Nigel Dodds – Slugger O'Toole

Could a DUP Victory in North Belfast Paradoxically aid Remain?

Soapbox on November 20, 2019, 4:12 pm | Readers 3086

Dr Adam Fusco is a Associate Lecturer in Politics at the University of York As the polls stand the result of 2019 general election is predicted to be an overall Conservative majority. However, a hung parliament is not ruled out from the realms of possibility. In such a scenario the Conservative and Labour parties will be attempting to gain as much support from others to form a government. The tacit Remain alliance that has emerged in Northern Ireland in advance …

Nigel Dodds speaks out. But is the DUP’s uncompromising stance any more than cover for living with the backstop?

Brian Walker on March 17, 2019, 2:15 am | Readers 5420

After the chaos of last week, leading media reflect sharply differing views on the prospects for a third meaningful vote on Tuesday. The Leave – supporting Telegraph newspapers have emerged as the unlikely cheerleaders for Mrs May’s battered deal. If the deal passes, No 10 officials say the necessary legislation will have cleared the Commons by April 25, paving the way for a new Brexit Day in the final week of May or first week of June, according to the …

Foster expresses deep regret for party’s mistakes over RHI while Boris imagines ‘UKNI’ dystopia but fails to excite DUP activists #DUP18

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on November 24, 2018, 5:32 pm | Readers 6577

Read back key sections and listen to speeches from today’s DUP Conference. Arlene Foster apologised for the party’s mistakes over RHI, hinted at a ‘cultural deal’ and expressed her wish for devolution to be restored. Boris Johnson spoke about buses, Brexit and light sabres …

At least backstop squared has been dropped. But May has accepted temporarily different regimes for Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Are you alarmed? Really?

Brian Walker on November 13, 2018, 8:59 pm | Readers 3922

The dam has burst. . Suddenly, against the background of a mass rally for a second referendum, the “technical agreement” of the withdrawal deal has been sprung as a leak. In 600 pages it’s an all-UK customs backstop in the short term. But a form of Northern Ireland backstop survives, fragmented, scaled down from the joint report and appended in annexes we’re told – but present. Hardly anybody has seen it but a cascade of critical comment has poured out regardless. …

May’s team claim to find flexibility in DUP demand for legal guarantees for no checks ever in the Irish Sea

Brian Walker on October 2, 2018, 5:46 pm | Readers 5988

This is a running story .. Latest at 22.53 The FT leads with DUP puts May on notice over Brexit backstop Arlene Foster tweeted defiantly: Meeting with Prime Minister just ended. NO border in the Irish Sea will ever be acceptable to unionists throughout the UK . . . regulatory or otherwise. Government sources claim there must be just enough wriggle room created by new time limits. But are they deceiving themselves once again? From the FT story For some months, Mrs May’s team …

Mrs Foster is in the car but it’s being driven by Nigel Dodds

David McCann on March 7, 2018, 3:57 pm | Readers 4245

Interesting analysis piece from the Irish News Political Correspondent, John Manley Even though the consensus suggests the so-called accommodation was a poor deal for republicans, the level of resistance from within the DUP and broader unionism to what was in the proposals appears to have surprised Mrs Foster and her advisors. Since the talks collapsed, the Fermanagh-South Tyrone MLA has met the DUP’s ruling executive and she says they have backed her leadership. Arguably that confidence is justified – Mrs …

Nigel Dodds Calls For The Truth Over Shankill Bombing

Kris Nixon (Belfast Barman) on January 28, 2016, 11:30 am | Readers 1404

In a statement regarding Allison Morris’s Irish News story of prior police knowledge and inaction of the Shankill bombing, Nigel Dodds MP, DUP deputy leader, said: “The mass sectarian murder of the Shankill Bomb was one of the most heinous acts perpetrated by the Provisional IRA. It was a premeditated slaughter of innocents, an event that stands out amongst the PIRA’s more than 1800 bloody murders. Recent newspaper claims have refocused attention on this horrific act. Some of what has …

Is The Local Cynicism of ‘Question Time’ Fair?

Kris Nixon (Belfast Barman) on January 23, 2016, 7:30 pm | Readers 3717

On Thursday night David Dimbleby and the Question Time Carnival rolled into Titanic Belfast… and it seems the natives expected the worst and received it. To begin with, I’m a big fan of Question Time – I think it’s a great format to engage people nationwide in issues that many people are already talking about, and with the political machinery that exists within *most* parties, they give us, the voters, a good indication of party lines without having to go into …

Foster says she wants a positive future for Northern Ireland & refuses to live in the past.

David McCann on December 18, 2015, 10:51 am | Readers 2193

SLUGGER INTERVIEW: Following her election as DUP leader, I sat down with Arlene Foster to talk with her about how she felt about becoming the party leader, how she views her relationships with Sinn Fein and the UUP and how she views herself becoming the first woman to lead the party. I began by asking Arlene how she felt about becoming the DUP leader so unexpectedly, when until just 10 days ago most of us thought it would be Nigel Dodds.

