Tag: Karen Bradley

The public clamour for political progress following the killing of the journalist Lyra McKee encouraged both governments to launch a fresh attempt to restore power sharing in Northern Ireland, they said in a statement released on Friday afternoon. We agree that what is now needed is actions and not just words from all of us who are in positions of leadership.” The new process would involve all the main political parties in Northern Ireland, together with the UK and Irish governments, it said. Theprime minister and taoiseach, who both attended McKee’s funeral in Belfast on Wednesday, also agreed that there should be a meeting of the British-Irish intergovernmental conference to consider east-west relations, security cooperation and political stability in Northern Ireland. What is the New IRA? It has been linked with four murders, including the shooting of journalist Lyra McKee in Derry in April 2019. The group is believed to have formed between 2011 and 2012 after the merger of a number of smaller groups, including the Real IRA, which was behind the 1998 Omagh bombing. She said the DUP could not accede to all Sinn Féin demands, describing such a scenario as a “5-0 victory”. McDonald, speaking in a separate media interview, said Sinn Féin would not “capitulate” on an Irish language act, saying there was nothing trivial about insisting on equality and rights. Smaller parties are keen to return to Stormont. “There is no issue more important than political stability.”

Cabinet ministers fell over themselves to brief their Brexit positions after the marathon seven-hour meeting broke up. However, there were soon conflicting reports about how much Brexiter ministers were really adopting hardline positions in the meeting, or just claiming to have done so afterwards, perhaps with leadership ambitions in mind. Some cabinet sources said at least 14 cabinet ministers were fighting for no deal in preference to a long delay. But others pointed out the real choice was between a short delay and a no-deal Brexit, of which only four members of the cabinet were in favour. This is how the arguments broke down: Any extension to find a deal There were at least 11 ministers present who agreed with the overall plan to ask for a longer extension and reach out to try to find a compromise with Labour or parliament more widely. These were Theresa May, David Lidington, Michael Gove, Philip Hammond, David Gauke, Amber Rudd, Matt Hancock, Greg Clark, Damian Hinds, Claire Perry and Geoffrey Cox. The views of David Mundell, Karen Bradley, Julian Smith and Caroline Nokes appear likely to fall into this camp but were not immediately clear. Theresa May warned Brexit pact with Corbyn could tear Tories apart Read more Keep second referendum on the table Philip Hammond, the chancellor, is known to have made the argument that a second referendum may be necessary but this did not garner much support from his colleagues. Oppose a long delay to Brexit but accept a short one Some cabinet sources said there were 10 ministers who were OK with a short delay until 22 May for a final push to get May’s deal or a modified deal through but they certainly did not want a long delay. One cabinet source told the Guardian that, surprisingly, only James Brokenshire and Jeremy Wright spoke out strongly against a long delay.

The parliament building at Stormont is 365ft wide, representing one foot for each day of the year, but if she lasts in the job long enough it may also refer to the number of times Karen Bradley, Northern Ireland’s secretary of state, puts her foot in it. Politicians in Northern Ireland have lost count, but agree she outdid herself last week by telling Westminster that security force killings during the Troubles were “not crimes” but the actions of people “fulfilling their duties in a dignified and appropriate way”. Her subsequent apologies did not douse a clamour for her resignation. But few in Stormont think her departure would solve much. Northern Ireland has had no functioning elected government since power sharing between the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) and Sinn Féin collapsed in January 2017. Civil servants are left to run things but cannot make key decisions. “What’s surprising to me is we’re a third year into the breakdown and the public doesn’t seem to care very much.” Stormont, sited on an estate outside Belfast, looks formidable. Some assembly members still work from their offices but on really quiet days, one member confided, it can feel like the Overlook hotel in The Shining. Dissident republicans sense a historic opportunity. The DUP blames the collapse of power sharing on Sinn Féin, saying the party wants instability to portray Northern Ireland as a failed state.

A fair few political gamblers will be counting their losses after Ruth Davidson’s firm denial that she harbours any wish ever to become prime minister. The Scottish Conservative leader made clear in an interview at the weekend that her personal life, her burgeoning family and her mental health would all suffer were she to become a Tory MP, or enter national politics. The result of our culture is a cavalcade of politicians bearing no resemblance to those they claim to represent The Scottish Tory leader’s frankness has been applauded by campaigners for helping to combat the stigma surrounding mental illness. Self-harm in particular is rarely disclosed or understood in discussions about psychological wellbeing, although Davidson must surely see the tension inherent in seeking to end stigma about mental illness while the party she proudly represents tears down mental health provision. Riffling through biographies of senior politicians, it’s clear that seeing elected office as a career end in itself is hardly an anomaly: Theresa May spoke of her desire, while still at university, to be the first female prime minister, and was reportedly enraged when Margaret Thatcher beat her to it. A recent article by Charles Moore in the Daily Telegraph lamented the fact that for the first time in history, a Conservative cabinet has no Old Etonians, thanks to Boris Johnson’s departure. This lingering deference to the performatively posh, brashly arrogant and those convinced they have been groomed for power is not unusual. The admission by the Northern Ireland secretary, Karen Bradley, that she didn’t understand the politics of the province revealed how so many politicians see the pursuit of power as the main motivation, with deep knowledge viewed as passé. We need people with nonprofessional backgrounds, older people and candidates with children and interesting personal histories that inform their politics. But who would be a politician when you can, instead, have a life?

Karen Bradley has admitted that before becoming Northern Ireland secretary she was profoundly ignorant of the country’s political divisions and “slightly scared” of the place. She said she was unaware that nationalists did not vote for unionists and that unionists did not vote for nationalists – the most elementary fact about Northern Ireland politics. “I freely admit that when I started this job, I didn’t understand some of the deep-seated and deep-rooted issues that there are in Northern Ireland,” Bradley told House magazine, a weekly publication for the Houses of Parliament. “I didn’t understand things like when elections are fought, for example, in Northern Ireland – people who are nationalists don’t vote for unionist parties and vice versa. “Actually, the unionist parties fight the elections against each other in unionist communities and nationalists in nationalist communities.” Minister announces pay cut for Stormont assembly members Read more Theresa May appointed Bradley to the post in January – succeeding James Brokenshire – at an exceptionally sensitive time because of Brexit and the breakdown in Stormont’s power-sharing government. Theresa May sent the former culture secretary to Belfast supposedly as a safe pair of hands. “That’s a very different world from the world I came from where in Staffordshire Moorlands I was fighting a Labour-held seat as a Conservative politician and I was trying to put forward why you would want to switch from voting Labour to voting Conservative. On Thursday she said their pay will be slashed after 19 months if the devolved government is not restored. Their pay would fall from £49,500 to £35,888 in November, with another reduction of £6,187 three months later if the assembly did not resume its work, Bradley told MPs. She ruled out immediate elections for the devolved assembly, which has not operated since power sharing between the DUP and Sinn Féin collapsed in January last year, and announced plans for civil servants to have more powers to implement policies.