Flag protesters are making a key error: they are now damaging the cause and brand they seek to promote. Get off the streets and into talks.
— Alex.Kane (@AlexKane221b) December 21, 2012
Showing posts with label Northern Ireland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Northern Ireland. Show all posts
Alex Kane - Damaging the cause they claim to promote
Alex Kane - "UUP to the right of TUV"
Finished cover to cover read of UUP document. Puts them well to the right of TUV. I've no idea what votes they're now chasing.
— Alex.Kane (@AlexKane221b) March 12, 2014
The Northern Ireland moderate defined
@brianjohnspencr @SadisticMark "moderate" in NI means "not pathologically obsessed with the supremacy of one's own tribe"
— Andrew Gallagher (@andrewgdotcom) March 2, 2014
The non-voter - "Wealthy, slightly more likely to be Protestant and young-middle age"
Who is a non voter in NI? They are typically wealthy, slightly more likely to be Protestant and young-middle age.
— David McCann (@dmcbfs) March 2, 2014
@SeamyC @Donnchadhol Yep 2011 election showed 51% of wealthest voted wereas around 65% of working classes voted. NI goes against most norms
— David McCann (@dmcbfs) March 2, 2014
Basil McCrea asks if OFMdFM support a Silk Commission in Northern Ireland
During questions to the First Minister and deputy First Minister here, Basil McCrea asked if the office supports the devolution of further economic powers to Northern Ireland. Westminster is considering the devolution of economic powers to the other regional Administrations. Martin McGuinness responded:
"One of the most important powers that we seek, which the Member and other Members will be well aware of, is the power to devolve corporation tax. We estimate that, if we can get that, particularly against the background of the very positive answers that I gave on foreign direct investment during this question-and-answer session, it could lead to the creation of something like a further 58,000 new jobs. That is crucial for us, and we think that we are making progress. Obviously, the British Prime Minister has decided that he will not make a decision on this until the Scottish referendum is out of the way.
There will be various opinions in the Assembly about further powers. Some parties here are for a lot of new powers to be given to the Assembly, and others have concerns, some of which might be political and not just financial. I think that all this can be resolved through a process of dialogue, discussion and agreement between us. The key job of work that is to be done in the next very short while is on corporation tax, and, if we can achieve that, it will be a massive step forward for our Administration."Basil McCrea then asked: "Would you support the creation of a commission on devolution similar to the Silk commission to investigate the possibility of devolving more powers to see what would be advantageous, what would not be advantageous and what could command support?" Martin McGuinness responded:
"The Member knows, as do all Members, that, during Question Time to the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister, I answer as best I can, as I know the First Minister does when he is asked questions. We try to answer for both of us. From my perspective, that can certainly be considered. I would not be opposed to it, but I would like to come to a position on that in the aftermath of a discussion with the First Minister and, ultimately, if we were to proceed along that route, with other members of the Executive to get their agreement."Full report of Assembly questions here.
Basil McCrea responds to DEL Inquiry into careers advice in Northern Ireland
During the Assembly discussion (here) on the recently published DEL report on careers education and guidance in Northern Ireland (here), Basil McCrea made a number of points. On the issue of university graduates Basil said:
"It is entirely up to people what degree they take — it is a free world — but there is a mismatch between their skills and those that employers are looking for. Universities and further education colleges have a clear responsibility. They are independent bodies. They say that they respond to demand, but they respond to the demand from students. They need to make sure that they respond to the demand from industry to encourage the right numbers into the right degrees...
...people want to get a 2:1; they do not care what that 2:1 is in, it is just about getting a 2:1. It is as though a piece of paper will somehow give them the rationale for being employed. That is not actually the case. We need to get people more interested in obtaining the skills that the labour market will pay them for."
During a mayoral round-table here, Charlie Rose was told by a number of American civic leaders that there needs to be a close link between education and industry. On the issue of NEETS and other less skilled young people, Basil said:
"We have been hearing that 25% of people in Northern Ireland live on less than a living wage, which is the highest percentage in the United Kingdom. That seems to pose a problem. Part of the decision-making on that is whether young people in those areas are actually work-ready. Many of them do not understand the tribulations of the world of work. It is not enough to give them work experience where they go in and make the tea or sit around and look at things; we need more intensive mentoring. We really need to give help and succor on a more one-to-one basis to the people who need it."The major of Chicago Rahm Emanual explained here to Charlie Rose that his executive have created an initiative called BAM (Becoming A Man) which provides mentoring and advice to young and at-risk adolescents. On the issue of parents and careers advice, Basil said:
"The creative industries are one of our big growth industries, yet nobody actually knows how to get into them. We also have an issue regarding IT professionals. People keep saying that, if we could solve that problem, we could solve everything. So, there is something about how we convince parents that this is where the creative industries are.
