Yellow wind warnings issued and ‘blizzard-like conditions’ expected next week
Weather warnings have been issued for parts of the UK as Storm Ciara is forecast to bring strong gales and heavy rain over the weekend.
Yellow warnings of wind have been issued by the Met Office for north-western parts of the UK on Saturday. It also warned of travel disruption and potential power cuts in some areas on Sunday.
Continue reading...Mother of victim urges Netflix to be respectful and truthful as people still grieving today
The mother of a boy murdered by the IRA alongside Lord Louis Mountbatten has appealed to the makers of the The Crown to accurately depict the atrocity in the next season of the Netflix series.
Mary Hornsey said she hoped the drama would show sensitivity in portraying the events of 27 August 1979, when a bomb blew up Mountbatten’s fishing boat off Mullaghmore, a village in County Sligo on Ireland’s north-west coast.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen
Here is the Times’s Steven Swinford on the significant of the PMOS’s comments on fishing.
No 10 spokesman suggests access to Britain’s waters for EU fishing boats *will* be the subject of negotiations over future trade deal
‘We are taking back control of our waters
‘It will be for the UK to determine for the best interests of the UK who fishes in those waters’
The PMOS is not talking about some of the post-Brexit Whitehall arrangements.
He says there will be 40 officials working in government taskforce on the EU future partnership.
Continue reading...Tributes pour in for former deputy first minister of Northern Ireland
Seamus Mallon, an architect of the Northern Ireland peace process who served as deputy first minister, has died at the age of 83.
Tributes from across the political spectrum in Ireland and the UK poured in after the SDLP announced on Friday that its former deputy leader had died.
Continue reading...Transport and manufacturing heads criticise paperwork needed to trade with GB
The “straightforward” document that Northern Irish businesses will need to complete to send goods to Great Britain after Brexit is a complex form that includes 31 data elements, it can be revealed.
The Freight Transport Association has raised concerns that hauliers could be fined if they get elements of the “exit summary declaration” wrong, and is calling on the EU and the UK to remove it during their negotiations.
Continue reading...Follow all today’s political developments as they happen
There were various news lines in that interview, but perhaps the most surprising line came when Johnson announced that he wanted to end country lines drug dealing. No one will question the merits of his ambition, but he is making a promise that will be very hard to deliver.
This is what he said on the topic.
I want to see crime come down. I want to see the county lines drugs gangs wound up, rolled up. They are reducing the quality of life for people across our country, they are killing young kids. I want to see that thing totally wound up.
Q: Will Ann Secoulas, the US diplomat accused of killing Harry Dunn in a road accident, face justice?
Johnson says the US are unlikely to send her back to the UK. That is not what they do.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen
From Business Insider’s Adam Payne
Asked Nandy whether she’d work with the Greens/Lib Dems at future elections. She says she supports working “with the broadest possible alliance” but pours cold water on electoral alliances, telling me: “it’s a bit defeatist to say we can only win power through electoral pacts.”
This transition period stuff is catching. The Queen has just released a read-out of her talks at Sandringham about Harry and Meghan and it turns out that their breakaway is also going to involve a transition period. Doubtless there will be calls for it to get extended too.
Continue reading...PM welcomes restoration of power sharing as he and Varadkar meet first and deputy ministers
Boris Johnson has predicted “an incredible time” for Northern Ireland now that the region has a functioning power-sharing government again.
Prior to a trip to Belfast, the prime minister welcomed the historic deal that restored the cross-community coalition at Stormont.
Continue reading...Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill stress need for unity as they take up senior roles
The Northern Ireland assembly has reopened for business three years almost to the day after it and the power-sharing executive in the region collapsed.
At an unprecedented Saturday sitting of the regional parliament, assembly members elected Sinn Féin’s Alex Maskey as the chamber’s speaker, the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) leader, Arlene Foster, as first minister and Sinn Féin’s deputy leader, Michelle O’Neill, as deputy first minister.
Continue reading...Many stumbling blocks lie in path of government, including referendum on Irish unity
The agreement hinged on the issues of language and culture. Sinn Féin insists on an Irish language act that would put Irish on an equal par with English in Northern Ireland, not unlike the situation with Welsh in Wales. Unionists oppose this but the two governments appear to have hit upon a compromise whereby the rights of Irish speakers are balanced with rights for the Ulster Scots/loyalist tradition.
Continue reading...Stormont to elect new speaker and nominate ministers as part of power-sharing deal
Northern Ireland’s assembly will reopen on Saturday after a three-year suspension following a historic deal that has resurrected power-sharing government in the region. The Irish deputy prime minister, Simon Coveney, said history had been made at the climax of the post-Christmas political negotiations at Stormont.
