The Election. Aftermath roundup.
It’s going to be alright now.
These pics are so sweet. People can be awesome.
Election maps are fun. Lots of red and blue and some grey. These maps of the results are very cool.
The official website of the office of Change went live yesterday.
How he did it.
Collection of hundreds of Obama newspaper headlines.
Change. Literally. Loose change.
I watched the latest episode of South Park this morning. True to form it was as odd as usual, though the amazingly fast turn around is very impressive.
This sums up the dream in so many ways.
This comic by American Hell sums up the election for me: live coverage from BBC News, 5 news websites open and Twitter.
It is truly one of the greatest sources of photojournalism. Always exceptional images and the election...
Today is monumental and historic. With months of build up Barack Obama is the new president of the United States of America. The most powerful election in the world, and the best man won.
The time has come when, despite still lingering rasicm throughout the US, a Black man can become president, the people are able to look beyond skin colour and base judgement on what he stands for.
Lets hope we see the change.
And what a win it was:...
The internet is doing a damn good job this time around. I actually wish I could make a difference. I guess only American’s can. The time is getting close, and I’m actually quite excited....
Unless you care about: healthcare, everyone deserves to be taken care of when they’re sick, gun control, civil rights, women’s rights, rising gas prices, the war, social security, minimum wage, welfare, the economy, gay rights, abortion, first amendment, the second amendment, the future, the world, your country, everything.
It’s good to see so many famous people getting political; showing how much they care. Not necessarily for one side or the other, but simply to get people to think. And to vote.
“Only 54 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots during the last four decades of presidential elections.” (wikianswers.com)
“…more than a hundred million Americans usually don’t vote, which means about 40% of eligible voters forego their...
Elections to the 11 new councils won't take place until 2011.
NIO minister Shaun Woodward has announced that the local government elections due to take place in Northern Ireland in 2009 have been put back to 2011 at the request of executive ministers.
Effectively the councillors who were elected for 4 year terms in 2005 are getting the length of their contracts extended by 50%. The official reason is something to do with the local government reform that will see the reshaping of the council boundaries and the reduction in the number of councils from 26 to 11.
What I want to know is which executive ministers, and why? I have my suspicions about certain currently dominant parties being worried about losing vote share with voters quickly realising that this wonderful new dispensation...
Everyone’s favourite unelected legislator has had an idea.
I can't drive. I've just never bothered to learn. So lets say I get my licence next month and I drive to my girlfriend's parents in south Down. Alastair Ross will be very upset if I leave for Belfast much after 8pm. Who is he to have an opinion on what time I drive home at? What right does the state have to extend the fairly reasonable restrictions on driving to such an extent? He also wants to ban me from driving my girlfriends sister anywhere for the first year. Total ban on alcohol, perhaps, but the reason zero tolerance on this doesn't work, is that small amounts of blood alcohol are (as far as I remember) naturally occurring!
Lisburn man/Larne MLA Alastair Ross really has let it go to his head. If he wants a...
I was recently required to do an analysis of an academic research paper. A colleague I was working with chose this one, which I hadn't read before. There are some fascinating things in the responses.
Page 6 of the PDF shows the huge swing in support for the agreement before finally resting where it started. I'm a bit dubious about the unexplained sharp rises towards the end of the campaign, but maybe I'm just forgetting something. Page 8 highlights the fact that the republic had a vote one third larger than in the north, but 10 times more spoilt ballots.
On page 11 we get into the really interesting stuff. Only half of Protestant no voters objected to power sharing. Two thirds of them supported the establishment of an assembly. 86% of catholic nationalists supported NI remaining...
Slugger has highlights from Iain Dale's picking up on the Irish Daily Mail getting hold of a copy of an email. The email was sent from a UK diplomat in Dublin following a briefing from the Irish government. It lists the various underhand methods the government planned to use to get the answer they wanted from the referendum and let me tell you it's a strategy Robert Mugabe would be proud of.
You kind of expect a government to set the date they feel would be most suitable, but they've also been found to have been deliberately and consciously misleading the public and their opponents into believing it was a date much later than the date they had planned.
They're practically rejoicing about the fact that the document is "largely incomprehensible to the lay reader", which is no small help...