We need role models and to find ways to get information to people. With regard to areas that we might look at in the future, we did not include in the recommendations, as far as I can see, business and entrepreneurial activity. That will be a factor in the future.
...Coming to the point that Mr Ross raised about how to get information across to people and what influences decision-making, you probably have parents, peers, teachers and TV at the moment. We talked about how we can encourage parents to know more. There is an issue, in that our teachers tend not to know about things in IT and can recommend only what they know about. You get to an issue such as television, and I wonder whether maybe we, as a society or as an Executive, need to start to communicate where our growth sectors are. That, at least, gets the message out. I am struck by the fact that there is an overabundance of lawyers and probably teachers and that we perhaps need to let people know that that is the case."Read the Plenary debate in full here. Watch Basil's contributions here. Read the full report by the DEL Committee on careers guidance in Northern Ireland here.
Ian Paisley Jr. on the past
On Thursday 21 November, Ian Paisley Jr. said to Stephen Nolan:
In August 2010, Ian Paisley Jr. said to a panel event in Belfast here:
Further reading
David Davis, the Conservative MP for Haltemprice and Howden stood in support of John Larkin's proposal. He said here that John Larkin's "comments not only reflect the spirit of the agreement, they also recognise the increasing impracticality of getting to the bottom of such killings."
Peter Hain, the former secretary of state for NI said here that he saw "some merit in the proposal from the Northern Ireland attorney general". He continued: "Rather than incurring enormous expenditure and effort pursuing crimes committed during the Troubles decades ago... justified grievances, including those of widows of prison officers and police officers should be addressed in other ways so that Northern Ireland can move on from its hideous past."
Senior RUC officers, including three ex-heads of Special Branch, have told the Haass team that John Larkin's controversial proposals should be implemented.
"Like most people I woke to Mr. Larkin's statement with shock."Ian Paisley Jr. then explained why he and his party stood fast against the Northern Ireland Attorney-General John Larkin's call to end Troubles-related prosecutions. Paisley further said that, "I could not share what I think of Mr. Larkin on the air."
In August 2010, Ian Paisley Jr. said to a panel event in Belfast here:
"Northern Ireland’s future should not be sacrificed on the altar it’s the troubled past... Let’s stop kidding ourselves. We are never going to believe in each other’s versions of the truth. And I think it’s about time that we moved on... the cost of doing any inquiry is going into the hundreds of millions of pounds and I don’t actually believe it’s going to get us any further..."
Further reading
David Davis, the Conservative MP for Haltemprice and Howden stood in support of John Larkin's proposal. He said here that John Larkin's "comments not only reflect the spirit of the agreement, they also recognise the increasing impracticality of getting to the bottom of such killings."
Peter Hain, the former secretary of state for NI said here that he saw "some merit in the proposal from the Northern Ireland attorney general". He continued: "Rather than incurring enormous expenditure and effort pursuing crimes committed during the Troubles decades ago... justified grievances, including those of widows of prison officers and police officers should be addressed in other ways so that Northern Ireland can move on from its hideous past."
Senior RUC officers, including three ex-heads of Special Branch, have told the Haass team that John Larkin's controversial proposals should be implemented.
STEM - There is a disconnect in the Executive
Judith Harvey was recently appointed as general manager of W5. She explained to the Gavin Walker on behalf of the Northern Ireland business magazine Business First the importance of science in schools. She said:
"Science, Technology and Maths (STEM) is relevant to everybody, every day - and that's what we have to impart to our young people before they have made academic decisions that close the doors on potential career paths. Too often our students in both primary and post-primary, are taught the process of science, but not the relevance it has to their lives."Science is obligatory to GCSE in schools in UK and Ireland, this is not the case in Northern Ireland. Asked if Stormont is failing students, Judith said:
"There is a disconnect in the Executive. Where one part says that STEM is the economic driver for the economy, and we have to put the economy at the centre of everything we do, another part allows science to drop down the educational hierarchy. This send out a contradictory message about STEM to pupils, teachers and parents."
John McCallister speaks to the GAA Ulster Council
John recently spoke to the GAA Ulster Council and said what many are thinking. He said:
"When a small minority have been talking about a "culture war" the rest of of us have listened to U105, watched 'Downton', visited the local National Trust property, admired the beauty of the Mournes, and wondered why Ireland didn't do better in the Six Nations.
