Down no events posted in last week
North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?
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US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty Anti-Empire >>
Promoting Human Rights in IrelandHuman Rights in Ireland >>
The Climate Consensus Died in Parliament This Week Fri Jul 18, 2025 09:00 | Ben Pile This was the week that the climate consensus died in Parliament, says Ben Pile. In the debate that followed Ed Miliband's statement on "nature and climate" something new was heard in the House of Commons: dissent.
The post The Climate Consensus Died in Parliament This Week appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The Sceptic | Episode 44: The Muslims Influencing Migration Policy, the Prosperity Institute?s Amar ... Fri Jul 18, 2025 07:00 | Richard Eldred In Episode 44 of the Sceptic: the Muslims influencing migration policy, the Prosperity Institute's Amar Johal on legislative reform and Ben Pile on the UN's green censorship.
The post The Sceptic | Episode 44: The Muslims Influencing Migration Policy, the Prosperity Institute?s Amar Johal on Legislative Reform and Ben Pile On the UN?s Green Censorship appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
News Round-Up Thu Jul 17, 2025 23:45 | Toby Young A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
On Being a Young Male Immigrant Thu Jul 17, 2025 19:00 | Dr David McGrogan The worldview of those who govern us is predicated on the 'denial of shit'. And when it comes to immigration ? particularly of testosterone-addled young men ? they deny it by the bucketload, says Dr David McGrogan.
The post On Being a Young Male Immigrant appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
How Masking Came to Our Modern Animal Farm in 2020 Thu Jul 17, 2025 17:05 | Paul Stevens Paul Stevens of anti-face mask campaign Smile Free tells the sorry tale of how the wily racoon was co-opted into Covid masking propaganda. Animal Farm came to life in 2020.
The post How Masking Came to Our Modern Animal Farm in 2020 appeared first on The Daily Sceptic. Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en
Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en
The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en Voltaire Network >>
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Good Friday cop-out?
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rights, freedoms and repression |
opinion/analysis
Thursday November 20, 2008 18:04 by Gerry Rice gerrice at btopenworld dot com 11 Newcastle Road, Ballynahinch, Co. Down. BT24 8NE 02897562773

The Northern Ireland Assembly was meant to be interdependent. After ten years there is no sign of its being interdependent. Why? I cannot understand how or why, during these past ten years since the signing of The Good Friday Agreement, nobody seems to have recognised, identified with or acted upon arguably the most significant aspect of that Agreement, ratified by a massive majority of the people across the island of Ireland.
Paragraph 3, page 1, states, “We are committed to partnership, equality and mutual respect as the basis of relationships within Northern Ireland, between North and South, and between these islands.”
This is what I stood for in the General Election in South Down nineteen years earlier. I stood for Interdependence on a budget of less than £200, the only person I believe to have done so in an election in this United Kingdom. At least three universities contacted me after the election to hear more about the notion of Interdependence.
Paragraph 5, page 1, goes on, “We acknowledge the substantial differences between our continuing, and equally legitimate, political aspirations ..... It is accepted that all of the institutional and constitutional arrangements ..... are interlocking and interdependent and that in particular the functioning of the Assembly and the North/South Council are so closely inter-related that the success of each depends on that of the other.”
The Assembly itself is quoted “in particular”, emphasizing that the present Northern Ireland Assembly, especially, CANNOT be interdependent as it is a unilateral entity controlled by the British Government. To be interdependent it must of necessity be bi-lateral and as such MUST be self-determined just as the British Government and the government of the Republic of Ireland are, in order to comply with the Agreement’s demands for “partnership, equality and mutual respect as the basis of relationships ..... between these islands.”
My one election advertisement stated:
"I seek a self-determined government for the people of Northern Ireland conceived of a bi-lateral declaration of Interdependence between,
1, the people of Northern Ireland and the people of Great Britain and
2, the people of Northern Ireland and the people of the Republic of Ireland,
based on my belief that,
Interdependence assumes a mutual need,
Interdependence needs a mutual demand,
Interdependence demands a mutual supply,
Interdependence supplies a mutual respect,
Interdependence respects a mutual right.
Interdependence - you already practice it, why not vote for it?"
After nearly thirty years the notion of Interdependence is now even more relevant, given the changed status of England, Scotland and Wales, and is a recipe for challenge and contemplation in all five jurisdictions.
Yours faithfully,
Gerry Rice.
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