| 17:48 UK time, Thursday, 31 July 2008
Despite the sour atmosphere at Stormont, where a stand-off over a range of issues has led ot a backlog in decisions, there's plenty of award winning chocolate to brighten the mood. CoCouture chocolates have just been awarded a 3-star gold at the Great Taste Awards for its Bushmills Whisky truffle. And wouldn't you know they're exclusively sold at the Stormont gift shop.
| 15:10 UK time, Wednesday, 30 July 2008
The education committee at Stormont will no longer meet on a Friday, ensuring members can have a full constituency day at the end of the week. Under the chairmanship of the DUP MP and MLA, Sammy Wilson, the committee, unusually, met on Fridays. Now that Mr Wilson's has moved on to become environment minister, his successor DUP MLA Mervyn Storey will be chairing meetings on Wednesdays in future.
| 13:58 UK time, Wednesday, 30 July 2008
The latest financial statements of the big four Assembly parties are now out. Sinn Fein is in the money - thanks in part to donations from elected representatives and friends in the United States.
The other Executive parties are faring less well, spending more than they took in for the financial year ending December 2007.
Some of the finer points of the accounts make interesting reading.
Despite taking in more than £1 million (minus the £500 fine for filing the accounts late) SF remains irked that the party is "still being deprived of the Westminster Policy Development Grants." The party's charitable donations rose from £500 to £1,000.
As for the SDLP, it lists under its running costs (note 5) that it had a £27,000 legal expense to pay. Might that be related to the High Court settlement last November involving an apology to former Assistant Chief Constable Alan McQuillan following an election advertisement? The SDLP (which has a deficit of around £130,000) has a bank overdraft of £113,844.
Notably, while the Ulster Unionist Assembly party is struggling along with a deficit of more than £6,000, accounts for the East Belfast UUP Victoria Association indicate its sitting on reserves exceeding £100,000.
The DUP Assembly Party has a deficit of around £27,000. It lists banks loans and overdrafts (falling due within one year) of £24,271.
| 13:31 UK time, Tuesday, 29 July 2008
While Peter Robinson holidays in the United States, his alter ego will be appearing with Martin McGuinness at St Louise's as part of the Feile's West Belfast Talks Back. The Deputy First Minister will be there to answer questions about the "crisis - what crisis?" at Stormont. For those who long to hear Mr Robinson's tones - there's the next best thing. Sean Crummey of Folks on the Hills will be on the panel. The DUP will be represented however. Nelson McCausland is coming along - as is Dawn Purvis the PUP leader. The ´óÏó´«Ã½'s William Crawley should have no trouble keeping the debate going!
| 12:13 UK time, Tuesday, 29 July 2008
After a flurry of emails and a new password, I'm happy to say I'm back blogsitting. Blogging during the "silly season" is something of a challenge however. The DUP press office must sense the cupboard is pretty bare as its press release, entitled "The Strange Political Resurrection of David Trimble" has been sent not once, but twice. Cllr Robin Newton is concerned on two fronts: firstly, for the welfare of Sir Reg Empey, the Ulster Unionist leader, and what impact a Tory-Ulster Unionist partnership might have on his authority; secondly, that David Trimble, now a Tory, may be coming back to rule Cunningham House, perhaps back door. Remember, you heard it hear first, not twice, but once.....
PS My colleagues were highly amused by the comments from RJ and Susie on Mark's last blog.
I am away for the next fortnight. Technology allowing, Martina Purdy has offered to blog sit. I shall be back at the keyboard in mid August. All the best until then.
You would have thought, if the Cameron Empey pact is such a great thing, that the Tories' most successful candidate here would welcome it. However in a letter to the , Laurence Kennedy, now practising as a doctor in Florida, says the initiative "smacks of opportunism".
The guest on this weekend's Inside Politics is Sinn Fein's Junior Minister Gerry Kelly. I quiz him about his party's attitude to extending the 1967 Abortion Act here and whether David Cameron, should he get to Number 10, can be a broker between the parties here if he is umbilically linked to the Ulster Unionists.
But the bulk of the interview, somewhat inevitably, concerns the stand off at Stormont. Predictably Gerry Kelly blames the DUP for not delivering on true partnership government. But I found something he didn't say more interesting than what he did say. he told me on Inside Politics that Sinn Fein wouldn't go along with the notion of an Alliance Justice Minister, because to do so would be to "collude with its own exclusion". Now he appears more open to at least talk about the idea, whilst careful not to engage in negotiations over the airwaves..
