Bertie's autobiography available at all good bookstores. And Unionist Lite

Advance warning for any of you in Belfast next Thursday:

The Bookshop at Queen’s
invites you to meet

Bertie Ahern

Who will be signing copies of
Bertie Ahern, The Autobiography

In the Bookshop,
Thursday 26th November 2009
12.45– 2.00pm

All welcome.

Just make sure he gives you back your pen, that's all I am saying;)

For those unable to get to the Bookshop at Queen's have no fear, Mr Ahern's biography now is also available in the "World Politics" section of the rapidly expanding Unionist Lite bookstore. The UK Politics department of the same establishment now contains the two recently published barnstormers from David Gordon and Professor Tom Gallagher (demolition jobs on the Paisleys and Scottish nationalism respectively), as well as established classics from the likes of Norman Porter, Arthur Aughey, Alan Clark, Tony Benn, Niall Ferguson, Mark Perryman and er...Kevin Myers. Football fans and supporters of Liverpool FC now also have their own select part of the store with a small, yet eclectic, choice on offer; as with the other two sections to guarantee pre-Christmas delivery, early ordering is recommended:)

Call the bluffer's bluff

From "Bagehot", one of the few commentators at The Economist still worth reading:

There is a good reason why Scotland’s other politicians fear Mr Salmond: he is more charismatic and cleverer than them. He is clever enough to realise his chances of getting his referendum are slim and of winning it slimmer; he may well be content to see his adversaries vote it down, furnishing just the sort of grievance that he thrives on. They should call the conjuror’s bluff.

Indeed they should and details of a YouGov poll in this morning's Daily Telegraph give two pretty concrete reasons why:

A YouGov survey of voters' opinion north of the Border, published by this newspaper today, shows that support for independence has reduced – there is a healthy two-to-one majority against – and that most do not regard the question as a pressing matter for Scotland. Asked to rate a referendum on independence in a list of national priorities, only one voter in eight said it was the most important of seven options – well behind the 63 per cent who saw "reducing unemployment" as the top priority.

Only 29 per cent of voters back independence now, compared with 31 per cent last year, while 57 per cent are opposed – an increase of four per cent on 2008.

Given those figures, would it then not be a worthwhile strategy for the Unionist parties to sit back, mouths shut, as Salmond prepares to publish his Bill on St Andrew's Day next week calling for a referendum on the break-up of the United Kingdom? Let him take the responsibility for making the running of a referendum that few want and on which, if it ever took place, he would be hammered anyway?

Wade through the "quiet news day" hysteria and the warning signs are still there....

"SNP hails Cameron hint over election", another bewildering headline in The Scotsman.

"Hails" is surely a bit strong for the SNP merely acknowledging the fact that David Cameron (post the Ipsos MORI poll) reckons an outright Conservative majority is not a foregone conclusion; this wasn't really that much of a hint either:

"I think, frankly, anything is better than another five years of this Labour government."

"I've never believed the next election is either a shoo-in or a foregone conclusion."

Conservative Party Leader in "Another five years of Labour is not really what we're after and don't take the electorate for granted" shocker.

And as if to prove the party faithful shouldn't take that last phrase as just a soundbyte, here's three not very impressive local government election results last Friday; a warning provided by real people actually going out (or not, as the case may be) to the polling station and not voting in nearly enough numbers for the Conservatives.

The fourth result provided even more of a puzzle:

Rossington ward, Doncaster

Lab - 637 (27%, -10)
Eng Dem - 551 (23%, +23)
Ind - 506 (21%, -22)
Ind - 420 (18%, +18)
BNP - 101 (4%, +4)
Lib Dem - 78 (3%, +3)
Ind - 76 (3%, +3)
Lab gain from Ind

So, not even a Conservative candidate here, leaving the English Democrats a free run to come within 87 votes of taking the seat from Labour? Do I smell the whiff of a bizarre pact (between a Unionist and nationalist party!) here? Or were there other local factors involved? All very strange.

Quote of the day

The perfect DUP conference on Saturday for The Dissenter...:

Impressed at Robinson's speech and at conference organisation. And then McCrea started to sing. #DUP09

...almost.

Young Unionist Chairman at Conservative Future Scotland

Michael Shilliday yesterday became the first Chairman of the Young Unionists for forty years to address the Conservative Future Scotland Conference, Chekov has the speech here.

One of the advantages to the Conservative/UUP link up, from a Northern Irish Unionist point of view, is exactly this kind of opportunity to exchange and debate ideas and beliefs with likeminded colleagues across the Irish Sea- as Scottish and N.Irish Unionists, we are no longer singing from separate hymn-books.

A (War)dog inhumanely putdown?

A salutary lesson for all of us involved in political blogging I suppose:

A UNIVERSITY has launched an inquiry into the behaviour of one of its lecturers after he used his pro-nationalist blog to mount a vicious attack on the Scottish Secretary, Jim Murphy.

Robert Gordon University is investigating the online activities of Bruce Newlands, a lecturer in construction technology at the Aberdeen institution. Newlands, who writes under the alias of Wardog, used his blog to call Labour MP Murphy "a c***"
while complaining that he had "barged in front of other MPs to get his mug shown on TV".

Newlands, 31, is also alleged to have made unfounded claims about Richard Baker, Labour's justice spokesman, and Willie Bain, Labour winner of the Glasgow North East by-election.

Last night, an RGU spokesman said: "Given that we are now investigating this situation, it would be inappropriate to make any further comment."

