Even the trade unions can't be wrong all of the time..

I made the case against Northern Ireland getting preferential treatment with regards to Corporation tax here.

I was arguing from an ideological UK Unionist stance, the (deep breath) TUC and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ Northern Ireland Committee (ICTUNI) said this week came to the conclusion from an obviously different angle.

They argued cutting Corporation Tax in Northern Ireland would:

1. reduce Government revenues.
2. create a tax loophole for businesses to exploit.
3. not necessarily create any new jobs.
4. have little effect when competing with companies in the Republic as "rules on the taxation of controlled foreign companies and the favourable treatment of dividends and royalties allow many companies to pay far less than the 12.5 per cent headline rate of tax" there.
5. would encourage ‘brass plate’ investment in NI, ie where companies register their name in Northern Ireland for tax purposes without moving staff.
6. would "probably" face a legal challenge from the EU.


Point 1) yes, obviously in the short-term, although the hope/gamble is that in the long-term, a corresponding increase in business profits and turnover would compensate.
Point 2) yes.
Point 3) yes, although with same proviso mentioned with regards to Point 1)
Point 4) yes.
Point 5) yes.
Point 6) yes and if I remember correctly, this is the rationale put forward by the last Labour government against positive discrimination in favour of NI.

You’ll not be surprised that after this (almost unanimous) agreement, my and the ICTUNI’s opinion on the question of lowering corporation taxation generally, on a UK-wide basis diverges... but I think our joint argument, from a Unionist point of view, against a separate lower corporation tax rate operating soley in Northern Ireland's is a sound one.

Highland Cathedral

This is one of those tunes which is not quite what you first think it might be.

It’s less than 30 years old and was actually composed by a pair of Germans(!)Ulrich Roever and Michael Korb for a Highland games held in Germany.
Some have suggested it should be the Scottish national anthem and was the Royal Hong Kong Police Anthem’s under British rule (thank you Mr Wiki;)), played when the Union flag was lowered there for the last time in 1997.

Performed here in the Ulster Hall by the Royal Irish Regiment:

Quote of the day

Baz McElduff on Twitter is in sparkling form, one of yesterday's classics:

In Newcastle for North South Parliamentary Forum Conference. Good no. of TDs/ MLAs here already. I think of myself as TD for West Tyrone.

And I suspect he wasn't joking.

Calling all Conservative Conference attendees and/or(!) Irish Speakers

Can anyone planning to attend any of the following meetings at next week's Conservative Conference please drop a note in the comments or preferably send me an email?


.Can The Conservatives Stop The BNP?: How to prevent the BNP stealing your vote
.A Perfect Storm For The North: Localism, devolution, cuts and the big society
.The Breakthrough Tea Party
.How Should Political Parties Adapt To The Changing Internet
.Breakthrough Northern Ireland
.English Language Skills: What should their role be in the immigration debate?
.The Future Of Civil Liberties & Human Rights
.Europe's Crisis: What role for Britain?
.Europe: Changing the terms of debate

Just in passing, this one could have been lively:

"BBC World Have Your Say Live Broadcast"
But everything has been sorted out;)

I also want to know if there are any Irish speakers regularly reading the blog; if you are one can you please just mention it in the comments?

California Dreamin'

California presently has a $19.1 billion deficit, the budget is 90 days overdue - the longest delay in state history.

There are increasing grumbles that the:

…lawmakers are spending some of their time – and your (Californian taxpayers’) money – on resolutions that don't even change the law. Critics call it a waste of words – and a distraction from the job of getting a budget done on time.

Some of the causes those resolutions have supported:

• Motorcycle Awareness Month

. Financial Literacy Week

• School Bus Drivers Day

• No-Cussing Week

. California Golf Week


And the latest?

"Final reunification of Ireland by peaceful means"

That has as much chance of achieving its goal as "No-Cussing Week", but sure isn’t it the gesture (paid by other mugs’ money) which really counts in politics?

In two other (probably) unrelated items of Californian political news:

1.The California legislature has the lowest approval rating ever – just 10% of California voters say state lawmakers "are doing a good job".
2. According to latest polls: Californians support Proposition 19, the statewide ballot initiative to legalize marijuana.

Labour play the Nat Card....

...in Cornwall:

"Cornwall Labour Party is challenging the county’s Conservative and Lib Dem MPs to vote against the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, because the Bill as it stands will inevitably result in a Cornwall-Devon constituency.

