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LAST UPDATE | 17 Jun 2021
PAUL GIVAN of the DUP has been installed as new First Minister of Northern Ireland with Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill to continue in the role of Deputy First Minister.
Both were nominated in the Stormont Assembly this afternoon and both accepted the nominations, meanting that the Northern Ireland Executive is to continue.
There is however significant division with the DUP about the decision by party leader Edwin Poots to nominate for the position of First Minister.
The nominations to the two posts come after last night’s post-midnight move by the UK government to commit to passing Irish language laws in the autumn if this did not take place in the Stormont Assembly.
Sinn Féin had made the moving of an Irish Language Act a red line before it would nominate for the role of Deputy First Minister.
A commitment to implement legislation for the Irish language and Ulster Scots was made as part of the New Decade, New Approach (NDNA) deal that restored power-sharing in 2020. Little movement has been made on that commitment since then.
Following last night’s deal, it is understood that a significant majority of both DUP MLAs and MPs voted in an internal party meeting this morning against Poots’ decision to nominate a Stormont First Minister.
The internal vote was taken after a heated party meeting at Parliament Buildings ahead of the nomination process in the Assembly, with Poots and Givan leaving the room before the vote took place.
Earlier, some senior DUP MPs and peers in the House of Lords had written to party leader Edwin Poots expressing concern and urging him not to nominate a First Minister until he consults with them.
In total seven of the DUP’s eight MPs signed the email, with Ian Paisley being the exception. The party’s five peers have also signed.
In the letter, the signatories said they were “very concerned” about last night’s development in relation to the Irish Language Act and asked Poots to meet with them “before any further steps are taken in this process, including the nomination of a First Minister. “
Despite this opposition, Poots this afternoon nominated his constituency colleague Givan for the role of First Minister saying that he has “mentored” Givan for over 20 years.
Poots said he was nominating Givan “not with a precondition from Sinn Féin but with a brand of confident unionism.”
Givan then accepted the nomination, saying that he thanked “Edwin for his confidence in me.”
“Our paths crossed 25 years ago. He is not just a colleague but a personal friend,” Givan said.
At the age of 23 when I became the youngest councillor, who thought that I would end up at this stage today as Northern Ireland First Minister?
Sinn Féin’s Finance Minister Conor Murphy nominated O’Neill to continue in her role as Deputy First Minister.
O’Neill thanked all those who’ve worked with the Assembly in the past 17 months during the Covid-19 pandemic and said that this remains its first priority.
“Our top priority as an executive is our response to Covid-19, ensuring the continued successful rollout of our vaccination programme right across the population and also rebuilding our economy to sustain jobs on people’s livelihoods,” she said.
The SDLP’s Nichola Mallon said her party welcomes “that a crisis has been averted” but added that “no party has a right to choose which commitment from New Decade, New Approach will be or will not be honoured”.
“Neither is it good or responsible devolved government to run for the British government every time the DUP and Sinn Fein fail to implement what has previously been agreed,” she said.
The decision by Poots to nominate Givan following last night’s agreement on an Irish Language Act was described by Jim Allister MLA of the Traditional Unionist Voice as “a victory for ransom politics”.
“It is a day of indisputable victory for Sinn Féin, it is a day of shame and humiliation for the DUP,” he said.
DUP meeting
Following the heated DUP party meeting, one senior party source at the meeting described the atmosphere to PA as:
“Dreadful. Utterly dreadful. Never experienced the like of it.”
Another described it as “total shambles”.
Party MPs had been invited to participate in a separate virtual briefing by Poots at 11.30am but it is understood three of them – Jeffrey Donaldson, Gavin Robinson and Sammy Wilson – turned up to the MLA meeting in the members’ dining room at 11.15 am without being formally invited.
Irish government reaction
Today, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said he “welcomed the agreement” that was made to reappoint Michelle O’Neill as Deputy First Minister and appoint Paul Givan as First Minister, “co-equal and joint heads of the administration in Northern Ireland”.
Speaking during Leaders’ Questions this afternoon, Varadkar said that Givan and O’Neill are “joint leaders of that administration in the North and should be treated as such”.
“I look forward to meeting them both on Friday should the NMSC [North South Ministerial Council] go ahead,” he said.
The Tánaiste said that he wanted to “welcome the fact that we have agreement on an Irish Language Act going ahead as well as increased legal protections and rights for Ulster Scots speakers”.
“This should not threaten anyone’s identity. It’s supported by the majority of parties and the majority of people in Northern Ireland. There’s a Welsh Act in Wales and Scottish Language Act in Scotland, Irish Language Act here, and it has been a long time coming,” he said.
“I look forward to seeing everyone honour their commitments in regard to language rights and language legislation within the next year.”
- With reporting by the PA news agency and Lauren Boland.
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More CCTV in London, than anywhere. He’ll be on it…
They still need all the footage they can possibly get.. CCTV only helps so much.
I always thought it used to be a terrorist attack if the perpetrator or perpetrators were foreign. Hence why in NI the IRA were classed as ‘the terrorist group IRA’ in the media and the UDA were simply ‘UDA’. Chances are this guy is British born with a British passport.
With all them people getton on and off the train why didn’t people help the poor man???
Because in a crisis or serious incident, the first thing people do these days is get their phones out to record it……. As soon as the police arrived and cuffed the man there were loads of heroes who wanted to have a go
Everyone for there own here people though he could blow himself up
Muslim extremists are known to blow themselves up.