I was out of the office yesterday when the UK Border Agency launched its consultation on ending, sorry, It paves the way towards passports or ID cards having to be shown on boats or planes between Ireland and Great Britain. Last year assiduous blog readers would remember I discussed the potential implications of this for Northern Ireland on a few occasions. The consultation document talks about ad hoc immigration controls on the border, but rules out any fixed controls. It leaves the sensitive topic of what ID air and sea passenges from NI to GB might have to produce until another day. But this nettle will have to be grasped if the e-border proposal is not to be left with a 224 mile hole in it.
So who benefits most from the announcement of a working group to establish closer links between the Tories and the Ulster Unionists? David Cameron is selling the move as a way to extend his influence to every corner of the UK, but the UUP isn't the party it once was. A joint candidacy involving Jim Nicholson in next year's European elections seems on the cards - he is after all already part of the Conservative group in the European parliament.
This morning's Daily Telegraph proclaims with certainty that the UUP's sole MP Lady Sylvia Hermon will take the Tory whip. That may be jumping the gun, as she has always appeared closer to New Labour than the Conservatives. Some UUP sources tell me Lady Sylvia has been briefed and is persuadable, but she herself is on leave after her father's death and says only that she will watch developments with interest.
The move could be interpeted as payback for the DUP after it propped up Gordon Brown over 42 days and this morning's Irish Times also links it with Iris Robinson's recent controversial remarks.
How much the Conservative brand will help the UUP is a moot point. After all the Tory outings in elections here since 1990 have been, to a large extent, a failed experiment. But whatever else it achieves the move at least means the UUP has beaten the SDLP to the punch when it comes to "realignment".
Back in May there was a lot of talk about a possible amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill which would extend the 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland. At the time the Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris told me it was not a subject he was dealing with. However now Dr Harris has put his name, alongside Diane Abbott and four other MPs, to an amendment
Given the ill feeling felt by some English MPs towards the DUP over its support for the 42 day detention of terror suspects and it will be fascinating to watch how this unfolds in the Commons in the autumn. Both the DUP and the SDLP have already made it clear they will oppose the amendment.
Shaun Woodward and Gordon Brown have assured the leaders of the four main parties that the government will not back the move, but as Diane Abbott told the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s "Talkback" programme it will be a matter for MPs' consciences. Jeffrey Donaldson told the same programme that if MPs imposed abortion on NI over the heads of the local parties it would call the purpose of the Stormont assembly into question. However if the local parties had hurried up and agreed the devolution of justice then they might not have found themselves in this situation as it's my understanding that legislation on abortion would then pass to Stormont.
No sooner did I return from reporting on one impasse (the deadlock after Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon treaty) than I found myself talking about another (the summer without an Executive meeting).
Dublin yesterday was repleat with picture opportunities - a demonstrator dressed as a frog, another carrying a placard telling President Sarkozy to "mind you own business, onion head" and Marie Antoinette (a.k.a Caitriona Connolly, a no campaigner from Tipperary).
Our new executive, on the other hand, isn't so strong on pictures. After Peter Robinson took over as First Minister, Stormont officials tried to arrange an opportunity for the TV cameras and the snappers to get some images of the new line up. But various ministers were missing. Now that the summer gap is stretching beyond a month, with Sinn Fein and the DUP unable to resolve their differences over devolving justice and other issues, those images of a Robinson led executive are proving elusive.
An impasse involving photographs which never see the light of day. Why does that sound familiar?
His climate change scepticism and his opposition to an independent Environment Protection Agency have made Environment Minister Sammy Wilson the bete noire of local green campaigners. However they may be pleasantly surprised by what he has to say on this weekend's Inside Politics on the subject of building in the countryside.
Let's not get too carried away, though. A question about Gordon Brown's postponement of a fuel duty increase sees Sammy railing against "green fanatics". Now that's more like the minister to whom we have become accustomed.
The interview with Sammy Wilson is on Radio Ulster at 12.45 on Saturday.
As we documented there's been some concern that the failure to hold regular Executive meetings over the summer is a worrying sign of paralysis in the Stormont system. A meeting was expected this coming Thursday, July 24th, but I am told that the preparatory special advisers or "minreps" meeting has not taken place. So it's possible the power vacuum will continue for another week.
