SDLP Youth Campaign officer Eamon McAuley - from Culmore in Derry - has said he was greatly ‘inspired’ by SDLP leader Mark Durkan’s speech last night
after the Foyle MP was selected to contest the 2010 Westminster election.

Commenting on the convention in the Verbal Arts Centre, Mr McAuley said:

“It was a privilege to be gathered in the company of John Hume, Mark Durkan and so many inspiring role models from the party. Mark is a true champion of the city. Over the last 4 years as MP Mark has achieved great things not
only for the Foyle constituency and the North but he has also been
instrumental in international affairs.”

Reflecting on the challenges facing the constituency, Mr. McAuley continued:

“As a young person I am aware of difficult times that lie ahead and the
challenges the city faces. It is important to have inspiring role models to
look to in these times.  I have no doubt that the precedent set by John Hume and Mark Durkan will serve to inspire young people to step up to the
challenges facing our communities and build a legacy of our own.”

SDLP youth chair Cllr Matthew McDermott has criticised the Prime Minister Gordon Brown for his proposal to sell off the Student Loan Book in the proposed list of assets to be sold off and warned that the review into student fees must not reflect the wishes of Vice Chancellors but rather represent the needs of students, particularly our most vulnerable.

Matthew said, ‘ Gordon Brown has proposed selling off government assets to offset the budget deficit. While this is an approach we would generally welcome to avoid severe cuts, we can’t support the selling off of the student loan book. Selling this off will undoubtedly lead to higher interest rates for students in the future. It is a shortsighted move that is ill thought out and does not represent the wishes of the vast majority of students.

‘ Add this to the fact that University UK (UUK) the body representing UK Vice Chancellors has called for a rise in fees to about £5 000 per year and the CBI has called for ‘restricted’ maintenance grants and this equals a bad deal for students. 

‘ The government will be reviewing all this in November and we will be asking our SDLP MP’s to make representations to the government opposing these moves and join the Labour Backbenchers organising against any increase in fees.

Continuing Matthew said, ‘ SDLP Youth will also be stepping up a student awareness campaign across our universities calling on the Student Loan Book to remain in public ownership, no fee hike and no tampering of the maintenance grants.

‘ If the government goes ahead with any of these moves we are heading for a situation whereby University will only be for societies most wealthy and exclude young people from poorer backgrounds. A situation that is unsustainable.

Haneen Wishah in Coleraine Times

Back in September SDLP Youth encouraged everyone to sign a petition to allow Palestinian student Haneen Wishah to travel from Gaza to Ireland to study at the University of Ulster Coleraine. The petition was successful. In the Coleraine Times this week Haneen urges Israel to stop the war.

“Stop the Israeli aggression on my land and people.
We, as Palestinians are begging to live in peace in a justice world in our homeland Palestine, because it’s our legal right and we won’t give up until we free our land Palestine from the Israeli occupation.”

Belfast Gaza Protest

The protest was hugely successful. Around 2,000 people attended the protest, while thousands more marched and lined the route through the city centre. Similar marches took place in cities and towns throughout Ireland in solidarity with the people in Palestine.

SDLP Youth call for an immediate ceasefire, an end to the killing, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and both sides to enter talks to work towards a peaceful solution. Until this happens, the Irish, British and European governments must impose economic sanctions upon Israel.

Pictures of the protest are now online at http://sdlpyouth.com/gallery/v/campaigns/GazaSolidarityProtest/

Mark Durkan Tables Motion at Westminster

SDLP Party Leader, MP for Foyle has tabled an Early Day Motion calling for an end to the death and destruction in Gaza:

Fantastic news. Historical significance. A victory for Civil Rights. A ‘Cooler’ America.

Many didn’t have faith in America to elect such an outstanding candidate. We all thought they’d pick the idiot. Of course, Americans shouldn’t blame us for thinking this - as they previously elected Bush & Cheney (in 2000 and 2004!).

Certainly, if the world could vote, 87.3% would have voted for Barack Obama - a majority voting for Obama in every country and terrority (except FYR Macedonia & Albania where people voted for McCain - not sure what’s going on there..).

This is how our politicians summed it up:

The decisiveness of his triumph and the hope which it heralds is in contrast to the divisiveness of previous elections. His election is a sign of positive progress, not just in the United States but in terms of international leadership.
Mark Durkan MP MLA, SDLP Leader

I congratulate President-elect Barack Obama and Vice-President-elect Joe Biden, not only because they have Irish roots, not only because they are pledged to continue to support our own peace process, but because what they have done is historic by any standard. We have reached a turning point in international affairs and I believe we can all be more optimistic this morning.
Dr Alasdair McDonnell MP MLA, SDLP Deputy Leader

Today, I’m sure many Americans wish they had our system, where Obama would win on 4th November and be inaugurated on 5th November. Nevertheless, even if we have to wait until January for Inauguration Day, the next 4 years and hopefully the next 8 years should be a lot brighter than the previous 8 years under Bush. America is in troubled economic times, but it has a lot to look forward to.

