Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

Give Salmond his referendum. But insist on the right timing and the right question.

2009-12-05T15:33:00.003Z

I’m afraid that I’m a day or two late on this, but it’s worth reading Alan Cochrane’s coruscating assessment of the SNP’s white paper on a separatist referendum. Alex Salmond hopes to introduce a confusing poll offering several options, one of which would be his favoured option of full independence. Neither of the three unionist parties is prepared to entertain any type of referendum in the foreseeable future, although Cochrane believes that the Lib Dems are most likely to be pliable.

I am entirely in agreement with the article’s thrust. It is a disingenuous document, with important omissions and its timing is spectacularly selfish. However, I don’t believe that unionists should dismiss a referendum out of hand. A poll, held as the economy begins to recover, could kill separatism stone dead for a generation. The key is ensuring that the question is clear, unambiguous and demands a definitive answer. 'Do you wish Scotland to remain within the United Kingdom?'. Yes or No.

Nonentity scores a couple of goals in a reserve competition, hack writes ill informed nonsense.

2009-12-04T14:59:00.002Z

One of Manchester United’s reserve players, Darron Gibson, scored a couple of goals on Tuesday night, in a competition which gives clubs a chance to deploy their second string. The Old Trafford side were lucky enough to be playing a team famed for its gutlessness.

Gibson is known chiefly for his decision to desert the Northern Ireland youth setup in order to play for the breakaway association in the Irish republic. His decision to snub the original Ireland team has caused an ongoing wrangle between the IFA and the FAI.

Ian Herbert, a football correspondent for the Independent, has picked up a story from the Belfast Telegraph, revealing that former Northern Ireland manager Sammy McIlroy approached the player in order to persuade him to play for his country.

Presumably he was successful. After all, the 14 year old Gibson went on to play for the schoolboy team, representing Northern Ireland in the Victory Shield. However the predatory breakaway association subsequently poached the midfielder.

None of which has anything to do with the Belfast Agreement, despite what Herbert might contend.

Neither FIFA, the IFA nor the FAI were signatories of the Good Friday accord. It does not contain any provisions pertaining to football and the clauses on nationality and identity are irrelevant to the Gibson case. The Republic of Ireland’s institutions were not granted jurisdiction in Northern Ireland.

Will Allister's party show consistency?

2009-12-03T22:05:00.004Z

The TUV takes pride in its robust stance on terrorism. Indeed, we are led to believe, that contempt for violence is the party's raison d'etre. Which makes it all the odder that a prominent member, Trevor Collins, has organised a petition seeking the release of loyalist thug Torrens Knight.

Knight is guilty of murder, including the Greysteel massacre. Mr Collins offers an apology which echoes many similar republican analyses (and indeed Roy Garland), "the Troubles in Northern Ireland provoked many a young man to do things that they wouldn't have done in normal circumstances".

How a young man could be 'provoked' into firing a semi automatic weapon, premeditatedly, into a public bar is a question which boggles the mind. The fact that he has now been convicted of attacking two women tells us all we need to know about this 'loyalist'.

I sympathise with the TUV's view that convicted killers should be in gaol. Although I recognise that for the greater good, some murderers in Northern Ireland have been released. To actively campaign for the release of a contemptible character like Torrens Knight is outrageous. Jim Allister should expel the offending member from his party, if it is to retain a shred of credibility.

Comment elsewhere

2009-12-03T18:31:00.003Z

Over at Comment Is Free (where Mikhail Gorbachev has also made a contribution today!) I argue that the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission is a busted flush and that rights specific to the province should be incorporated in a UK wide Bill.

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) was established under the Belfast agreement to advise on the scope for implementing a bill of rights specific to the province. After a process that lasted more than 10 years, and cost millions of pounds of taxpayers' money, a government consultation has dispensed with most of the recommendations assembled by the commission.

It found that the advice disregarded existing national and international rights protection, was founded on unrealistic expectations and, most damningly, strayed far beyond the remit outlined in the Good Friday accord. Unionists have called for the chief commissioner, Monica McWilliams, to resign.

Policing and justice devolution back on?

2009-12-03T14:21:00.003Z

The DUP had been insistent that it will not let itself be rushed or bullied into devolving policing and justice. There are, it insists, issues to be addressed before enough 'confidence' exists to proceed.

And yet, according to the BBC, MLAs are being asked to nominate a minister by next week. It is possible that Peter Robinson is hoping to stabilise a Stormont boat which appears to have become rather rocky. It is widely believed that the DUP have most to lose should Sinn Féin pull out of power-sharing, if an election would ensue.

There remains a suspicion that the First Minister would be prepared to do a deal but other members of his party are not so keen. If the DUP was genuinely concerned about public confidence, as opposed to the mutable shopping list which it is forever compiling, it would focus on comments such as those O'Neill highlighted on Monday.

