NI Executive – Slugger O'Toole

Give Boris Johnson a fresh chance to prove his sincerity and commitment. We have nothing to lose and much to gain

Brian Walker on May 16, 2022, 8:13 am | Readers 4727

Ahead of his day in Northern Ireland, much media comment is focusing on Boris Johnson’s announcement of draft legislation later this week to unilaterally amend parts of the Protocol. This is both inevitable and regrettable. Northern Ireland’s welfare is far more important than the abstruse game of higher politics. Boris Johnson’s article in the Belfast Telegraph deserves to be cautiously welcomed. It suggests a new level of engagement in all level of NI affairs even encroaching on Stormont’s competences. Much …

The public will not put up with more months of private stalemate. Sinn Fein and Alliance must open up the Assembly to full debate

Brian Walker on May 9, 2022, 2:09 pm | Readers 4677

The glasses of full and half full Assembly results have been poured and are being eagerly being digested according to whether consumers are convinced they amount to a breakthrough for the nationalist cause or leave things much the same in a slightly different shape. Each according to taste. What matters more immediately now are the bums on seats in Stormont. To allow Executive ministers of the old mandate to continue, MLAs will have to manage to elect a Speaker. …

What sort of Assembly do we want?

Brian Walker on February 18, 2022, 9:20 am | Readers 3632

What sort of people keep holding elections to a body they aren’t sure they even want to survive? We’ve been doing it for ever. Since 1973 at least, as long in politics as Joe Biden. That’s without taking account of old time Sinn Fein’s northern abstention. As they contemplate the embarrassing cycle of abandoned fresh starts since 1998, who could blame the voters of Northern Ireland if they finally lost confidence in the very idea of the Assembly? However the …

The Northern Ireland Protocol: The High Court has its say

Sarah Creighton on July 1, 2021, 9:27 am | Readers 2500

Who knew constitutional law could be so dramatic? The High Court has dismissed a legal challenge to the Northern Ireland Protocol by several unionist politicians. The political ramifications are likely to carry us through July, a traditionally calm month in Northern Ireland. As always when there’s a high-profile judgment, people will take what they can and use it for political capital. You wouldn’t think the unionist claimants had lost. Others seem to think the matter is settled and we should …

UK Secretary of State Brandon Lewis champions liberal reform to save the Union and throws down the gauntlet to the DUP

Brian Walker on June 6, 2021, 11:32 am | Readers 4120

This just could be significant. In the Sunday Times, the emergence of a pro Union liberal reform strategy acceptable across the community from the British government. It appears to remove the last vestige of the UK government dancing to the DUP’s tune. At the most sensitive moment imaginable, just before Edwin Poots nominates a still unknown First Minister, Brandon Lewis presents a frontal challenge to the DUP. This has been simmering for some time but I never thought it would …

United pressure on Sinn Féin may be needed to break the legacy payments deadlock. Their own will benefit

Brian Walker on August 29, 2020, 2:18 pm | Readers 6191

dFM Michelle O’Neill, Sinn Féin Has Martina Anderson’s outburst distracted attention away from the substantive issue of the legacy payments deadlock, or given a boost to resolving it, following the court case requiring Michelle O’Neill in effect to remove her veto or exercise her option to resign? The scheme covers violence related to the Northern Ireland Troubles between 1966 and 2010, including incidents in Great Britain and Europe.. . People will get between £2,000 and £10,000 a year for the …

Northern Ireland Centenary: This country

Sarah Creighton on August 15, 2020, 10:59 am | Readers 11644

This is about the centenary of Northern Ireland. But first, a slight detour. In Lucy Caldwell’s, ‘Multitudes,’ one of her characters describes the heartache of watching her teenage school friend move from Northern Ireland to England. “They’ve had enough is what Susan’s mum says. She just can’t take it anymore. ‘This country,’ she says to my mum. ‘This country,’ my mum says back to her, and neither of them says anything else.” The scene has always stuck with me because …

Alliance: Now (or never) is the time to move beyond sound bite success to real world delivery…

Ian Clarke on July 28, 2020, 9:37 am | Readers 3126

In earlier articles I’ve written that as someone still fundamentally pro-union. To recap, I’ve felt electorally disenfranchised for quite a long time by two unionist parties that have refused to reflect my general social outlook. Apart from a vote for David Ervine in East Belfast in 1997, I voted UUP. They lost me post-Trimble. So, I’m politically homeless. Like many on either side of the community. The Alliance Party should fill that void. But it doesn’t. Not because it is …

“This decision is directly, but not solely, related to the issues which arose around the Bobby Storey cremation.”

Pete Baker on July 9, 2020, 7:04 pm | Readers 2383

As BBC NI political editor Mark Devenport said a few days ago, there is “No prospect of Stormont falling.” That doesn’t mean there might not be casualties elsewhere… Having apologised in public for “operational decisions” around the Bobby Storey cremation at Roselawn Cemetery, the Belfast Telegraph reports that Belfast City Council Chief Executive, Suzanne Wylie, and director of city and neighbourhood services, Nigel Grimshaw, have lodged a formal grievance with the city solicitor, and have threatened to resign “if [their] …

Why the wall of silence over north-south Covid cooperation?