Launching an online petition against the cross border constituency, Jude Robinson, Cornwall Labour Party Chair said: “The coalition government is pushing through major constitutional change without proper parliamentary scrutiny which WILL result in a cross Cornwall-Devon constituency.

“The Labour Party believes the government is wrong to mix the issues of Electoral Reform and Parliamentary Boundaries and is playing politics with the integrity of the historic county boundaries of the UK including the Cornish border for perceived party political gain."

Ah, "playing politics with the integrity of the historic county boundaries of the UK"- *whistle* South West Regional Assembly *whistle*


Via The English Free Press

Politicians follow their herd

The Sinn Fein intellectual (although such a description should be treated as "relative") Eoin O Broin, in an interview, with An Phobail has stated that the Republic’s two main parties and not the DUP are the main "roadblocks" to a "United" Ireland.

Of course, the main roadblock is the inconvenient fact that a clear majority of the population in Northern Ireland are happy enough to continue with the Union... but still, the point being made about Fianna Fail and Fine Gael is one worth considering.

Collins reckons it is the two parties' "fighting electoral" machines, "with all the attendant memories and companionship and privileges" which stops them from getting their hands too dirty in the pushfor the 32 County Nirvana. Perhaps. The introduction of a million or so unpredictable souls onto the electoral roll could cause a threat, I guess, to the present status quo but there are too many imponderables to state that for certain. For example, what would happen to the Sinn Fein and SDLP vote once their ultimate target had been achieved? Why wouldn’t it transfer oto parties preaching normal, non-communal politics? Parties like Fianna Fail and Fine Gael? The Unionist (or "Prod", as it would more than likely become on the destruction of our Union) Bloc wouldn’t be anywhere near large or cohesive enough to make much of a difference one way or another. In other words, in the event of the 32 County state there shouldn’t be too much to fear for the typical FF or FG apparachnik in terms of damage to either their party or personal fortunes.

Yet post the Belfast Agreement, the terminology "pan-nationalist front" has disappeared from even the most ultra of Unionist’s lexicon. O Broin is right, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are only paying lip-service to the pursuit of what should be their national goal. He and Collins are, however, self-deluded/dishonest in their analysis of the reasons. The roadblock on the road to "Unity" hasn’t originated in splendid isolation- its creation is merely reflecting the attitude and opinion of the wider electorate.
Now, why would that be the case? That's a more uncomfortable question for Republicans to answer.

"Er, yeah, we'll get back to you on that one, Martin"

From The Derry Journal:

Sinn Féin leader Martin McGuinness has called for people from the North to be allowed to vote in Irish presidential elections.

He made the call when he gave the annual John Hume lecture at the Patrick MacGill summer school in Glenties on Sunday.

Speaking in Glenties, the Sinn Féin chief negotiator said a debate on Irish unity is needed.

This seems to be an annual call, didn't Gerry call for the very same debate last year on his US Tour and when he popped up in London to speak to the usual suspects? Down to brass-tacks:

"A start could be made next year by granting to Irish citizens in the Six Counties the right to vote in the Presidential Election. The current Uachtarán na hÉireann is a native of Belfast but if she had still lived there at the time of her election she would not have been able to vote for herself

There isn't a hope in hell that the Republic's government are going to *permit* their citizens in Northern Ireland to vote in that election; if McGuinness, Adams and Co were to admit at least to themselves the reasons why not, then that could be a useful kick-reverse to their *Unity* debate.

Why don't you give up yer aul sins for St Patrick?

Courtesy of RTE and Brown Bags film:

"We'll have to let the man from the TV go now, I'm sure he's dying for a cup of tea".
I'm sure he is.

Unless you're heading up to the Traditional Holyland Riot, have yourself a smashing day.

The Free State Partitionists and East Tyrone chickens

"Belfast Greyhound" has kindly sent me two posts via email, the first is reproduced below:

"40 years of more or less open conflict, 30 years active and now the more passive years of a peace process, shows up some odd results at the level of the concerns of the Plain People of Ireland it seems.

The last few days a recurring theme on the Joe Duffy Show has been what can actually be counted as Irish produce to be sold in shops. Chickens it seems, born and reared in Co. Tyrone are not 'Irish' chickens but British in origin. If they were to apply for a passport they would have to get a British and not an Irish one by common consent of the listeners who rang the show complaining that it was wrong for them to be marketed as Irish when they were from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

While a lot of the contributors talked about chicken and other produce from the North and contrasted this with produce from the South of Ireland the telling phrase 'from Northern Ireland' was used constantly.A distinct contrast to the convoluted way that Nationalist/SF politicians talk about 'the North of Ireland'.

