Twists and turns out on hustings
It's been a busy seven days for the politicos here as the election campaign took more twists and turns with under four weeks to go.
Home › Opinion › Columnists › Will Chambré
It's been a busy seven days for the politicos here as the election campaign took more twists and turns with under four weeks to go.
The 2016 election season is off and running, with voters south of the border now contemplating just exactly they have done - was it a mistake, was it daft, and just what were they thinking when they entered the polling booth?
Sometimes politics is weird. Okay, politics in Northern Ireland is weird most of the time. But when the leader of Sinn Fein praises the DUP you know that you have stepped into the Twilight Zone.
Some say that the largest source of derelict property in Northern Ireland comes in the shape of Parliament Buildings at Stormont, given the unwholesome perception of local politics. But I think that isn't fair.
She's the first woman to become First Minister and the youngest First Minister.
It's 2016, as you may have noticed, and is it much different from 2015? Apparently not, with news of cuts, fallout over public services, terror alerts...
It's December; the season of goodwill is upon us and traffic jams are the least of our MLAs' worries, as they'll not be driving to Stormont until January.
THIS week saw the House of Commons vote to bomb Syria in an attempt to halt ISIL’s continued presence in their self-declared ‘Caliphate’ straddling Iraq and Syria.
A week truly is a long time in Northern Ireland politics. When there are talks about talks, it can seem like an eternity of waiting - a Samuel Beckett world where nothing happens. Or, like last week, a whirlwind of shifting sands in the news agenda.
YOU can almost hear the gnashing and grinding of teeth emanating from the politicians engaged in talks to rescue the ailing Northern Ireland political process as a deal seems tantalisingly close, yet still out of touching distance.
It's sometimes too easy to satirise the shenanigans at Stormont.
So the long months of summer roll along and the muddle amidst our ministers and MLAs grows with each passing day, as dark talk of Assembly collapse and calumny clutter up columns in newspapers and countless hours on radio.
THE old saying “cometh the hour cometh the man” (or woman) seems to be hanging over MLAs heads this coming week, as the Assembly enters into the last three weeks before it breaks for summer recess.
WITH even the Secretary of State succumbing to the weird and wonderful ways of accounting in Northern Ireland, we now have the UK Government agreeing to phantasmagoric budgeting.
The iconic rocker Alice Cooper wrote the song ‘I Wanna Be Elected’ in 1973, lyrics that echo the last minute rallying cry of so many in the 2015 Westminster election.
A week ago it would have been fair to say that there was more heat around the battle royal in England with Labour and the Conservatives enjoined in bitter – and ongoing – exchanges, than the Westminster poll battles in Northern Ireland.
Most of the people start the year in January, but in the world of business and the revenue the months from January until the end of March are the final quarter of ‘their’ year.
With all the jockeying and posturing over welfare reform you would almost think that there was an election in May.
So, that was January...With the clock ticking away in the first week of February, it has been a pretty hectic few weeks to start 2015, as Norn Iron’s political ‘elite’ eek their way to making their December promises reality after the Stormont House Agreement.
Come the day cometh the man, goes the old cliché – and for once there appears to be an outbreak of common sense.
This week the department of education launched a consultation on shared and integrated education. At the same time the Assembly’s education committee is continuing its inquiry into...wait for it...shared and integrated education.
After the muted euphoria before Christmas on the Stormont House Agreement, politicians must be gulping slightly at the deadlines coming ever closer with each passing second.
Once again Northern Ireland stands on the precipice of outright disaster, with temperatures plummeting, bitter winds, wintry showers and treacherous conditions….and that’s just the weather; the political picture is much worse.
Widely trailed, widely discussed, the much awaited announcement from George Osborne on devolving corporation tax to Northern Ireland came on Wednesday when the Chancellor of the Exchequer unveiled all in his Autumn Statement.
BBC Northern Ireland has a comedy panel show, called ‘The Blame Game’ in which comedians joke and jape about who is to blame for local malaises. The subject of many a skit are the collective politicians in Norn Iron.