So much to blog and so little time. It's like being off work and coming back to an inbox overflowing with emails. Let's start with this kerfuffle over flags in Kilrea.
Long story short, some folk erect tricolour on Protestant church. Some other folk decide to repay the favour, erecting Union Jack on Roman Catholic church. As Turgon highlighted, more interesting than the incident itself is a local MLA's reaction (and the apparent double-standards therein). Compare and contrast his description of what happened to the Protestant church with what happened to the Catholic one.
"The congregation of the Church of Ireland have my deepest regret that their church was used to fly a Tricolour on Easter Sunday.
Likewise, as a member of the Catholic community, I deeply regret that the Marian Hall,...
Colm Bradley has outlined some ways he thinks the GAA can remove the barriers to Unionists joining. Just over a year ago I outlined that the GAA has a de facto ban in Unionists joining. Unfortunately Google hasn't cached it, so some of the substantive points are below the fold. The main contention I have though, is that the GAA is excplicitly a political orginisation, and should not be treated as a sporting orginisation unless and until it sheds the vestiges of a political pressure group.
Read more »Full post & comments at...
Jonathan Powell, advisor to Tony Blair in the Good Friday Agreement era and a man attracting a lot of press on Slugger lately regarding his new book on that time, was on Simon Mayo's show on Radio 5 at lunch time today talking about his book and the events leading up to the Good Friday Agreement. He said something that got me thinking.
That was that the deal Tony Blair had been trying to strike originally was a deal between the 'moderate' and dominant parties in Northern Ireland: the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP. When the SDLP said they couldn't come along without Sinn Fein, Powell claims that it then became a case of ensuring that a deal could be done between the Ulster Unionists and Sinn Fein.
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Nearly two years ago I wrote a piece outlining why I believe that the House of Lords is undemocratic and untenable in a modern democracy. I'd be interested to hear what EU's readers think. Rather unfortunately, Charter88's Elect the Lords campaign seems to have stalled last August.Powered by...
11 "Super Councils" - the changing face of local government in Northern Ireland
Things have been a bit slow at EU here over the last couple of days. It's awful when real life gets in the way of blogging. Anyway, apparently a "deal" has been done on the councils. We've been spared the silly idea of a reduction to 7 super councils (which Sinn Fein alone wanted) and instead we're getting 11 councils which, as far as I can tell, nobody wanted (except maybe the DUP).
It seems like the areas proposed under the deal would see Newtownabbey and Carrick spared the indignity of joining up with Lisburn (as well as the massive potential expense of funding Lagan Valley's white elephant), although they look like being split from each other too, which is odd considering it's nearly impossible to spot...
I was glad when Michael posted the news of Paisley's stepping down/being pushed from the positions of First Minister and leader of the DUP. OK, it was sidetracked more or less from the start into the history of Ulster Unionist leaders/NI Prime Ministers, but I really couldn't be arsed commenting.
I'd come home from work and turned on Newsline when I first heard. I then heard nothing else for the remainder of the show but different people's rehashing of the news, their speculation and their commentary. Within 15 minutes or so I was sick hearing about it. Was there nobody prepared to say "No comment"? IIRC there was no sports coverage at all that night either. Surely something else must have happened that day.
The worst of it all was listening to Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams make...
A sudden downpour of technical glitches on www.politics.ie has caused widespread panic among underemployed Dail staffers, student politicians and disillusioned party hacks throughout the nation.They are now believed to be flooding niche bulletin boards and refugee stations have been set up on boards.ie for the worst afflicted.Reports suggest that initial fears of a legal tsunami were misplaced. Rather, the current crisis appears to be the result of a high-pressure software upgrade clashing with p.ie owner David Cochrane's busy schedule.Meteorologists predict that the site should be back up by the weekend.Political junkies are urged to find shelter offline, and seek comfort in bound copies of old Oireachtas debates....
The traditional view of Americans participation in the "Peace Process" here is generally seen as "cynical playing to the green Irish vote" by taking the side of nationalists and/or republicans. This was particularly true under the Clinton years.
