Brendan Bendar wrote: » “Instinct to be secretive about what they do internally” Contender for ‘Understatement of the year’ in this posters opinion.
FrancieBrady wrote: » Well look at it without the jaundiced eye Brendie, the cold hard facts. The O'Neill-O'Dowd election being a case in point. The instinct of the northern branch was to keep the result private, Mary Lou had no such compulsion and revealed the result. Will probably take a bit of time but as I said a legacy issue. They are not the only players in the conflict prone to a lack of transparency.
Brendan Bendar wrote: » Not that I fundamentally disagreed with you Francie,just that I thought the expression in itself deserved to be highlighted .......the Italians I think have a shorter description......‘Omerta’ I think it’s called. But there is a point there too to be fair.
FrancieBrady wrote: » An unelected adviser and strategist to Boris Johnson. I think it was adequately demonstrated here that if you are in the conspiracy frame of mind that any party or government can be portrayed in the way SF are. I.E. Unelected people influencing decisions = perfectly normal. Parties (like FG) having election mechanisms that can be portrayed as undemocratic or as control mechanisms. I do agree that SF have an instinct to be secretive about what they do internally and that s just a remnant of where they have come from. If you have had members shot, shot at, intimidated, imprisoned, censored and killed then you too would tend towards privacy and secrecy. It's a legacy of the conflict/war.
blanch152 wrote: » Sorry, let's be clear here. Cummings is on the State payroll, ditto advisers North and South. Ted is not and was not. He is not covered by any Official Secrets Act or any other civil service regulation, he could sell the information given to him by O'Mulleoir and he would not commit any crime. From what was said at the time, and what you are saying now, it is normal practice for Sinn Fein in the North to share confidential information outside of those bound by civil service regulations. I am not saying that it was wrong, but you can't say Varadkar was wrong, but giving information to Ted is ok.
McMurphy wrote: » Maria Baileys internal inquiry anyone? "Exonerated everyone" apparently, but we just have to trust Leaky Leo's word on that.
joeguevara wrote: » As has been said in the FFG thread, keep it separate. But Bailey was deselected as a candidate and is no longer in FG. Bit like the SF moneygate people.
FrancieBrady wrote: » When did she leave FG? The point graphically illustrated by even today's revelations about judiciary appointments not to mention those of the last few weeks, is that the 'secrecy', 'omerta' claims could be made about any party.
joeguevara wrote: » Her wickipedia page says that she is a former FG politician.
FrancieBrady wrote: » Yeh, but that doesn't mean she has left FG. Not all party members are 'politicians'. She might just be having a wee rest.
suicide_circus wrote: » Does Mary Lou have the moral authority to finger wag at the DUP for vetoing lockdown extention following her attendance at the Bobby Storey funeral?https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2020/1113/1177892-coronavirus-northern-ireland/
blanch152 wrote: » She is absolutely right. "Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has described the cross-community veto by the Democratic Unionist Party to reject a two-week extension to the current Covid-19 restrictions in Northern Ireland as "shameful, disgraceful, depressing". " 100% agree with her analysis. The question now is what is she and her party going to do about it? When the DUP used its cross-community veto to torpedo the Irish Language Act, Sinn Fein collapsed Stormont for three years. Are people's lives worth as much as a dead language? Collapsing Stormont now would allow the Secretary of State and the civil servants to impose the restrictions in accordance with the medical advice. Will be interesting to see the next steps.
McMurphy wrote: » Storeys funeral was after lockdown was lifted.
FrancieBrady wrote: » Would she not be castigated for bringing down a government/executive in the 'middle of a pandemic'? It also wouldn't solve the issue of the abuse of the cross community veto. That requires a change in the way a certain party does it's business.
blanch152 wrote: » Storey's funeral was after the lockdown was lifted in the South, but before the regulations for funerals were changed in the North, and the funeral was in clear breach of the regulations, for which Belfast City Council has already apologised to other mourners.
blanch152 wrote: » She would be doing so to save lives, not score a petty point about a dead language. Thought you would like it as a suggestion as it plays to your crusade of the failed State.
blanch152 wrote: » Cummings is a government official. Ted never was.
jm08 wrote: » Wasn't Stormont collapsed over the RHI and Arlene Foster's refusal to step aside while investigation was going on.
jm08 wrote: » He possibly would have been except the TUV sponsored a law that anyone who had any convictions could not be employed as special advisors/consultants (which pretty much ruled out a substantial number of Sinn Fein members being transparent about their role.
McMurphy wrote: » Seamus Woulfe isn't a FG politician either.
blanch152 wrote: » So are you suggesting that there might be a long list of people out there with whom SF Ministers have shared confidential information?
