Sheltered from the rain in a doorway in the heart of London’s swish Green Park area, last Thursday, was a 47-year-old woman, who was waiting for her car to be brought around. At that moment, the woman, Michelle O’Neill, looked like just another Londoner trying to avoid the rain. She is anything but. Just days … Read more
Newly elected First Minister Michelle O’Neill speaks during a meeting of the legislative assembly at Stormont in Belfast, Northern Ireland, February 3, 2024. | Photo Credit: VIA REUTERS Northern Ireland has begun a “decade of opportunity” during which it will hold a vote on unification with Ireland, the U.K. territory’s first nationalist leader said in … Read more
London CNN — Britain and the European Union have reached an agreement on new trade rules in Northern Ireland in an attempt to resolve a thorny issue that has fueled post-Brexit tensions in Europe and on the island of Ireland. The deal could potentially resolve the issue of imports and border checks in Northern Ireland, … Read more
LONDON: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Union leader Ursula von der Leyen are set to hold face-to-face talks, with expectations high they will seal a deal to resolve a thorny post-Brexit trade dispute. That would mark a breakthrough after months of bitter wrangling that has soured U.K.-EU relations, sparked the collapse of the … Read more
CNN — President Joe Biden is expected to name former congressman Joe Kennedy III as his special envoy to Northern Ireland for economic affairs, according to two people familiar with the plans, installing a member of one of the United States’ most famous political families to the post at a critical moment for the region. … Read more
As a former Labour parliamentary candidate for Bolton West, a Tory marginal situated among the ‘Red Wall’ seats, I cannot imagine a situation in which its constituents or any of those in the neighbouring seats would vote at the next election for a larger state and even higher taxes. They didn’t want a Corbyn and … Read more
[The agreement] entails Plaid Cymru transforming itself from a traditional opposition party in the Westminster sense to something new and refreshingly different, a co-opposition party, co-operating where possible, while continuing to oppose, and to scutinise and criticise where necessary. There is no precedent for what we are about to embark upon in the politics of … Read more
9.29am BST09:29 Israel is going ahead with its campaign to administer third doses to over-12s, encouraged by the US rolling out booster shots to more vulnerable patients. The AP news agency reports that Israeli officials attributes the suppression of its third wave to the booster shot rollout, and expects the US and others to expand … Read more
Latest updates: UK foreign secretary critical of French president over Brexit as final day of G7 sees attention turn to climate crisis 1.19pm BST Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has said that with Joe Biden US president instead of Donald Trump, the world can address its problems “with a new zest”, Bloomberg reports. “Look, the … Read more
Good morning. In a long profile published yesterday, Boris Johnson was quoted as suggesting that politics is all about stories. “People live by narrative,” he told The Atlantic. “Human beings are creatures of the imagination.” And so, with tension with the EU over the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol escalating (or non-implementation – the … Read more