An Ulsterman's adventures in the Russian far north

2009-12-02T13:30:00.002Z

Lying to the north of St Petersburg, between the chilly waters of Lake Ladoga and the White Sea, the Republic of Karelia is an autonomous region of the Russian Federation. Forest stretches over more than half its territory, and of the remainder, fully a quarter is comprised of water.

Historically, the region known as Karelia included parts of eastern Finland and for a time, during the Russian Civil War, hopes were raised that an independent state might be forged by the majority Finno-Ugric population. Fuelling Karelian aspirations was an Ulsterman who would later become an independent unionist MP at Stormont!

Colonel Phillip James Woods was an unlikely talisman for nationalism at the edge of the Arctic Circle. A champion of the British Empire, he had served in the Second Boer War under Baden Powell, taking part in the Relief of Mafeking. He became involved in the nascent Ulster Volunteer Force, and with other members of that organisation, helped form the 36th Ulster Division, which took heavy casualties at the Battle of the Somme.

With war raging throughout Europe, Russia experienced the October Revolution in 1917, and the Bolsheviks came to power. The new government in St Petersburg would undergo a turbulent period before it established an empire which would appear impregnable for seventy years. Russia was thrown into a bloody civil war, which would last well into the 1920s, when the Bolsheviks gradually began to assert dominance.

After the Soviets signed the Brest Litovsk treaty, which effectively closed the eastern front in World War 1, and ceded swathes of territory to the Germans, the case for an allied intervention in Russia began to build. Significantly, the new Bolshevik regime also threatened to default on enormous debts owed by the Russian Empire to western powers.

In June 1918 an expeditionary force was dispatched to the Arctic Circle which included British and French troops. Its aim was to secure the region against intervention by German and Finnish forces, before aiding the anti-Soviet whites and, in Churchill’s words, strangling ‘at birth the Bolshevik state’

Arriving in Murmansk with the Allied Intervention, Woods was based at Kem, on the White Sea. He established the Karelian Regiment, which became known as the ’Irish Karelians’. The regimental badge consisted of a shamrock inset on an orange background. Woods helped push the Germans and their Finnish allies out of East Karelia and, in so doing, inspired dreams of independence which were, ultimately, unrealistic.

In the aftermath of the Great War there was little public appetite in Britain for yet more casualties suffered in a distant conflict. In 1919 British forces were withdrawn, Woods included.

Four years later he was sitting in the Northern Ireland Parliament, as a member for Belfast West, contributing to the history of unionism. A fascinating figure, I’m sure you’d agree and one which I’m looking forward to researching more closely.

Thick as mud, Education Minister carries on regardless.

2009-12-02T10:50:00.005Z

“Don’t know what I’m doing here / I’ll carry on regardless”, sang the Beautiful South. It is a lyric which could have been written for Northern Ireland’s Education Minister. Caitriona Ruane proved incapable of striking an acceptable compromise on selection for post primary schools. Other parties continue to make progress towards an agreed position, but the minister carries on regardless.

Similarly, her two bills aimed at establishing an Education and Skills Authority (ESA), which would centralise functions currently carried out by the five Education and Library Boards, as well as the CCEA exam board and the Regional Training Unit, have run aground at Stormont. However, in a statement delivered to the Assembly yesterday, Ms. Ruane set out plans to (you guessed it) carry on regardless of dissenting voices and start implementing the ESA project.

The two UUP ministers, Michael McGimpsey and Sir Reg Empey, have delivered their response:

“The statement made today by the Minister of Education represents an incredibly worrying development. At no time has Minister Ruane sought the support of the Northern Ireland Executive for her ‘transitional governance’ plans for education. This is despite the Ministerial Code requiring a Minister to bring any cross-cutting and ‘significant or controversial’ matters to the Executive.

“Nor has the Minister’s Bill creating the Education and Skills Authority passed the Northern Ireland Assembly or received the Royal Assent. In fact, the very reason the Minister has decided to bring forward transitional plans is precisely because of the lack of support in the Assembly for her Bill creating the ESA.

“Without the support of the Executive or the Assembly, the Minister of Education has arbitrarily decided to give ‘a much more direct role’ in the governance of our education system to a body – the ESA – which has not yet been created by legislation nor received the assent of the Northern Ireland Assembly or Executive.

“Devolution is meant to be about democratic accountability – not ministerial authoritarianism. We are now calling on the Executive to urgently convene and require from the Minister for Education an explanation for her actions"

A mutable Agreement, if our aims are being advanced.

2009-12-01T11:38:00.003Z

In an Assembly debate about north / south bodies yesterday, the UUP’s deputy leader, Danny Kennedy, raised an interesting paradox. Nationalists in general, and the SDLP in particular, have often invoked the Belfast Agreement as if it were infallible and permanent truth. Yet their professed aspiration is to use the accord as a starting point. They aim to gradually integrate Northern Ireland with the Republic. It is a contradictory position which could justify charges of hypocrisy from unionists. After all the accord is consistently cited in order to attack unionist positions on everything from the Bill of Rights to policing and justice.

