David Cameron – Page 2 – Slugger O'Toole

A loss of Respect for Amjad Bashir?

The Firemen on January 25, 2015, 6:33 pm | Readers 1816

UPDATED The defection of MEP Amjad Bashir from UKIP to the Conservative Party took an amazing new twist this afternoon when George Galloway’s Respect Party claimed on their website that Bashir was selected as the Respect candidate in Bradford Moor for the May 2012 council elections but was deselected “after local residents raised serious concerns about his fitness to stand.” He subsequently left Respect, joined UKIP and was placed second on the UKIP list of candidates for the Yorkshire and …

A spirit of genuine power sharing is needed to make more powers work for the Scottish Parliament

Brian Walker on January 22, 2015, 6:08 pm | Readers 206

Power sharing of the genuine sort is clearly needed to make work the complexity contained in the 44 draft clauses of legislation to grant sweeping new powers to the Scottish Parliament. But not for a while yet, if ever. David Cameron’s visit to Edinburgh to present the Command Paper was marked by political jostling much more complicated that the heady simplicity of Yes or No in the referendum. It was preceded by the Chancellor yesterday pledging to try to bar Scottish MPs …

Cartoon – Spencer on Tuesday

Brian Spencer on December 16, 2014, 4:05 pm | Readers 515

In response to the Cameron-Kenny talks exit the Telegraph wrote, “It is astonishing how money can conquer ancient sectarian divides.” The divided became the united and money was the lubricant and the bridge. The only problem, Cameron wants the money back with interest. The divide now is between Cameron and the common money front of DUP-SF. Brian SpencerBrian is a writer, artist, political cartoonist and legal blogger. Actively tweeting from @brianjohnspencr. More information here: http://www.brianjohnspencer.com/ www.brianjohnspencer.com/

Cameron and Kenny go home

David McCann on December 12, 2014, 9:40 am | Readers 2409

From the BBC, David Cameron and Enda Kenny go home after talks failed to reach a deal. There was an offer on the table of spending powers that would amount to £1 billion over five years. However, the reaction from Sinn Fein was not very encouraging for Cameron as the Education Minister, John O’Dowd labelled Cameron a “penny pinching accountant” and the party president, Gerry Adams had this to say 2 Govts exiting after most amateurish ham fisted episode I …

Cold and stormy at ‘Cnoc an Anfa’

Concubhar on December 11, 2014, 11:47 am | Readers 1178

I was up in Stormont yesterday – Cnoc an Anfa is the Irish for Stormont – and it certainly lived up to its name. It was bitterly cold, so cold I could feel my fingers begin to detach themselves from my body as I clutched my ‘Acht Gaeilge’ placard at the bottom of the steps of that grandiose building. There were around a hundred of us, participating in an anti-racism pro diversity demonstration, called to demand an Irish Language Act …

Will dropping the ECHR ‘void’ the ‘Good Friday Agreement’?

Mick Fealty on October 3, 2014, 11:32 am | Readers 751

So the Tories want to hack the European Convention on Human Rights out of the, erm, British Constitution? [Yep, but Cameron had to get rid of Dominic Grieve before he tried it – Ed]… Erm, well as Fergal Crehan pointed out on Twitter, there’s a little matter of an international treaty to ponder… Here it is, in the Good Friday Agreement. We did our part. Now Cameron wants to welsh on the deal pic.twitter.com/bcR3CkVjo1 — lɐƃɹǝℲ (@Fergal) October 2, 2014 …

Spanish court blocks Catalan Independence Referendum #indyref

David McCann on September 30, 2014, 1:32 pm | Readers 525

A few days ago the Catalan President, Artur Mas signed a decree for a independence vote to be held on November 9th 2014. Speaking about holding the vote Mas said; Our roots are deep, as is the strength of our feelings and our will to survive in the future. We want to decide, we want to decide our future for ourselves, and we now have the legal framework and are at the right moment to do it. Obviously given heart …

Time to call Sinn Fein’s bluff over welfare

Brian Walker on September 29, 2014, 9:41 pm | Readers 1529

John Simpson, an economist who deserves to be trusted, dismissed the Great Welfare Crisis as essentially bogus months ago – yet his analysis seems to have failed to pass into political debate and comment from the Business pages. It might help if critics of Sinn Fein’s grandstanding spoke on the basis of an agreed analysis. OFFICIAL Treasury figures show that spending on welfare-related topics in Northern Ireland is still increasing and, significantly, will continue to increase in the immediate years ahead. That …

Labour Party: “Making no progress on welfare has financial implications. It is not a cost-free choice…”

Pete Baker on September 25, 2014, 2:31 pm | Readers 424

As Mick mentioned, the repeated attempts to blame the fallout from the Northern Ireland Executive’s deadlock on Welfare Reform on “the right wing Tory/DUP austerity agenda“, or “the British Tory Government“, or, more frequently, “a cabinet of Tory millionaires“, have been dealt a blow by clarification of the Labour Party’s position by the Shadow NI Secretary of State at the party’s conference. From the Irish Times report (23 Sept) The disagreement, said [Labour’s shadow Northern Ireland secretary Ivan Lewis], is “a denial” …

Effing Tories

The Firemen on September 10, 2014, 5:13 pm | Readers 1901

David Cameron made an impassioned defence of the United Kingdom today as he began campaigning for a ‘No’ vote in next Thursday’s Scottish independence referendum. However the phrase making all the headlines is “effing Tories.” Has the Prime Minister scored a spectacular own goal? Cameron said “Because it’s an election, because it’s a ballot, I think people can feel a bit like it’s a general election. That you make a decision and five years later you can make another decision. If …

