assembly

A question of chairmanship

| Readers 1052

A wee Sunday thought. Under d’Hondt, and specifically section 18 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, the DUP is due to be asked to nominate the new minister for Regional Development when the Assembly reconvenes after the summer break. The current chairperson of the Committee for Regional Development is Trevor Clarke, in succession to Jimmy Spratt.  Section 29(5) of the same Act says that “in making a selection under the provision made by virtue of subsection (2)(a), a nominating officer …

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Abortion pressure continues slowly, slowly

| Readers 1042

Two interesting blasts from non-natives in the abortion debate have appeared in – can you guess?  Yes! –  in the Guardian and the Independent. In the Indy, London-based Siobhan Fenton has been combing the statistics just out, to find that  that 828 women who had abortions in England and Wales  last year gave Northern Ireland addresses and 3754  were recorded as coming from the Republic. Almost certainly these figures are an underestimate, the real NI figure being around 2000, according …

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A re-energised John McCallister on expenses, his Assembly and Executive Reform Bill, and the role of independents

| Readers 1184

John McCallister may be ex-UUP and ex-NI21, but he’s not planning to be ex-politics. I spoke to the South Down independent unionist late last week. He’s rebuilding his profile and perhaps also his reputation after been seen as the person who pulled the plug on NI21 a day or two before the May 2014 elections. On top of “a fairly hefty workload of constituency work” he’s ploughing effort into a Private Members Bill to address Assembly and Executive Reform. After …

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McBride: “our clarion call is lucid and compelling: ‘Make It Work’!”

| Readers 638

With the threat of Stormont collapsing gaining more headlines in our papers, a group called Make it Work has emerged to pressure civil society into engaging positively with the political process. Writing for Slugger, Peter McBride, Chair of ‘Make It Work’ argues for a positive approach towards our devolved administration. Why would we have to mount a campaign to make this place work? That sums up the challenge perfectly – it isn’t working. Our politicians have made enormous progress since …

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…this long rumoured Assembly collapse…

| Readers 2568

Over in New York, Gerry Adams has just issued a statement on the current impasse over welfare cuts in the Assembly (as reported by Liam Clarke). According to the report, Sinn Féin will let the Assembly fall and trigger an election rather than implement the cuts and Gerry Adams said: “It isn’t that we want an election but if some of the parties in the North are going to follow this agenda, then let them bring it on to the …

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UUP-Has Northern Ireland’s ‘grand old party’ finally past its sell by date?

| Readers 850

Last week I did an analysis of the decline in the SDLP’s electoral support since 1998. In the piece, I questioned whether the party had a future if it continued losing voters. A lot of these same problems affect the Ulster Unionist Party. This party which founded the Northern Ireland state had led every single government that the province had until 2007. Indeed, it is hard to the think that Ian Paisley was the first leader of our provincial administration who did …

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Sectarian wrangling over sharing and integration can only be averted by raising sights towards higher standards

| Readers 46

A debate on the future of education has begun in confusion but at least it’s underway. Since Obama’s speech which was accorded more significance than it deserved, the debate on sharing or integration in education got into a terrible muddle straight away. Is sharing a big step towards integration or the very opposite?  Since promoting its comment columns as The Home of Debate NI, the Belfast Telegraph has thrown its usual ”on the one hand, on the other – let’s …

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SDLP is the only Assembly party to refuse the latest £5,000 pay rise

| Readers 50

Interesting use of an FOI by a political party (never wrong for long, I’m told it was the Nolan Show wot found it out), ie to find out whether any of the other political parties at Stormont refused their 11% pay rise. Mark H Durkan: “The independent panel which recommended the payrise are completely out of touch not only with the public mood but also with public need. This was evidenced by their decision to cut MLA office costs at …

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Help us with drafting a FOI request on the MLA’s indemnity insurance claim…

| Readers 54

This is an experiment in participation. I would like to get to the bottom of this business of MLAs insurance, and it seems to me that it’;s best done openly. So I’ve begun a draft Freedom of Information request which is open for Slugger readers to add to and redraft… Or simply to comment on the Google doc or below. I want to send it in on Monday. And I will post in to the Assembly via the WhatDoTheyKnow website. …