Mr Kennedy: I begin my contribution with a quotation:

“all-Ireland arrangements are essential for nationalists who want to share the life of the rest of the island. Those balances are essential for unionism, too, in order that unionism has an agreed relationship with the rest of the people of this island. However, if one begins to pick and choose, and have an à la carte approach, one must understand that that is beginning to unpick requirements that are essential for longer-term stability and prosperity on this island.” [Official Report, Volume 37, No 5, p260, col 2].

That is a quotation from the Member for West Belfast Mr Attwood in the debate on a DUP motion that called for a reduction in North/South co-operation.

I agree with the analysis of North/South arrangements that arose from the Belfast Agreement. It is crucial that we recognise that North/South co-operation is sensible for practical reasons and necessary for political stability in Northern Ireland. However, as Mr Attwood outlined, balance is required for unionists. The North/South arrangements are not an embryonic form of united Ireland, and unionism was very careful to make sure of that in the 1998 negotiations. We fought long and hard to ensure that North/South co-operation was practical and not ideological. We fought for that balance, and we feel that it was right.

Mr Attwood cannot have it both ways: he cannot proclaim that the Belfast Agreement is Holy Writ and then table a motion that ignores it. The Belfast Agreement contains provision for the possible extension of North/South co-operation in mutually beneficial areas. The motion’s call for enlargement is based on nothing more than ideological predisposition. The Belfast Agreement protects against that; it protects unionists from ideological solo runs, particularly those from the SDLP, for “North/Southery”. It also protects against creeping North/South integration against the wishes of the people of Northern Ireland.

A review of North/South arrangements is ongoing. Some might wonder why the review team is yet to report, given the extended period — nearly two and a half years — that it has had. Therefore, background motions such as the one before us and the one tabled by the DUP earlier in the year are premature. In many ways, the debate is abstract without the findings of the review, which will report on possible new areas for co-operation. Any areas that are identified will be subject to great scrutiny in this place and in other places, as were the original areas of co-operation that were agreed in Castle Buildings. That is how that arrangement for government in Northern Ireland works.

The SDLP knows full well the intricacies of North/South co-operation. Mr Attwood outlined them in February when it suited him to argue for no change; he cannot turn that argument on its head in November when it suits him to expand co-operation. That is why the Ulster Unionist Party will support the amendment.

Stop the consultation, get rid of the Chief Commissioner and bury the Bill.

2009-11-30T22:07:00.015Z

After the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (or part of it) delivered its advice on a Bill of Rights for the province, the government has published a consultation paper on the subject.

At Slugger O’Toole, Belfast Gonzo observes that the NIO document has dispensed with most of the NIHRC’s work. The Secretary of State previously noted that the body had strayed far beyond its remit.

Gonzo asks whether Monica McWilliams, the chief commissioner, should resign her post.

She has failed in her brief, she has taken a nakedly political approach to a public position - helping to turn the commission into something resembling a pressure group - and she has been paid £70,000 per annum by the tax payer. This blog has long previously contributed its voice to the campaign for resignation.

The Consultation Paper notes that the British government has already discharged all the duties which were required of it, under the Belfast Agreement, in order to safeguard rights in Northern Ireland. Despite nationalist claims to the contrary, the accord did not include a mandatory Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland. Indeed, the Commission which was charged with investigating the scope for such a bill did a dismal job.

In the NIO document it is pointed out that, “over half of the rights proposed in the NIHRC’s Advice are equally as relevant to the people of England, Scotland and Wales as they are to the people of Northern Ireland and, therefore, fall to be considered in a UK-wide context“. There is much more in this vein. And it echoes countless independent critics who were ignored at each stage of the Commission’s project.

The vast majority of rights issues which pertain to Northern Ireland are equally applicable to the rest of the United Kingdom and ought to be discussed within the context of a national debate. The few matters which are specific to Northern Ireland, and which the NIHRC, ironically, largely ignored, can quite easily be appended to a UK wide bill.

The consultation into a bill of rights, like the Human Rights Commissioner, has outlived its usefulness. It should be stopped, before it wastes any more precious pounds.

Blogtalk (Episode 6)

2009-11-30T21:18:00.001Z

Blogtalk (episode 6) from Northern Visions/NvTv on Vimeo.

Mick Fealty, Gary McKeown and Máirtín Ó Muilleoir discuss this week's topics.

Bow Group's 'More for Less' document

2009-11-29T11:41:00.003Z

A quick line this morning (there will be lengthier posts appearing later this week I can assure you). John Redwood and Carl Thomson (from Moscow Tory) have produced a pamphlet entitled 'More For Less' on behalf of the Bow Group. It aims to set out practical methods which could deliver public savings cuts whilst protecting front line services.

Eighteen candidates - no discussion!