Common sense consumerism in the Republic seems to have a better grasp on reality than Northern Ireland Politicians of a particular political bent.This is not a small a point as might a first sight it would seem. One would have imagined that with the growth of Cross-Border bodies and the claims of SF that they have the re-unification of the island now on the political agenda, attitudes like this expressed by people in the Republic show that at the most basic level the Island of Ireland is certainly one made up of two established and enduring separate jurisdictions.

It is a measure of the total lack of success of SF that their activities over the years have set in stone attitudes completely at variance with their intended outcome - especially where they might have expected their message to have most support. Attitudes about what is Irish (and the poor representative from Tesco who was trying to argue that by being born on the island of Ireland should qualify a chicken as Irish for promotional offers was getting absolutely nowhere with this as an argument) are basic to notions of what being Irish is.

Perhaps there is hope for the future here if common sense breaks out and replaces the static mindset of the politicians who cannot see further than the lst slogan they thought went down well with the backwoodsmen in their parties.

The Union may be less under threat than SF would have us think.
Indeed what might actually be the truth is that the Plain People of the Republic of Ireland actually fear the threat of a United Ireland more than the Plain People of Northern Ireland fear it as a reality to be faced.

Interesting time we live in perhaps, especially with the upsurge in Dissident Republican violence and the way Compliant Republicans are caught on the petard of trying to confirm violence now as criminal while presenting their own previous activities as in the true traditions of dissent, makes their position less and less convincing as sustainable and coherent one.

Faugh a Ballagh"

A lullaby for London

I once, a long, long time ago, had the dubious pleasure of being introduced, courtesy of an also pretty dubious ex (or was that a dubious pretty ex;)), to MacGowan at Filthy MacNasty's in Islington. Ironically, bearing in mind his own birthplace, he told me, amongst one or two other things, he didn't think "I sounded the way Irish are supposed to sound". This reminds of not specifically of that occasion, but more of the very many enjoyable times I had in The Smoke and his undoubted lyrical talent.

Quote of the day

Colm McCarthy, respected economist and chairman of the Republic' Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure (wittily retitled "An Bord Snip Nua") said this during an economic conference in Edinburgh:

"The banking system collapse in Ireland is worse than in the UK.

"You should be very grateful that the Sassenachs are responsible for your banks incidentally.

"Being a sovereign and independent nation is great fun up to a point but if you can lumber somebody else with the cost of the banks that’s a pretty shrewd move."

Dublin City Council to ban English?

I've highlighted the relevant sentences:

DUBLIN DRAFT DEVELOPMENT PLAN (Section 17.9.2 Names of Residential Estates)
"All new street and development names shall reflect local historical, heritage or cultural associations and the basic generic description (i.e. Court, Quay, Road etc.) must be appropriate.

The Planning Authority will approve the naming of residential developments in order to avoid confusion in regard to similar names in other locations. Street signs must be bilingual, and all house numbers must be visible.

Developers shall agree estate names with the Planning Authority prior to the commencement of development. Such estate names shall be in the Irish language only and shall reflect the history and topography of the area in which they are located. The names of public roads shall be in the Irish language only." DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL

Barmy (considering English is the mother tongues of 90% plus of Dubliners) or sinister (a cack-handed attempt at linguistic cleansing), take your pick.







Thanks to Gombeen Nation for the news.

Ach sure...we've been let down by our fair-weather friends.

About a year ago, Declan O’Loan of the SDLP came up with a cunning plan.

Basically, he was disgruntled that letters sent from N.Ireland to the Republic operated on international rates (price of stamp at the time, 50p), it was time for an "all-island" postal tariff he reckoned. A first class stamp in ROI, at the time, cost an equivalent of 49p; in Northern Ireland a letter could be posted to any destination in the UK for 39p. Do the maths.

So, an all-island postal tariff, on those figures, would have proven a stunning victory for the "Ach sure, wouldn’t it be grand?" school of all-Ireland economists but one which would have resulted in NI residents paying substantially more than present for letters to the UK (which obviously also includes Northern Ireland) in order to save 1p on the sending of a letter to the Republic.

Thankfully, as St Etienne points out on Open Unionism, the "Ach Sure…" Brigade have been given a wake-up call both by the realities brought to surface by the economic crisis and more pertinently by the reaction of the ROI’s government and businesses to the “foreign” competition originating from north of the border.

