The British Labour party

 

For each and everyone  of you that’s interested in British politics

 

Smiles for a Saturday afternoon

 

 

 

 

http://www.labour.org.uk/history_of_the_labour_party

Scrap the Stormont Assembly – It’s not fit for purpose(2)

Planning at Stormont?

Northern Ireland’s environment minister

Mark H Durkan dropped the Planning Bill,

describing it as “bad law”
This angered the DUP, who are allegedly said to be the only party backing this deal.
They described it as an “antidemocratic decision“.

“Defying the democratic will of the assembly severely damages the credibility of the SDLP,” DUP chief whip Peter Weir warned.

“Despite a majority of nationalists and unionists being in favour of this legislation Mr Durkan is allowing party politics to cloud his judgment and defy the will of the assembly.”

What sort of a barrister is Mr Weir if he’s advocating majority rule to pass anti-EU legislation?
Peter Weir, called to the Northern Ireland Bar in 1992, former editor of the Ulster Review, member of Queen’s University Senate since 1996 and of the University Convocation

refused to support the Belfast Agreement of 1998,

saying in one television interview that the only positive comment he could summon for the Agreement was that it was “very nicely typed”

He belongs to the Orange Order

and the Royal Black Preceptory.


Translation from Orangespeak to standard English:
No defiance, please Mr Durkhan, We’re Loyalists here. We’ll make allowances just this once for a temporary lapse on your part but please remember that in each and every circumstance , Croppies must lie down!!

What is the Planning Bill?
Introduced in January 2013 by Alex Attwood it was supposed to streamline the planning system and speed up decision making.

It was part of The Stormont Executive’s commitment to their joint development plan, a new package of proposals to rebalance the NI economy and secure a shared future for all its people,a pact that was signed in Downing Street.

The Republic of Ireland’s only role was to send tourists up North.

In June most MLAs knew little about what was being proposed in two last-minute amendments but voted for them anyway

These amendments (if they had proven legally tight) would have handed absolute power to the DUP and Sinn Fein to:
 set Enterprise Zones exactly where they wanted them (and reap the maximum political advantage);
 wave through almost any economic project that took their (or their political backer’s) fancy;
 and defy the courts and by extension ordinary citizens any legal redress against OFMdFM decisions in this regard.

Logical Questions
Were the amendments an attempted power grab?

A cooked-up opportunity to control exactly which communities and which developers get the plum economic opportunities and which don’t?

Were they introduced to satisfy the request of any particular company?

What’s Mr Cameron going to do once he learns the pact he signed has already gone the way of so much else in Northern Ireland?

Would all this happen in London or Dublin? Edinburgh or Cardiff?
(to be continued)
http://www.planningresource.co.uk/article/1217803/northern-ireland-planning-bill-withdrawn?
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/regional/planning-fiasco-shows-limits-of-dup-sinn-fein-power-1-5615343
http://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2013/October/northern-ireland-planning-bill-set-to-be-withdrawn/?
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/environment/northern-irelands-unlawful-planning-bill-set-to-be-dumped-29678456.html
http://www.irishnews.com/news/smaller-parties-support-minister-on-planning-bill-1296622
http://sluggerotoole.com/2013/10/23/planning-bill-or-how-ofmdfm-dropped-the-ball-on-their-end-of-the-downing-street-economic-pact/
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-economic-pact-for-northern-ireland-agreed-in-downing-street
http://www.freewebs.com/lordcairn/Carson.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Weir_(politician)
http://www.nddup.org.uk/weir.htm
http://www.pmc.ca/en/index.php/knowledge/success-stories/streamlining/
http://pjboylan.photoshelter.com/image/I0000l.8V1IBhx7U
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=eDQUv95xdjPFyM&tbnid=7fBZuDGjkV4VtM:&ved=0CAQQjB0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.123rf.com%2Fphoto_14754004_business-card-templates.html&ei=vT9oUtb-OqSH0AX504DYDw&psig=AFQjCNH8FZ3b3pDl0Gk1hfTBCFW613OnZg&ust=1382650058910353
https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2013/09/01/royal-black-preceptory-appear-great-because-they-say-they-are/
http://standupforamerica.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/elitism-occurs-on-all-sides-of-the-aisle/

The Party’s Over – Gridlock Alert Over Welfare Cuts

State of Play: Potential gridlock

How much do we pay in taxes anyway?
In 2012-13 HMRC tax revenue was £5,700 per person in Northern Ireland. That’s 23% lower than in UK as a whole (£7,300)
Why?
Since Northern Ireland has less income and wealth than the rest of the UK it raises at least 25% less revenue per person from all the main taxes
Why’ve we got less?
Loss of traditional jobsin shipbuilding and textiles, more money spent on welfare due to the effects of the Troubles
They’ve been over for years

But the impact of conflict drags on.

About 50,000 people were injured. That’s just over 3% of the population.

Many can’t work and need disability benefits. Then there are people who are profoundly disturbed by what they had to go through

the shock of witnessing a violent event, being forced to move house, fear of travelling out of one’s own area. Experience of the conflict and poverty are strongly linked,
What are our politicians going to do?

They asked Westminster to make a special case of Northern Ireland where the legacy of the Troubles has contributed to higher levels of disability, mental illness and poverty
What other options have they got?
They can agree a compromise package that blunts the worst of the cuts –
Where’s the money coming from?