Brian Walker on May 5, 2020, 11:15 am | Readers 1814

Whatever the reliability of the figures, it seems possible that the Republic has been managing Covid 19 better – or has been luckier- than Northern Ireland. Whether this can be accounted for by the incubus of UK delay and the complexity of a bigger country with an older average population will emerge from the inevitable spate of inquiries. But north -south coordination and cooperation over phasing out lockdown would seem to be essential. And yet so little has emerged about …

Good time to bring merit in government back into electoral politics?

Ian Clarke on April 27, 2020, 1:02 pm | Readers 1456

As we watch how our various ministers deal with the first genuine crisis of their careers, it seems like a good time to see if the management and emergence from Covid-19 gives us any ideas on how we can improve our overall governance in Northern Ireland. Paul Gosling uploaded an interesting article earlier this week in which he raised certain ways in which our system of devolved government could be reformed in the general interest. Paul’s focus was largely on …

SDLP suggestion for saving the press welcome, but publishers must dig deep too

Ian Clarke on April 23, 2020, 8:48 am | Readers 867

Earlier this month I uploaded two articles here asking how our local press might emerge from lockdown and sharing my concerns about the ability of some of them to do so. Since then the future of regional and local newspapers all over the UK has become a pretty hot topic, with staff being furloughed at most papers and others even indefinitely suspending publication. Local journalists – including quite a few very good ones of my acquaintance – have been tweeting …

Is the coronavirus emergency an excuse not to implement the new abortion regulations?

Brian Walker on April 8, 2020, 10:23 pm | Readers 1030

Are Northern Ireland civil servants and health trusts stalling on implementing abortion regulations passed by Westminster during Stormont’s suspension because of DUP pressure? Perhaps not, they have a lot else on their plate; but it doesn’t look good. How will GP surgeries react? Will there be a significant number of conscientious objectors to abortion referrals and prescribing morning after pills? The Executive – wouldn’t you know it – is split. Arlene Foster has made no secret of her opposition but …

Better news after Swann’s savaging. But we need more local reporting in depth. Urgently

Brian Walker on April 4, 2020, 2:38 pm | Readers 3053

We’ve now received more positive news about the running story in the last 24 hours, like Randox is now supplying NI directly. The running story is course essential. but needs to be set in context Why aren’t the regular media producing the sort of comparative analysis just supplied by Ian James Parsley?. The political argy bargy distorts the real story that matters. It’s amazing the Executive can’t get this act together to produce this sort of report as a matter …

By all means, hold the UK government’s feet to the fire. But collaboration with the Republic is no magic bullet.

Brian Walker on April 3, 2020, 12:56 pm | Readers 2170

We can hardly be surprised when the fault lines opened during this emergency. As a society still in recovery from a different sort of crisis, let’s admit we all – all – need help to avoid reverting to the old sectarian ding dong. Social media is a virus in itself and social distancing is its incubator. The first thing to hold onto is that we really are all in this together. The second is that things can only get worse …

How are we really doing compared to the south and GB? The public health and economic positions of coronavirus for Northern Ireland need more searching inquiry

Brian Walker on March 31, 2020, 2:14 pm | Readers 2496

North -south differences of approach to Covid 19 are hampering the chances of saving lives, according to an epidemiologist Prof Gabriel Scally. He brings apparent authority to differences which have been aired politically but not as far as I’ve seen among other experts. These differences should surely be resolved at a north-south ministerial meeting today. Scally writes in the Irish News.. The advice to someone in Lifford with symptoms of the disease is to self-isolate for a minimum of 14 …

Varadkar is having a good crisis. This it seems, is not the time to object.

Brian Walker on March 29, 2020, 11:57 am | Readers 8088

The Republic are doing things a little differently: joining an EU initiative to procure much needed ventilators, sending an Aer Lingus plane to China for hospital workers’ PPE; the Gardai Commissioner calling for people in the streets to produce IDs, off licences to stay open in contrast with GB. The North at first followed the GB rules but has now fallen into line with the south. The consequences if the northern ban remained in force if a hard Prohibition border …

Major battle likely over the UK government’s latest Legacy plans.

Brian Walker on March 24, 2020, 5:02 pm | Readers 2102

For those of us who don’t provide an essential service there will be time and energy to spare for the matters I’ve already drawn attention to, such as the government’s latest Legacy proposals produced last week. They abruptly overturned everything that has gone before, reached after years of tortuous gestation and months of consultation, concluding in July last year. They were contained in a brief statement above the name of the new Secretary of State Brandon Lewis: Reconciliation and information …

What’s in the Coronavirus Bill?

Sarah Creighton on March 23, 2020, 9:13 am | Readers 2402

This week the government intends to push its Coronavirus Bill through Parliament. In its “summary of impacts” document, the government states that the bill is “temporary, emergency legislation” which intends to “provide powers needed to respond to the current coronavirus epidemic.” MPs will be expected to grapple with the 300-page bill over the course of a few days. It will, for as long as it is in operation, fundamentally change our way of life. The legislation represents the biggest diminution …

Hold it a minute. Who’s actually in charge here?

Brian Walker on March 15, 2020, 12:47 pm | Readers 4044

Who actually is in charge of Covid 19 measures in Northern Ireland? Just asking. The mainstream media don’t seem that interested. Health is devolved but national emergencies are reserved to Westminster. Arlene Foster looks ahead to closing schools for 16 weeks (Why hit on 16? Why not 20 or 25? Are contingency plans for education ready to roll out? ) Michelle O’Neill with her reflexive approach to crisis thinks they should follow Dublin’s example and be closed already. Does this …