With the new presidency race I think the best some of us were hoping for was that any new administration would have more important things to worry about than the rather tedious affairs of Northern Ireland, yet still its hard to shake the feeling that the votes of 36 million "Irish Americans" may prove too tempting to ignore.
That's why I was so surprised to read today that President Bush's special envoy to Ireland, Mitchell Reiss, has criticised Tony Blair for giving too much to Sinn Fein/the IRA, who he said became used to the government...
It really is time to put a stop to the nonsense going on at the Bill of Rights Forum. This bunch of professional do-gooders, whose job seems to be to advise those who will advise the govermnent on a Bill of Rights, seem to want to allow anyone under the age of 18 to escape prosecution when they commit a crime.
I'm sure you're all familiar with stories about violent and disruptive yongsters who proudly proclaim "I know my rights" when teachers attempt to discipline them. They must be having a good laugh at this. This is not what a Bill of Rights is supposed to be about!
There is an age under which children aren't held criminally responsible for their actions because they aren't mature enough to understand right and wrong. At the moment, that age is set as 10. The UN Committee on the...
The Assembly has rejected any suggestion that the IRA's sectarian murder campaign was a war. A good thing, and fairly unsurprising.
I've always liked Danny Kennedy, but his performance since devolution has impressed me, and he is clearly im proving as time goes on. I enjoyed this contribution during the debate:
Mr McCartney: The Member made an intervention and stated that Ireland was only ever united under the British Crown. Is that an acceptance that uniting Ireland is a worthy cause?
Mr Kennedy: Yes — under the British Crown. If the Republic wants to rejoin the British Commonwealth and renegotiate the terms and conditions for the union, I would withhold any objection.
Here here. Unionism should never be afraid to espouse Irish unity, it should probably be Unionism's...
Finally, he jumps. Take a look at his (graceless) resignation statement on the BBC website. He states that more important than the government, is his party's reputation. I don't like that much. Guido points out the obvious point. Nothing screams "he's innocent!" like a resignation.Powered by...
http://www.everythingulster.com/blogs/index.php/2008/02/19/terrorism_not_warfareThe Assembly has rejected any suggestion that the IRA's sectarian murder campaign was a war. A good thing, and fairly unsurprising.
I've always liked Danny Kennedy, but his performance since devolution has impressed me, and he is clearly im proving as time goes on. I enjoyed this contribution during the debate:
Mr McCartney: The Member made an intervention and stated that Ireland was only ever united under the British Crown. Is that an acceptance that uniting Ireland is a worthy cause?
Mr Kennedy: Yes — under the British Crown. If the Republic wants to rejoin the British Commonwealth and renegotiate the terms and conditions for the union, I would withhold any objection.
Here here. Unionism should...
http://www.everythingulster.com/blogs/index.php/2008/02/18/jnr_goneFinally, he jumps. Take a look at his (graceless) resignation statement on the BBC website. He states that more important than the government, is his party's reputation. I don't like that much. Guido points out the obvious point. Nothing screams "he's innocent!" like a...
I've been having an argument with Seamus here over legislators and who is qualified to be a lawmaker. I firmly believe that the salary of a legislator must be sufficient to attract those with sufficient expertise to be in a position to make good laws. Jim Allister, no matter that I disagree with him fundamentally on many key issues, is a good legislator, and the fact that he is probably taking a substantial pay cut to be in politics is not inconsequential. Many of his erstwhile colleagues in the DUP, are not doing my argument any favors.
One of the most effective and most civicly useful Acts on the statute book is the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I love it, I use it from time to time, and found it particularly useful during a dispute I had with a public body (who insisted they...
http://www.everythingulster.com/blogs/index.php/2008/02/08/mlas_to_consider_16_pay_riseA review of Northern Ireland's MLA's pay is expected to recommend a 16% pay-rise, taking the MLA's basic salary to £52,000. MLAs will themselves then vote on whether or not to accept the recommendation.
That's clearly not going to do much to help reduce the cost of Stormont, and is completely unjustifiable in the current economic conditions and comes at a time when the Prime Minister is urging MPs to show restraint on their own pay.
A Sinn Fein MLA has already said her party will oppose the pay-rise as out-of-line with both inflation and the pay-awards other public-sector workers are being asked and/or forced to accept. Well done them. Let's see if anyone else follows suit (all the parties'...
