Down no events posted in last week
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Promoting Human Rights in IrelandHuman Rights in Ireland >>
Starmer?s Palestinian Pledge Exposes the West?s Moral Collapse Thu Jul 31, 2025 15:05 | Laura Perrins The fact that either Britain or France would recognise a Palestinian state while Hamas still holds hostages sums up the moral rot at the heart of Europe, says Laura Perrins.
The post Starmer?s Palestinian Pledge Exposes the West?s Moral Collapse appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
?Muhammad? Tops Baby Name Charts Again Thu Jul 31, 2025 13:00 | Richard Eldred Muhammad is once again the most popular baby name for boys in England and Wales, in a year marked by a growing trend towards global, cross-cultural naming.
The post ?Muhammad? Tops Baby Name Charts Again appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
White House Warns Starmer: Stop Threatening US Tech Companies? Free Speech Thu Jul 31, 2025 11:00 | Toby Young It looks increasingly likely that the sweeping censorship powers granted to Ofcom by the Online Safety Act will be raised in US-UK trade talks, as the Trump administration becomes increasingly concerned.
The post White House Warns Starmer: Stop Threatening US Tech Companies? Free Speech appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Mainstream Naysayers Gather As Hopes Rise for Fourth Year of Record Coral on the Great Barrier Reef Thu Jul 31, 2025 09:00 | Chris Morrison Despite three record years of coral growth, the mainstream media keeps pushing doom and gloom on the Great Barrier Reef ? a story that doesn't quite add up, says the Daily Sceptic's Environment Editor.
The post Mainstream Naysayers Gather As Hopes Rise for Fourth Year of Record Coral on the Great Barrier Reef appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Unless Migrant Crime Is Happening to Them Personally, Many Brits Simply Refuse to Believe It Even Ex... Thu Jul 31, 2025 07:00 | Steven Tucker Britain's migrant crimewave is only invisible to those living in leafy delusion ? just ask Steven Tucker, who rips into the blind elites mistaking burning mattresses for cultural enrichment.
The post Unless Migrant Crime Is Happening to Them Personally, Many Brits Simply Refuse to Believe It Even Exists ? Especially Our Blinkered Rulers 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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