Tuesday, 2 September 2008
Changing Face Of Politics In The North
The SDLP West Belfast Branch have organised a public forum discussion addressing the issue of all Ireland politics and the changing face of politics in the north.
The debate will focus on the SDLP and potential realignment: what this will mean for unionists, what effects it will have on politics in the north and what effects realignment will have on the SDLP's relationship with Unionists.
The Panel will be:
Alex Attwood SDLP
Basil McCrea UUP
Edwin Poots DUP
It will take place on 22nd September in Forthspring Community Centre, Springfield Road, West Belfast at 7pm.
All members of the public, party and press welcome.
Victory for The Belfast Stoop
Success. Success. Success. After some hard lobbying by The Belfast Stoop, and the SDLP Youth Group we have succeeded in convincing Cllr. Colin McGrath to change the music on his video diary.
After speaking with Colin I know it was a difficult decision for him. He is a child of the 90's and his tastes appear to be stuck there. But he has taken our constructive criticism onboard and I think we can all agree that its a vast improvement.
Congrats to Colin on the change of music and another successful video diary.
Enniskillen by-election - On The Ground
One of the reasons I haven't been blogging as much as I had been was due to the upcoming by-election on Fermanagh District Council. Without rehashing the entire saga, I direct you here, here and here, for the full story.I, along with a few carloads of Belfast Stoops (we could all get T-shirts) left early on Saturday morning from Belfast, for the long journey down the M1 and the A4, to Enniskillen. There we met up with the local members and spent the whole day knocking doors around Kilmacormick. We got a great response on the doorsteps, with a lot of people who personally knew our candidate, Rosemary Flannagan, which is always a good sign. And not only did they know her, the liked her, and said they'd vote for her.
The main issues people wanted to talk to us about were the cutbacks at the Erne Valley hospital, traffic congestion in Enniskillen Town and the knock on effects of the credit crunch.
Leading the local effort were Enniskillen Stoops, Cllrs. Frank Britton and Patricia Rodgers. Both local reps knew the area very well and were well known locally, which always helps. It was great to get out and about for the day, in parts of the Provence which I don't usually get a chance to see. It was even better to see a good, strong effort on the ground, fighting hard for a by-election which nobody wanted, and the media seem to think we won't feature in. It's up to us to prove them wrong.
There also wasn't any evidence of a campaign by any of the other parties, but to be fair I'm sure they were about in other parts of the constituency.
I won't be able to make it down this weekend, due to my first meeting of the Association of SDLP Councillors, but if anyone wants to head down this Saturday to help out then contact Ronan McCay at SDLP Headquarters on 02890 247700.
Justice
It's been a busy couple of days so I've not been able to update the blog as much as I would have liked. But I've got a bit of free time this evening so will try and cover as much as a I can in a few posts. Moving on to an issue which hasn't been out of the news the last few days- the devolution of policing and justice powers to the Assembly.
I've written about this before, and its also been covered by two SDLP leaning blogs, El Matador, and O'Conall Street, but as time goes by it is becoming more and more obvious that the main obstacle to the devolution of policing and justice powers to the Assembly is Sinn Fein. Sinn Fein is now the largest nationalist party in the North of Ireland. They have a mandate from the people of Northern Ireland, yet they seem to have forgotten that. They seem to be quite content to play second fiddle to the DUP and do what Peter Robinson is telling them.
That is not leadership.
Put very simply, leadership means leading. Not following.
When the SDLP negotiated the Good Friday Agreement, we insisted in writing in the D'Hondt system for departmental ministerial appointments, in order to ensure that parties could neither vet nor veto a particular minister. Now, Sinn Fein is conniving with the DUP to bypass the inclusive democracy people voted for in the Agreement.
Forty years on from the start of the Civil Rights campaign, there is a concerted campaign to ensure that no nationalist need apply for the Justice Ministry. Sinn Fein has demanded that others should recognise and respect their mandate. Where is their respect for the SDLP mandate? They are using their numbers and DUP numbers to deny us the second ministry to which we are very clearly entitled. This is an abuse of power, party-political discrimination and a return to winner-takes-all majority rule.
The DUP has never tried to hide its intention of tearing down the protections we wrote into the Good Friday Agreement - the new element is that Sinn Fein is now seemingly ready to help them.