2009-11-26T19:35:00.005Z

Tom Elliott MLA has appeared on Hearts and Minds attempting to fudge the issue of agreed candidates. He also claims to be 'relatively' supportive of the Conservative and Unionist pact. O'Neill has previously pointed out that the Fermanagh man appears to have a shaky understanding of what UCUNF actually involves. We know that it entails eighteen candidates and yet UUP representatives still remain coy about declaring unequivocally that eighteen candidates will stand.

Liverpool sign striker Placenta?

2009-11-25T22:19:00.006Z

Benitez' new player gets a medical?

I am, it should be said, rather cynical about experimental medicine of any type. However the basting of Liverpool Football Club's players with horse placenta I fully support. Better yet, play the placenta at centre forward instead of Andriy Voronin.

The civic space: Towards a civic unionism

2009-11-25T14:13:00.004Z

At Forth magazine, I write about unionism's capacity to deliver civic politics to Northern Ireland. Jason Walsh will reply from the nationalist perspective.

Jason and I share the conviction that Northern Ireland’s politics ought to focus on civic discourse, if they are to assume a less confrontational, less sectarian shape. My contention is that a province, remaining solidly within the United Kingdom, is best placed to draw upon civic and institutional influences, rather than the cultural preoccupations which currently predominate, precisely because the state is a multi-national construct which makes its appeal primarily on the basis of political allegiance, rather than a perceived monolithic identity. It is incumbent upon unionists to celebrate the diversity of their state and frame their arguments in civic terms, rather than continue to call forth Conor Cruise O’Brien’s ‘ancestral voices’.

Sorry Liverpool depart Champions League.

2009-11-25T13:09:00.005Z

Liverpool’s Champions’ League victory recedes ever further into the rear-view mirror of history. It is now the fifth season since that campaign, which climaxed in Istanbul, and to celebrate the club has tumbled out of this year’s competition at the group stages.

Rafa Benitez’ side was not eliminated on the strength of its performances against Debrecen. Although last night the team delivered another unconvincing one goal victory against the minnows. Liverpool, under Benitez, have a habit of doing ’just enough’ to beat substandard opposition in Europe and have often advanced on that basis. This time two fortunate victories against the Hungarians could not offset a defeat at Fiorentina and, crushingly, one point from six against Olympique Lyonnais.

The brutal truth is that Benitez’ team deserves to be eliminated from the Champions’ League, just as it deserved to be beaten by Arsenal’s second string in the Carling Cup and just as it deserves to languish seventh in the Premier League.

An exceptional run of form between January and the end of last season obscured the incontrovertible fact that the squad is really rather threadbare. With Xabi Alonso’s replacement suffering an interminable injury, Fernando Torres sidelined and Steven Gerrard struggling for fitness, Rafa Benitez can field only a distinctly ordinary team.

He has exacerbated his problems with some inexplicable decisions. Yossi Benayoun, producing rampant performances in a free role behind the striker, was consigned first to the wing and now to the bench.

The Greek, Kyriagos, continues to feature, despite a string of lamentable performances. A series of mediocre players which Liverpool’s budget, and Benitez’ transfer decisions, brought to the club have had their inadequacies continually exposed, simply because the manager has been forced to select them.

The fans have been remarkably patient with their manager, but he should be under pressure. The derby is on Sunday, and another defeat cannot be explained away with reference to the club's American owners.

If they act like thugs, and join an organisation devoted to thuggery, safe to say, they're thugs.

2009-11-24T12:29:00.005Z

‘When Tory politician William Hague referred to loyalists as ‘thugs’, my heart sank’, claims Roy Garland, in his weekly diatribe against ‘English’ Conservatives. ‘No group of people’ should, he contends, be dismissed in such a way. Not even, apparently, groups whose activities conform to the very definition of thuggery.

First, I don’t believe that Garland’s ‘heart sank’ when the Foreign Secretary attacked loyalist paramilitaries. On the contrary, his communal instincts kicked in, ‘he’s having a go at ussuns as well as themmuns, what an opportunity’ (or words to that effect).

Second, his latest article contains a heart rending tale of a nice young man who joined a paramilitary organisation and then began to change it. Indeed it is positively glowing on the topic of loyalist groups and their stout community work in general.

What a load of twaddle! This is the same narrative, told from a different perspective, which we get from Republicans. Fine young men, compelled by extraordinary circumstances to commit dreadful deeds.

Nobody would claim that paramilitaries are irredeemable. They can gain acceptance by leaving paramilitary groups and joining the lawful society which they have previously terrorised. Attitudes like Garland’s just entrench the influence of shadowy groups within the very communities which he purports to care about.

Loyalist thugs have used guns and intimidation to run areas which, rightly or wrongly, felt under siege. William Hague is absolutely right to pledge to oppose them at every opportunity. Roy Garland, in contrast, demonstrates precisely the moral ambivalence to Protestant terrorists which has undermined unionism over a series of decades.

No group of people deserve to be labelled thugs? How about the morons who murdered Kevin McDaid.

