2021-03-17 12:23
In PoliticalOD 22, The Dissenter and I discussed Rishi Sunak's budget. It seems to be a holding budget, as the chancellor waits for the end of lockdown to really take action that will restor… Read More
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Three Thousand Versts Of Loneliness Blog
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Current affairs, Northern Ireland, Russia, Eastern Europe, football, culture.
2021-02-17 16:37
It's a fact that life entails risk. However, different cultures and institutions sometimes take a very different approach to risk. At The Dissenter, David discusses the 'absolutist legal hol… Read More
2021-01-25 15:59
By Julius Schorzman - Own work, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=107645Last week, British and Irish tweeters' fixation on American politics reached something of… Read More
2020-12-30 12:24
In the latest PoliticalOD podcast, The Dissenter and I look back on a year that was completely different and yet, in some ways, not so much.Over at his blog, David breaks down some of the th… Read More
2020-11-30 14:33
As we hurtle toward the end of the year, and the implementation of an Irish Sea border, The Dissenter and I examine how preparations for this internal barrier are progressing. Spoiler alert:… Read More
2020-11-05 11:18
On Saturday, Boris Johnson announced that England will endure a four week lockdown, joining Northern Ireland and Wales, where so-called ‘circuit breaker’ restrictions are a… Read More
2020-10-16 13:48
Stormont's maladministration of the Northern Ireland Renewables Obligation, or NIRO, shares many features with the RHI scandal. Intended to encourage green energy production, the scheme crea… Read More
2020-09-22 11:17
On the 16th edition of PoliticalOD, we discuss the Irish American reaction to the Internal Market Bill, and the response of both the government and Northern Ireland's executive to a rise in… Read More
2020-08-25 11:01
At PoliticalOD, we've largely avoided discussing the virus, but this episode coincides with some confused messages coming from the executive. We're hoping to get the economy restarted a… Read More
2020-07-24 10:29
In the 14th episode of PoliticalOD, we discuss a bill being fasttracked through Stormont that could give ministers sweeping new powers at the expense of collective responsibility. Why has th… Read More
2020-07-03 11:58
If it weren't clearly obvious before, the Bobby Storey funeral scandal shows exactly why parties in southern Ireland were wary of forming a coalition government with Sinn Fein. "Sinn Fein is… Read More
2020-06-08 10:51
The latest PoliticalOD podcast is a Covid-free zone, as The Dissenter and I look at the government's approach to the Northern Ireland Protocol. Last month, it published a document setting ou… Read More
2020-05-19 15:55
It's almost a month since our last podcast and the time since then has been dominated by Covid-19.At the start of the crisis, Northern Ireland's health service was in an unenviable position… Read More
2020-03-24 16:05
The coronavirus crisis hit Northern Ireland properly just as Sir Patrick Coghlin published his report into the RHI scandal. This was an unfortunate coincidence, at a time when people were lo… Read More
2020-02-20 12:34
William Murphy [CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]There was an unprecedented reaction when Julian Smith was replaced as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland by Bra… Read More
2020-01-29 16:38
Now that Northern Ireland's power-sharing institutions have been back at work for a couple of weeks, David from The Dissenter and I met up to discuss how things have been going.So far… Read More
2020-01-16 09:44
William Murphy [CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]In the latest PoliticalOD podcast, we ask whether the New Decade, New Approach document really promises a new dawn a… Read More
2019-12-18 14:34
The Dissenter and I discuss the origins of the health crisis, a prospective Stormont deal that will solve very little and the strategic challenges that face Boris on Brexit.You can listen at… Read More
2019-11-29 15:02
The Dissenter and I get together to discuss media coverage of Sinn Féin, the tendency to throw about pejoratives rather than deal with issues and the comparatively quiet election week… Read More
2019-11-07 09:14
In the latest PoliticalOD podcast, The Dissenter and I discuss the election and how the contest will pan out in Northern Ireland. The various anti-DUP pacts and the MPs standing down. Nation… Read More
2019-10-17 14:38
In the latest Political OD podcast (recorded 16/10/2019), David and I discuss the De Souza campaign's attack on British citizenship in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic's Father… Read More
2019-10-01 10:02
The Dissenter and I discuss Robin Swann's decision to quit as UUP leader, chaos in parliament and the Conservative Party conference.Download at Podbean.Listen on Spotify.Find us on iTunes.Fi… Read More
2019-09-20 08:07
This is something of an experiment. David, from The Dissenter, and I have recorded a short podcast, Political OD.We hope that fairly regularly we'll have a look at political developments in… Read More
2018-09-18 10:48
In the imagination of remainers, the Tory European Research Group is a cadre of irreconcilable Brexit ultras, determined to wrench the UK from the EU in chaotic fashion. It’s ironic th… Read More