Gove, Cameron and the old four year Switcheroo…

Mick Fealty on July 17, 2014, 9:00 am | Readers 444

Here’s a classic case of where the polling mechanism breaks down. The question presumes there’s a meaningful difference in interest between Michael Gove and his boss, the British Prime Minister. I’m not convinced there is any such difference. I saw the Indy going to town on the salary loss, but to be frank, career progression in politics often means taking a hit in the near term. Govey’s work is done in Cabinet. Now he’s in the war cabinet. This one …

Cameron’s EU defeat: maybe De Gaulle was right all along

Turgon on June 29, 2014, 5:58 pm | Readers 165

David Cameron’s failure to defeat the candidature of Jean-Claude Juncker has been variously described as a humiliation, a catastrophe for Britain, and an example of Cameron’s principle and European leaders cowardice. The Guardian’s Toby Helm has possibly the best analysis of what actually happened, why and how. It seems relatively few EU leaders were keen on Mr. Juncker’s appointment and that there was annoyance at a minor political coup by the EU parliament claiming that the result of the elections …

Cameron and the EU: What’s good for business versus the democratic deficit?

Mick Fealty on June 27, 2014, 11:33 am | Readers 78

So the EU leaders meet today, and it surely has to say something Jean Claude Juncker seems already confident of getting the job of President of the European Commission. For those who don’t know, Jean Claude is that Luxembourger geezer with the dodgy line in what happens when things get serious. And that’s not even mentioning his past “entanglement in Luxembourg intelligence affairs”. The odd thing is not just Cameron’s obvious distain for playing the European game (given this has been …

DUP back in Downing St while Adams was in Antrim police station – shock

Brian Walker on May 8, 2014, 9:20 pm | Readers 65

Nick Watt of the Guardian is that rare thing in the Westminster lobby, a Sinn Fein watcher. Here he enters DUP territory with a flyer about what the DUP might do if they hold the balance of power in the next Parliament, with the Tories the largest single party. A little party was held in the No 10 garden just after a meeting about putting pressure on Libya to compensate Troubles. This story looks like Nick’s follow up to the …

Victims of Gadaffi’s arms imports to the IRA shouldn’t get their hopes up

Brian Walker on May 4, 2014, 12:42 pm | Readers 64

This is one of the most acute problems of Northern Ireland today- politicians raising hopes for victims that stand little or no chance of being fulfilled. As an anti-cynic I’m prepared to believe that David Cameron’s meeting with a DUP delegation over reviving compensation claims against Libya disclosed in the Sunday Telegraph wasn’t just a clumsy diversion effort from the Adams arrest (wrong constituency and timing ).At least it got Peter Robinson into Downing St, a rare occurrence these days. It reads like …

The Scottish independence debate goes colourful…

Brian Walker on May 4, 2014, 11:31 am | Readers 78

The Herald on Sunday is the first Scottish newspaper to come out clearly in favour of independence. The front page designed by the artist Alasdair Gray makes quite a splash and the editorial arguments are balanced and reasonable. (The case for independence) seems to us to be a more exciting, imaginative and inspiring proposition than the alternative proposed by the No campaign. That it has been remorselessly negative need not detain us here. Its leaders have told …

Scotland Essays: The pro-Union cause has four months to unite, learn identity politics and make a new devolution pact now!

Brian Walker on April 26, 2014, 1:49 pm | Readers 82

The difference between before and after the Scottish referendum is as fundamental and unknowable as the black hole between life and death. Yet the fate of the Union may depend on what people believe now about what may happen then, in that currently unknowable state. With the polls narrowing near the point of cross over, London- based politicians and commentators are at last stirring themselves, the Conservative commentator and ex-MP Matthew Parris in the Times (£) being the latest in assuming a torrid fall-out from …

It takes the threat to Cameron’s survival to wake Westminster up to the threat of Scottish independence

Brian Walker on April 3, 2014, 9:51 am | Readers 49

Signs are emerging that the Westminster village, which usually treats north of Hampstead Heath as terra incognita, is at last waking up to the real threat of Scottish independence. The contrast couldn’t be starker between the obsession of the English right wing with a phantom referendum over Europe and the real one in Scotland that is almost upon us. The Times (£) reports pressure on David Cameron to ban Scottish candidates from the 2015 General election if Scotland votes Yes in …

David Cameron: “We will appoint an independent judge to produce a full public account of the operation of this administrative scheme…”

Pete Baker on February 27, 2014, 3:56 pm | Readers 59

The BBC reports that the Prime Minister David Cameron has announced a judicial review of the operation of the controversial administrative scheme to deal with so-called “on the runs” which was highlighted in the recent collapse of the John Downey case. From the BBC report Mr Cameron told a Downing Street press conference: “I agree with the first minister of Northern Ireland that after the terrible error of the Downey case it is right to get to the bottom of what happened. …

David Cameron’s bid to go it alone could open up the debate on the UK’s future on the EU

Mick Fealty on February 25, 2014, 7:45 am | Readers 48

NOW this is interesting. James Kirkup at the Telegraph broke the news last night that as well as having its manifesto writen by five old Etonians (and one former pupil of St Pauls, and I don’t mean the one in Beechmount!), the Tories will be going into the next election determined not go into coalition. Bold move by the Cameroons. Though as Mike from Political Betting notes, it is one that could swing both ways. It would certainly clear the …