CONNECTED POLITICIANS report examines the digital footprint of MLAs departing at the end of the last mandate, assessing their website and social media presence, and how well they update constituents with information about the political and constituency activity, as well how easily you can locate their offices and surgeries.
There’s just a day to go before the Great Big Politics Pub Quiz, so we hope you’re busy swotting up from Schott’s Almanac of Political Trivia, BBC Democracy Live, Hansard, 1996 Forum Election manifestoes and your box-sets of The Thick of It / The West Wing (delete as applicable). Some of our legislators will be among us, laying down the law from the quizmaster’s chair from 7:30pm or thereabouts in The Black Box. This year, we’re raising money for the emergency work of the Red Cross …
“An artillery shell had just landed and the hospital entrance was a grotesque tableau of blood, bodies and tears. A small team of doctors set to work against a soundtrack of bombs and bullets.” So began Ian Pannell’s BBC report from Syria last week. His words and pictures were moving, distressing, enraging: “Two-year-old Ahmed screamed in terror and agony as a surgeon sewed his scalp back into place. His head had been torn open when a rocket landed on his house …
A team of workers demolish a building that collapsed during the January 2010 earthquake. Across Port-au-Prince similar sights can be seen as any building materials that can be reused are salvaged when possible. One of the difficulties facing Haiti is that the government buildings that held records of land ownership were destroyed along with the records. This has led to many disputes over ownership and is another factor slowing the rebuilding of Haiti. Moochin PhotomanPhotographer and visual artist based in …
Living in a makeshift camp at Henri Christophe Park these children will know little of the story of one of the leaders of the revolution which saw Haiti become the second country, after America, to break free from colonial shackles. An aid worker i spoke with told me that there are always spikes in birth rates after natural disasters. The child at the front is playing with a condom which the children often use as ballons. Thursday night is the …
Courtesy of Stratagem, here’s the awesome prize list for the Great BIG Politics Quiz, supported by Slugger O’Toole, and being held next Thursday, 22 September at 7:45pm in the Black Box, Belfast. There’s enough in this valuable prize hamper to keep even the most anorakish of political anoraks going for quite some time – and plenty to share amongst your triumphant quiz team-mates. “The Thick of It Series 1 & The Special Boxset” DVD “Last Mitterand,the [DVD]” “Pistols at Dawn: Two …
There are lots of interesting little details in the Assembly Register of Member’s Interests. Two MLAs being paid a small sum for filling in surveys isn’t one of them: Miscellaneous Interests Jim Wells and Paul Givan Stratagem Northern Ireland: a survey company which occasionally surveys the views of MLAs on a wide range of issues. A fee of £50.00 is payable for each survey completed. You can find the results of numerous Stratagem surveys of MLAs online but details of …
Possibly the best yet (yeah, I know that I feature in this episode), but this time the focus is on the economy, stupid. Corporation tax, public land sell offs, water rates, FDI versus indigenous enterprise… Nice resource for the incoming administration… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
As Election Day draws near Slugger will be teaming up with Stratagem once again, to bring you another of our Big Breakfast events on Monday 9th May from 8:00am to 10:00am in the Penthouse at the Europa Hotel where people will gather to discuss and analyse the results that will emerge over the post-election weekend. The Stratagem Slugger O’Toole Big Election Breakfast is once again very kindly supported by the Hastings Europa Hotel. The format will be loose, informal, free-flowing …
In the first of a series of analysis pieces for Stratagem, Nicholas Whyte looks at an issue which is only obtusely refered to in public but which may be responsible for the only substantial voter churn in this election: who gets to be First Minister: The St Andrews Agreement is perfectly clear: the nominating officer of the largest political party after the election gets to nominate the new First Minister of Northern Ireland; the largest political party of the other …
This classy little video from Stratagem is the first of a series with comment from a range of voices (yours truly amongst them)… It starts with a review of the last four years… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
This morning, Stratagem and Slugger hosted a post-election breakfast in Belfast’s Europa Hotel. I’ve tidied up the proceedings and added a couple of brief voxpops with contributors. Passages in “direct quotes” are cleaned up verbatim comments, the rest captures the gist of their points. 0825 Mick Fealty kicks off and welcomes people. 0828 Brendan McMenamin (Derry~Londonderry UK City of Culture 2013) – “New [political] stories are emerging this morning” … and that’s the story of the City of Culture bid …
I see Chris Hope, my old mucker on the Telegraph, has got a hold of the latest broadside from the Taxpayer’s Alliance on government spending. Interestingly he repeats the TPA’s claims that Stratagem, the Northern Ireland company public affairs company who helped us put together last year’s Slugger Awards, was paid a whopping £900,000 by Scottish Enterprise. Only they weren’t. It seems the TPA in its eager campaign to rid us of the government funding of lobbyists (as opposed to …
