The Green Ribbon

Northern Ireland's changing terms of trade

Slugger's Mick Fealty is one a range of good writers at the Guardian's new Comment is Free Site. In his latest piece he asks Who can save Northern Ireland's economy?

He highlights a noteworthy piece by Alan Ruddock which asks some searching questions about the way forward.

Unless the British government is prepared to give the province fiscal independence, allowing it to set corporation tax at the Irish rate of 12.5% compared with the prevailing British rate of 30%, then Northern Ireland's business sector starts at an unhealthy competitive disadvantage, while its ability to attract foreign investors is severely curtailed.

According to a report compiled last year by Goodbody Stockbrokers, a Dublin firm, a competitive tax rate could elicit a 20-fold increase in foreign direct investment. Yet the prospect remains as fantastical as local demands for a derogation by which Northern Ireland would join the euro while the rest of the UK remains wedded to sterling.

It will not happen, because it would spark demands from the Scottish and Welsh assemblies for similar autonomy, as well as provoking revolt in the English regions. The province is stuck with Britain's fiscal and monetary regime, and needs to chart a recovery plan that accepts reality rather than pandering to pipedreams.(Management Today)

To my mind, both these articles highlight the shifting terms of the debate about the north's future.

Von Paleske on Barrick Gold

The latest piece from Dr Alexander Von Paleske is an article for Melbourne Indymedia on mining giant Barrick Gold featuring appearances by Peter Munk, Adnan Khashoggi, G.H.W. Bush, Karl Otto Poehl, and Brian Mulroney.

Joan Humble MP responds to Blake Review

The following is a press release which I've received today from Joan Humble MP on the Government's response to the Blake Review of the army deaths at Deepcut:

“As chair of the Parliamentary All-Party Group on non-combat Army Deaths, I welcome positive proposals for change, but express disappointment that the Minister has not recognised the scale of the problem beyond the perimeter fence of Deepcut barracks and not responded to the calls for a public inquiry.

“Surrey Police recommended a “broader inquiry” and the Surrey Coroner proposed “an Inquiry held in public”. Both were seeking to fulfil their obligations under the Human rights Act and in international law to provide for an open, independent and effective investigation into suspicious deaths.

“The Deepcut & Beyond families group are campaigning for truth, justice and change. I stand with them in my belief that these objectives can only be achieved by means of a public inquiry. The Inquiry we need to restore confidence in the Army must fully involve the families of the victims; it must be independent in character, judicial in authority and open to the public.”

“I urged the Minister to examine the proposals for a system of independent oversight. This should include retrospective powers to examine past cases so that families outside of Deepcut can also have a full investigation.”

4.00pm Wednesday 29 March 2006

Notes

(1)  According to MoD figures 1,760 soldiers died in non-combat situations between 1994 and 2002. In that period 200 died of gunshot wounds. The Army say 200 died in apparent suicides. More recent statistics are not available. 

(2) Early Day Motions
More than 200 MPs of all parties representing all parts of the United Kingdom have called for a public inquiry into all non-combat deaths in the Armed Forces.

(3) All Party Parliamentary Group on Army Deaths
Formed February 2006. Aim.  “To focus on non-combat deaths in the Armed Forces and support the Deepcut & Beyond families’ group in securing truth, justice and change”

Chair:                Joan Humble MP (Lab)
Secretary          The Lord Ashley  (Lab)
Treasurer          Jim Dobbin MP (Lab)
Vice Chairs       Peter Bottomley MP (C), Lembit Opik MP (Lib Dem), Lady Sylvia Hermon MP (UUP), Mark Durkan (SDLP), Hwyel Williams MP (PC), Peter Wishart (SNP), Iris Robinson MP (DUP)

The IRB and English republicanism

I took the opportunity while in Ireland last week to visit the excellent An Cafe Liteartha in Dingle and pick up a copy of the new book on The IRB by Owen McGee.

From what I've read so far, the book certainly lives up to its very positive reviews. There is one passage in particular I think is worth highlighting here. It concerns the IRB's response to Isaac Butt's proposal for a federal United Kingdom.

Butt's idea was unworkable because the creation of a federal government for the United Kingdom would have necessitated drafting a written (republican) constitution, while the entire British system of government, the monarchy's role therein and its professed status as an empire, was totally dependent, legally speaking, on the unwritten nature of the British constitution. His idea might have appealed to English or Irish republicans but few others. 