Scots' support for the Union solidifies

2009-11-24T11:40:00.005Z

When unionist parties vote down Alex Salmond’s proposed independence referendum he hopes to encourage the idea that democracy is being denied. A new poll demonstrates that Scots might not be so receptive to this argument after all. According to You Gov, backing for independence has fallen to 29%, whilst support for the Union is up four points, to 57%.

Anthony King set the question, in line with the SNP’s proposed ‘softly softly’ approach. Rather than seeking honestly the Scottish people’s assent to break up the United Kingdom, the party will propose a mealy mouthed formulation about ‘negotiating a settlement with Westminster‘. King observes that in rejecting this proposition,

“most Scots regard the idea of a referendum on Scottish independence as an irrelevant bore and that, if any such referendum were held in the near future, it would be overwhelmingly defeated".

Indeed only one in eight Scots named a referendum as one of the top two priorities on which Holyrood should concentrate.

Salmond is well aware that his Referendum Bill will not gain the assent of the Scottish Parliament. His strategy is to use its defeat as a springboard for the general election, during which he will portray the SNP as the party prepared to give the electorate its say on Scotland’s constitutional future.

This survey indicates that there may be less leverage in these tactics than Salmond hopes. It also demonstrates that a referendum would kill stone dead, for a generation, the notion of Scottish independence.

Perhaps the brave response from unionists would be to grant Mr Salmond his separatist poll, on the understanding that it poses an honest question to the electorate and that the answers are restricted, simply, to ’Yes’ or ’No’.

Conservatives should be able to avoid asking for Clegg's help

2009-11-23T16:03:00.004Z

In the wake of the Observer’s Ipsos-Mori poll, which suggested that the general election could result in a hung parliament, Nick Clegg has indicated that, in that eventuality, his party might be prepared to enter into an arrangement with the Conservatives. On ‘The Andrew Marr Show’ the Liberal Democrat leader set out a position which it is difficult not to interpret as encouragement to the Tories.

"Whichever party has the strongest mandate from the British people, it seems to me obvious in a democracy they have the first right to seek to try and govern, either on their own or with others.”

On Conservative Home Jonathan Isaby suggests that Clegg would find it impossible to sell coalition with the Tories to grass roots Liberal Democrat supporters.

However the modern Conservative party, with its emphasis on social justice, is relatively in tune with liberal sensibilities. Although, as Isaby observes, it is unlikely to accede to demands for proportional representation.

Ultimately, the Observer’s poll is not in line with the vast majority of surveys, which still indicate that the Tories are likely to form the next government with a clear majority. There might be fewer Conservative MPs than David Cameron would ideally like, but as long as he plots a centrist course, a hung parliament can be avoided.

Young Unionist Chairman addresses Conservative Future Scotland

2009-11-21T19:01:00.000Z

Congratulations to Michael Shilliday, whom many of you will know. He had the distinction of addressing the Conservative Future Conference this afternoon. The final draft of his speech is reproduced below.

Mr Chairman it is a tremendous privilege to be addressing this conference, Alasdair and I were delighted to be invited, and are delighted to be here. Your hospitality and generosity have been greatly appreciated, and we have been greatly impressed at the scale and organisation of this conference.

In years gone past, similar gatherings of Young Conservatives in Scotland would I am certain have counted amongst them unionists from Northern Ireland, either as members of the Conservative Party locally, or as guests from my party, here as friends in support of a party and a cause with which they would have had considerable sympathy.

I feel however Mr Chairman, a particular honour in addressing this particular conference at this particular time, because I feel that I am here not only as a friend, but also as a colleague and partner. I am the first Chairman of the Young Unionists in 40 years who has been able to say that, and I do so with a great sense of pride.

The historic agreement reached between our two great parties earlier this year, is hugely important for the future of Northern Ireland. By putting to the electorate a potential government for the first time in a generation, by giving them the opportunity to have their voice heard in national government for the first time since 1974, and by putting Northern Ireland back at the heart of United Kingdom politics, the Ulster Unionist Party and the Conservative Party have taken Northern Ireland society a step further away from conflict and a step closer to being at peace with itself.

However Mr Chairman it should not be said that our renewed partnership is in any way surprising.

Firstly Ulster Unionism and British Conservativism are traditionally and closely aligned movements. We are not engaging in a new departure but re-establishing an old friendship which stemmed from the foundations of Irish Unionism in the 19th century. The reasons for that friendship drifting apart are numerous and contributory to the failure of the Conservative Party to become electable in Northern Ireland over the years since. But the recognition of those facts and the magnanimous manner with which the Conservative Party has dealt with those legacy issues has played a massive role in setting them to one side and allowing us to progress. David Cameron has publically reiterated the regret of Mrs Thatcher for the Anglo Irish Agreement, and emphatically contradicted Peter Brooke’s statement that the UK Government had no selfish strategic or economic interest in Northern Ireland. That was necessary, that took courage, and that speaks volumes about the commitment of the leadership of the Conservative Party to our shared initiative.