Whilst speculation continues about whether Arlene Foster might herself defend the Fermanagh council seat left vacant after Joe Dodds' death, the wider question of which DUP politician will fight Jim Allister for the European parliamentary seat remains unanswered. At one point Nigel Dodds' name was on many lips, but he shrugged off the suggestion last time I mentioned it to him. A DUP source told my colleague Martina Purdy this week that the party has drawn up a short list but would not divulge the names on it. The source predicted a decision on the candidate in September.
There is something about the Nolan Show and Iris Robinson which inevitably produces sparks. First her comments on homosexuality being an "abomination". Then, this morning, during a discussion on the new abortion guidelines, her assertion that "it is the government's responsibility to uphold God's law". This has prompted a flood of responses, both from those who regard the Strangford MP as a proponent of Christian "Sharia" law and those who maintain she is in touch with the church going majority in Northern Ireland.
I was struck by the caller who quoted the Queen's Coronation oath which makes explicit the continuing link between the state, God and the established Church. However, we all know that, in reality, the Queen is not an absolute theocratic ruler and the UK happily fudges along with a mixture of pluralist democracy and constitutional monarchy.
Of course, Northern Ireland is different when it comes to religion. According to the 2001 census, just under 86% of people here professed to be Christian of one kind or another. That's higher than the 72% figure for Great Britain. In the same census, other religions accounted for only 0.3% of the population - much lower than Great Britain (5.4%). Presumably, given the rise in immigration since 2001, that figure may have shifted by now.
Just under 14% of people here told the 2001 census takers they had no religion or didn't state what religion they were.
A survey on church attendance last year pointed to a between the 45% of regular churchgoers here compared to just 14% in England.
So given those statistics do people in Northern Ireland want a more explicitly Christian form of government or are they happy to "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's"?
The reaction from Sinn Fein and Alliance leaves no doubt that they will not allow the Executive to be pulled down a theocratic route. "When politicians speak of government having a responsibility to uphold 'God's law'" Alliance's Stephen Farry argues, "they invariably mean their own version of 'God's law'. History provides plenty of lessons on the dangers of imposing particular religious views on others."
Sinn Fein's John O'Dowd calls Iris Robinson's comments "ill advised" adding "when it comes to the business of government we must collectively be responsible and deal with the issues and beliefs held by and dear to all our people not one particular section."
Last year when Ian Paisley refused to sign off on the EU Gender Goods and Services Directive because it offended his religious sensibilities. Then, in a fudge worthy of the Church of England trying to appease its disparate factions, the OFMDFM sat back as UK ministers implemented the directive over their heads.
However UK ministers know that it would be a step too far to impose the 1967 Abortion Act when so many supporters of parties across the spectrum here oppose it.
Cross community consent and European human rights law mean we aren't going to become a theocracy any time soon. But the gulf between religious observance here and elsewhere in the UK also means that the Nolan show and others will find the relationship between religion, morality and politics provides a rich supply of stories for a long time to come.
Gleaned from the Assembly's written answers, and in no particular order.
735: The total number of staff employed in the Assembly's Parliament Buildings.
748: The number of arrivals or departures after 9:30pm at Belfast City Airport during 2007 (contrary to the 1997 planning agreement)
200 - 250,000 tonnes: The estimated amount of illegal waste from the Republic dumped in 20 sites north of the border.
27.7%: The proportion of domestic waste currently being recycled.
3 pence: The increase authorised in the mileage rate for Health and Social care staff in recognition of higher fuel costs.
5.22 years: The average age of an ambulance in Northern Ireland.
36: The number of blackberries purchased by the OFMDFM for ministers, advisers and officials since devolution was restored.
Jack Straw has just made a statement about reforming the House of Lords. His white paper does not specify that the future 2nd chamber should be called a "Senate". But it does say that membership "would no longer carry with it a peerage nor would it be associated with the award or any other honour". So maybe the SDLP wouldn't have a problem taking a seat?