I’ve had the pleasure of Wardog’s company here on several occasions; one or two of his comments have been genuinely funny, most however were puerile, a couple were abusive enough for me to have to delete*. Given the, let's be polite here, "shakiness" of his arguments though I’d have honestly put him down as a sixteen year-old internat warrior high on adrenalin and quite possibly the Buckfast rather than a fully-fledged grown-up and presumably intelligent lecturer.

Having said all that and whilst also acknowledging that libel laws obviously apply as much to the blogosphere as to the MSM, it is still a bit sad to see someone’s career possibly being put on the line because of inconsequential nonsense he’s being pumping online to an audience of, at the very most, hundreds.

The partys’ reaction to the whole storm in a kennel is exactly what you’d expect:

An SNP spokesman said: "All such offensive comments by individuals are to be totally deplored – whether it be this, or indeed the one made by Wendy Alexander's spin doctor when she was Labour leader."

Yeah it’s bad...but, hey, whatabout...

And Labour online, holier than thou?

A Scottish Labour spokesperson said: "We hope other political parties exhort their bloggers and fellow travellers to express their political views in an appropriate way, or else disassociate themselves quickly."

*My better half has just pointed out that Wardog's last contribution on here was a "thank-you" for a post I did alerting folk to a BBC portrait gallery of the soldiers of the Great War. So, not quite the one-dimensional character I've perhaps painted him as here.

The UKIP and the TUV, a marriage made in heave...Brussels?

The UKIP are putting a line in with "Good guy" Jim and the TUV?

Apparently so, more over at Open Unionism!

I'm back!!!

Yes, I know a bit like Arnie in The Terminator it seems I've never been away but the last couple of months have been comparatively slow here due to work commitments, extended holidays, exploding computers and the like.

All now sorted. My three rolling links sections (Friends of the Unionist, Nationalist Insurgency and Other Favourites) have also been updated; they total over a hundred blogs, although you will need to click on the blue "Show All" at the bottom of each section to get to read more than just the last five updated.

Just a final quick thanks to the folk who send me in links and articles via email; keep it up, it's much appreciated and anyone else who feels the urge to do so, please you go right ahead- address is on the right.

And that's it for my 1506th post, heads down for the next 494:)

The Future for England?

On Wednesday evening "The Future for England?" conference took place in one of the rooms at the Palace of Westminster.

There were four speakers; George Monbiot (Guardian newspaper and environment campaigner) , Peter Facey (Director: Unlock Democracy), Paul Kingsnorth (author of 'Real England: The Battle against the Bland') and occasional communicant of this parish, David Wildgoose (vice-chairman The Campaign for an English Parliament).

Paul Kingsnorth and David Wildgooses’ speeches are now up at the English Parliament website here and here. Kingsnorth, who would be positioned on the left of the political spectrum has the kind of provocative piece I wouldn't really have expected of him about England’s "cultural mess", whilst David continues on the federalist theme most of you here will have first read on Open Unionism and also laments the democratic deficit present today at all levels of political life.

The Poppy- what's the Irish language connection?

The Angrytown News is angry. Really Angry. Again.

It's November, so obviously this time it'll be the right of people to wear their poppies in public which is disturbing their sense of equilibrium- and obviously,the usual "I've a right to be outraged" mob needs to be requisitioned for their views. But alongside those individuals, the kind who'd complain to the Met Office if the sun set with an orange tinge, is Jake MacSiacais:

"While people have the right to wear the poppy, it must be remembered that we are a divided society and there is a lot of sensitivity around the issue.

"I am a licence fee payer and I wouldn’t like to think that my money was being used to buy poppies for the BBC."

As an individual he has a right to express his opinion and in comparison with the bile spewed out by others on the subject on the A/town News, his views sound almost ecumenical. But bearing in mind the "sensitivity" surrounding a certain other issue in our "divided society", was it really that clever for Jake MacSiacais, "Director of Irish language development agency Forbairt Feirste" as opposed to Jake MacSciacais, the private individual, to be giving his opinion on the rights and wrongs of poppy-wearing?

Quote of the day

An outbreak of honesty from Hugh Henry, the Labour convener of Holyrood's public audit committee:

"We all in each of our parties try to outbid each other in promising what we will do, and yet knowing privately that most of that is not possible."

A comment followed, no doubt, by embarrassing shuffling of feet, looking at the ceiling, humming and haaing from his fellow committee-members.

They'll need to get some act together though and soon, a recent report has "highlighted a potential £2.9 billion budget black hole in three years"- the devolved chickens are coming home to roost.

You scratch my back...and the Montblanc stays

Gordon Brown failed to include any of the legislative measures recommended by the Kelly Report in the Queen's Speech; notwithstanding 30 grand lunch allowances and hotel video channels, the main relevance of the Kelly Report to Northern Ireland is, of course, the end of double/triple jobbing- "the banning of MPs sitting concurrently in devolved legislatures".

There are presently 16 Northern Irish double/triple jobbers- all nine DUP MPs, all five Sinn Fein MPs and two of the three SDLP MPs. In contrast, all Conservative and Unionist MPs elected next year will be required to be full-time MPs.

Putting two and two together...

Jonathan Isaby is raising the possibility here of a grubby backroom deal between the Dupes and Brown, they get the chance to fight another day as semi-detached MPs in return for supporting him in the event of a hung-parliament arising from next year's election.

Sound plausible?

Look out! There's a conspiracy about!

Who said:

But the Catholic hierarchy seems to have disproportionate influence with the SNP government.

Not who you'd probably first think. The Church's spokesman reaction was also surprising, "spirited", I think, is the best description!