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At the current rate of progress, gender equality of MLAs at Stormont will only take another 65 years

| Readers 181

Bronagh Hinds’ chapter of Everyday Life After the Irish Conflict: The Impact of Devolution and Cross-Border Cooperation [reviewed yesterday] examines women’s political participation points to limited progress in addressing the gender balance of political institutions. The proportion of councillors who are female rose to 24 per cent in 2011 from 14 per cent in 2000. Sounds good. But of the 14 opportunities for co-option in the NI Assembly between 2007 and 2012 2010 “to replace MLAs who had resigned or …

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16 Nationalist MLAs in the top 20 of free ink claimants…

| Readers 62

Interesting front page story in the Irish News today… They’ve been digging on the use of free toner to political parties and it breaks down to this: Sinn Fein £93,550 SDLP £58,693 DUP £52,770 UUP £25,515 Pat Doherty in West Tyrone claimed about £16,300, although the party say that Doherty shared an office with the former MLA Clare McGill… Sinn Fein MLAs made up nine of the top twenty spots followed by the SDLP (seven), the DUP (three), and the …

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Every little helps…

| Readers 8

I DOUBT if our Sammy has been down at Writer’s Square lately, or whether he’s been flicking through the pages of Tescopoly – but there’s little doubt he has managed to piss off one multi-national more than our tent-dwelling comrades have. And after reading Tesco director David North’s threats the other day about cutting job creation and investment here if Sammy goes ahead with plans to impose a large retailer levy, I rather sympathise with Sammy. North said last week …

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“Just following orders”: SF Ministers are subordinate to their own command structure

| Readers 224

Tuesday night’s Spotlight on the killing of Mary Travers was indeed fascinating, not so much for the story of the ambush itself – although I had never seen the family members speak on camera before, and their continuing suffering was palpable – but for its insights into the inner workings of Sinn Féin. SF’s arrogant attitude towards journalists is well-known (how dare they ask impertinent questions!), but it was the juxtaposition of Carál Ní Chuilín’s bad-tempered interview and her relationship …

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Do not mourn the octopus

| Readers 22

In news Slugger predicted last year, Alliance’s Sean Neeson has announced his retirement. You won’t have long to wait to check if the 2nd half of the prediction is correct and Gerry Lynch is selected to run in his place. Blank

Will you know who you’re voting for in May 2011?

| Readers 9

Looks like there could be an(other) opportunity for parties to play candidate/co-option games in the Assembly and local government elections in May 2011. With at least two elections being held on the same day (never mind the strong chance of a voting reform referendum) some politicians may be fighting to retain several different jobs. Now double-jobbing has really only been addressed at an MP/MLA and MP/Council level, but a surprising number of MLAs have so far seemed happy to retain …

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Gender quotas

| Readers 5

Over on the Anti-Room group blog, Amanda posts about female political representation and gender quotas. She notes: Now we hear news that Irish female politicians as a group (all be it a very small one in comparison to their male counterparts) are not in favour of introducing quotas to ensure a greater number of women get into power. A very thorough article in today’s Irish Times by political correspondent Mary Minihan, found that of the 23 female TDs currently in …

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Commons cuts will force radical reform and a smaller Assembly

| Readers 5

It’s now clear that the UK coalition’s decision to cut the number of MPs by 50 to 600 will have radical implications for the Assembly. Northern Ireland is set to have its numbers cut to 15 MPs, three fewer than at present. This is the up to date data Electorate                                                                 600 MPs England 38,241,036                                                 504.62 Northern Ireland 1,135,835                                    14.98 Scotland 3,864,416                                                     50.96 Wales 2,261,816                                                            29.82 　Quota 75,839 The Assembly is of course elected on the basis on the 18 Westminster constituencies. …

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Distrust of MLAs and rejection of the parties dominate annual survey

| Readers 2

A browse in the NI Life and Times Survey for 2008-09 published recently reveals the usual benign political attitudes without being able to explain how these fail to have a decisive impact  on voting patterns or the attitudes of elected representatives. Cynics say this shows the persistent unviability of political polling even now.  But this time, the main results may make even them sit up and take notice. A whopping 85% trust politicians not very much or not at all. 63% …

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NI Assembly – bak 2 skul in the form of a comic

| Readers 33
Snippet from NI Assembly comic

The NI Assembly’s education service has produced a comic aimed at educating school children about the local democratic institutions. As well as covering the daily/weekly life of a MLA, departments and ministers, it even gets as far as working out an example of the transferrable vote system in action! So far, none of the cartoon characters seem to resemble real elected representatives …