The Assembly – Slugger O'Toole

By public demand, a new Belfast Agreement is needed to transform our deadlocked politics

Brian Walker on July 26, 2022, 2:25 pm | Readers 7146

As sure as night followed day, the sonorous tributes to David Trimble flowed from those who in their day had stabbed him front and back. Some were no doubt observing the Irish habit of never speaking ill of the recently dead. Perhaps some rose above hypocrisy. For behind the traditional political rhetoric lies latent acceptance that they are all inheritors of his legacy. As Trimble himself put it: In 2005 I came a cropper but, in the seven years between …

It’s still worth taking a punt on Boris. This time it’s in his own interest to compromise with the EU

Brian Walker on May 18, 2022, 5:24 pm | Readers 3549

In my last post, I was a lonely outlier when I argued that we had nothing to lose by giving Boris Johnson a chance to see what he can deliver. I did so in full knowledge of his record and reputation. I am unrepentant. At least equally irritating as Boris is the solipsism that assumes Northern Ireland is centre of world attention and reduces outsiders like the prime minister to bit players in what Churchill called “the fearful integrity” of …

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 4722

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 4671

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. …

Secular control of Northern Ireland’s schools means more than a modest expansion of integrated education. Is that what a majority wants?

Brian Walker on March 1, 2022, 11:51 am | Readers 1991

Abortion, the legacy, the Irish language and now integrated education; why is secretary of state Brandon Lewis tossing out controversial policy ideas which are largely the prerogative of Stormont? Real action on any of these hot topics will be held in abeyance until the after the Assembly elections. Then we’ll see won’t we? Although his ideas lack shall we say, a certain sophistication, they are certainly provocative and seem intended to stimulate a more diverse debate than the same old. …

The outgoing chief justice Declan Morgan calls for progress on the legacy and political reform

Brian Walker on September 2, 2021, 1:13 pm | Readers 1663

Attention in the legal world will focus today in the swearing in of Lady Chief Justice Siobhan Keegan, the first woman to hold the chief justice post ( and the third Catholic in a row – so perhaps that’s one dragon that’s finally been slain) . Young for the job at 50 and entirely home grown, it may be no coincidence that she presided over the Ballymurphy inquest which although not a trial, provided at the very least ample justification for …

If Edwin Poots tried to crash the Assembly it would open the door to a border poll

Brian Walker on May 1, 2021, 2:42 pm | Readers 8162

Let’s assume Edwin Poots is a shoo-in for the DUP leadership. Comfortable in his minor elder statesman role at Westminster, Jeffrey Donaldson hasn’t the stomach for a contest. He might be willing to accept it on a plate but that’s not going to happen. With more than a hint of desperation, some of us have been foisting the Nixon goes to China model onto Poots, meaning that the hardliner in politics may be better placed to compromise than the liberal. …

Brexit breakthrough on the protocol? Try this for size

Brian Walker on March 29, 2021, 2:23 pm | Readers 4614

If you’re one of those souls who follow every twist and turn of Stormont politics, there’s one thing you shouldn’t overlook; that sorting out the Brexit rows which are stoking division are largely beyond local control. Another is what Newton reminded us recently, that Stormont boycott is now a risky strategy. The Executive can stagger on for the best part of a year in the absence of one leading party – guess who? – but with an election somewhere along …

Behind the Paddy’s Day rituals, how deep is the Stormont crisis?

Brian Walker on March 18, 2021, 7:26 am | Readers 2520

With so much guff, bluff and ritual about it, St Patrick’s Day is a poor bellwether for judging the state of affairs in Ireland remotely – and perhaps no better on the spot either. One glance at privileged youff crowding Botanic Gardens in defiance of lockdown, you might have groaned with me: “ Not the Holylands again. “ However BBCNI’s news story was encouraging. St Patrick's Day: Police clear crowds at Belfast's Botanic Gardens https://t.co/Fp6LvjTOC8 — Darran Marshall (@DarranMarshall) March …

Pause a moment. Could Johnson just pull it off?

Brian Walker on September 7, 2020, 4:42 pm | Readers 5789

The Protocol is a pawn on a bigger game; to remove any trace of involvement by the European Court of Justice in ruling on applications for state aid for ailing or new industries . While that would remain the rule for Northern Ireland firms, it leeches into GB firms who invest or have branches in the North. And that breaches a cardinal Leave principle, of no involvement by the Court in GB affairs. There is surely another a Leave issue …

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 6190

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 …

Why is the UK sleepwalking into final Brexit chaos and towards breakup?

