Westminster – Page 3 – Slugger O'Toole

Gordon Brown storms in with a “third option” for Scotland and the UK. The ideal compromise, or too much, too late?

Brian Walker on March 18, 2017, 12:20 pm

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Churn over Theresa May’s flat refusal to allow Indy ref 2 continues unabated. The reality of identity politics is proving a lot more complicated than the dream. The big move today is Gordon Brown’s “third option” of a federalising UK of which more in a moment. But first a verdict on yesterday. May was caught short by Sturgeon springing the referendum demand on her. Did the prime minister over-react in haste and did she have only herself to blame …

Theresa May launches high stakes confrontation with Nicola Sturgeon

Brian Walker on March 3, 2017, 12:21 pm

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The pace of big politics is quickening in the run-up to pulling the trigger of Art 50. In advance of addressing the Scottish Conservatives today, Theresa May says “politics is not a game and the management of devolved public services in Scotland is too important to be neglected.” But it’s high risk, high stakes poker that the prime minister and the first minister are in fact now locking themselves into. May is calling Nicola Sturgeon’s bluff over the first …

Scotland and Northern Ireland move centre stage, says Downing St. ” Save the Union” is the mission

Brian Walker on February 27, 2017, 9:35 am

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Well what do you know? At the beginning of a very busy news week, the Times leads with a real revelation from right under their noses. After months of patting the wee Celts on the head with bland assurances that Brexit will be fine all round, “sources “ now say that “concerns about Scotland and Northern Ireland were discussed at last week’s cabinet.. and the impact of Brexit on the UKs devolution settlement is the government’s greatest concern about the exit …

Welsh language to be allowed in the Commons

Brian Walker on February 23, 2017, 10:04 am

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The Times (£) has more than one echo today.. After a six month campaign.. The government confirmed yesterday that it would bring forward a motion to allow MPs to speak the language when the Welsh grand committee meets in Westminster, despite rejecting the change last year on cost grounds. The committee, made up of all 40 MPs representing Wales, meets every two months. Chris Bryant, who campaigned for the change when he was shadow leader of the Commons, said he …

Tony Blair has made the case for a rethink on Brexit and Northern Ireland will need a new financial deal. Is anybody listening?

Brian Walker on February 17, 2017, 6:01 pm

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Hurtling at us like a comet but unnoticed by the local worthies is the prospect for repatriating powers direct from Brussels to Stormont, Holyrood and Cardiff Bay. Among them are powers over agriculture and energy, which in Ireland are linked or integrated north and south. How they’ll be divvied up is hasn’t even been examined. The British government retain a substantial interest in these areas where powers currently rest with Brussels as it negotiates new trading arrangements to replace membership …

At home the ” running commentary” defence is under pressure. But at the EU summit, Theresa is limited to pitching ” over coffee” tonight.

Brian Walker on October 20, 2016, 11:06 am

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With the leak of Brexit cabinet committee documents and the Chancellor’s admission of tensions within the committee itself, the UK government’s refusal to give “a running commentary” is under heavy pressure already. This morning in Commons questions, the Brexit Secretary still stalled on the details but insisted in general : Davis says the government will publish “much information” about its Brexit plans The SDLP were given a little outing… Mark Durkan, the SDLP MP, says employment law is a devolved …

DUP and Tories playing footsie in Birmingham over a Parliamentary pact?

Mick Fealty on October 5, 2016, 7:34 am

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Interesting blog from Gary Gibbon who’s been in Birmingham, which speculates that there’s a deal in the offing between the Conservative party and the DUP to ensure that the party has an extra bit of insurance in Parliament for the times ahead. It’s not the first time a UK government has come calling, and it won’t be the last. Fragmentation in party representation puts an essentially pragmatist, pro-Union party like the DUP in a usefully powerful position until at least 2020 …

More Brexitref alarms: could a Corbyn government deliver Irish unity?

Brian Walker on May 30, 2016, 4:16 pm

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When we’re taking about Brexit fears, Newton Emerson in the Irish Times has an outlier scenario that’s sounds plausible but is full of holes. He imagines the possibility of an early UK election out of the post-referendum chaos regardless who wins, with the Conservatives in worse disarray than Labour. Jeremy Corbyn gets SNP support to form a government in exchange for a second referendum. Independence is won. NI unionism is demoralised. Corbyn reverts Labour to active support for a …

Jim Shannon told he “still regards himself as a local councillor” and “needs to let go”…

Mick Fealty on May 27, 2016, 9:10 am

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Here’s an interesting wee story. Stormont MP Jim Shannon has been ordered to pay back £14,000 in falsely claimed travel expenses he paid out to his office staff. The BBC reports… The Strangford MP’s claims were five times greater than the second highest claiming MP and 37 times greater than the average claim by all MPs. He accounted for 26.1% of all staff constituency mileage claimed by the entire House of Commons. So what’s Jim been up to? The Independent …

Ted Heath is the latest and most senior Tory to be named in paedophilia claims. But how do you prove a negative?