An annex provides a multiplicity of possible voting systems for a future wholly or mainly elected Lords. So far as Northern Ireland is concerned these could provide 2 places for the DUP and 2 for Sinn Fein ( presumably conspicuous by their absence) in a first past the post four constituency vote. Other systems (STV or a list with NI as one constituency) would give the UUP and SDLP a look in. For details see
Since Jack Straw isn't promising to introduce anything before the next General Election his plan may never see the light of day. But if it does, the taxpayer will have to shell out. The government envisages the new 2nd chamber having 400 to 450 members, and says they should all get salaries (unlike the current Lords). If they do, the White paper argues, they will be members of a UK legislature and so should be paid more than members of the devolved assemblies and parliament. So that's a minimum of about £54,000 each. Jack Straw was asked about dual mandates - he said he didn't see a problem with members of the new chamber holding council seats, but thought dual membership in other bodies would raise issues.
Tomorrow's 12th July "Inside Politics" features Sinn Fein's Barry McElduff and the DUP's Nelson McCausland debating whether unionists and nationalists are engaged in a cultural war. The discussion covers the 12th, the Irish language and why Gaelic posts and a statue of Constance Markiewicz should be erected at Stormont.
On Sunday my footy-mad colleague Gareth Gordon has an end of term report on Stormont which draws heavily on Match of the Day. Having watched an early cut I think his producer must have been inspired by the C´óÏó´«Ã½ programme Hedz. Gareth's report will be on the Politics Show on ´óÏó´«Ã½1 at noon on Sunday.
Sammy Wilson is unimpressed by what he describes as the latest "ridiculous idea" from the Communities Secretary Hazel Blears to encourage higher voter turnout. Ms Blears told MPs yesterday that voters in local council elections would have their names entered into a prize draw.
Far from seeking to adopt this plan for the forthcoming Fermanagh by-election, our Environment Minister says the proposal is "nothing but a load of nonsense. Elections should not be turned into a game show, with prizes for the lucky winners of a draw. This cheapens the whole democratic process and is more than a little tacky. Men and women fought and died to secure our democracy and our right to vote and choose our Government. This should be incentive enough for people to go to the polls and vote. To award prizes for voting is a disservice to them and their sacrifice."
Whilst he is at it maybe the East Antrim MP should also have a word with our Chief Electoral Officer Douglas Bain who already operates a in order to encourage people here to register to vote.
It's probably just a holding line, but I see that the Defence Minister Derek Twigg has told the Tory spokesman Owen Patterson that the MoD still intends to hold on to the proceeds from the sale of any redundant military sites here. Mr Patterson wanted to know whether, following talks with the DUP and Sinn Fein, any changes would be made to the financial arrangements regarding the sale of bases like the Lisanelly barracks at Omagh. But in a written answer, Mr Twigg assures him that "no changes are planned. All receipts from the disposal of military sites in Northern Ireland are expected to be retained by the Ministry of Defence and re-invested by the Department in our key priorities." I shall check back in 42 days time to see if the policy remains unchanged.
The Assembly may be on its summer break but the House of Commons is still sitting. And just because the DUP propped the government up over 42 days doesn't mean its MPs always walk into the same lobby as Labour. Today the party sponsored a Westminster debate on the cost of living, arguing that the government should consider using extra tax revenues generated by higher oil prices to help those on low and medium incomes. Specifically, Gregory Campbell called for a radical overhaul of winter fuel payments.
However the former NIO minister Jane Kennedy, now the Treasury's Financial Secretary, rejected the idea that the "third oil shock" provided the government with a tax windfall. She argued that the global downturn meant reduced taxes elsewhere, because of lower consumer demand and reduced company profits. So, she claimed, the tax take evened out.
The DUP's Sammy Wilson wasn't convinced going back to his old days as an economics teacher to question the minister's arguments. The climate change sceptic also couldn't resist a crack at the government's "slavish" committment to EU targets for bio fuels.
At one point David Simpson and Mark Durkan disagreed over whether consumers here might have weathered the credit crunch better if they had been in an all Ireland economy. This prompted a back handed compliment from the Economic Secretary Kitty Ussher to the Upper Bann MP (initially she called him the Upper Bane MP) for the best mixed metaphor of the debate, when Mr Simpson told MPs "the Celtic Tiger was on fire but is now withering on the vine".
Last month I found myself in Pansy Street, which for those of you who don't know is just off Dee Street in East Belfast, watching our First Minister unveil a new mural. Depicting the lion "Aslan" and the Narnia author C.S. Lewis, the mural replaced an old paramilitary image. Standing alongside Dawn Purvis and Sammy Douglas, Peter Robinson hailed it as an example of the paramilitaries contemplating change and made it clear that he would be prepared to do all he could to help them go further.
