I’m putting this here for those who wish to comment, from the ICM poll for the Guardian. First thing to note is that there is no statistically significant change, but the position is not great for Labour… Conservatives: 43% (up 2) Labour: 26% (down 2) Ukip: 11% (down 2) Lib Dems: 8% (down 1) Greens: 6% (up more…
And as she does so it becomes clear there are no other candidates. No long damaging and divisive leadership race, and an opportunity to reset the tone and the politics of the party which traded off the competent tenure of David Ford as Justice Minister. But whither now for NI’s middle ground party? In East more…
Scottish nationalism is on the defensive for the first time in over a decade. On the other hand, English nationalism could give it second wind if it thinks it can a score an easy victory without acknowledging its enduring power. At this juncture, it’s true that one early outcome of the Brexit confusion leaning towards more…
Via The Conservative Treehouse
Possibly related to my previous post… The Irish Times republishes an interesting article by Wolfgang Münchau in the FT. He starts with Brexit, and a necessary new direction of travel for the UK economy… There is a risk that Brexit and the associated change in model business will go wrong. Brexit is not necessarily a bad more…
As mentioned in a couple of recent written answers in the Dáil, here and here, the Irish “Government will seek to pursue any appropriate opportunities for Ireland arising from the UK’s departure” from the EU. Here are those written answers Brexit Issues Deputy Niall Collins asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he has set up a more…
Senior Co Down Orangeman and former UUP election candidate Drew Nelson has died at the age of 60. He wasn’t the most public facing Orangeman, which is probably explained by the fact that for most of his life he eschewed big public gestures and worked on smaller but telling reforms. For a younger generation of Orangemen more…
Last night I stayed up to watch the second Clinton Trump debate. I really wish I hadn’t. It was truly awful. It did not merit the word debate. There was no engagement or exchange of ideas or views. Even as a blood and gore spectacle it failed as it delivered neither. Instead, there was a more…
QUICK PREVIEW of the Ulster Bank Belfast International Arts Festival which runs from 11-29 October. The life and legacy of Roger Casement is examined, along with 100 years of women’s emancipation, the refugee crisis (with a lecture by MP Yvette Cooper on how the UK should do more), Aeschylus’ The Suppliant Women, a new adaptation more…
The Guardian has posted an early lead from its Ireland correspondent Henry McDonald quoting NI Secretary James Brokenshire saying that: London and Dublin will work to strengthen Ireland’s external borders in order to combat illegal migration into the UK once it leaves the European Union. “There was now a high level of collaboration on a more…
It’s no secret that Trump is fond of using shocking language when talking about women. Between saying about his daughter “If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.” And bragging – which he is remarkably good at doing – that “All of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me – consciously or more…
Last week, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Pope Francis met in Rome to discuss and pray for closer ties between the Anglican communion and the Roman Catholic Church. I was on retreat in Rome with an ecumenical group of young Christians over the course of the week, and on Wednesday, we had the more…
James Brokenshire is at least the eighth secretary of state to utter warm words about dealing with the past. It’s almost two years since the abortive Stormont House Agreement described new structures headed by a new Historic Investigations Unit. £150 million will be made available by Westminster over the next five years to implement the more…
I first visited Istanbul on a four-day business trip in 2002 and was so impressed I have returned many times since; on business and for holiday. Recently, I returned from my ninth visit with disappointment at the changes. Istanbul in September 2016 is a very different city to the one I had fallen for yet more…
When I was a kid in the late 60s I remember asking if I could go to the local Anglican church for a service connected with the Scout group I attended as a Cub. Most Catholics in Holywood at the time went to that group, because it was across the road from our Primary school: more…
I’m indebted to my friend Pat Kane for flagging this up. It’s a rather compelling blog essay by Maurice Glasman, who confesses to having once (at least) been “a confused secular Jewish left-wing academic”, when he discovered Catholic social thought in the form of several Papal encyclicals. This, I think, is the core of this thinking, more…
Issues around race and immigration are making headlines in Northern Ireland and across the UK. Of course, this is nothing new, it has often been alleged that Northern Ireland stands out as a racist society. The question we face is whether this is fair comment or an exaggeration of the truth? The answer, to me more…
The changes in the Republic from just a generation ago are profound. Today the Irish Times poll produces some remarkable figures showing support for abolition of the controversial Eight Amendment to the Irish Constitution, added in 1983 to prevent the casual legalisation of abortion in any form.
Fintan O’Toole makes a good point about why some atrocities spark huge protests, whilst others barely raise a whisper. The current bombing of Aleppo is at a pitch not seen even in the middle east for a couple of decades, yet there’s barely a whimper: Why the selective outrage? There are, I suppose, two possible more…
This needs to be blogged, just for the record. It’s Rafael Behr, who’s been on fire for some time at the Guardian. Not the burning of heretics type on fire, but his reading of that quarter of history is pleasingly precise. He goes back to the last of the Tudors for his exemplar: the unfanatical more…
