Shaun Woodward says cuts are Northern Ireland’s “new troubles”
Posted on September 9, 2011Shaun Woodward is the Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland – a job that requires unusual levels of historical understanding and diplomatic language. Given that, I couldn’t help but wince at his speech to the Labour conference. It started with a flourish of historical references, mentioning the Croke Park Bloody Sunday of 1920. Unfortunately, he then moved on to the economy:
But there are new challenges. New troubles. For the whole island. The crisis faced by the economy of Ireland. Compounded by austerity cuts by the Tory Coalition, felt as harshly in Northern Ireland as any other part of the UK.
The word “troubles” isn’t really the most appropriate for Northern Ireland, given the history of the Troubles with a capital “T”. Shaun Woodward cannot be ignorant of the meaning of the word, so is he just insensitive or is he deliberately joining Guido’s Order of the OTT by comparing the cuts to the Troubles?
Tags: Bloody Sunday, Coalition, Croke Park, Deficit, Guido Fawkes, Labour, Labour Party Conference, Northern Ireland, opinion, Politics, public spending, Shaun Woodward, Socialism, The Troubles, Ulster
Where would you start with the above. In the first place by pointing out that however harsh things are in NI, where we have no worse unemployment than elsewhere in the UK and no greater cuts, the impact of recession is as nothing to the Republic. What the North does have is the £ and not the Euro, and the benefit of being part of one of the world’s largest economies (rather than an adjunct). He’s not OTT. He’s an ass.
29.09.2011 13:10
and his shit stirring over Pat Finucane needs to stop….he had a decade to sort that out, and didnt.
29.09.2011 15:05
Woodward was regarded here as a complete joke. The Man Who Never Was of the NIO who was only seen for the photocalls. But what can you expect from someone who is best known for working on a programme that brought to the nation such delights as the dog that could say ‘sausages’. For me, that sums him up.
30.09.2011 21:27
[...] should know about being careful in ones choice of words, given he apparently believes that using the word “trouble” in the context of Northern Ireland is a [...]
03.10.2011 16:56