When it comes to politics in Northern Ireland you never need to go far to get a sound bite, and the Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness produced the proverbial cracker when he described potential pacts in unionism as "an anti-agreement axis".
With the Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers, dangling the carrot of a corporation tax decision ‘within weeks’, there seems to be a renewed impetus around the talks underway amongst the main parties here in Northern Ireland.
It's like watching that ‘Deal or No Deal’ show with Noel Edmonds – NI Executive ministers walk up to the middle and open a box hoping that they will not have their budget slashed, all the while hoping for a call from the banker – aka Chancellor George Osborne - to offer them a...
The Assembly is a remarkable place. And we make that statement clearly to show that there are times when democracy works. We know you may want to take a deep breath and consider this statement, but it actually happens.
Like the coming of the seasons, there is a certain inevitability about ‘talks’ coming into the political lexicon every year to 18 months in Northern Ireland.
Away w’ ye perfidious Scots…well not quite, even at times the English may have wished it to be so…
When it comes to Northern Ireland, we have the uncanny habit of walking into crises after crises, while there actually is some work actually being done - it's called the reverse swan theory. On the surface there's a flurry of action, while underneath there is calm...
According to a report last week, Northern Ireland’s housing market is ‘dysfunctional’. Perhaps it’s not just the housing market?
It's that time of the year when the balmy showers of summer blot out the sunshine, but joy is in the air. Never mind the schoolchildren, next week most MLAs will be capering down the steps of Parliament Buildings as the summer recess beckons.
When the England football team plays their last World Cup match, Northern Ireland's First Minister and Deputy First Minister will be sitting down with their hot chocolate, relaxing at home.
So, it turns out that the rise of racism can be put down to ingrained attitudes as a result of the Troubles...
This week we learned that the long held theory that the moon was created when a planet slammed into earth, the resulting debris coalescing into our natural satellite has now been largely proven by scientists.
With less than a week to go before the polls open, it is now the final countdown to when candidates learn whether the days and nights canvassing have been worthwhile.
With all the backbiting, arguments, veiled comments, rancour and general air of unpleasantness currently rife in Northern Ireland politics you'd think there was an election near at hand...
Once in a while politics in Norn Iron is quiet and tranquil – I can't quite remember when that was, but am sure it has happened. The week that has gone, however, could certainly not be described as such.
If you have been living in a cave for the past number of months you may not have noticed that our elected representatives have elections grinding political discourse down to little more than polite and not-so-polite point-scoring.
Our wonderful MLAs are about to adjourn for their easter recess, but what a week they have had – surely enough for them to retreat to their constituency offices for a break.
It seems that the honourable men and women of the Stormont executive have undertaken a flawed plan, in terms of the health and wellbeing of Northern Ireland's population, by helping us all stay alive longer.
There are signs that the green shoots of economic recovery are emerging tentatively from the undergrowth of winter woe. The number of those in work is on the up and house prices are rising in some parts of Northern Ireland. But if our embattled populace is planning to...
It turns out that people in Northern Ireland are more concerned about the economy than about politics – who’d have thought it.
There are no winners in war and no winners in a peace of compromise. With no victors there are only victims. Brokers of uneasy truces must face the fact that flaws will emerge.
The Republic's bad debt bank has received an offer for its Norn Iron loan book for the small sum of €4 billion...
Justice Minister, David Ford is in a bit of a pickle this month as his plans to change the criteria for appointing a new chief constable came under a withering fire of (metaphorical) bricks and bottles in a verbal riot against his proposal.
When one makes the effort to scan back over the previous week’s worth of political back and forth debates here in the wonderful land of Northern Ireland we can either sigh with relief or despair.
If you were to pay serious attention to the semi-hysterical reporting of Norn Iron politics you would think that 'our wee country' was on its knees politically and culturally.
Nightlife
Nightlife
World
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
World
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Sport
Education
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Readers Pictures
Events
Opinion