Visit Palestine: New London screenings

There are a couple of new London screenings coming up for Visit Palestine, the film about Irish human rights activist Caoimhe Butterly which I mentioned in a post back in January. They are at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith on April 5 and the Curzon in Soho on April 9. The latter includes a Q & A session for which I've pasted the details below:

CURZON SOHO SUN 9 APRIL 2.15PM

VISIT PALESTINE FOLLOWED BY A Q&A WITH KATIE BARLOW AND CAOIMHE BUTTERLY (15)

Tickets £6.50 / £5.50 concessions/members

Director Katie Barlow will take questions from the audience after the screening of her moving wake-up call VISIT PALESTINE.

VISIT PALESTINE

Director: Katie Barlow. UK 2005. 78 minutes. 

What drives a young, well-educated Irishwoman to volunteer as a ‘peace activist’ in the Middle East? Caiomhe Butterly is one of a growing number of volunteers who risk their own safety to intervene in the long-running and bloody conflict between Israel and Palestine. This film offers an insight into a brave, honest, determined yet self-critical woman who takes direct action to the limit, with no quest for glory. She also serves as a conduit into the everyday lives of Palestinians, who are also usually presented to the viewer in a one-dimensional way, as fighters or victims, heroes or fanatics.

"An astonishing piece of work, a wonderful film…quite unlike anything I’ve seen." John Pilger.

CURZON SOHO 99 SHAFTESBURY AVENUE LONDON W1D 5DY

BOX OFFICE 0870 756 4621 ONLINE WWW.CURZONCINEMAS.COM

The Wilson Plot: The Irish connection

It looks like the hiatus here will continue this week as I have to go to Ireland for a few days.

In the meantime I would like to offer my thoughts on last week's BBC documentary, The Plot Against Harold Wilson.

The meetings with Wilson the programme is based on were secretly recorded in 1976 by journalists Barrie Penrose and Roger Courtiour, weeks after his shock departure from Number 10.

Wilson spoke darkly of two military coups which he said had been planned to overthrow his government in the late 1960s and in the mid 1970s," Penrose writes.

Both were said to involve high-ranking elements in the British army, eager to see the back of Labour governments. (BBC News)

Wilson asked the two journalists to investigate what he thought were smears against Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe. In fact, their investigations of the Norman Scott Affair helped to bring Thorpe down.

Preoccupied by investigating Thorpe, the journalists didn't follow up another lead that Wilson had given them.

It's perhaps inevitable that this angle concerned the perennial blind spot of British politics, Ireland.

PMCs taking the offensive?

Potentially very significant story in this week's 'Sunday Express'

Secret Army

Ex-SAS mercenaries hired by US to fight insurgents in Iraq

By James Murray

British special forces veterans are fighting a secret war against insurgents in Iraq. The former SAS troops along with ex-Gurkhas and other British Army veterans are hired through security firms by the United States Defence Department.

Their duties are essentially to guard key personnel and to ride shotgun on convoys through the hostile territory of northern Iraq. But in 2004 and 2005, the heavily armed civilians, commanded by former US officers, were sent out on patrols, that often involved them in firefights with the insurgents, a well-placed source has alleged.

Now questions are being asked about whether these "security consultants" are going beyond that role and acting as a military force. (Sunday Express, 12 March 2006)

Falconer attacks English Parliament

Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer has strongly attacked the idea of an English Parliament in a speech to the ESRC today.

because 80% of the population of the UK was English there was "absolutely no need for the sort of protection for the Scots and the Welsh by having their own parliament or assembly," he argued.

It was possible that some decisions to be won with Scottish and Welsh votes despite only a minority of English MPs supporting them.

But the chances were "very, very slight" as it was inconceivable political parties would not pitch their appeals to the English as so many voters and MPs were from England. (BBC News)

It looks as if Lord Falconer has forgotten about top-up fees and foundation hospitals.

Steel Commission reports

The Scottish Lib Dems have produced a new report calling for more autonomy for Scotland, including tax-raising powers.

The convenor of the commission that chaired the report, Lord Steel, said:

"No self respecting parliament should expect to exist permanently on a grant from another parliament. The Scottish Parliament is unique in having considerable legislative power, but very limited control over taxation. That has created a democratic deficit.

"It is time to change that. Transferring substantial revenue-raising authority to the Scottish Parliament should enable future Scottish Governments to have a free hand in developing policies which will stimulate growth in the Scottish economy and remove the democratic deficit." (Scottish Lib Dems)

Peter Taylor on De Menezes

Tonight's special edition of Panorama is billed as the definitive account of the shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes. It looks as if it will be available online.

Peter Taylor's piece in the Guardian suggests that the role of the senior officer on the day, Commander Cressida Dick, will come in for particular scrutiny.