Quote of the day

Myers has such a way with words but just occasionally his poetic hyperbole also hides an uncomfortable truth:

One of the many problems about Northern Ireland is that it is rather like a crocodile at the front door. No one wants to deal with its excrement, not least because the reptile is nasty, but we have to, regularly, before it rots the house. And the croc-crap is beginning to pile up again: across the Republic, young impressionable men are being drawn into the latest version of the IRA. So it's worth reminding ourselves what violence ever achieves in the North: not very much. Yes, starting bloodshed is quite easy there, but it doesn't result in a great deal more or less than there was at the outset of whatever campaign you care to name.

"Monica Missing in Inaction" Update

This an update to a post I did last week, regarding the activities of Monica McWilliams, full-time Commissioner of the NIHRC.

Curiously enough, over a week late this comment from "notintimor" has appeared following the post:

A new version of the NIHRC Register of Interests is now posted up on its website, with no mention of any work paid or otherwise anywhere for the Irish Government, so Monica is obviously in the clear.

Most certainly there is no mention of any work paid or otherwise being undertaken for the Irish government. Whether that puts Monica "in the clear" is another question.

This Press Release can be accessed on the Republic’s Department of Foreign Affairs website:

EMBASSY OF IRELAND KAMPALA PRESS RELEASE

The Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission,Professor Monica McWilliams and Mr. Med S.K Kaggwa, Chairman of the Ugandan Human Rights Commission, made a joint visit to Gulu, Northern Uganda on Wednesday 30 September in order to understand first hand the Transitional Justice and Human Rights challenges facing Northern Uganda.The Commissioners were very impressed with the positive transformation clearly underway in Northern Uganda.As well as meeting with the District Chairman Norbert Mao and RDC Col.Walter Ochora, the two senior Human Rights Commissioners visited a camp for internally displaced people and met with men and women who are receiving support from the African Centre for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (ACTV). Following their visit to Bobi Camp, Chairman Kaggwa said "Many people have been traumatised as a result of torture. The work of ACTVin terms of rehabilitating these people is extremely important in order to build a future in Northern Uganda, and the Ugandan Human Rights Commission isvery appreciative of this work".On Thursday I October, the team had the opportunity to meet with members of local civil society. Chief Commissioner McWilliams, herself a former activist in Northern Ireland civil society, spoke of her experiences in conflict resolution and peace building. She emphasised the important role civil society plays in promoting Human Rights and holding the government to account.

Was she invited by the ROI's government to make this visit? If so, was it the ROI's government or ultimately the British taxpayer paying for her trip to Uganda? Depending on the answer to these questions, shouldn't there then have been at least some mention of the trip in the "Register of Interests" or at least on the news section of the NIHRC site?

Quote of the Day

From Henry McDonald's "Gunsmoke and Mirrors":

"From Ireland they have learnt a valuable lesson: just because a movement which is principally nationalist and by its actions at least latently sectarian wraps itself up in the trendy garb of 'anti-imperialism', that doesn't necessarily make it progressive."

The "they" in question being the British Left. And no, I don't think they have learnt that particuliar lesson either but McDonald's observation about certain nationalist "movements" throughout the world is nevertheless a true one.

The Federation of Irish Societies pronounces on the 2011 UK Census.

More census developments, this time from The Irish Times:

ALTERATIONS TO next year’s United Kingdom census rules could allow several million people of Irish decent to declare themselves as Irish – even if they were not born in Ireland, or carry Irish passports.

The questions to be put to UK residents will include one – which followed representations from the European Commission – that will ask which passport they hold: UK, Irish or other.

People will be also asked to describe their "national identity" as English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, British, or other. On ethnicity, they will be able to list themselves as one of the categories mentioned, or as Irish, or gypsy/Irish Traveller.

A qualified support from the Federation of Irish Societies:

The versions we have now are as good as we are likely to get, and substantial improvements on what was originally proposed, although we have questioned the inclusion of ‘Northern Irish’ and the conjoining of ‘gypsy’ and ‘Irish Traveller’, ” the federation said.

The modern usage definition of "ethnicity" offered up by the Oxford English Dictionary is:

2.a. Pertaining to race; peculiar to a race or nation; ethnological. Also, pertaining to or having common racial, cultural, religious, or linguistic characteristics, esp. designating a racial or other group within a larger system; hence (U.S. colloq.), foreign, exotic.

Taking that as the benchmark, I’d then question what concern it is of the Federation that the "Northern Irish" is included separately. It would be also interesting to hear them talk through their problems with the "conjoining" of the descriptions "gypsy" and "Irish Traveller".

That's the football sorted, now what about golf and the rugby sevens?