Yesterday the Belfast Telegraph reported that moves were afoot to arrange a meeting between the First Minister and the UVF leadership. It's understood disarmament will be on the agenda.
Peter Robinson wasn't available for comment yesterday, but the DUP didn't deny the story, pointing me instead to his Narnia mural comments.
Jim Allister has criticised the potential meeting arguing that "though it may seem a small and parallel step from sharing power with IRA/Sinn Fein, I believe Peter Robinson would be profoundly wrong to enter negotiations with another terrorist axis, the UVF. This increasing erosion of the line between democratic politics and paramilitarism does the integrity of politics no service."
I can remember many occasions in the past when unionists said they wouldn't talk to Sinn Fein, not because they were republicans, but because they had guns. However the days of standing on this principle seem far off and if this latest initiative does produce results I suspect the TUV leader will be a fairly lonely voice within the political spectrum here.
I bumped into Arlene Foster at a dinner at Hillsborough castle last night and found her incandescent about the decision by the Ulster Unionist Bertie Kerr to force a council by-election in Fermanagh. The by-election follows the death of Councillor Joe Dodds, father of the DUP Deputy Leader Nigel Dodds. The Enterprise Minister repeated her sentiments on this morning's "Good Morning Ulster", whilst Bertie Kerr came on to defend his move.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of forcing the by-election, the contest should be, just like the Dromore election another interesting test of unionist opinion in this DUP/UUP/TUV era. On the republican side, could Gerry McHugh's supporters enter the fray?
It also raises the more general question about whether this will be the last by-election before Sammy Wilson pushes through co-option legislation which could deny Bertie Kerr or any other councillor the right to object. Much of this is already under discussion over at
Alas Fermanagh probably won't attract the Belfast beauty queen Gemma Garrett who is fast becoming a veteran of Westminster by-elections. Having contested Crewe and Nantwich, Miss Garrett a/k/a Miss Great Britain is currently opposing David Davis in Haltemprice and Howden. The Press Association reports today that she has been criticised by a rival candidate for donating £1000 to a local football team. Miss Garrett denies she was trying to buy votes. I am sure there are some Fermanagh soccer and gaelic teams who would welcome her entering the fray, and maybe not just for financial reasons.
. .
Not me, but Martin McGuinness and Lord Alderdice, who I met at Belfast City Airport this morning. The Deputy First Minister told me Baghdad provided a vision of what World War 3 would be like. The big question now is whether the Iraqi politicians they met, who signed up to a series of Mitchell style principles, can deliver.
According to Martin McGuinness, there's a possibility, if the Iraqis deem it necessary, that we might host another round of the peace talks here in Ireland. Whilst the debate will continue about the extent to which the NI peace process can provide an example to others, the Baghdad mission will provide grist to the mill for the Executive in their quest for a locally based European Centre for Conflict Resolution.
For any of you keen to know what the Helsinki principles are I am putting my latest copy (which doesn't include any amendments made this weekend) into the extended entry.
I am just back from a trip to London, discussing the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s coverage of the UK in these devolved times. The visit coincided with the publication of on the West Lothian question. It finessed the earlier Tory policy on "English votes on English laws", but may still provoke concerns amongst unionists worried about becoming "2nd class" MPs.
If the Conservatives do adopt the Clarke report as official policy it will be interesting to see how they deal with grey areas, like social security benefits. Supposedly devolved, in practice the Assembly follows the "parity principle" with such benefits.
In recent debates, when Sinn Fein has been critical of Margaret Ritchie over the details of benefits, she has tended to tell them they should take their Westminster seats in order to scrutinise the underlying policy. So what would happen to "parity" if local MPs were excluded from scrutinising this kind of legislation?
As I sat on a train on the District Line, I can't say I heard anyone discussing the West Lothian question. However plenty of my fellow travellers were talking tennis on their way to Wimbledon. In its own way the Andy Murray saga said as much about the state of the union as the Clarke report, with the former Tory Minister David Mellor telling the truculent Scot to wrap himself in the Union Flag. The strangely familiar debate about national identity and sporting allegiance filled up the airwaves in England, but in the end Raphael Nadal settled the matter in straight sets.
I am away on a couple of days leave, but will be back at the weekend with Inside Politics, and a fresh posting here. .
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