Secretary of State

Are border poll criteria an excuse for procrastination ?

Brendan Heading on September 25, 2022, 4:05 pm | Readers 4666

This morning, on the BBC’s Sunday Politics, Shadow Secretary of State Peter Kyle made some comments during a brief interview with the BBC’s Darran Marshall on the question of the criteria to call a border poll (iplayer : interview begins at approx 18:45) which seems to have generated a frisson of excitement. The salient part of the interview is reproduced below, with my emphasis. DM : I want to talk to you about the constitutional position now. Do you think …

A border poll can be held at any time – redux

Brendan Heading on January 24, 2021, 5:03 pm | Readers 4525

With border polls remaining a major topic of conversation, particularly following today’s Sunday Times/Lucid Talk reporting of a poll which found that a majority of voters in Northern Ireland wish a border poll to be held within the next five years, I still find that there remain widespread misconceptions around the Secretary of State’s powers to call a border poll. In particular, people still seem to think that the Secretary of State has no discretionary power to call a border …

Sins of omission

Concubhar on January 31, 2018, 1:35 pm | Readers 1819

More than a year since the collapse of the Assembly over, among other things, the refusal of the DUP to respect previous agreements which promised an Irish Language Act, we’re no further on this issue and, it could be argued, any of the other outstanding issues. One thing I don’t understand is why the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, neither this one or the previous incumbent, have met the Irish language groups campaigning for the legislation or, rather, …

A new approach to deadlock in Northern Ireland

Brian Walker on July 2, 2017, 3:38 pm | Readers 3605

A unique coincidence of events Standing back, it’s easy enough to see why the latest Assembly crisis is the longest and most intractable for over a decade. Unusually in recent times and in sharp contrast to the heady days of the Good Friday Agreement, this breakdown is set against background of momentous upheaval which typically, the local politicians rushed to exploit for their own causes. For the DUP, Brexit revives the prospect of a physical border which in whatever …

Just who has the powers over Welfare in Northern Ireland?

David McCann on November 23, 2015, 11:13 am | Readers 940

WHO HAS THE POWER? We all got a bit distracted over the resignation of Peter Robinson as DUP leader, but until we get announcement of a new First Minister and party leader, it’s back to the main issues at hand.

North Belfast Parading – could the DUP/UUP find a positive way out of their current rabbit hole?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 5, 2015, 8:52 pm | Readers 3042

As always in Northern Ireland, a row of dominoes have found themselves in a row and are now wobbling. 1. Getting a wide range of people to agree to be appointed to make a credible panel on North Belfast parading and related protests was always going to be an uphill struggle for the Secretary of State. Given the announcement in October with no names, and not a single name – not even a chair – being publicly mooted since them …

#Villiers, re-hashing Larkin and victim typologies

John Ó Néill on April 16, 2014, 3:50 pm | Readers 86

If nothing else, Theresa Villiers statement on power-sharing contains some odd language (see the first quote Mick has cited here). The nuances in “…there are inherent weaknesses in a system in which it is very difficult to remove one’s rulers by voting and to choose a viable alternative…” actually jar with the mother-and-apple-pie follow-up about about consistency with power-sharing and inclusivity. A central tenet of democracy is that voting in elections removes ‘rulers’ and replaces them with whoever gets elected …