2018-08-17 12:13
The bitterness when Russia pipped England in the race to stage the World Cup was palpable.Very soon, there were incessant implications that the tournament would be a disaster and countless a… Read More
2018-05-31 11:43
Jeremy Corbyn’s first visit to Northern Ireland as leader of the opposition was never likely to be greeted with enthusiasm by unionists. Hardly anyone is gullible enough to fall for hi… Read More
2018-04-19 11:48
Some recent articles that you may have missed.From Reaction:As we take back control from Brussels, we must not forget to protect the British constitutionKingsmill, Sinn Fein, and why stabili… Read More
2018-02-22 14:59
This article was published first in the News Letter, 21 February 2018.It may have been Sinn Fein that withdrew from the executive and refused to share power for thirteen months, but the way… Read More
2018-01-12 11:25
In his News Letter column (1 January), Alex Kane says he gets accused of “lazy analysis” when he blames both the DUP and Sinn Fein for the lack of power-sharing at Stormont. I do… Read More
2018-01-11 15:56
Twelve months ago, Northern Ireland’s devolved Executive collapsed when the late Martin McGuinness resigned as deputy first minister, supposedly in protest at a badly administered ener… Read More
2017-12-19 12:03
If you follow this blog but don't bother with Twitter and other social media, you may have missed some of my more recent articles. As phase 1 of the Brexit negotiations struggled to a slight… Read More
2017-11-28 15:13
Last week, the veteran Tory Europhile, Ken Clarke, argued that if the UK leaves the EU Customs Union the best solution “is to have a border down the Irish Sea”. His intervention… Read More
2017-11-24 17:37
When Theresa May’s speechwriters pondered this year’s keynote address to the Lord Mayor’s Banquet, they couldn’t have been short of potential material. Businesses and… Read More
2017-11-21 11:51
Losing the World Cup Play-Off to a disputed penalty goal was a gut-wrenching experience for Northern Ireland fans. The faithful supporters who returned from Basel earlier this week might hav… Read More
2017-11-01 15:21
The UUP last generated energy and excitement when it formed an electoral pact with the Conservatives. Can its new leader find another 'big idea' to inspire an electoral revival, or is the pa… Read More
2017-10-31 14:38
It’s become common to assert that Brexit has changed the contours of British politics forever.That remains to be seen. After the UK leaves the EU, older loyalties and divisions may re… Read More
2017-10-19 13:56
In the recent past, there was a common idea among academics who thought and wrote about unionists, that there were broadly two types of unionism in Northern Ireland. ‘Cultural unionism… Read More
2017-10-10 13:56
Last month the government published its Brexit position paper on ‘Northern Ireland and Ireland’ (by which it meant the Irish Republic). It was hardly a scintillating document, bu… Read More
2017-09-22 08:59
In Roger Scruton’s view, “conservatism is what its name says it is: the attempt to conserve the community that we have…. in all matters that ensure our community’s l… Read More
2017-08-21 08:33
We don’t yet know how Brexit will affect Northern Ireland exactly, but the referendum result certainly revived the nationalist trope that Irish unity is ‘inevitable’. The R… Read More
2017-08-09 15:16
If you’re interested in politics, particularly in Northern Ireland, it’s almost impossible to avoid grappling with that slippery concept, ‘identity’. Ordinarily, the… Read More
2017-07-21 07:30
This column appeared first in the News Letter, Friday 21st July 2017.It’s a pungent irony that, in Northern Ireland, the political movement that tried to murder its way out of the UK u… Read More
2017-06-16 16:32
There are many less than admirable aspects to Northern Ireland’s largest political party - the DUP - and I’ve written about them extensively. The Democratic Unionists have… Read More
2017-06-06 06:30
After both the Manchester and London Bridge terror attacks, party political campaigning was briefly suspended. However, Islamic terrorism has inevitably become an important issue in th… Read More
2017-06-05 09:43
This article appeared first in the News Letter's General election supplement (1 June 2017).Since devolution, and particularly after the restoration of the Assembly in 2007, the centre of gra… Read More
2017-05-22 13:08
Previously, I wrote that Theresa May’s political instincts are ‘deeply conservative’, even if they don’t resonate with all of her colleagues in the Conservative Party… Read More
2017-05-17 15:38
The Spectator is Britain’s most recognisable conservative magazine. Despite reflecting a range of opinion on the EU during the referendum campaign, it finally articulated the cas… Read More
2017-05-15 11:03
This article appeared first in the News Letter.When should we admit that devolution in Northern Ireland has so far been a dismal failure? Even when the power-sharing Execut… Read More
2017-03-23 11:13
Previously, I argued that there are no longer any ‘leavers’ or ‘remainers’: just Brexit deniers and Brexit realists. The UK will leave the EU and the government… Read More
2017-03-09 10:28
