Greek crisis: Europhiles will hold on to their project as long as they can

The Eurozone Countries agreed last week to a € multi-billion bailout of Greece.  More money will be needed if Greece is not to slide into bankruptcy.  Meanwhile Italy, Ireland, Portugal and Spain struggle on with what is looking increasingly like a losing battle to sustain solvency.  The money earmarked for Greece is a short – [...]

The Project to bring about normal politics will go on, whatever the election result

Some 10 months ago, I argued on this blog that the Conservatives and Unionists should extend their pact to regional elections in order to promote a more stable alliance.    That suggestion now looks very much like an understatement.  In truth, the Conservative/UUP pact is probably so unstable that without an extended agreement, it was [...]

Conservatives – We must put any immediate prospect of dumping the UUP out of our minds

The Conservative Party has held a presence in Northern Ireland politics since the mid 1980s.  It has had very little electoral success.  One of the reasons for that was a failure by Conservative Leadership to direct resources to enable its Northern Ireland branch to build a political power base.  Perhaps it was correct to avoid [...]

I’m coming back

This is just a short note to apologise to any of you who were disappointed that I had not posted for some time.  I took a break from blogging.   One reason for that was my frustration at the continuing delay at the naming of our Parliamentary candidates.   I see that nine at least have now [...]