The Assembly budget is already stretched.
Northern Ireland has just won a 4-year ‘bedroom tax’ reprieve. The cost in the first year will be £17m, which will have to be found locally.

The DUP’s dilemma

The Social Development Minister Nelson McCausland

has been trying to wring concessions from London.

But they collapsed plans to redevelop the former Maze/Long kesh prison site

scuppering the 5,000 jobs that project was predicted to deliver.And they’ve certainly blotted their copy-books,
haven’t they with



So much so they are considered a

How do you think we, the working class Protestant communities will react to welfare cuts?

Sinn Féin’s dilemma

Martin McGuinness declared: “Sinn Féin will resist this onslaught on the most vulnerable” In Stormont departments like Education and the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister Sinn Fein has sought to direct funding towards those in greatest need.

If Sinn Féin doesn’t implement welfare cuts in the north how will it fund any compromise welfare package?
How will Sinn Féin handle the issue if they are pushed by London, or by the DUP in Belfast?

Sinn Féin is a major player in power-sharing in the Stormont Assembly and the second most popular party in the South where its political ambitions are based on an anti-cuts agenda
How will Sinn Féin overseeing welfare cuts in the north be received in the south?

London’s dilemma?

If Stormont continues to delay implementing the welfare reforms that the Cameron government has imposed elsewhere in the UK.

the Westminster government could impose a £60 million `fine’

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury has said Northern Ireland can’t pay.

Mr Cameron said: “It’s not a question of the UK Government ‘cutting’ [from the money it sends to Stormont].

“This is a devolved system; it’s for the politicians in Northern Ireland to decide how much to spend on welfare and how much to spend on other areas of government policy.It’s for Northern Irish politicians to make their own decisions here.
“It will be their decision but obviously if they decide not to make those reforms there are financial consequences. But those are consequences of their actions , not mine.”

On the other hand, Westminster could enforce the cuts directly, which means dismantling part of the power-sharing arrangements.

This could potentially alienate Sinn Féin.
If Mr Cameron were to waive the issue and make a special case of Northern Ireland, how would working class people in the rest of the UK react? What will people in Scotland and Wales say?

How would politicians in the rest of the UK react?

There is

Will joint sovereignty provide the answer?

Could two Secretaries of State find the way out?

http://www.housingnews.co.uk/index.asp?cat=news#449066
http://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/6881?
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/new-political-force-may-take-advantage-of-increasing-polarisation-1.1545374
http://www.thedetail.tv/columns/steven-mccaffery/welfare-reform-stormont-faces-another-maze
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/jul/14/belfast-riots-ardoyne-poverty-deprivation
http://www.childrenslawcentre.org/ParticularCircumstancesofChildreninNorthernIreland-GorettiHorgan.htm
http://www.potteye.co.uk/disabled-benefits-claimants-test-atos-reports-found-unacceptably-poor/
http://emergingfrombroken.com/overcoming-post-traumatic-stress-disorder/
http://defsounds.com/hip-hop-videos/juelz-santana-ft-future-nobody-knows/
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/regional/not-reforming-welfare-will-cost-you-cameron-1-5580356

Orange Order vs The State – Conflict of Interest ?

In 2009 The Orange Order had 34,538 members, down from 93,447 in 1968.
The Order says “We have Leaders in Political Life as well as in Finance, Industry and Education”

So which MLAs are in the Orange Order?
The Stormont Register of Members’ Interests provides the information
Mr Tom Elliott is upfront about his membership of various Loyal Orders

as is Mr Simon Hamilton

and several other MLAs, such as, for example, Mr Danny Kennedy (UUP, Newry and Armagh),

On the other hand, Mr Nelson Mc Causland DUP

Minister, Dept of Social Development
is reticent.
Under item No 11 Unremunerated Interests
he declares he is a Member, Linen Hall Library.

Under item No 11. Unremunerated interests
Members are required to list in this section any relevant non-financial interest.
Minister McCausland seems to have overlooked this important point.
Or perhaps he didn’t understand it?

How many others are there like him?

Now let’s consider the Democratic Unionist motion, which called the Parades Commission’s decision to place restrictions on the parade in Ardoyne “illogical”

Given such a close vote in support of the Orange Order’s call to protest 43 votes to 42.

Are we witnessing a Conflict of Interest?

 

Don’t forget Mr James Craig,

As Prime Minister of Northern Ireland from 1921-1940, he oversaw a concerted program of blatant discrimination against Catholics, almost all of whom were of Nationalist (anti-English) persuasion.

He was proud to boast that membership of the Orange Order, a secret, oath-bound sectarian movement meant more to him than membership of parliament (Campbell TJ, Fifty years of Ulster, Belfast 1941)

And so we come to Mr Robinson’s statement

“I think the Parades Commission got it completely wrong. I don’t believe that the Parades Commission have the respect or credibility in the community to continue in being.”

But the Parade Commission is legally constituted under the Public Processions (Northern Ireland) Act 1998

So is the elephant in the room an enormous conflict of interest?

The Orange Order vs The State?

If so, what is Mr Cameron going to do?


http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/2/crossheading/supplementary
http://todayinirishhistory.com/tag/james-craig/
http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/Documents/Your_MLAs/register-of-interests/register
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/wintour-and-watt/2011/apr/27/davidcameron-easter