After the EU vote the terms ‘leaver’ and ‘remainer’ became effectively meaningless. More accurately, we now have ‘Brexit realists’, who accept the r… Read More
2017-03-07 21:07
For someone who wants Northern Ireland to work properly, particularly if he or she believes that can happen only within the United Kingdom, assessing the Assembly election results feels rath… Read More
2017-02-16 15:53
High-pitched screeching - Simon Schama.Donald Trump’s first weeks in office have drawn strong reactions from his many critics right across the world. Prominent entertainers, poli… Read More
2017-01-26 10:48
Whether or not you agree with their views, Labour activists in Northern Ireland are an indefatigable bunch. Since 2003, when the party was obliged to accept local members, a small grou… Read More
2017-01-24 10:28
This article appeared originally in the News Letter, 12 January 2016.The Renewable Heat Incentive is the superficial reason that there will almost certainly be an early election in Northern… Read More
2017-01-03 16:01
The Green and White Army has been dragged unwillingly into city council politics in Belfast once again. SDLP councillor, Declan Boyle, proposed a motion calling for the Northern Irelan… Read More
2016-12-20 21:45
There’s an entire sub-genre of political commentary devoted to pointing out the intolerances and hypocrisies of self-described ‘liberals’. So it’s not a new obs… Read More
2016-12-12 17:02
For some years now, Sinn Fein’s representatives have been spouting platitudes about accommodating unionists in an “agreed Ireland”. The party’s latest bout of n… Read More
2016-10-28 10:07
Is there a party more promiscuous, politically, than the Ulster Unionists? For ten years, at least, the UUP has tried to meet “the one”, to help it secure el… Read More
2016-10-24 14:05
More fireworks at the National Stadium in 2017?The World Cup Qualifiers are about to get serious for Michael O’Neill and his Northern Ireland team. After taking four points from… Read More
2016-10-21 13:03
There are often good, valid reasons to criticise the two main unionist parties in Northern Ireland but they do not include occasions when they act consistently with basic principles of the U… Read More
2016-10-18 14:55
In her first leader’s speech at a Tory Conference, Theresa May tried to explain the type of Conservatism she hopes to practise. Although her address was popular with many delegat… Read More
2016-10-12 15:52
There were just two days between Northern Ireland’s matches against San Marino and Germany. Time enough for the BBC to turn a petty dispute about the Irish FA’s guest-list… Read More
2016-09-23 11:22
The Irish Times published a series of articles examining relationships between “Ireland and Britain”. In a typically forthright piece, the paper’s columnist, Newton E… Read More
2016-09-15 10:44
Northern Ireland’s public affairs magazine, Agenda NI, held a conference recently about the ‘Brexit crisis’. It was a clever title for the event but, almost three months af… Read More
2016-09-07 16:11
Jenny Palmer won an extra seat for the Ulster Unionists in Lagan Valley, at last May's Assembly election. The former councillor previously resigned from the DUP, after alleging she had… Read More
2016-08-31 13:01
Northern Ireland kicks off the World Cup qualifiers in the Czech Republic on Sunday. The prize is a trip to the finals tournament in Russia in 2018. The supporters' website, Our… Read More
2016-08-24 16:04
Theresa May was Home Secretary for six years and she spent over a decade in the Conservative shadow cabinet. It might seem curious then, that, despite so much time in the public eye, the med… Read More
2016-08-15 15:22
In his latest News Letter column Alex Kane describes ‘unionist unity’ as the ‘idée fixe’ of unionism in Northern Ireland. He says that unionism lacks &ls&hell…Read More
2016-08-10 07:00
Russia’s apparent mastery of misinformation has become an obsession of media in the UK and the US. I referred previously to The Times’ recent front-page lead, which rep… Read More
2016-08-03 15:07
The campaign against Brexit was criticised for trying to frighten people into voting ‘remain’, as economic meltdown and the breakup of the United Kingdom were threatened, in orde… Read More
2016-07-07 18:47
If the outcome of the Brexit referendum was unexpected, so much more the wave of hysteria which engulfed otherwise rational people after the votes were counted. Many of the politicians… Read More
2016-07-06 13:27
Apparently David Cameron intends to be an active back-bench MP, so he might dispute the idea that his political career has ended, never mind in failure. However, he must know that a pr… Read More
2016-06-29 13:37
While I was in France, watching Northern Ireland compete at Euro 2016, I read Evan Marshall’s brilliant book, Spirit of 58, which charts the team’s first major tournament finals… Read More
2016-06-08 07:00
The Good Friday Agreement was a clever, influential document because it defined a political struggle over sovereignty in Northern Ireland in terms of a much more slippery concept: identity… Read More
2016-05-30 17:04
On Saturday, Michael O’Neill announced his Northern Ireland squad for the finals of a major football tournament. Not a sentence I thought I’d ever have reason to write, whi… Read More
2016-05-12 16:16