Brian Walker on August 4, 2015, 12:07 pm

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Growing up in the 1960s with a precocious interest in politics, the main UK party leaders Harold Wilson and Ted Heath were among my role models. The new term “meritocrat” might have been invented for them . Both of them came from modest backgrounds and made it to the top. Politically I admired Heath’s decisiveness compared to Wilson’s waffle and to some extent I still do. At the time, entering Europe and introducing power sharing in Northern Ireland required bold leadership, however mixed …

Abortion law is pawn in a Tory-SNP power game

Brian Walker on July 25, 2015, 10:12 am

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The Herald reports that the Conservatives are thinking about devolving abortion law to Scotland where a strong Catholic lobby is opposed to the 1967 Act. What the point of doing it unless the aim is to repeal it? Not necessarily apparently. It’s really about the power game between Westminster and Holyrood, not about little matters such as rights, ethics, women and embryos. Earlier this year, the Scottish Government quietly dropped a demand for new powers over abortion, saying it had other …

Discovery of files on named politicians raises the stakes on the Kincora abuse scandal

Brian Walker on July 22, 2015, 9:03 pm

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At last . Papers naming prominent politicians of the 1970s and 80s as suspects which couldn’t be found at first have at last turned up in boxes marked “Miscellaneous” in the Cabinet Office in Whitehall. The local interest couldn’t be higher, after being stimulated by media persistence. The papers also reveal that the Kincora children’s home in Northern Ireland was at the heart of further correspondence involving the security services. Allegations of abuse and trafficking of children to England have …

On Charlie Kennedy

Gerry Lynch on June 2, 2015, 2:49 pm

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There’s lots of talk about Charlie Kennedy’s talents and his ‘flaws’, often a euphemistic way of talking about his alcoholism. Alistair Campbell has blogged movingly and directly about their shared illness. It was never exactly a secret. I remember canvassing a man in the 2004 European election campaign, a rather grand chap in a very wealthy street just north of Kensington Gardens. “Oh, the Liberals”, he sneered, “Couldn’t possibly vote for a party led by an alcoholic.” “I take it …

Who Should I Vote For App’s – Accurate?

Kris Nixon (Belfast Barman) on May 6, 2015, 11:08 pm

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I’ve noticed in this General Election more than any other that there is an abundance of tools online to help the electorate align themselves with a party that matches closer to their values than another. Does it work though? Take a look at where I ended up across different guides. And don’t judge me… Who Should You Vote For The questions weren’t exactly in-depth, each policy area was skimmed across rather than actually getting down to the nitty gritty …

Carál Ní Chuilín: “Electoral commission vetoed using last election figures…” – Update

Pete Baker on May 2, 2015, 7:40 pm

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David may not want to go there, although ‘idealistic’ wasn’t the first word that sprang to mind. [Was it another word beginning with ‘i’? – Ed] You might very well think that… ANYhoo… Gerry Kelly’s Sinn Féin colleague in north Belfast, and the Northern Ireland Culture Minister, Carál Ní Chuilín, MLA, should, perhaps, have other things on her mind. But, on Thursday, the Minister was on Twitter defending Sinn Féin’s use of the 2011 census’ breakdown of the constituency by religion in support of the party’s …

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Pete Baker on April 20, 2015, 7:23 pm

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As with the Red Queen so too, it would seem, with Sinn Féin – who published their 2015 Westminster Election Manifesto today. The BBC report notes Deputy leader Martin McGuinness said that he does not believe any of the main parties in Northern Ireland will play a role in the formation of the next government and that any claims to the contrary were “misleading”. Well, Sinn Féin will not play any role. But other Northern Ireland parties might, depending on …

James Molyneaux, master of Ulster Unionist immobility remembered

Brian Walker on March 9, 2015, 7:55 pm

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Of the newspaper obits of Jim Molyneaux so far Chris Ryder’s ( ex Sunday Times) captures him best. He became leader of the Ulster Unionist party first at Westminster then overall, largely because he was the senior man at Westminster and Stormont flickered into half-life for only a few short months during his time. A shy man with impeccable manners, it could be said that his courtesy often concealed his endless political manoeuvring to hold the chronically divided Ulster Unionist party …

Why Sinn Fein need to show that it’s local decision makers who matter

David McCann on January 28, 2015, 6:24 pm

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Abstentionism….If there is ever a topic that sets tongues wagging it’s the age old debate about whether Sinn Fein will ever take their seats at Westminster. This obsession is set more so amongst commentators who have for years predicted that Sinn Fein are close to giving up their abstentionist policy when it comes to Westminster. Such an analysis ignores the very basic tenet of republicanism is to make Westminster as irrelevant as possible in Irish affairs. Since 1918, it has …

A spirit of genuine power sharing is needed to make more powers work for the Scottish Parliament

Brian Walker on January 22, 2015, 6:08 pm

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Power sharing of the genuine sort is clearly needed to make work the complexity contained in the 44 draft clauses of legislation to grant sweeping new powers to the Scottish Parliament. But not for a while yet, if ever. David Cameron’s visit to Edinburgh to present the Command Paper was marked by political jostling much more complicated that the heady simplicity of Yes or No in the referendum. It was preceded by the Chancellor yesterday pledging to try to bar Scottish MPs …

Cold and stormy at ‘Cnoc an Anfa’

Concubhar on December 11, 2014, 11:47 am

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I was up in Stormont yesterday – Cnoc an Anfa is the Irish for Stormont – and it certainly lived up to its name. It was bitterly cold, so cold I could feel my fingers begin to detach themselves from my body as I clutched my ‘Acht Gaeilge’ placard at the bottom of the steps of that grandiose building. There were around a hundred of us, participating in an anti-racism pro diversity demonstration, called to demand an Irish Language Act …