The Green Ribbon

Stormont comes to Islington

I popped up to Islington on Wednesday for the meeting on the peace process organised by Jeremy Corbyn's (right) Constituency Labour Party.

Perhaps Mick Fealty's injunction over at Slugger was heeded, because unusually for this kind of public meeting in London there was a full complement of speakers from the main parties in the North: Sammy Wilson for the DUP, Martina Anderson for Sinn Fein, Paul Callaghan of the SDLP and Rodney McCune of the UUP.

The audience was staunchly nationalist, which ironically is a bit more typical of London. Indeed Callaghan felt obliged to emphasise as one point that "the unionist community is moving forward. We should be a bit more cautious about being judgemental."

Overall though, while its fair to say that Sinn Fein and the SDLP got an easier ride, there was a good constructive atmosphere, and the presence of all four parties helped to acquaint people with the more business-like politics of the new era in the North.

Ireland, the Middle East and the Two Faces of Tony Blair

Tony Blair's role in the Irish peace process has been widely cited as relevant expertise for his new role as Middle East envoy for the 'quartet' of the US the UN, Russia and the EU.

One of the roots of the process was the British Government's willingness to hold a dialogue with the IRA. Alistair Crooke, a former MI6 officer involved in the early phase of that dialogue, argued for a similar engagement with Hamas, Hezbollah and other Islamist groups in a Prospect piece last year that accurately predicted US intentions in Palestine:

Aegis executives bail out

France's Intelligence Online reports that a string of top executives have left Tim Spicer's mercenary outfit Aegis:

In addition to Lou Possanza, head of Aegis’ American affiliate, who left at the end of last year, Steve Brooking and Johnny Farr have also bailed out. Brooking ran Aegis’ office in Afghanistan while Farr represented the firm in Iraq. Aegis’ director for the Middle East, Dubai-based Jan de Haldevang, has also quit. (Intelligence Online via Weapons Trade Observer)

The article suggests the wave of departures may be related to the uncertainty around the renewal of Aegis' huge security contract in Iraq. The decision, originally due on 10 May, may now take another three to six months. No doubt the company's failure to win a number of contracts in Afghanistan is also a factor.

Nairn and Aughey on the Brown era

It looks as if the Blair-Brown handover has prompted some significant academic voices to join the online debate about the future of the British state.

Not content with launching his own blog, leading nationalist thinker Tom Nairn has a piece over at Scottish Futures:

it would be easy to conclude that ‘Brownism’ will be nothing but a faltering and hypocritical continuation of Blairism. Yet one can’t be so sure, for a quite straightforward reason: some democratic reform of the UK state has become unavoidable. The new Prime Minister has already expressed his wish for ‘constitutional changes’, without saying what these will be. (Scottish Futures)

Meanwhile, in a neat piece of symmetry, leading unionist thinker Arthur Aughey has a post at the Campaign for an English Parliament's blog that reaches a very similar conclusion:

The results of the Scottish Parliamentary and the Welsh Assembly elections can hardly make the prime minister-in-waiting so certain that the reforms which the Labour government instituted after 1997 have brought into being Brown’s vision of Britain as ‘a community of citizens with common needs, mutual interests, shared objectives, related goals and, most of all, linked destinies’.

Where Brown too easily synthesised the ideas of popular and constitutional sovereignty, the new Scottish National Party Executive in Edinburgh and the new first minister, Alex Salmond, have a very different notion of who and what is sovereign. And in present circumstances it becomes ever clearer that the constitution really does need a proper tidying up.(CEP Blog)

Should Sinn Fein take its Westminster seats?

Interesting comment in the Constitution Unit's briefing for Gordon Brown today:

A bold gesture by the new Prime Minister would be to announce a wide-ranging review of the relationship between government and Parliament. In practice this would require a comprehensive review of Commons Standing Orders and how they enshrine government versus parliamentary control. The extent of government control can be traced, in part, to the difficulties governments faced in the 19th century with the blocking tactics of the Irish Party. (Towards a New Constitutional Settlement)

It's ironic that this piece should appear on the same day that Liam Clarke calls for Sinn Féin to enter the Commons. It highlights an important counter-argument.Could Sinn Féin, with less than half a dozen seats, really expect to succeed where Parnell failed?

Finucane family react to prosecution decision

No members of the security forces will be charged in relation to the killing of Pat Finucane, it was announced yesterday. Amnesty International have condemned the decision. The Finucane family have issued the following reaction:

Family of Pat Finucane respond to the decision by the DPP for Northern Ireland that there will be no prosecutions arising from Stevens III

Speaking on behalf of the Finucane family Michael Finucane said:

“My family and I are extremely angry and disappointed at the decision of the DPP not to prosecute anyone arising from the report of the Stevens III Investigation and especially the manner in which it has been delivered. Once again, we are expected to respond at a moment’s notice to important events that the authorities have had years to consider.

Nairn on the Lib-Lab talks

OurKingdom points us to a new blog from Scottish nationalist thinker Tom Nairn, which kicks of with a post on Brown's overtures to the Lib Dems.

Some cross-partyism is  required again, to save Britishness. This is why he has lurched so suddenly towards the Lib-Dems, and in effect invited them into informal coalition. He was indicating that higher necessities must now take over — higher even than those of the Party, his normal modus operandi. Until the eighteen-year reign of Thatcherite Conservatism (1979-1997) it was the dominant mode of Westminster governance. From 1915 until 1945 parties came together, forgetting their policy differences to protect Empire, State and the all-British identity so cherished by Brown and his ‘Unionist’ followers. (Tom Nairn)

The Kirkwood/Darling back-channel: a timeline

Interesting comment in the Guardian today:

Authoritative sources have told the Guardian that talks between Mr Brown and Sir Menzies were more advanced than either man's camp has so far admitted. It emerged that Lord Kirkwood, Sir Menzies' senior aide, and Alistair Darling, the trade secretary and ally of the chancellor, have had several discussions in recent days. (Guardian)

In an attempt to figure out what has been going on, I have expanded on Nick Robinson's timeline with some relevant stories from the last couple of months. I would be grateful for any suggestions for additions.

Abrams' Melian dialogue

Former DIA officer Pat Lang brings us more evidence of the neo-cons' disastrous role in the Middle East in the shape of an essay by distinguished Palestinian doctor Eyad Sarraj:

Last year, I was among a small group of Palestinians that met Elliott Abrams, President George Bush's deputy national security adviser. He was blunt that the Hamas government, which was democratically elected, must be pushed out at any cost. We're not Hamas followers, but we tried to persuade him and other officials that engagement, rather than confrontation, is the better choice; but their determination was unshakable. We warned there would be suffering and starvation and even armed conflict, but to no avail. It wouldn't be the fault of the U.S. if that happened, he said. (Sic Semper Tyrannis)

Brown has burnt his bridges with the Lib Dems

Yesterday's Guardian revelation that Gordon Brown had been talking to Menzies Campbell about bringing Lib Dems into the Government didn't come totally out of the blue.

When the Lib Dems refused to join an SNP coalition after the Scottish elections, there were widespread rumours that this dialogue was a factor.

In Scotland, a rather convincing conspiracy theory is gaining ground. This reports that an ambitious bargain has been struck between the two "big beast" Scots at Westminster: Menzies Campbell, leader of the British Liberal Democrats, and Gordon Brown, soon to become Labour prime minister in succession to Tony Blair. The terms would run like this. In Scotland, the Scottish Lib-Dems will boycott all contacts with Alex Salmond and instead join an unofficial "unionist bloc" of Labour, Tories and Lib-Dems at Holyrood. (Neal Ascherson, openDemocracy)