Category Archives: Northern Irish politics

UK asks EU to suspend Northern Ireland sausage ban

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Brexit minister Lord Frost asks for ‘a bit of breathing space’ to negotiate deal and head off trade war

The UK has asked the EU to suspend an imminent ban on the sale of British sausages in Northern Ireland to give both sides “breathing space” to negotiate an agreement on the Brexit protocol and avert a trade war.

Lord Frost, the Brexit minister, was speaking days after Boris Johnson warned he would do “whatever it takes” to protect Northern Ireland’s position as part of the UK.

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Irish-language row threatens to derail Northern Ireland government

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Standoff between DUP and Sinn Féin blocking ratification of Arlene Foster’s designated successor

A dispute between Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) over an Irish-language act is threatening to derail the Northern Ireland assembly and executive.

Arlene Foster formally resigned as first minister at 1pm on Monday but a standoff between the two biggest parties at Stormont is blocking her designated successor, Paul Givan, 39, from taking the post.

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Boris Johnson must respect rule of law and implement Brexit deal, says EU

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Bloc leaders say UK must fully implement post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland

Boris Johnson must respect the “rule of law” by fully implementing the post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland, EU leaders have said ahead of the G7 summit in Cornwall.

Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, said the behaviour of the prime minister was of increasing concern to EU member states. “It’s paramount to implement what we have decided – this is a question of rule of law,” he said.

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Edwin Poots elected DUP leader to succeed Arlene Foster

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Northern Ireland agriculture minister and young Earth creationist says someone else will be first minister

Edwin Poots has been elected leader of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) on the promise of remoulding Northern Ireland’s biggest party and ratcheting up opposition to the Irish Sea border.

The Stormont agriculture minister on Friday beat Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, a DUP Westminster MP, in a two-horse race to succeed Arlene Foster, who announced she was quitting as party leader and first minister after an internal revolt last month.

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‘Complex identities’ of Northern Ireland being undermined, says ex-official

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Ciaran Martin criticises post-Brexit attempts to ‘redesign’ UK based on old notion of English sovereignty

The United Kingdom’s unity faces being destabilised by “flag-waving unionism” from English nationalist politicians, one of the most senior officials to emerge from Northern Ireland’s traditionally Catholic community has warned.

Ciaran Martin, who created the framework for Scotland’s 2014 independence poll as the Cabinet Office’s constitution director, said the “complex identities” of Northern Ireland faced being undermined by post-Brexit attempts to “redesign” the British state based on “a narrow 17th-century notion of English sovereignty”.

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‘I’m proud to be from Northern Ireland’: reflections on a contested centenary

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As it marks its hundredth year, figures from the region talk of identity and allegiance – and the humour running under it all

The centenary of the founding of Northern Ireland is to be marked on Monday – albeit overshadowed by political turmoil and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Eight figures from Northern Ireland reflect on a contested centenary and the nuances of identity.

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Anxious unionists in little mood to celebrate Northern Ireland centenary

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In Enniskillen for a long time, the unionists kept winning. Now the feeling is of Britishness being lost

Covered up and boxed in a storage vault in the town of Enniskillen, two historic oil paintings gathered dust. King William III commissioned the portraits of himself and Queen Mary after he routed Catholic forces in the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, a turning point in Irish history that established Protestant ascendance.

Unionists revere King Billy, also known as William of Orange, as a hero who saved their settler ancestors. The portraits used to gaze down from Enniskillen town hall, a reminder of their link to the crown, until the council voted to remove them in 2002.

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Union in peril as PM ‘speaks for England alone’, former civil servant warns

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Philip Rycroft says PM’s ‘muscular brand of unionism’ has deepened divisions between four nations

The pandemic has seeded the idea of a prime minister “who speaks for England alone” as relations between the four nations of the UK deteriorate amid “deep-rooted complacency”, a senior former civil servant has warned.

There is widespread ignorance towards the union, meaning ministers can be kept in the dark about major reforms with little consideration for the four nations, Philip Rycroft, the permanent secretary to the Brexit department until 2019, says in a report.

