Draft Programme for Government: Reform
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011Progress is promised on reforming education and local government after long delays. Apart from health and libraries, the last Assembly term was largely a missed opportunity for “Delivering High Quality and Efficient Public Services”. The draft Programme for Government’s reform plans, under that title, will be judged on whether education and local government are streamlined. Social clauses are due to be the first achievement of reform, introduced in 2012-2013. The most tangible benefit should be better access to life-enhancing drugs. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, inflammatory...[full story]
Energy: Assembly party policy summary
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011A summary of energy policies advocated by the Assembly parties. DUP Enterprise, Trade and Investment Minister: Arlene Foster MLA Westminster Energy and Climate Change Spokesman: Jeffrey Donaldson MP Assembly Enterprise, Trade and Investment Spokesman: Robin Newton MLA The DUP’s 2010 Westminster manifesto supports the 40 per cent target of electricity from renewables, and states that farmers should be assisted in helping government meet this target without increasing the cost of electricity. It commits to expanding incentives for home energy efficiency measures, supporting...[full story]
Politics: South Belfast by-election?
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011Alasdair McDonnell’s leadership win opens up the possibility of a poll in his constituency. Voters in South Belfast may be back at the polls early next year, due to Alasdair McDonnell’s election as SDLP leader. He will become its only double-jobbing MP when Margaret Ritchie leaves Stormont in January. The party has a commitment to end dual mandates (after backing a UUP Assembly motion in November 2009) and has confirmed to agendaNi that McDonnell will make his decision “soon”. The move is already overdue as the motion set a deadline of 2011. The new leader effectively faces three...[full story]
Politics: Public affairs in 2011
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011With the Assembly’s second term under way, two professionals share how public affairs has evolved in Northern Ireland. Microsoft founder Bill Gates is believed to have once famously said: “If I was down to my last dollar, I would spend it on public relations.” It is widely accepted that in recent years whilst spend on advertising and marketing has decreased, investment in corporate affairs and corporate responsibility has continued to increase. It is no longer viable for a public relations practitioner to see their role as delivering column inches or broadcast coverage for an employer...[full story]
Politics: DUP conference – a new direction?
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011Traditional DUP conference rhetoric stood in stark contrast to Robinson’s appeal to moderate voters. Meadhbh Monahan reports. “There can be no greater guarantee of our long-term security in the union than the support of a significant part of the Catholic community,” Peter Robinson told delegates at the party’s annual conference on 26 November. Sammy Wilson’s comparison of Sinn Féin members’ children to hunger strikers and Nigel Dodds’ criticisms of all Irish nationalists, including Enda Kenny’s call for a Pat Finucane inquiry while “trying to neuter” the Smithwick...[full story]
Politics: UUP Conference – looking forward
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011Ulster Unionists are weighing up their place in the political system and considering how to reverse a long decline. Peter Cheney reports on the conference. ‘Common Sense Government’ seemed the right slogan for a longstanding conservative party, again settling into the Executive but several Ulster Unionists see their future outside that fold. Around 400 UUP delegates gathered for the party’s annual conference in Armagh on 22 October. For now, though, the party is focused on improving government from within. Most parties want smaller government and have gone into detail about...[full story]
Politics: SDLP conference – seeking recovery
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011Peter Cheney sums up the SDLP conference, where Alasdair McDonnell got off to a shaky start as leader. The party has dipped to a new low but members are determined to increase its standing again. Posters of Patsy McGlone and Conall McDevitt greeted arriving delegates along the approach roads to the Ramada Hotel, while inside McGlone’s team was conspicuous in their green T-shirts. This promised to be a livelier SDLP conference than the norm. In her final speech as leader, Margaret Ritchie claimed that “the people at the top have lost touch,” accusing Peter Robinson of being “too...[full story]
Politics: TUV Conference
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011Criticism of the DUP’s willingness to work alongside Sinn Féin and a call for the UUP and SDLP to become opposition parties, was the main focus of Jim Allister’s address to Traditional Unionist Voice members at the Royal Hotel, Cookstown, on 19 November. The party got 16,480 votes (2.5 per cent) and one seat in May but Allister argued: “I’d rather be a lone voice any day and have my principles intact than be part of such despicable duplicity.” Stormont was described as a “cocoon of DUP-Sinn Fein misrule” where, in the previous week, the environment and transport ministers...[full story]
Politics: Green party conference
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011The Green New Deal needs more than £12 million from 2011-2014 but it does act as a roadmap to a “social economy with green values at its core,” Green Party leader, Steven Agnew told his annual Northern Ireland conference on 29 October. With 6,031 votes (0.9 per cent) the party gained a single seat. However, with 41,039 votes (1.8 per cent) in the Republic, the Greens lost all six seats in the Dáil following their unpopular coalition with Fianna Fáil. A motion from the Antrim branch to create a Northern Ireland party rather than remain a region of the Irish Green Party was rejected....[full story]
