Interestingly, among (mostly modest and in some cases vague) proposals to reform Stormont, Sinn Féin has just proposed that the Speaker should no longer be able to do what Edwin Poots has done - effectively telling MLAs to get stuffed when he's asked to explain his decisions.
This judgment has now been upheld by the Court of Appeal. Dismissing a challenge, Lord Justice Colton said: “The minister’s decision was lawful, rational, and supported by evidence.” This is very significant for the future of integrated education.
A really ominous sign about the capabilities of the PSNI, whose Chief Constable has for years been begging Stormont to properly fund it: Just hours after serious racist violence broke out, already the PSNI can't cope and is requesting mutual aid support from GB police forces.
Last year, Jon Boutcher said the budget Stormont gave him meant it was "probably going to get worse before it gets better". He specifically highlighted "our ability to deal with large-scale public disorder". Stormont then went on to find money to hike every MLA's pay by £14,000.
Sinn Féin has become the Northern Ireland Civil Service Party, rubber stamping recommendations and not rocking the boat. The reason for SF's abandonment of radicalism, especially on economic matters, is genuinely baffling - and isn't working in NI or RoI.
Months after Sinn Féin defended the erection of a statue of an IRA man without applying for planning permission, multiple SF figures are engaged in organised opposition to planning permission for a Stormont stone commemorating Northern Ireland’s centenary.
Inside the moral quagmire of Troubles spying: How two informers expose State dishonesty at the heart of agent-running. Long after the Troubles ended, there’s a grim paradox about agents which society still hasn’t faced up to.
The party that built Northern Ireland is in revolt over the leadership of the most popular man in unionism. This is about far more than the UUP. The centre in NI politics is getting softer - but the DUP & SF aren't gaining from their rivals' woes.
Sam McBride and I will be at Hinterland in Kells on June 28th.
www.hinterland.ie/p-669-fintan...
Woman who says former DUP leader raped her as primary school child told police: “I remember I couldn’t tell anyone...I remember telling my imaginary friend”. When asked the name of the man, she paused before saying: “Jeffrey Donaldson MP”.