The Green Ribbon

Sunningdale's slowest learners: Britain's hard right

It seems not everyone is happy about Monday's genuinely historic deal between Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams. What's more surprising than the internal opposition within the DUP is the harsh criticism emanating from some quarters on this side of the water.

Dean Godson provides a good example:

  I used to think that David Trimble was the weakest Unionist leader of all   time. I was dead wrong. He can't hold a candle to Ian Paisley...

..If Paisley had real bottle, he would have told the British and Irish Governments: do your worst. Impose your undefined Plan B. Could it really be much worse than this - with an unrepentant Martin McGuinness as co-premier, strutting around and playing the politics of ethnic wind up with renewed vigour?

  Peter Hain may be ghastly, but at least he's never had blood on his hands. I'd gladly pay an extra few bob on the water bill for that. (Belfast Telegraph)

Bertie Ahern on the Northern Ireland tax issue

There was an interesting exchange in the Dáil yesterday, that shed some light on the attitude of the major party leaders in the Republic towards the campaign for a corporation tax cut in the North:

Enda Kenny: What progress has been made in equalising the corporation tax rate? Some 68% of the economy in Northern Ireland is driven by public administration. With a limited number of exporting companies, it needs serious attention if it is to grow in comparison to the growth rates in the Republic during the past ten years. The Taoiseach realises that one cannot have an imbalance between the Twenty-six Counties and the Six Counties during the next decade. Are there discussions on the matter or is Chancellor Brown making progress? It is difficult, as others may want investment in different parts of the British Isles.

Days of May

In the wake of Monday's momentous events at Stormont, the May-June period is shaping up to be a very interesting time in the politics of both Britain and Ireland. A lot of the timetable remains uncertain, but here's how it looks:

Scotland 'needs new fiscal arrangements'

Today's Scotsman reports an extremely interesting speech by Shonaig MacPherson, the Chairman of the Scottish Council of Development and Industry (SCDI), which perhaps highlights some of the centrifugal forces I wrote about yesterday.

Scotland, she said "cannot adopt the ostrich position [we need to] start preparing for new fiscal arrangements in the face of new pressures from English nationalism".

She added: "Soon we may not have the luxury of time. It has been said that it would do Scots good to learn that public money does not grow on English trees. It may well be that English nationalism, not Scottish nationalism, will be the dynamic of constitutional change." (Scotsman)

Brown offers NI tax review

Gordon Brown has today announced a review of the tax differential between Northern Ireland and the Republic, as part of the financial package in support of a re-established Northern Ireland Executive.

Business leaders in the North have campaigned for several years for a cut in corporation tax to match the 12.5 per cent rate in the South. One leading figure in the campaign, Bombardier Shorts chairman Sir George Quigley, dismissed the impact of the 2 per cent corporation tax cut announced by Brown in yesterday's budget:

"The problem is that he is benchmarking the UK against major world economies, as he is entitled to do, but our challenge is to make Northern Ireland competitive against our immediate neighbour, the Republic.

"The reduction of the gap from 17.5% to 15.5% between north and south is neither here nor there in terms of attracting foreign direct investment to Northern Ireland."  (Belfast Telegraph)

A Cornishman writes II: Reply

1) I would like to know your position on national and linguistic minorities and in particular the Cornish question in the United Kingdom.

I  believe that everyone has a right to their cultural and linguistic heritage. Being of Irish extraction, I have a particular interest in the Celtic nations. One of the earliest influences on me in this respect, was Peter Beresford Ellis' book, The Celtic Revolution, which includes a chapter on Cornwall.

A Cornishman writes

Philip Hosking has written to me asking for my position on Cornish nationalism. As this is not a subject I have touched on before on the Green Ribbon, I thought I would share his letter and my reply:

I am a Penryn born Cornishman from the United Kingdom and a growing Cornish and Breton speaker. I have been raised by a family and community that has endowed me with what can be best described as a Cornish national identity, another way to look at it would be of Cornish ethnicity.

US Covert Operations in the Middle East

US Journalist Tom Engelhardt asks why the media has not picked up on the key claim in Seymour Hersh's recent article The Redirection:

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda. (New Yorker)

According to Hersh, these off-the-books operations are being run by a group of veterans of the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal. So Engelhardt wants to know why the response to these explosive allegations has been so muted.   

Mandelson on the peace process

Much interest today in the Guardian's interview with Peter Mandelson, as part of its series on Tony Blair's legacy in Northern Ireland.

I was once told by a friend of a key player in the peace process, that the way to deal with Mandelson was to let him talk. Apparently, if you let him go on for long enough he would give away what he was going to do.

Mandelson's key impact was on policing through his decision to water down the Patten Report. As he says in the interview, he correctly anticipated that the SDLP would come on board even if Sinn Fein didn't. What he doesn't say is that it was immediately after this decision that Sinn Fein overtook the SDLP as the largest nationalist party. In that sense, Mandelson arguably helped to bring about the situation  where Martin McGuinness is on the verge of becoming Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland.

London Irish book fair

Hammersmith Irish Centre hosts its annual Irish book fair tomorrow. The event kicks off the GLA's week of St Patrick's day events ahead of the main parade and festival next weekend.

Writers present will include Fergal Keane, Don Mullan, John Rogers, Shay Healey and Niall McDevitt.