Newton Emerson

5 days ago | irishnews.com | Newton Emerson

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council believes it has only weeks to come up with a replacement to the Mourne Mountains Gateway Project or it will lose £30 million in city deal funding. The controversial plan to build a cable car on Slieve Donard was scuppered last month by the National Trust, which withdrew permission to use its land. The council is so desperate that SDLP chair Peter Byrne is asking “anyone who has ideas or alternatives for the project to contact senior management”.

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Newton Emerson

The SDLP wasted no time after last week’s English local government elections. Within hours of the final results, it released an image online of Reform Party leader Nigel Farage, under the words “A dark direction”.

1 week ago | irishnews.com | Newton Emerson

The argument for devolving more tax powers to Stormont appears to be dead: the DUP has ruled it out and Sinn Féin no longer wants to talk about it. The SDLP tried to talk about it at the monthly ‘opposition day’ debate last week, but as usual it was treated with contempt. Both the largest parties have developed a tactic over the past year of sending only a handful of their MLAs into the chamber during the debate, to show disdain without surrendering the floor.

1 week ago | irishnews.com | Newton Emerson

Clever unionists could be turning the latest Kneecap row to their advantage by welcoming the sudden conversion of some normally rather sensitive republicans and nationalists to the cause of free speech absolutism. Unionists might particularly applaud Belfast City Council’s unexpected discovery of a libertarian streak: if an event on council land might cause offence, it seems that is just too bad.

2 weeks ago | irishtimes.com | Newton Emerson

Quality of life is much the same North and South, although we tend to arrive at our similar outcomes through different ways. That is a rough summary of the first full research report from the Shared Island Initiative, launched by Taoiseach Micheál Martin on Monday. Both parts of Ireland have similar figures on income inequality, for example, but Northern Ireland achieves this more through its benefit system and the Republic more through its tax system.