating several well off-centre anomalies. Pat Leahy sets the context for the story in the party’s own reaction to a number relatively minor (compared to SF’s own odd arithmetic in this case) infringement by Fine Gael’s Pascal Donohoe discovered in a whirl of controversy earlier this year: When Minister for …
Rishi Sunak is in Belfast to brief party leaders this morning. There’s been rumours circulating for weeks that a deal is done. Unlike Boris Johnson, the current PM has not been spraying promises around the place or playing high stakes in the media. It’s thought he’s kept the nature of the deal tight amongst a very small group within his own cabinet, so that what the party leaders hear this morning is pretty fresh. There’s an understanding in Dublin at …
With the morning mist still lingering over east Belfast, the Northern Ireland Assembly met at noon. The first item of business was – as always in this long series of recalls – the election of the Speaker and (at least two) Deputy Speakers. Letters from Speaker Alex Maskey ahead of the sitting had reminded MLAs that their order, language and debate should be constructive and that Points of Order should not be abused. Many MLAs walked down the steps into …
The latest ruling from the Supreme Court should surprise no-one. The justices affirmed previous precedent and confirmed what was obvious: the Protocol was lawfully implemented. Since the ruling, there have been calls to ditch the Good Friday Agreement. Anti- Agreement unionists say the consent principle isn’t worth the paper it’s written on because it didn’t stop the Protocol If the Agreement should go because it’s useless, what does that say about the Act of Union? In its ruling, the Supreme …
As Jayne McCormack reports for the BBC, the legal obligation to call another Assembly election if no Executive is formed will be put back for another year. But he will still have the power to call one earlier if he chooses. Stormont election deadline delayed by a year – BBC News With the opinion polling telling us that a new election now would achieve nothing – leaving the parties in a broadly similar position to now – it was obvious …
It shouldn’t actually surprise us in the slightest, and for once I can’t entirely blame the DUP’s collapse of the Assembly. On 25th October, John O’Dowd announced as Infrastructure Minister that Translink fares would “remain frozen for another year”, but today it was announced that they would rise by an average of 7% from 6 March. The Secretary of State made a statement to the House of Commons on 24 November 2022 saying he recognised “that steps will also need …
Watch back the recent panel discussion about the work and legacy of Northern Ireland’s MEPs, organised by IACES on the back of the publication of “The Forgotten Tribe – British MEPs”. Jim Nicholson, Giada Lagana, David Harley and Carl Whyte, chared by Viviane Gravey.
