Belfast Telegraph

Cross-border links could give financial boost to Northern Ireland… but tribal politics get in the way

Capital investment of €44.5m (£38m) has been awarded by the Irish Government for the expansion of Ulster University’s Magee campus in Derry. This is intended to increase the number of students at the campus from both Northern Ireland and the Republic, including through the construction of new teaching and student facilities. It will also support …

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Radical reform to NI revenue-raising is needed but I doubt we’ll get it

Every day, it seems, new and harsh cuts to our public services are announced by those civil servants forced to run Northern Ireland’s departments because there is no functioning government. Cuts, so far, have included schemes that support toddlers from deprived families, schooling for children with special needs and student places on nursing and allied …

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A brutal put-down of Invest NI

Sir Michael Lyons’ review of Invest NI is both brutal and excellent. This is an organisation, his report suggests, that has weak strategic leadership, poor internal and external relationships and fails to achieve the necessary influence on partner organisations. “Profound changes are needed in the organisation that requires reform and repurposing….. there is considerable room …

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Austerity

Austerity in 2010 was a cause of subsequent weak economic output, according to some leading economists. “The UK’s underperformance arguably owes rather more to austerity and George Osborne than to Brexit and David Cameron,” wrote London School of Economics professor Jonathan Portes a few days ago. Portes, a former government economist, pointed out that the …

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Interesting times

Whether you are a unionist, republican, or neither, there is near universal recognition that Queen Elizabeth helped bind the United Kingdom. The challenge for King Charles will be to achieve a similar role. If he doesn’t – and it will be tough for a man often regarded as remote – the prospects for Irish reunification …

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Wrightbus survives

Subject to the t’s being crossed and the i’s being dotted, Wrightbus is to be saved. A rather ill-tempered negotiation between Jo Bamford’s company Ryse Hydrogen and the Wright family appears to have ended with smiles rather than tears. Bamford said that while the deal was not yet concluded with the administrators, terms had been …

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Stalled progress

Twenty one years on from the Good Friday Agreement it is clear that Northern Ireland does not have the settled and just peace that we expected.  This was clear before the terrible killing of Lyra McKee, but it is even more clear now.  That tragedy has amplified the sense in which progress has stalled or …

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