President Obama has been left a huge amount of work by his predecessor, but we believe he can make huge changes to the US and the world. He recognises the importance of civil rights in America, he recognises that climate change exists, and he has plans to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Avaaz have set up a “Goodbye Bush, Hello Obama” message board. Well, more a message wall -  if you sign up on their website, they will display your message on a giant wall in Washington DC.

Dear President Obama:

As citizens across the world, we congratulate you on your election, and celebrate your campaign commitments to sign a strong new global treaty on climate change, close Guantanamo prison and end torture, withdraw carefully from Iraq, and double aid to fight poverty. No one country or leader can meet the world’s most pressing challenges alone, but working together as one world in a spirit of dialogue and cooperation, yes we can bring real and lasting change.

Avaaz.org

Please take a few moments to sign their wall.

We also have to recognise the hard work on the Republican side *cough*. They sure kept us entertained.

Via Niall’s blog, two prankster DJ’s from CKY Radio in Montréal phone up Governor Sarah Palin (before the election) who believes that she is talking to French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

On Friday the Kids’ Life and Times Survey 2008 was released.

The results (pdf, 14mb) are discussed in the Belfast Telegraph which has a breakdown of what it all means:

Twenty-two percent of the children said they have been physically bullied at school, 39% have been bullied in other ways, 10% have experienced bullying by text message or on the internet and 51% think that children in their school get bullied.

More children said they had been bullied at school in the last two months by getting called names, getting left out of games, or having nasty stories spread about them on purpose than said they had been physically bullied at school — for example getting pushed around or threatened or having their belongings stolen.

The vast majority of children said their school had a set of rules on bullying (87%) and that they had talked about bullying in their class (88%).

As far as I’m aware, it’s the first time this survey has been carried out online, with 3,440 children at many schools across Northern Ireland completing the survey over the Internet. Previous surveys had to visit individual schools to run a survey so they couldn’t include that many young people.

In 2003 the Young Life and Times Survey (687 pupils surveyed and some were post-primary pupils) posed the question: “Do you think that pupils at your school get bullied?”. The 2003 survey indicated that 18% thought pupils got bullied ‘A lot’ but the 2008 survey shows only 5%. There’s still work to be done but such a change has to be positive.

On bullying, Mark Durkan has suggested what is needed is an “integrated, preventative and responsive strategy that brings together schools, communities and families to address the very serous and, sadly, growing problem of bullying“.

The survey also dares to ask what P7 pupils think of the 11+! Not surprisingly, 61% of those that got grade A wanted to keep the 11+, but 51% of those that got grade D wanted to get rid of it.

There’s no real consensus among children on whether it should stay or go. The results demonstrate that plans to replace the 11+ by the Education Minister Catríona Ruane are a mess, and it’s both parents and children who are confused about what is happening. Some children are scared they or their friends will fail the test; they don’t think it’s fair that 2 tests decide your future school, and some children wish to keep the transfer test because they aren’t aware of any proper proposed alternative.

Speech by Mark Durkan MP MLA SDLP Leader
‘The Impact of Civil Rights on Northern Ireland’
Civil Rights 1968 Commemoration Committee International Conference
Guildhall, Derry
Saturday 4 October 2008

(more…)

The Civil Rights Commemoration Committee is hosting an international conference on Saturday 4th - Sunday 5th October 2008 in the Guildhall in Derry to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Duke Street march.

The conference will reflect on the importance of civil rights, highlight civil rights issues in Ireland and the world today and will consider the impact of the media on civil rights.

President Mary McAleese will give the keynote addresses at the conference.

Speakers include John Hume, Ivan Cooper, Nell McCafferty, Patricia McKeown, ICTU, Monica McWilliams HRC, Maurice Manning IHRC, Mark Durkan MP MLA, Martin McGuinness MP MLA, Gregory Campbell MP MLA and many others.

The full agenda can be downloaded here.

If you wish to attend contact Tim Attwood at civilrights1968@yahoo.co.uk or Tel: 07802 279939

Last week, SDLP Leader Mark Durkan gave a keynote speech to the British Irish Association’s Annual Conference. It has received a lot of media coverage, including good pieces by The Guardian and North by Northwest.

