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...
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...
Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are catching up to England for levels of broadband uptake according to figures released by Ofcom this week.
In 2005 England was leading the way with 36% of homes connected to broadband. Scotland followed with 31% while Wales and Northern Ireland brought up the rear with 25% and 24% respectively. In 2006 though, England was just in front with 45% while Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were all just behind on 42%. The Republic was still lagging well behind with just 13% of homes connected to broadband.
The UK average of 44% is just above mid-table for European countries which is led by Holland with 66% and propped up by Greece with just...
http://www.everythingulster.com/blogs/index.php/everythingulster/2007/02/27/reinforcing_the_language_barrier_that_seGovernment research on the mainland is indicating that providing public services in foreign languages for non-English speakers is not only costing upwards of £100m a year (including £55m in the NHS), but isolating communities from each other. Meanwhile, Sinn Fein and their new MOPE poster-girl "Maire Nic An Bhaird" are continuing their efforts to create language barriers where none presently exist.
Remember, these millions are being spent on translating for people who can't speak English; by pushing for the new Irish Language Act to be rights-based one, republicans are demanding that the government spend proportionally similar sums translations for people who...
Something of an alarming (or alarmist) poll in the Sunday Telegraph today (coinciding with the discussion here at EU about the various nationalisms in the UK) stating that 68% of voters in England want Scotland to leave the Union while 48% want to see England break away from Wales and Northern Ireland as well.
I won’t go into the details because you can read the rest yourselves, but I thought I’d highlight one response in particular.
The union between England, Scotland and Wales is good for us all and we are stronger together than we are apart. The last thing we need is yet another parliament with separate elections and more politicians spending more money.
David Cameron, Conservative Leader
The union between who Dave? I’ll be interested to see if the Northern...
MPs from the DUP and UUP have joined with the SDLP and Sinn Fein in urging the Minister for Social Development, David Hanson, not to repeal Northern Ireland's antiquated licensing laws by bringing the licensing procedures inline with those in England and Wales.
According to the UTV report the politicians warned "pressing ahead with liberalisation proposals could result in every corner shop being able to sell drink." and we could never have that (among other things, on the mainland, you can buy alcohol at your local corner shops with your groceries).
Among the outrageous proposals being put forward by the DSD were such destructive ideas as:
New powers for police to enforce licensing laws (including temporary closure or restricted hours for offending premises)
A penalty points...