The Mechanics of the DUP Leadership

Soapbox on December 8, 2015, 7:09 pm | Readers 2581

INSIDE THE TENT: The cloak and dagger nature of the DUP’s latest episode of leadership change provides us an excuse to revisit Hugo Young’s wonderful description of how, prior to 1965, the British Conservative Party handled the tricky process of succession. Tory leaders were, Young observed, ‘removed and replaced by the informal alchemy of a charmed circle of elders’.

Arlene Foster as leader would challenge some cherished media narratives…

Mick Fealty on December 8, 2015, 3:16 pm | Readers 1972

LADY’S DAY: Only the second major Northern Irish party leader and a former UUPer, Arlene Foster’s rise runs counter to a long favoured analysis in the NI political media that the DUP consists mostly of a few modernisers living in fear of backwoodsmen. That’s a myth that will be harder to sustain under Foster than it was under Robinson.

Party faithful pay tribute to Robinson as he “steps back from front line politics & steps out of the limelight” #dup15

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on November 21, 2015, 7:04 pm | Readers 989

There were few surprises during the Saturday sessions of the DUP conference. While the next party leader and First Minister were anointed with praise, neither Nigel Dodds or Arlene Foster were taking anything for granted and second guessing the inevitable view of the elected representatives who will shortly back their formal promotion to new roles. There was a sense of “less is more” about the agenda, with many loose cannons and critical friends “being seen but not heard”. Other than …

Latest odds on the runners and riders for DUP leader and First Minister

David McCann on November 19, 2015, 5:24 pm | Readers 2697

WHO SUCCEEDS ROBINSON: Latest odds from Paddy Power are in for who will take over from Peter Robinson.

Dodd lays into the Tories for laying into the SNP’s mandate (and side-slaps the SNP)

Mick Fealty on April 27, 2015, 11:32 am | Readers 1881

Those who heard this morning’s #SluggerReport will have noted the major item was Nigel Dodds’ extraordinarily adept intervention in the Westminster debate this morning in the Guardian. It surely cannot be a coincidence that Jim Wells’ has been dispatched so quickly (hint: it was nothing to do with our toothless Ministerial code) in order to clear the air and political space for this… Listening to Nicola Sturgeon’s progressive pan-British rhetoric, you could have thought you were listening to one of …

Profiling “cheeky sod” Nigel Dodds: Radio 4’s take on “possibly Britain’s least well-known Westminster leader”

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on March 22, 2015, 10:30 am | Readers 2104

Listening back to Radio 4’s recent Profile of Nigel Dodds is an opportunity both to find out more about the DUP’s deputy leader, and to discover what mainland Britain makes of Northern Ireland politics and politicians. It is clear that the BBC struggled to find material, and lengthy contributions from Diane Dodds and the News Letter’s Sam McBride filled in much of the background detail of the (mostly) loyal North Belfast unionist politician. And of course it was an excuse …

Gerry Kelly: North Belfast is still winnable and is determined to challenge politics that are “sectarian in the extreme”

David McCann on March 20, 2015, 4:23 pm | Readers 3217

Today Sinn Fein launched their plans to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising in North Belfast. As pacts have dominated the headlines I caught up with the party’s sitting MLA and Westminster candidate, Gerry Kelly to get his views about deal announced on St. Patrick’s Day. I began by asking him what his initial thoughts were on the pact? Kelly told me that it whilst four constituencies were included it was really a two seat pact to …

Dodds: “Time the inhumane and ineffective consequences of bedroom tax are revisited in the rest of the UK”

Mick Fealty on March 11, 2015, 7:56 pm | Readers 1105

Okay, ignore the Grauniad’s misidentification of Nigel Dodds as the leader of the DUP, and focus on the subject of the Op Ed…. In contrast to most of the political mudslinging that passes for politics in Westminster these days, the tone is incredibly relaxed and polite. Before he gets to the main course, here’s the opener: It’s a pity if the two – current – main parties can’t make themselves attractive enough to most voters, but it explains where we …

Do we really need another debate about flags?

The Firemen on January 27, 2015, 6:26 pm | Readers 2028

Tonight our esteemed elected representatives in the Northern Ireland Assembly are due to debate driving licences. Good news – I hear you cry – at last some action may be taken to address the disparity in the cost of driving licences between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Last week there was much consternation when it was revealed that learner drivers in Northern Ireland pay nearly twice the price for a provisional licence compared to elsewhere in the UK – £62.50 …

Ian Paisley: “Assassinated”

The Firemen on September 12, 2014, 9:48 pm | Readers 2197

Many many words will be written about the late Lord Bannside, the Revered Ian Richard Kyle Paisley. The time for debate on his legacy is later. However on a day in which the First Minister of Northern Ireland Peter Robinson said “As a leader of men, a friend of the people, a servant of the state and a voice for the truth Ian Paisley excelled and shone,” and the Deputy Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party Nigel Dodds wrote “He …

And then, the marching season was back upon us…

John Ó Néill on June 4, 2014, 1:08 pm | Readers 143

The Parades Commission has given its determination on the latest application by the ‘Ligoniel Combine’ to stage a parade along the section of the route that the Commission has specifically ruled out since 12th July last year. The reaction to this will, to some extent, colour the atmosphere as those summer parades that are usually contentious approach. Significantly, yesterday, First Minister Peter Robinson chose to avoid the debate on racism in the Assembly that his own comments sparked. Instead, he went with a …