Secondly Mr Chairman, for the Ulster Unionist Party, re-establishing a link is another step on the road to a shared Northern Ireland, at peace with itself. That road began in earnest in the mid 1990’s and the UUP has achieved much in that time and since which we are rightly proud of. The IRA has surrendered its weaponry and core ideology to a partitionist settlement within the Union under the Crown. The principle of consent secures the future of Northern Ireland as an integral region of the United Kingdom to it’s people, and the ever increasing proportion of Catholic support for the Union leaves me with a certainty that I will not see a united Ireland in my lifetime. At it’s core, the dual legacy of the Belfast Agreement is peace, and an enduring Union between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Having made those achievements, it is entirely predictable that the Ulster Unionist Party would seek to reengage Northern Ireland with national politics – that is the logical progression of the Belfast Agreement. The Ulster Unionist Party having achieved it’s mission of securing Northern Ireland within the Union, has taken the logical step to seek new goals and pursue new avenues for politics in Northern Ireland, with an old friend and partner.

Of course Mr Chairman it will not be lost on anyone here that the battle to keep our Kingdom united is no longer dominated by Irish separatism. Today it is arguable that it is you and not I who face the greatest challenge to British unity. Whilst it is crucial to remember that the rise in electoral support for the SNP does not correspond to a rise in support for Scottish independence, the realities of Scottish politics as it exists makes it incumbent on all unionist parties in Scotland to make the case for the union clearly and unequivocally in the years ahead.

That challenge will be heightened for the Scottish Conservative Party in the event of there being a Conservative and Ulster Unionist Government next year. The ourselves alone alliance of the SNP and DUP have made clear that they intend to try to pin the blame for any and every pressure and failure on the finances of their administrations on an English Tory Government. It is up to us in the Scottish Conservatives and Ulster Unionists to make sure that they don’t get away with that lie. It is up to us before and after the election to be honest about the public finances, and to be up front with the public in the face of unashamed hypocrisy and dishonesty. It is up to us to make sure that the Scottish and Northern Irish electorates know that a Conservative Government is not an English Government, it is a British Government, fighting for Scotland and fighting for Northern Ireland.

And it has to be said that the National Conservative Party has done much better in the past three years than the previous three in recognising the realities of the United Kingdom beyond England. The “little Englander” mentality that was the prevailing image of the Conservative Party has largely been replaced. The phoney argument about “subsidies” for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland has all but disappeared from the lexicon of English representatives. Sir Edward Carson, very much the father of Ulster Unionism, argued passionately for extra resources for schools in rural Mayo and elsewhere in pre-partition Ireland. The principle was equal services for equal taxation of equal citizens. That principle still holds today, and no longer is the Conservative Party backing away from that commitment to our nation. No longer is the Conservative Party suggesting that Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish MP’s should be a lower class of MP. It is quite clear that David Cameron knows that he could be the last Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and that he is doing what is necessary to avoid such a situation, out of conviction. It is clear that the Conservative Party is determined to maintain the entire Union.
Of course one of the key benefits to both parties of our partnership, is the opportunity to engage with each other and learn from each other’s experiences. Perhaps there is a heightened opportunity for Unionists and Conservatives in the devolved regions to co-operate. Where your party has a history of scepticism towards devolution, mine once had a thriving debate between devolutionists and integrationists. The Ulster Unionist Party has long put that debate behind us, and as a friend, I urge Scottish Conservatives to fully embrace devolution.
I strongly believe that devolution is not something to be feared by Unionists, but something to be embraced . Devolution, approached positively, can secure the union, rather than threaten it or undermine it. Devolution is fundamentally a form of bringing about decentralisation of power and greater local control, principles that should be welcomed and advanced by Conservatives.
In Northern Ireland through our two Ministers, Sir Reg Empey (Employment and Learning) and Michael McGimpsey (Health), we are making tangible, positive and innovative improvements to public services on behalf of the people of Northern Ireland that is responsive to the needs of our region. Michael McGimpsey has recently completed the most fundamental overhaul of the Northern Ireland Health Service since my party founded it in the 1950s. Opinion polls rank our Ministers as among the most popular, respected and appreciated ministers of the current Northern Ireland Executive.

The challenge then for what you might call the "Celtic Conservatives" is to both nurture our hunger for Executive authority in the devolved political arenas, and upon obtaining such authority, readily demonstrate the effective difference that can be made when conservative solutions are applied to social, economic and political problems.
Boris Johnston in London, has shown what can be done, when Unionists and Conservatives set our sights on resting control of a devolved body from the grasps of charismatic socialism. It is vital we do not surrender any of the devolved executives to the bankrupt intellectual houses of socialism and small-minded nationalism.

For Unionists and Conservatives, the coming days weeks and months are about change, change we all desperately need from a Labour Government that has long outlived it’s welcome. The United Kingdom desperately needs a modern and forward-looking Conservative Government at Westminster.