The parliament will elect a speaker and nominate ministers to a devolved administration around Saturday lunchtime.
Continue reading...Sinn Féin and DUP consider proposals asking them to return to Stormont after three years of deadlock
Northern Ireland’s political parties have been challenged to return to Stormont and restore powersharing on Friday after a dramatic night of developments in political efforts to resurrect devolution.
The UK and Irish governments jointly published a suggested deal late on Thursday and urged the five main parties to sign up and re-enter the region’s institutions.
Continue reading...Claims lodged in high court in Belfast on behalf of victims of bombings in Northern Ireland
A fresh attempt to sue Libya for supplying the IRA with the plastic explosive Semtex during the Troubles is being launched by victims and the bereaved in Northern Ireland.
Claims have been lodged with the high court in Belfast on Thursday on behalf of two men who are seeking compensation respectively for the 1993 Shankill Road bombing and a blast on the Falls Road, west Belfast, in 1988.
Continue reading...Prime minister also intends to press his Brexit bill through Commons in three days
Boris Johnson will host the president of the European commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen, in Downing Street this week as he prepares to take Britain out of the EU at the end of this month, kicking off a race against time to secure a free trade deal.
The prime minister will use the comfortable majority he won at last month’s general election to press his Brexit bill through the House of Commons in three days when MPs return to Westminster on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Irish PM says UK must pay for any bridge between Northern Ireland and Scotland
Ireland’s prime minister has said he will not dismiss the idea of building a bridge between Northern Ireland and Scotland, but insisted the UK must pay for it.
Boris Johnson and the Democratic Unionist party have spoken in favour of the idea.
Continue reading...Atheist inmates at Maghaberry prison can now get pastoral care from humanist carers
Non-religious pastors have been allowed for the first time to run a secular “chaplaincy service” for atheist prisoners inside a top-security jail holding some of the most dangerous paramilitary prisoners in Europe.
Prisoners who do not believe in God inside Maghaberry jail in Northern Ireland can now speak with humanist carers.
Continue reading...Civil court decision opens way for relatives of four killed soldiers to obtain damages
A convicted IRA member in jail on separate murder charges was an “active participant” in the 1982 Hyde Park bombing, the high court has ruled in a civil action taken by the victims’ families.
Relatives of four soldiers who died in the IRA blast were told that John Downey was liable for the explosion that killed their loved ones.
Continue reading...Simon Hart named new Welsh secretary as prime minister announces that Morgan – who stood down as MP – will get life peerage
Here’s a host more middle and junior-ranking ministerial appointments just announced by No 10:
A mooted plan to merge the department for international development (DfID) and the foreign office (FCO) risks allowing British aid money to be spent on “UK foreign policy, commercial and political objectives”, rather than on helping the world’s poorest people, more than 100 charities warn.
Related: Johnson to tell new Tory MPs they must repay public’s trust
Merging DfID with the FCO would risk dismantling the UK’s leadership on international development and humanitarian aid. It suggests we are turning our backs on the world’s poorest people, as well as some of the greatest global challenges of our time: extreme poverty, climate change and conflict. UK aid risks becoming a vehicle for UK foreign policy, commercial and political objectives, when it first and foremost should be invested to alleviate poverty.
By far the best way to ensure that aid continues to deliver for those who need it the most is by retaining DfID as a separate Whitehall department, with a secretary of state for international development, and by pledging to keep both independent aid scrutiny bodies: the Independent Commission for Aid Impact and the International Development Select Committee.
Continue reading...Political figures say they want to get back around the table in the wake of the election
Political leaders in Northern Ireland have signalled that they want to revive the Stormont assembly and executive in the wake of the general election and talks to break the deadlock of nearly three years look likely to begin on Monday.
Northern Ireland secretary of state Julian Smith said he spoke with the heads of all the unionist and nationalist parties, including Sinn Féin and the DUP, on Sunday morning and later tweeted: “Good calls with all five party leaders this morning. Look forward to starting positive process tomorrow to get Stormont back up and running.”
Continue reading...Foreign minister challenges Johnson’s claim about goods moving from Northern Ireland to Britain
Simon Coveney, Ireland’s foreign minister, has challenged Boris Johnson’s claim that under his Brexit deal there would be no checks or controls on goods moving between Northern Ireland and Britain.
Coveney insisted that under the terms of the withdrawal agreement the prime minister negotiated with the European Union there would be inspections on goods moving in both directions.
Continue reading...