Brian Walker on July 17, 2020, 2:40 pm | Readers 6266

As the notional deadline of October for final Brexit negotiations draws ever closer, the clouds if anything are growing darker. The UK’s statements on their withdrawal position and the NI protocol have clarified very little. Johnson and co seem like General de Gaulle in 1940, holding out for an impossible position of victory against the odds. But at least de Gaulle had allies. A City University webinar I linked up with yesterday confirmed growing pessimism over Northern Ireland prospects.( video …

Stormont has just performed better than Westminster. Signs of a new era dawning for the Northern Ireland Assembly

Brian Walker on June 3, 2020, 12:10 am | Readers 3249

Social distance voting at Westminster. Just as Westminster makes an ass of itself over voting against digital voting, Stormont enters a more hopeful new era. It’s complicated, even tortuous, but that’s a positive virtue compared to the old familiar choice between deadlock and carve up. Correction I earlier reported the voting wrongly for lack of information. It was even more complicated than I supposed. I’m indebted to Sam McBride of the Newsletter for explaining how the DUP and Sinn Fein …

Abortion as an individual human right or by the will of a majority? The NI Assembly wants to “send a signal”

Brian Walker on June 2, 2020, 3:47 pm | Readers 1705

Heidi Crowter, anti-abortion campaigner Do the new regulations permitting abortion in Northern Ireland extend to foetal abnormalties like Down’s syndrome or not? Behind the question is a constitutional argument over whether Westminster had the moral right to enact an abortion law over the heads, even when they were in suspension. But although the DUP and SF seem to be in broad agreement, they seem to be content to win two separate majorities by designation rather than go for an overall …

Will the promise of light touch, low regulation for the border in the Irish Sea at our ports be fulfilled?

Brian Walker on May 21, 2020, 8:35 am | Readers 2806

Larne Harbour If we have to have a border in the Irish Sea it would be great to keep it cheap and simple. That’s the powerful appeal of the British “Attitude to the Northern Ireland Protocol” available here in full. It contrasts with all the complex thicket of process in the EU version supported by a chorus of Europhiles. After all the UK government should know; they will implement it not the EU. It isn’t at all clear how the …

The suspension of Northern Ireland’s new abortion regulations under pressure from “pro-life” opinion is fake news of the UK government’s making

Brian Walker on May 9, 2020, 11:41 am | Readers 2375

The Irish News story on 8 May THE British government last night withdrew controversial abortion regulations for Northern Ireland before they could be put to the vote in Parliament next week. It means that the regulations put forward by secretary of state Brandon Lewis at the end of March will not now apply. It is understood that the strength of the challenges faced by the proposed legislation, in particular at a Lords select committee, led the government to pull the …

Update on abortion. Stormont and the medical establishment will obey the law

Brian Walker on April 9, 2020, 9:29 pm | Readers 928

According to BBC NI, Stormont has today complied with UK law. Women will not have to travel by ferry to GB for the procedure after all. Medical professionals in NI can now “terminate pregnancies lawfully”, the Department of Health has said. Last month, abortion laws changed to permit terminations up to 12 weeks, but this had not been put into practice. Some of NI’s health trusts had been told by the department not to proceed with temporary plans. The department has now said …

From abortion to coronavirus, Westminster rule is still decisive – if they choose to exercise it

Brian Walker on March 26, 2020, 2:58 pm | Readers 1227

The situation is replete with irony. In the absence of the Assembly a formerly inert Westminster sprung into life to enact three controversial reforms; on same sex marriage, victims’ pensions (pending) and most controversially of all, abortion. Sinn Fein which only acknowledges any legal British authority over Northern Ireland with the greatest reluctance warmly welcomed Westminster’s imposition of the most radical shift possible from the most restrictive to the most sweeping abortion regulations in these islands; while the defenders of …

The five billion pound man made a long term case. To fulfil it, the Assembly has to show unity, leadership and competence

Brian Walker on January 18, 2020, 12:10 am | Readers 1704

How was £5 billion arrived at? Blame or praise goes to the estimable Esmond Birnie, the PWC economist who was once a UU MLA. Yesterday I included the media in blame for what I think of as the policy paradox: knowing full well how important a policy is, but ducking it, or failing to give it enough attention because it’s too boring meaning incomprehensible, definitely non macho, but truth to tell, bloody scary. My point still holds good but needs …

Not a bad start – but the Assembly needs the people’s help with the big decisions

Brian Walker on January 17, 2020, 12:23 pm | Readers 1674

I err on the side of optimism. I don’t know about you but I’m constantly frustrated at how the media comment on every cough and squeak of political debate but skate over the actual details of the policies that affect real life. Political chatter is the easy bit; they’ve being doing for decades, ever since politicians insisted they weren’t responsible for anything like the terrible issues of life and death which were always down to somebody else, paramilitaries or the …