However, Durkan was mis-quoted by the Irish News who printed the headline Power-sharing should end soon says Durkan. I wrote a blog piece about it at the time, which I’ve now removed it as it repeated some erroneous quotes! I thought that I’d write another blog piece instead for clarity.

Durkan’s speech is available in full here. The speech is also being discussed on the SDLP Members Forum.

What Durkan Did Not Say:

Durkan definitely didn’t suggest any system resembling simple majority voting (50%+1). This wouldn’t work in N Ireland. Secondly, he did not suggest changing the D’Hondt mechanism – this would remain the same – whereby each parties entitlement to Ministries is on the basis of their electoral mandate.

And lastly (do I even need to point this out!), it’s quite clear from the speech that Durkan was not promoting an end to power sharing. That has been a principle of the SDLP since it was established and it remains so!

What Durkan Did Say:

He did say that in the future society should aim to dissolve the current system of designation used by the Assembly. This is not really a surprise. The SDLP has always said that the system of designation was only a temporary step. In the absence of a strong Bill of Rights that would include protection for community identities, the SDLP insisted on the system of designation 10 years ago as it was required to protect the nationalist minority after so many years of Unionist majority rule in the old days of Stormont. Designation provided important re-assurance that the Assembly would be better.

The cross-community decision-making apparatus was important to secure overwhelming nationalist support for the Agreement in the 1998 referendum in the absence of a stronger means of guarding minority rights, such as a Bill of Rights.

So why review the system of designation?

The Agreement was specifically designed to be reviewed after several years of successful government. It’s worth noting that there was a review of designation in January 2002, which recognised that designation was still necessary but should be continually reviewed. All the parties involved agreed to review it again in the full Strand One Review, but this wasn’t possible because the Assembly kept getting suspended!

However, 10 years have now passed and a lot has changed. Politicians in N Ireland have grown up a little, so the cross-community protections put into the Assembly through the system of designation could in future be replaced by a strong Bill of Rights and a Protected Majority Voting System.

A Protected Majority Voting System would need to be carefully examined by all the parties (and this is not SDLP policy, it’s just an example!) but in my opinion it could include elements of the Qualified Majority Voting used the EU Council, where 65% of the vote must be achieved for legislation to pass.

The EU-style system is different from a simple majority voting system used in Dáil Éireann or the UK Parliament because it would require 65% vote to pass any legislation, therefore making it impossible for any legislation to pass without the support from both communities. It would allow us to leave behind the unionist vs. nationalist system we currently use.

The SDLP always wanted a better system of designation at the Assembly, but recognised that a typical left-right political spectrum instead of a nationalist vs. unionist arrangement might not be possible at first. The unionist vs. nationalist agreement was also required to ensure cross-community consensus on legislation, but not everyone fits into a nationalist or unionist category, and at some point in the future, when we’re ready, NI will leave behind this system that divides our communities.

Mark Durkan said: “At the time, the system of designation was necessary because of what we were coming from but should not be necessary where we were going. Such measures with their arguably sectarian or sectional undertones should be bio-degradable, dissolving in the future as the environment changed. Most, if not all of us, had such future adjustments in mind when we wrote the review mechanisms into the Agreement. As we move towards a fully sealed and settled process we should be preparing to think about how and when to remove some of the ugly scaffolding needed during the construction of the new edifice.”

We are building towards a New Ireland. The SDLP is exploring the opportunities of political re-alignment and are in discussions with southern parties, Unionists and interested parties. Meanwhile, the UUP are exploring relationships with the Conservatives. These should not be prevented by our current system of designation.

On political re-alignment, Mark Durkan said:
“The possibilities for political realignment with new or changing party offerings in the future could be stunted by permanent reliance to the present degree on designation. If we are serious about a truly shared future then we have to allow for truly shared politics where parties can – and have to – appeal across the traditional divides. The fault-line in our society will still be there but it should not determine the party political cleavage for future generations.”

Speech by Mark Durkan MP MLA SDLP Leader

British Irish Association Conference

New College, Oxford

5 September 2008

When I was recently asked to step into this breach, I was told that this session was to provide some retrospective thoughts 10 years on from the Good Friday Agreement and to speculate on possible future prospects.

Here are 10 Recollections and Reflections

There are a series of YouTube videos on the US-Ireland Alliance Good Friday Agreement 10th Symposium. These are now 4 months old but I don’t think many people have seen them.

They include Mark Durkan on negotiations with Downing Street, Bertie Ahern on Articles II and III, and John Hume telling Gerry Adams he needs a shave!