DUP13

Ivan Lewis (shadow SoS) on his role, perceived disengagement of UK government & his Haass proposal for a ‘peace’ public holiday

| Readers 66

Ivan Lewis MP is now six weeks into his new job as Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. But what does he make of the place? Is he alone in thinking that the UK government has disengaged from NI? And is he serious about his Haass submission proposal of a public holiday to celebrate the peace process? I caught up with him on Saturday morning at the DUP conference, hours after he had released Labour’s submission to the Haass …

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Cartoon – A hard weekend (#dup13)

| Readers 98

Pet 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/

DUP conference roundup #dup13

| Readers 154

Much about the DUP conference felt very familiar. The traditional route cross country to La Mon Hotel. The full to overflowing car park. The roar of applause from party members who adore their leader. The lack of mobile coverage … and the hotel wifi that that promised much but seemed to quickly run out of DHCP addresses and left the conference isolated in its Castlereagh bubble like an episode of Under the Dome (albeit without the guns). Lunchtime was staggered …

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Robinson: “We must not allow ourselves to be defined by the problems we face but by the opportunities that we have…”

| Readers 62

I guess the party formerly known as the ‘kings of messaging’ would lose some of their narrative touch after six years in government. Yet some of the DUP party leader’s speech is worth highlighting… Starting with, erm, ‘things are not as bad as they may seem…” Real progress is being made. We sometimes need to lift our gaze from the close and immediate and fix our eyes on a longer and wider horizon to see just how much and how …

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