Ulster Unionist leader, Mike Nesbitt, made the first significant tactical gamble of the new Northern Ireland Assembly, this afternoon. The UUP declined an Executive ministry, to which… Read More
2016-05-04 07:50
In part 2 of his post, guest blogger Dr Phil Larkin reflects upon the prospects of Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party and he predicts that the SNP has reached the peak of its powers.THE 2015… Read More
2016-05-03 07:30
The following is part 1 of a 2 part guest post by regular guest blogger Dr Phil Larkin. In part 1, Phil looks at the Conservative Party, its leader and the likely effects of an EU Referendum… Read More
2016-03-21 10:21
The BBC’s Spotlight programme recently investigated a murky tale of intimidation and the relationships between paramilitaries and the authorities, in Bangor. When unwanted… Read More
2015-10-23 09:50
Traditionally, medicine is not a particularly militant profession. However, last Saturday, hundreds of doctors and their supporters were angry enough to congregate outside Belfas… Read More
2015-10-21 07:55
Over the past six weeks, Northern Ireland’s Executive has not operated properly, even by its own fitful standards. After revelations that IRA members were involved in a murder in… Read More
2015-10-15 10:57
This article is originally from the Belfast Telegraph (9th October 2015).At the Labour conference last week, the party’s new leader, Jeremy Corbyn, appealed for a new, ‘kinder&rs&hell…Read More
2015-10-01 08:14
"Edinburgh IMG 3994 (14732734838)" by Reading Tom from Reading, UK - IMG_3994. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.In the final part of his survey of the SNP, Dr Phil Larkin looks… Read More
2015-09-30 08:32
In the second part of guest poster Phil Larkin's piece on the SNP, he looks at the party's record in government and the current case for independence.The SNP: Government and OppositionIt is… Read More
2015-09-29 09:11
Periodic guest poster, Dr Phil Larkin, has contributed a penetrating overview of the SNP, which I've taken the liberty of splitting into three separate posts. This is a detailed dissec… Read More
2015-09-28 10:51
Two recent articles on Three Thousand Versts have expressed concern that the UK’s constitutional issues have been allowed to drift, since the ‘No’ campaign won the Scottish… Read More
2015-09-18 15:31
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has warned David Cameron not to ‘disrespect’ the Scottish people’s choice to return 56 SNP MPs at the election last May.Na… Read More
2015-09-10 08:30
Michael O’Neill and Northern Ireland are now tantalisingly close to qualifying for Euro 2016. The team took four points out of six over a prolonged weekend of action and sit top… Read More
2015-09-06 11:38
Migrants on the march in Hungary.A heartrending photograph of a small boy’s dead body, washed up on a beach in Turkey, has prompted a change of tone from the Prime Minister on the refu… Read More
2015-09-01 18:54
“Well, that escalated quickly”, as people on social media are wont to say. One moment, the rhetoric around Stormont’s latest crisis was predictable and tired, the nex… Read More
2015-08-27 18:00
The Latin Bridge in SarajevoBosnia and Herzegovina is not top of everyone’s holiday destination list, yet it enjoys warm summer weather, beautiful scenery and its younger residents spe… Read More
2015-08-24 17:30
The devolved institutions in Northern Ireland are supposedly ‘teetering on the brink’ of collapse yet again. After repeated failures to agree a balanced budget or implement… Read More
2015-08-20 18:00
Yerevan, capital of the Republic of Armenia, is a cheerful place to visit in summertime. The city, many of whose buildings are constructed out of a distinctive pink stone known as tuff… Read More
2015-08-12 08:26
Some of the people traditionally most opposed to the idea that the Caucasus is in Europe were French alpinists. Mount Elbrus is generally now recognised as the highest European mountai… Read More
2015-07-30 12:10
Both fans and media have praised Liverpool FC’s performance in the transfer window this summer, because its management team and owners are perceived to have acted quickly and decisivel… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
TONY BENN: MYTH AND REALITY A guest post by Phil LarkinIntroductionFew can have missed the passing on of Anthony Neil Wedgewood-Benn (commonly known from around 1972 by his self-created… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
Lenin stands watch in central SimferopolIt’s been an unsettling experience watching the crisis in Ukraine and Crimea unfold, over the past few months. During the summer I visited… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
What are the philosophies which underpin Vladimir Putin’s time at the pinnacle of political life in Russia? ‘Sovereign democracy’, ‘managed democracy’, &l&hell…Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
Are the transfer deadline days (because there are two of them every season) the most gripping moments in football’s calendar or the most overhyped? Last January the transfer wind… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
"Martin McGuinness 2009" by Jaqian - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.The threat of Martin McGuinness as First Minister has trapped unionists in a self-destructive… Read More
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