It's not exactly a "culture war", is it?"You can read John's speech to Ulster GAA in full here. You can read analysis on the speech on Slugger O'Toole by Alan in Belfast here. You can also read John's full speech to the Collins 22 Society here.
Fionola Meredith - People need to speak up
Fionola Meredith wrote in the Belfast Telegraph:
She concluded: "For Northern Ireland to join the rest of the world, elections must be about more than the usual grim old carve-up. The implicit endorsement of discriminatory practices must end, but it will only do so when we start speaking up about them on the doorsteps, calling the parties to account for their actions and inactions."
"[The DUP] As the largest party... they're the ones who keep squashing all attempts to inch Northern Ireland towards even the most basic, starter-kit form of equal rights for all. It's their fault. Right? No. It's ours. The DUP's quintessential comeback line, when challenged on any of their thuggishly repressive practices – such as twice tabling petitions of concern to block votes on gay marriage in the Assembly – is that they have an electoral mandate to act as they do.
They are speaking for the people. By voting them in as the largest party, this – a benighted little statelet, left behind, nursing our prejudices, as the rest of the world goes marching on – is what the majority of people in Northern Ireland effectively choose. We give them permission to act in our name.Which gives the DUP, and its allies, impunity to go swaggering on in their customary way, cutting a self-righteous swathe through the loving same-sex couples who just want to get hitched [etc.]."Fionola Meredith continued: "Yet again, the benign majority view of gay marriage isn't reflected in what transpires at Stormont. There is a glaring discrepancy between what we say we believe and what actually happens in government."
She concluded: "For Northern Ireland to join the rest of the world, elections must be about more than the usual grim old carve-up. The implicit endorsement of discriminatory practices must end, but it will only do so when we start speaking up about them on the doorsteps, calling the parties to account for their actions and inactions."
Reclaim the peace process
Professor John Brewer has written on eamonnmallie.com here that the silent, long-suffering majority needs to reclaim the peace process in order to create progress. He said:
"The silent majority therefore need to reclaim the peace process from politicians who are failing it. Peace needs to be morally re-envisioned so that we rededicate ourselves to the hope, progress and commitment shown at the time of the Good Friday Agreement and referendum. We need to recapture that hope – but the way the past is talked about prevents us from doing so."
The two worlds of Northern Irelands, Ctd with Rick Wilford
The recent Radio 4 series, 'The Young Devolutionaries' featured a number of young people from the home nations including Northern Ireland. Rick Wilford of Queen's University Belfast made a number of encouraging contributions. In particular Rick Wilford noted how, compared to precious generations, the young people of Northern Ireland are in a far different place compared to their parents. He said:
"One of the things that struck me post-devolution is how much for positive and enthusiastic they are. There isn't a deep seated animosity towards "the other". I think there is a recognition that because they share so much in common, in the sense of social media and music and so on, that they have more in common that what divides them."The reality is that Generation Y in Northern Ireland has largely got beyond the cold and uncompromising mental categories of the Troubles. This contrasts with a political class that is very much committed to serving the more extreme, intransigent and backward looking. The asymmetry between the young person, and the political forum is sharp and brutal.
If Stormont politicians act like children then people on the street will act like children
Barton Creeth (@bartoncreeth) wrote in an article for the Queen's blog Compromise after Conflict here:
"The patterns of conversation and conflict management modeled by our political leaders matter because they filter through to all levels of society. How our politicians treat each other up in the Assembly and on television directly impacts those in interface areas, as these patterns manifest themselves in the relationships between our differing communities."
Northern Ireland needs responsible, imaginative, courageous and transformative leadership, not perfunctory and tokenistic managerialism. As was written on the blog previously here, politicians needs to behave as the rest of civil society is expected to. Balanced. Well-tempered. Courteous. Not capricious, mean and wilful as so often is the case. Obama said in his inaugural speech that "the time has come to set aside childish things." Northern Ireland needs the same. Northern Ireland politicians need to set the example.
A catholic party for catholic people
Patrick Murphy wrote in the Irish News:
The same can be said for the status quo unionist parties. Alex Kane has written of the political dangers of apathy and indifference to non-traditional voters. He said: "The Assembly cannot survive if unionist/nationalist parties refuse to accept that they have responsibilities to both sides - not just their own."