Sinn Fein spokespersons have made it clear their preference was for an Ulster Unionist minister or an Alliance minister. Since they have been rejected on both counts, no doubt Dawn Purvis of the Progressive Unionist Party will be getting a call any day now. But why are they so intent on keeping a nationalist out of the job?
Early devolution of policing and justice could literally spike the guns of the dissidents who thrive on the political uncertainty which has been introduced once again by the Sinn Fein-DUP standoff. Use of the D'Hondt system would reaffirm commitment to the Good Friday Agreement and its protections. We in the SDLP have no selfish reasons for seeking this ministry, but we have every reason to seek to strengthen the Agreement and its power-sharing protections.
It's good to be back!
Friday, 29 August 2008
Highlights of the Democratic National Convention
As you will have seen on the news all week the Democrats had their convention in Denver this week and we say some great speeches from some of the great and the good of Democratic politics. Below is some of the best bits.
The decision announced this evening that John McCain has chosen Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate has sent shocks around the system in America. Palin had always been on McCain's short list, but was seen by many as being a long shot, behind the fancied candidates, such as Mitt Romney, Joe Lieberman, Tom Ridge and Tim Pawlenty.
This means for only the second time in US history (points if, without cheating, you can name the first time) one of the major parties have chosen a woman to be on the national ticket. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next 67 days. Will McCain be able to be more appealing to female, former Clinton backers who still feel slighted by McCain, or will Palin's relative youth (she's 44, McCain is 72 today) be seen as a gimmick? Only time, and American voters, will tell!
More time for politics
Over the past week or so I've been reading the latest instalment of Tony Benn's Diaries, which cover the period of 2001-2007, covering the time since Benn stood down from Parliament.
I'll admit right now that Benn is a personal hero of mine. I could count on the fingers of one hand the people who are my political inspirations and Benn has for a long time been one of them. I may not always agree exactly with him, but his head and heart have always been in the right place. Every political decision he has ever make was done because he believed it was right. Tony Benn spent much of his political life being vilified as a member of the ‘loony left’, which for so long made the British Labour Party unelectable. Nowadays he is seen as an elder statesman of British politics; a wise voice in an age of madness. His opposition to military action in Iraq and Afghanistan was criticized by many at the time, but predictably, has stood the test of time and proved to be correct.
You may think this is a pointless post, lionizing a man, who is seen by many as a relic of the past, when maybe I should be focusing on the current issues. This is possibly going to be the most controversial post I've written so far, not because of Tony Benn, but because of my, and my party's opposition, to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a decision that is going to come before Belfast City Council on Monday night.
As you may or may not have heard, last Friday morning there was an item on the agenda of Belfast City Council's Policy and Resources committee, for a civic reception to honour member of the Royal Irish Regiment, who have just returned from serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. This item was discussed and voted on, the result being 9-7 in favour of the civic reception. The SDLP were one of the parties who voted against the proposal, which led to criticism from some unionist members, who claimed that we were turning this issue into a political football. This item will come before the full council on Monday evening and I say right here, that I fully intend to vote against a civic reception.
I have no problem in these brave men and women, and their families, celebrating their return from combat. They are doing a job which I am sure that the vast majority of us would never be able to do. They have undoubtedly served their country with distinction, bravery and courage. Their families, who will have worried every day whilst they were away, dreading that terrible phonecall, will be full of pride and relief. They deserve their day. They deserve to be recognized for serving their country. My problem is not with them. They are soldiers, carrying out the orders of their political masters.
In March 2003, the day that Iraq was illegally invaded by 'coalition' troops, I took part in an anti-war demonstration in the centre of Belfast. I was not a ringleader or an organizer, I was just a student, joining with many other likeminded people, young and old, Catholic and Protestant, who did their small part, to show London and Washington that their war was wrong and that they did not have our support.
The war they waged on the people of Iraq was immoral, illegal, and based on lies, deception and falsehoods. Those of us who said at the time that going into Iraq would be one of the worst decisions of our generation have been proven correct. We do not revel in this. We do not say 'I told you so'.
We stand by the decisions we made then. And we have to speak up now. It would be wrong, and it would be an act of cowardice, to sit down now and say nothing. That is why I cannot vote in favour of a civic reception for the RIR.
The City of Belfast represents thousand of people, with thousand of different opinions. Mine is just one of those, but I know that it is one that is passionately shared by others, just as others will have profound disagreements with me.
For those of us who are against war this is our opportunity to reaffirm our beliefs, and stand up for the people we represent. I could not in good conscience support this. I will not support this.
