Sinn Fein Non-Economics

Fair Deal over on Ultonia translated Sinn Fein’s postion on the budget crisis into a photo of a monkey with his fingers in his (or her) ears.

Responding to the First Minister’s comments on the issue, Sinn Fein’s economic genius Mitchell McLaughlin said: “It’s incredible that Peter Robinson is inviting ministers to anticipate the cuts before we even get the budget statement on 20 October.”

He added that cuts “proposed or imposed by the British government must be challenged and resisted”.

It is a well known fact from when the Coalition Government was formed that cuts, cuts and more cuts were going to be the focus of Government. Sinn Fein’s non-economics is a typical response from a party that believes that our own Government should be paying for what thirty years of violence and murder orchastrated by the IRA cost this region in economic terms. Sinn Fein should be working to develop Northern Ireland and repair the damage that they created.

The first thing that they should be doing is sitting down with all parties on the Executive and working to resolve the situation in order to manage it as effectively as possible. However instead they are behaving like monkeys out to blame the ‘British’ Government for the situation we have found ourselves in. How responsible, eh? Nevertheless how is this new given the fact that they have blamed the same Government for oppression dating back centuries.

Filed under: devolution, finances, power sharing, Sinn Fein, This week, Uncategorized

Week in politics…

Here’s some links from the week in politics:

• Tony Blair has spoken of his admiration for Ian Paisley — and how his hardline Protestant granny “loved” the future First Minister at the peak of his firebrand days (The Belfast Telegraph).
• Reviewing Tony Blair’s memoirs, Dermott Nesbitt says it’s up to history to decide if the former PM was sincere (Belfast Telegraph). He added: “Overall I am reminded of the quote, attributed to Anonymous: “To succeed in public life, you have to be sincere. Once you can fake that, you have got it made.” It will be up to the historians to decide whether Tony Blair was sincere or not.
• Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has admitted that he sometimes “distorted” the truth to prevent the Northern Ireland peace process from collapsing (UTV). DUP East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell said: “When negotiating with Tony Blair our emphasis always lay on actions not words. We never accepted words because we knew how easily they had been ditched in the past.”
• The UUP race hots up after rivals clash over GAA and gays (Belfast Telegraph). Despite appeals that the race should not become personal, Mr McCrea bitterly criticised his opponent over remarks that he had not, and has no intention of, attending GAA matches or Gay Pride marches.
• Many more people are now open about their sexuality, meaning a great many more have friends, relatives and colleagues who are gay, according to David Gordon (The Belfast Telegraph). He adds: ‘And they all have votes — a commodity the Ulster Unionist Party has been shedding for many years.’
• Over at her new blog (From the Front Line), Paula Bradshaw writes: ‘Whoever wins later this month will have to display leadership. However, it is equally if not more important that the rest of the party displays the integrity to unify under that leadership and behave as a disciplined, modern political party.’
• THE UUP–Tory alliance spent almost twice as much on its failed general election campaign as any rival party, it has emerged (The News Letter). The UCUNF alliance – which both candidates for the Ulster Unionist leadership have pledged to scrap – spent £126,500.
• Have I missed something over here in London or am I the only one to be struck by the absence of the smack of firm leadership in the DUP? asks Brian Walker at Slugger O’Toole. Fair Deal challenges him.
• DUP culture minister Nelson McCausland has blamed the “sectarian intolerance of some republicans” after it emerged that policing the riots in north Belfast over the Twelfth cost more than £1 million (The News Letter).
• agendaNi asked a number of floor-crossers and independents (from a Unionist persuasion) whether they considered resigning their seat and to explain their duty to their constituents.
• Northern Ireland needs to look beyond the Troubles and address its “crippling level of social breakdown”, according to an independent think tank *(BBC). The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) says high levels of unemployment, family breakdown, mental illness and addiction need to be tackled.

Filed under: DUP, some links, This week, week in politics, CSJ, memoirs, Tony Blair, Unionist leadership

Week One – an agenda for Stormont?

To get things moving, and to coincide with the start of the new term at Stormont, we’re planning to post up material exploring the operation of the Assembly.

Chekov has got things moving with his views on shared future and voluntary coalition. A Pint of Unionist Lite will follow up on Tuesday with a post on education. WB Maginess Esq will submit an ‘Assembly Sketch’ and we’ve also asked for a post from a UUP and a DUP MLA later on in the week explaining what their respective agendas are for the new Assembly. Other guest contributions are also planned over the next few days…

Filed under: This week