"By representing only nationlists, you [Sinn Fein] have abandoned the Protestant people to unionism - which is more Daniel O'Connell than Wolfe Tone. You speak of a lack of leadership among unionists - but your lack of leadership towards what should be your own Protestant people is even more marked. (Critics of the newly formed republicans - they were just Catholics with guns. The same argument today would suggest that they are now just Catholics.)"He continued: "An Ireland united, not by a common concept of nationhood, but by deprivation. That's why we thought you might like to reconsider your position in Irish politics." As Dr Cillian McGrattan said elsewhere, "Sinn Fein reaching out to unionism strategy is a nonsense."
The same can be said for the status quo unionist parties. Alex Kane has written of the political dangers of apathy and indifference to non-traditional voters. He said: "The Assembly cannot survive if unionist/nationalist parties refuse to accept that they have responsibilities to both sides - not just their own."
Between the Tory far right and the BNP
Sometimes it's refreshing to speak plain English. To just say what everyone is thinking. Daniel Finn in the London Review of Books confronted the DUP political ideology and practice, one that is out of step with life in the 21st Century, Catholics in Northern Ireland and progressive Protestants. Daniel Finn said:
"In British political terms, the DUP slots in between the right of the Tory Party and the BNP, with a generous side-helping of fundamentalist Christianity. The party’s environment minister, Sammy Wilson, recently vetoed a government global warming campaign on the grounds that global warming isn’t caused by human activity, while another DUP stalwart, Mervyn Storey, who chairs the Stormont education committee, is trying to have intelligent design included in the school biology curriculum."
The two worlds of Northern Ireland, Ctd
Northern Ireland is at the same time, incredibly progressive and regressive. Lyra McKee (@LyraMckee) recently said:
"The views of the under-30s are largely absent in this debate and truth be told, most don't want to vote "Republican" or "Unionist" but for a party they believe has the best vision for Northern Ireland. Other parties just get too hung up on the constitutional question."Previous posts on 'The two worlds of Northern Ireland' here and here.
Northern Ireland needs more mentors
Entrepreneur Eoin Lambkin and business mentor for Takker wrote in the Belfast Telegraph Business magazine that mentoring should be a key economic policy that could help drive a recovery. He said:
Northern Ireland should also seek to emulate the Big Brothers, Big Sisters initiative which exists throughout the United States. Read more about that movement here.
"I would go so far as to say that mentoring could be one of the most important economic tools at our disposal in the flight to turn around our ailing economy. There is not a region in the UK or Ireland that has not written a strategic plan that stretches out until 2020 which includes inward investment, taxation breaks, seed funding, training, increasing visitor numbers – the list goes on.
I have not seen one plan that mentions mentoring as a ‘key’ component. Mentoring is an activity that anyone with business and social enterprise can get involved in with the potential to generate enormous long term benefits."This is what is happening in the city of Chicago under mayor Rahm Emanual's administration with a programme called BAM (Becoming A Man) which works with at-risk adolescents and gives them the right type of mentoring, guidance and nurturing so that they can make the right life choices. Read more on that here.
Northern Ireland should also seek to emulate the Big Brothers, Big Sisters initiative which exists throughout the United States. Read more about that movement here.
"Silent majorities don't make history"
"Silent majorities do not make history."
Christopher Hitchens, 'King Billy’s Scattered Legions', New Statesman, 1972
Perhaps it's time for the silent majority, the normal half of Northern Ireland (see here and here) and the Great Unengaged to make history by standing up and speaking against the politicians and street thugs who are so grievously damaging the Northern Ireland economy and its standing in the world? This is urgent. You can't afford to be silent. You can't afford to be indifferent. You can't afford to be neutral. As Abraham Lincoln said:
“Either way, if we surrender, it is the end of us... They will repeat the experiment upon us ad libitum.”
A silent majority is a security blanket for Northern Ireland politicians. A silent majority is that which allows bad government. It is the prop that holds together the congress of sectarian clowns. But, as Tom Hayden said, "A silent majority and government by the people is incompatible." So here's the challenge: show to the world that a majority, long silent, can make history.
Politicians need to catch up with the people, Ctd
In May 2013 former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland was one of three members of the Elders, a group of global leaders that tackle issues related to conflict, met a number of young people from Northern Ireland in Dublin to hear their present concerns. Brundtland said:
"Talking to young people who have grown up with the peace process showed us that a lot more needs to be done to build a truly inclusive society. They shared their disillusionment with a political system still dominated by sectarian interests. High levels of unemployment and continuing segregation leave young people in marginalised communities particularly vulnerable to violence and this is yet to be properly addressed."
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