The Patten Commission was not a pleasant experience for Unionists. The abandonment of the historic name and symbols of the RUC GC was needless, insensitive, and damaging to Unionist confidence in the political process of the time. While this was not the only negative experience to come out of Patten, what we can say is a great many of the recommendations (PDF) in the report were good ones that have improved the already high standard of policing in Northern Ireland. One of these proposals, detailed at pages 62 and 63 of the Patten report, was the civilianisation of many tasks that were being undertaken by fully trained Police Officers. Police Officers are expensive to train and retain, this training is extensive and produces an excellent public servant for the betterment of the...
http://www.everythingulster.com/blogs/index.php/2008/02/07/conservatives_courting_potential_candidaSeems a novel (to say the least) way of recruiting electoral candidates, but the Northern Ireland Conservatives have a message on their blog requesting that:
"people - from all backgrounds - who might like to put themselves forward for the next Westminster election... Please, please contact us if you have the time, aptitude and interest to take on a campaign for a seat in Westminster"
Seeking Candidates - ConservativesNI.com
I can't decide if this is a bit desperate or a good way of taking advantage of new technology to reach out to like-minded individuals. Maybe it's...
http://www.everythingulster.com/blogs/index.php/2008/02/06/another_mythbusterAfter a period away from regular blogging of the style I don't like putting on Slugger, I'm glad to now be contributing to Everything Ulster. I'm looking forward to getting back into the habit of regular blogging.
When I met up with Beano, we were chatting about a few things, and the conversation came around to the common habit of utterly misrepresented Sir James Craig on one specific matter. I have to say I'm not his biggest fan, indeed I think that he caused a lot of the problems Unionism was subsequently to have, but his decision in 1922 to abolish PR for Stormont Elections from the 1929 election was not one that was intended to screw the nationalists as it is commonly believed, and commonly reported....
http://www.everythingulster.com/blogs/index.php/2008/02/01/yesterdays_men_how_times_changeA heart-warming act of friendship in Ballymena today as Northern Ireland's First Minister Ian Paisley and the prime minister of the Republic Bertie Ahern got all cozy and loved-up during a visit by the latter to the former's constituency.
Paisley described it as a "Good day for the whole of Ireland" as the two men met at the Galgorm Hotel to discuss the promotion of tourism, an area on which there is a large degree of North-South co-operation.
Former DUP man Roy Gillespie (yes, that Roy Gillespie) wasn't so pleased. He unfurled a Union Jack outside (err.. why?) and sent his wife in apparently to confront Paisley's wife, Eileen.
I'm disappointed in Jim Allister. The man seems to be a useful...
http://www.everythingulster.com/blogs/index.php/2008/01/28/bill_of_rights_asking_the_right_question"Do you support a Bill of Rights which is unique to Northern Ireland, which imposes an array of socio-economic commitments upon the Assembly which are incalculable in scale, incapable of being costed and will require substantial funding which will almost certainly have to be borne by the local taxpayer?"
Ask that question and see if you can get three-quarters of respondents to say "Yes". Alex Kane thinks you'd struggle and I'd say he might be right.
People's responses can be easily shaped using meaningless platitudes some feel-good buzzwords. It's a fact that politicians frequently rely on. Surely you'd have to be a monster to object to something with the word "Rights" in it. You're not a...
The press and political community in Northern Ireland has been thrown into turmoil by shocking revelations involving Ian Paislely jnr MLA.
In a series of exhaustive reports both print and broadcast media have been reporting stunning allegations suggesting that, despite the Assembly being suspended, the MLA (known as “junior” or “waste of big Ian’s spunk”) had been doing part of the job he was being been paid to do.
“This makes us look like fools, ” raged “special investigations” correspondents across all of the North’s papers and press agencies. “For years we were feeding the line that these guys were a bunch of work-shy layabouts. Now we discover one of them was actually writing letters on behalf of his...
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...a majority of people in the EU's five biggest countries, including Britain, would like to have a say, although they are unlikely to get it.
BBC News on the European Constitution Treaty
That just about sums up the EU and its attitude towards citizens of its member states to......