But we also need modern and forward-looking Conservatives in the Cardiff, Holyrood and Stormont Executives. The entire United Kingdom needs change at all levels and in all institutions. To create that change, the United Kingdom needs the Conservative Party at all levels to embrace devolution, win authority in all devolved regions, and to govern. Conservatives and Ulster Unionists hold the key to preserving the Union in the long term. It’s now up to us to go forward, persuade the electorate, and do it.

Alliance prefer Hermon to Parsley?

2009-11-21T16:44:00.007Z

Jeff Peel doesn't reveal any sources, but on his (Public) Diary blog he suggests that the Alliance Party is set to 'support' Sylvia Hermon 'rather than' Ian Parsley in the North Down race for Westminster.

How this support would manifest itself is not made clear. Conservatives and Unionists have not selected a candidate for North Down, but the former Alliance man, Parsley, has been nominated and it is thought that the Conservative party is unlikely to countenance an endorsement of the current Ulster Unionist MP.

Is Alliance set to intervene in another party's selection process or is it prepared not to stand in North Down, should Sylvia Hermon decide to contest the seat as an independent? Perhaps, within the party, there is simply a preference for a figure considered to be left liberal, rather than a recent defector?

After all, whether or not, as Jeff contends, Alliance voters are intrinsically sympathetic to the Conservatives, its leadership are a rather different case.

An intriguing, but rather confusing, piece of gossip.

Blogtalk NI (Episode 5)

2009-11-20T19:09:00.002Z

Blogtalk (episode 5) from Northern Visions/NvTv on Vimeo.

Brian Crowe from Burke's Corner, Alan Meban from Alan in Belfast ans Slugger's oppression correspondent, Chris Donnelly, discuss several topics.

Armstrong aims to remind electorate that Conservatives and Unionists offer best option in North Antrim

2009-11-19T15:04:00.006Z

The media has already established its angle on the North Antrim general election contest. It’s all about Jim Allister and whichever Paisley is nominated to rebuff his challenge. To a degree the preoccupation with the DUP / TUV contest is understandable. After all, in 2005 Senior romped home with more than 25,000 votes and Ulster Unionist candidate, Rodney McCune, was beaten to second spot by Sinn Féin.

However, four years have elapsed and Northern Ireland’s electoral landscape looks rather different. Conservatives and Unionists will hope to improve their vote share considerably in the constituency. The TUV’s irrelevance to Westminster politics is manifestly obvious, and the Paisleys‘ reputation has been tarnished, even within their traditional heartlands. If voters in North Antrim need any reminder of the venality which caused the family’s downfall, they need only glance at a whopping £500,000 advice centre in Ballymena.

Of course, if UCUNF is to benefit from a fragmented DUP vote and its own particular relevance to a Westminster contest, it is important that the right candidate is selected. The UUP in the area has chosen two hopefuls to appear before the party’s selection committee. Ballymena councillor, Neill Armstrong, and Robin Swann (a defeated candidate at the last Assembly election).

In 2005 Neill had the distinction of increasing his vote in the Ballymena North ward, very much against the predominant trend for Ulster Unionist representatives. In contrast to his opponent, he has a record of election success with an established reputation, particularly in the Ballymena and Cloughmills areas. And, in a climate where the perceived impermeability of the political class can represent a severe handicap, Armstrong is an integral part of a successful family business.

It is my belief that, in order to achieve the results which are needed, UCUNF’s general election candidates should have an innate understanding of the pact’s principles. They should, in other words, be wholeheartedly committed to the Conservative and Unionist project. I know that, from its inception, Neill has been a strong proponent of the New Force and enjoys cordial relations with the local Conservative party.

In the speech which he delivered to the North Antrim selection meeting Neill described, in lucid terms, the particular relevance of the Conservatives and Unionists to North Antrim.

Our society suffers from all the ills of family breakdown, drug misuse and disengagement amongst young people, which Cameron is preoccupied with. Our society is broken just as society on the mainland is broken, and it is that broken society which we can address by becoming part of a Conservative and Ulster Unionist government.

Conservatives and Unionists believe that tackling these problems, realising progressive ends, is best achieved through socially conservative means.

As a husband, and a father with a young family, a government which wishes to make marriage the cornerstone of society is music to my ears. It is a message which will have resonance on the doorsteps, from Ballymoney to Bushmills, from Ahoghill to Aughnacloy.

As a business man, involved in a flourishing family firm, I’m excited by the prospect of a government which will cut red tape, and allow our company to generate employment unfettered. Owners of other small businesses in North Antrim will certainly feel the same.

As a local councillor, I appreciate that excessive government centralisation has taken its toll on communities and on democracy.

The Conservatives and Unionists believe local people should be empowered, and decisions should be made at a local level, in order that solutions can be tailored to a particular area.

It is simple common sense. And the people of North Antrim are renowned for their common sense.

In conclusion, as someone who is proud to be a Briton and a unionist, I am convinced that the Conservatives and Unionists will form a government which is good for Northern Ireland and good for the integrity of the United Kingdom.