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Northern Ireland executive holds emergency meeting over Belfast unrest

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Chief constable briefs party leaders after political crisis intensified by another night of riots in Belfast

Northern Ireland’s power-sharing executive is holding an emergency meeting in Stormont after another night of riots scarred parts of Belfast and ratcheted up a political crisis.

Simon Byrne, the chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, briefed party leaders on the security situation on Thursday before a debate at the assembly, which has been recalled from its Easter break.

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Northern Ireland clashes reflect loyalists’ fear of marginalisation

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Analysis: Brexit terms and handling of funeral seen as latest in a litany of perceived or real concessions

A Sinn Féin funeral was the spark but loyalists in Northern Ireland have been throwing petrol bombs and burning cars partly because they fear political marginalisation.

The union flag no longer flutters daily over Belfast city hall, a trade border separates the region from the rest of the UK and the police are allegedly beholden to Sinn Féin. Add to this a criminal gang’s resentment at recent arrests and you have the context for three consecutive nights of rioting in several towns that have left dozens of police officers injured, including five on Sunday night.

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Northern Ireland firms optimistic Brexit barriers will be eased

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Business leaders buoyed by meeting with Michael Gove and EU counterpart on protocol glitches

Business leaders in Northern Ireland are optimistic that Brexit barriers preventing parcels, pets, potatoes and plants getting to the region from Britain will be eased after a meeting between Michael Gove and his EU counterpart, Maroš Šefčovič, on Thursday.

They said the UK and the EU had a legitimate reason to remove or ease the barriers because they were having an impact on daily lives, in breach of a pledge in the Northern Ireland protocol that states the “application of this protocol should impact as little as possible on the everyday life of communities in both Ireland and Northern Ireland”.

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UK ministers face legal action over lack of abortion services in Northern Ireland

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Exclusive: government accused of failing to ensure access more than a year after terminations legalised

Northern Ireland’s human rights commission (NIHRC) has launched a landmark legal action against the UK government for its failure to commission safe and accessible abortion services more than a year after abortion was made legal in the country, the Guardian can reveal.

The Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, is accused of unlawfully denying the rights of women in the country, who experts warn are being forced to use unregulated services and to travel to high-risk areas during the pandemic. The NIHRC is also taking action against the Northern Ireland Executive and the country’s Department of Health.

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Northern Ireland joins in rejection of Boris Johnson’s ‘stay alert’ slogan

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‘Four nations’ approach dealt further blow as Stormont announces its own, more cautious plan

Boris Johnson’s “four nations” approach to tackling the coronavirus has been dealt a fresh blow after the government of Northern Ireland joined those of Scotland and Wales in rejecting the “stay alert” slogan, and announcing its own plans for easing the lockdown.

The prime minister sought to play down the differences in approaches on Monday, stressing in the Plan to Rebuild that people should “pull together as a United Kingdom”. But Edinburgh, Cardiff and now Belfast have chosen to develop their own plans.

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Brussels and UK at odds over proposed EU office in Belfast

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Clashes expected over plan which Britain says would sow division in Northern Ireland

Brussels and UK officials will clash over the increasingly fraught question of whether the European Union can open an office in Belfast.

At the inaugural meeting on Thursday of a special committee of officials charged with enforcing a de facto Irish Sea border, the European commission is expected to press the case to open “a technical office” in Belfast, three days after the government rejected an EU “mini-embassy” in the Northern Irish capital.

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Report to be published in Northern Ireland cash-for-ash inquiry

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Damning verdict expected on civil servants and politicians including Arlene Foster

Northern Ireland’s cash-for-ash scandal started almost a decade ago as a way to save the planet, veered into greed, cronyism and dysfunction, and will now reach a denouement in the place where it all started: Stormont.

Sir Patrick Coghlin, chairman of the public inquiry into the region’s bungled green energy scheme, is due to publish his report on Friday at the grand estate outside Belfast that hosts the devolved government’s assembly and executive.

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Families of Troubles victims warn against amnesty for soldiers

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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.

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What does the Irish election result mean for Brexit?

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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.

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Brexit: No 10 insists fishing waters will be under UK control after Varadkar remarks – live news

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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.

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Boris Johnson says he wants to see county lines drug gangs ‘totally wound up’ in first interview of 2020 – live news

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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.

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