Now that the Team GB football question for the 2012 Olympics has been (Christine Grahame and Sepp Blatter willing) put to rest, time to switch our attention to the next sporting national identity crisis.

In 2016, golf and rugby sevens will be included in the Rio Olympics. Both sports are obviously incredibly popular in all parts of the British Isles and bearing in mind there are only two teams at the Olympics representing what are regarded as five countries by, amongst other sporting organisations, FIFA, you can guess the kind of controversies which will almost certainly arise.

First, an example from golf, a very quickly rising star, Rory McIlroy, from Holywood, Northern Ireland and a British passport holder:

I'd probably play for Great Britain. I have a British passport. It's a bit of an awkward question still. It would be huge to play in an Olympics. I'd love to get an Olympic gold medal one day.

Yet the Golfing Union of Ireland is, as the name implies,an all-island body. In team competitions Northern Irish golfers invariably turn out for "Ireland". However, as in previous Olympics, it will be most probably be left up to the individual and, as in previous Olympics, that means the likes of McIlroy having the choice to opt for either team. And as in very many of those previous cases, that choice will be probably made on purely pragmatic (ie which team it's easier to qualify for) rather than political grounds

The Rugby Sevens throws up a wholly different situation, as outlined here by SNP MSP Stewart Maxwell:

Recognition for Rugby Sevens at the Olympics is a great step but it must not lead to and end to the World Cup.

We have seen with football that the IOC will not allow Scotland to compete as a country in her own right- despite our position in Football as in Rugby as a separate and internationally recognised sporting nation.

The IRB have previously said that the Sevens’ World Cup would be scrapped if the sports were admitted into the Olympics.

Maxwell continues:

If the IRB scrap the World Cup there will be no opportunity left for Scotland’s Sevens team to show their ability to the world in the sports number one event.

Scotland must be allowed to compete at Rugby Sevens top tournament as to block our participation would be a tragedy for Scottish Rugby and a bizarre fate to befall the country that invented the game.” Rugby Sevens was first played in Melrose. The sport has not appeared at the Olympics since 1924.

Surprise, surprise, I do have sympathy for his position here. Despite the wheelings and backroom dealings of Blatter and his sidekick Jack Warner, I felt the fears over a four country Team GB competing in the 2012 Olympics were exaggerated- not to say that the two gentlemen in question would love to see the 4 present votes of England, NI, Scotland and Wales reduced to a single UK one...simply that the presence of a GB team at the Olympics would have a minimal bearing on the issue one way or the other. Post 2012, there will be separate English, Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh teams competing on the world stage for both the World Cups and European Championships, I’m almost 100% certain of that.

However, Post 2016, it looks very much like there will not be separate teams representing the 4 Home Countries* at the very highest level of Rugby Sevens, if the IRB does decide to do away with the World Cup- that’s the difference between the two situations.

Still, there’s a long way to go yet and to put it bluntly, if the IRB considers its in its financial interest for 4 separate sevens teams to continue to exist at the highest international level, then the World Cup will continue.




* Not quite what the position is with Northern Irish players, under IRB rules they clearly would turn out for an all-island Ireland team, under IOC rules they could qualify for either the Republic’s or the GB’s sevens team

ROI voted "yes" to Lisbon, that's all

Ireland's (sic) endorsement of Lisbon also underlines again the reality of partition on the island. By voting "Yes" the Republic draws ever closer to the EU and the eurozone economy. With a Conservative victory extremely likely in the next general election, Northern Ireland is set to remain in the sterling zone and thus disconnected from any future all-Ireland currency.

Well...

A “No” vote would have meant what then, a closer step to a “United” Ireland? A Republic set adrift from the Eurozone (and possibly even the EU itself, if the cowardly threats from the Eurocrats are to be believed) would have become more of an attractive social and economic prospect for the majority of voters in Northern Ireland?

Henry McDonald normally is one of the more astute observers of the political scene in N.Ireland but he’s misjudged the Sinn Fein effect here on two levels.

Firstly, the Republic’s electorate didn’t vote "no" to Lisbon originally simply because the Shinners told them to do so, the converse is obviously true after Saturday’s count. And secondly, unless something very dramatic (which I don’t rule out 100% obviously having read “Poverty of Historicism” ;)) happens it will never be the present set of tribal Sinn Fein communalists anyway who will be capable of delivering a majority of the population either side of the border for a “United” Ireland.

So, on Friday the voters may well have delivered a dramatic blow to Gerry & Co's collective ego, but their "dream of a United Ireland"? Sinn Fein doesn't need anybody else's help to shatter that.