The historian, FSL Lyons, coined the phrase ‘we are all Northern Ireland now’. With devolved governments operating throughout the UK, and unionists in Wales and Scotland facing their own separatist threats, it has never been more pertinent.

Our nation’s integrity faces challenges Kingdom wide and it is a Kingdom wide political movement which is best placed to defend the Union.

Unionism, in the sense by which I understand it, involves protecting the constitution of the United Kingdom. Britishness involves playing a full role within that Kingdom and participating in its politics.

Unionists in North Antrim have an ideal opportunity to do just that and I am eager to play my part in offering them that opportunity.

I’m certain that whoever is selected to contest North Antrim for UCUNF will deliver a stark reminder that the constituency is not all about Allister and Paisley. I think Neill would do a particularly good job.

DUP refuses to have a grown up budget debate.

2009-11-18T12:38:00.006Z

Once again the DUP has attacked Ulster Unionists on the basis that their Conservative partners intend to tackle the budget deficit. Simon Hamilton, during a finance debate, alleged that 10% cuts in the block grant would be sought, under a Tory government.

First of all, the Tories have not specified a 10% cut for Northern Ireland. Second, all parties agree that the UK's budget deficit must be reduced. Does the DUP seriously reject this analysis? Or does it believe that Northern Ireland alone should not play its part in delivering efficiencies?

If it doesn't recognise the need to cut spending, then it should outline its alternative economic plan for the UK, if it takes its position as a unionist party seriously. Although my suspicion is that grown up politics is a leap too far for Robinson's party. It is more suited to operating as a local pressure group, constantly demanding more money.

Margaret Ritchie's balls and a lack of sectarianism in Northern Irish politics. The weird world of John Coulter.

2009-11-17T11:39:00.003Z

Margaret Ritchie may have won twice as many nominations to become SDLP leader as her rival, Alasdair McDonnell, but the South Belfast MP has managed a coup of his own. The party’s deputy leader can now count ‘radical unionist’, John Coulter, amongst his backers. I’d imagine he feels humbled, perhaps even ashamed.

Coulter, in his weekly contribution to that venerable political digest, the Irish Daily Star, sets out the case for McDonnell, in characteristically linear fashion. If you dare read his piece, first fasten your mental feet around the stout shaft of a logical pogo stick, because you’re about to hop all over the place! Basic anatomy, religious fundamentalism, southern politics, northern politics and wild baseless conjecture are the inchoate selection of ingredients scattered unevenly atop John’s latest opinion pizza.

A warning for Glentoran fans. Read Coulter’s opening gambit carefully. That 6-0 defeat might still smart, but he’s not proposing a particularly devious scheme to get rid of your manager.

“Big Al McDonnell is the only nationalist boss who can help create a future New Force/Fianna Fail Stormont Executive.

Sorry to wee Maggie Ritchie, but she lacks the political balls to bring the SDLP back into government and return moderate nationalism to its glory days under John Hume.”

We’ll skate over the assumption that the SDLP might still wish to shackle itself to a party whose support in the Republic is collapsing, shall we? The suggestion that Ritchie’s ‘lack of balls’, political or otherwise, might undermine her leadership credentials immediately locates Coulter’s commentary at the less enlightened end of the spectrum.

But his musings about nationalist politics are positively mainstream in comparison to his analysis of unionism, and in particular the Conservatives and Unionists pact.

“The big problem facing the New Force of UUP and Tories is not candidate selection, but how to mobilise the estimated 100,000 church-going Protestants who have put Bible before ballot box and not bothered their wee holy bums to vote.”

No doubt, in unguarded moments, David Cameron explains the project in similar terms. Or, definitively, not!

Where Coulter’s estimate of 100,000, non voting, ‘church going Protestants’ has sprung from, we can only surmise. The notion that religiosity is a common barrier to political commitment in Northern Ireland should leave even the casual reader boggle eyed with disbelief. If a vast quantity of politically abstentionist evangelicals have been patiently waiting for a Conservative alliance to put ‘Biblical Christianity back into unionism’, I’m Skippy, the bush kangaroo.

John wants UCUNF to, “stop pissing about trying to present itself as some kind of trendy political paradise for atheists, humanists or other assorted secular nutballs“. Nutball is as nutball does, one is tempted to respond.

A lot of intellectual energy has been expended, attempting to tease out the identity of the (mythical?) ‘garden centre Prod’ whose latent electoral power is believed to remain untapped. I’ve yet to hear it proposed that this unengaged beast is apathetic because Ulster politics lacks a sufficiently severe dose of fundamentalist Christianity!

The idea that the Conservative and Unionist alliance is unattractive to committed Christians is surely, in any case, erroneous. Its policies are calibrated to appeal across faith barriers. Which is another reason why Coulter’s advocacy of an arrangement whereby Catholic interests are looked after by the SDLP / Fianna Fail and Protestants are represented by UCUNF is little better than the current carve-up at Stormont.

Rapping Gordon Brown

2009-11-17T09:52:00.000Z

From the Impressions Show.