Downing Street is accusing the EU of being in disarray over its plans for a post-Brexit trade deal, in the latest deterioration of relations ahead of crunch talks next month.
Boris Johnson will also unveil his blueprint for a US trade deal next week, in a move designed to heap further pressure on Brussels. However, EU sources regard the hostile briefings as a bluff from the prime minister’s team, saying that their pre-negotiation plans are on track.
Continue reading...Brexit and the surprising gains for Sinn Féin in Ireland’s general election have combined to reopen the debate about economic and political partition
Continue reading...Emmett McConomy, whose 11-year-old brother died in 1982, said cases ‘not going away’
A man whose 11-year-old brother was killed by a soldier in Northern Ireland nearly 40 years ago has warned that victims’ families “were not going to go away” if the British government tried to introduce an amnesty for military personnel.
Emmett McConomy, whose older brother Stephen was shot in the back of the head with a plastic bullet, said the new Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, needed to understand the strength of feeling among families who had not yet seen cases involving British soldiers come to court.
Continue reading...Sinn Féin president’s statement comes after senior party figures were threatened
Violent dissident republicans should disband, the leader of Sinn Féin has said. Anti-peace process renegades threatened the party’s vice-president, Michelle O’Neill, and veteran policing spokesman Gerry Kelly after they supported a recent recruitment campaign for new Catholic officers.
The party’s president, Mary-Lou McDonald, said they would not be deterred or intimidated by the gunmen. She added: “These people have no politics, no strategy and nothing to offer. They are at war with their community and are now threatening political representatives who serve the people.”
Continue reading...Architect and PM’s enthusiasm for Celtic crossing tempered by local cynicism of ‘pipe dream’
“The stars are aligning” for a bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland, according to the principal advocate for a Celtic crossing, the leading architect Alan Dunlop.
Although engineering experts have dismissed the concept as “bonkers”, Dunlop has been pressing for serious discussion of Boris Johnson’s latest grand infrastructure scheme since he conducted a feasibility study into the proposal in 2018, when he first raised the prospect.
Continue reading...A Sinn Féin coalition will rattle unionists, who consider Boris Johnson’s EU deal a betrayal
Sinn Féin won the most first-preference votes in Saturday’s Irish general election, delivering a shock to the country’s political landscape after decades of domination by the centrist rivals Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
However, the fragmented results will produce a hung parliament with no party close to 80 seats, meaning there could be weeks – possibly months – of negotiations between party leaders before a government is formed.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen
Q: Do you think there is any chance of Boris Johnson changing his mind in relation to ruling out an extension to the post-Brexit transition?
Sturgeon says she has to assume that what the UK government says about ruling out an extension is what they mean.
Q: Have you had any contact from the police in relation to Derek Mackay’s conduct? And do you think he should resign as an MSP?
Sturgeon says she has not had any contact over this from the police.
Continue reading...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.
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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.
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