Because most unarmed people are not trained or capable of disarming and subdduing a lunatic with a knife.
Very easy to sit behind a screen and say that. Would you bravely take on a lunatic wielding a knife, potentially costing you your own life? I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I would. Thoughts of my family having to deal with it etc.
Somebody did help help. The assailant was punched and pinned to the ground:m.
..maybe it’s something we need to consider then…knife attacks getting too common here too.
my first thought would be my children at home. I wouldn’t take on a lunatic with a knife
But Maria, If you were the victim and you were being violently attacked – wouldn’t you be hoping someone would step in (or several people would step in) so that you could see your children again!?
In Europe citizens have been completely disarmed by the government. For some unknown reason it is even illegal to carry any weapon (not even pepper spray) for self-defence purposes. We are defenceless in the face of armed fanatics. No surprise nobody wants to help: bare hand against a knife? No thanks…
i saved a drunken irish girl from an afgan one night, i got no thanks, apparently she laughed at it the next day. he was trying to bring her along with him, linked by the arm. her friend asked me to stick around, i can still remember the evil look of pure hate on that mans face when he told me to go away and mind my own woman. i have never been able to view islam in the same light since to be honest.
It’s a pretty sad reflection on society today, that people will whip out their phones to film an attack rather than help the victim.
Did you ever watch Black Mirror? They’re all thought provoking, but there is one about a woman who wakes up with no knowledge of who she is, she is running through the streets looking for help, but people just film her on their phones.
Sounds interesting, will keep an eye out for it. Thanks Gemma.
“London tube stabbing attack” that should read “London tube terrorist attack”.
The profiling of all male Muslims between the ages of 19 to 29 won’t be far off
Would be sensible in fact. They’re unhinged at this stage.
Sm 987123 It wont happen in the UK .
Idiotic. Read some history and some perspective.
Read some history and get some perspective. I have done thanks. And history points to this as being a logical step. But thanks for your idiotic input moron
You’re probably correct. Instead they’ll probably implement more Internet “controls” on everyone else as a “safety ” precaution
Why so many red Thumbs . Its the truth . Cameron and his lot wont let it happen .
I think it’s interesting how this is constantly classed as a terrorist attack in every article and news bulletin when it looks like one mentally deranged man with a knife screaming his cause is for Syria after hearing about it on the news, it’s the lone reasoning of a nutter and it’s not like it’s the only knife attack that happened over the last week in the UK, there were many as usual, just the only one who mentioned something political and we are getting endless coverage and updates about a single small every day incident which is being used by the media to fan the recent flames of fear and the threat of terror to justify the UK ‘s involvement in the Syrian proxy conflict.
You think it’s interesting, sounds familiar ‘Derek’. It sounds like you’d prefer if the details or motivation behind this attack were not discussed or established, as they would be if it was motivated by robbery or hate. The facts speak for themselves here, an attack on commuters made in the name if Syria a couple of days after Britain commence bombing Syria, it is significant and not just another london stabbing.
The officer that tazed him is heard shouting “drop it you fool”. It took 3 attempts at tazering him to detain him as if he was on drugs or a somehow slow. No one other than the BBC and other foreign media outlets are claiming to call it a terrorist attack. This is one twisted moron who happens to be Muslim. But ‘JimmyMc’ that’s the reason your on here to push for more hatred and vilification of all Muslims where I’m simply stating what my opinion is based on the video, the response by media and little else. Very few others online are making a big deal of it. Seen as yet another stabbing my a thug. There’s no statement from Downing St or the government like after an actual terrorist attack. You and the mob who have taken over from the once semi rational commenter are no better than your typical lynch mob waiting for a reason to come on here with the mention of muslims. Id rather discuss the facts and await further information than jump on the bandwagon. If the next guy who knifes someone is claiming it’s for the Palestinian conflict or the current price of a packet of Tux biscuits would you be as quick to call it a terrorist attack? He was kicking the hell out of one man on the ground and then attacked him with a knife, it makes headline news on CNN and of course gets mentioned by BBC but they still make the flooding and storm top story.
Hardly a terrorist attack though. One unhinged lunatic attacking people shouting a slogan is not the work of a terrorist organisation. Similarly if an Irish person in the 80′s assaulted an English person shouting “Up the ‘RA” it would hardly have been considered a terrorist attack.
People were terrified, and terrorized, so yes it is a terrorist attack!
So that makes every attack a terrorist attack then
Malcolm, that definition of terrorism would cover just about every military action.
Is there not a stabbing every day in London?
At least , but few are indiscriminate terrorists on commuters trying to get home
Sorry it’s Sunday. The head is a little hazy
So nobody helped him then. They just pretended not to notice and walked on. Selfish society.
Tosser is right…
Google bystander effect. Not only is this common all over the world, it is to be expected
People tried to throw things at him. Someone threw a bottle, it says in the article. Would you confront someone with a knife, someone who had already shown that he’ll use it. Serious keyboard warriors on here!
Back in July, a neo nazi in Stoke chased down a random Indian guy and stabbed him in the neck
in a supposed revenge for Lee Rigbys murder. There was no wall to wall to coverage of it, and there certainly wasn’t anyone calling it a terrorist incident, because people were able to rationalise it as one lunatic who lost his mind.
As someone who lives 5 minutes up the road Leytonstone I don’t feel like it’s a terrorist incident. It’s a lunatic going out attacking random people, which is, sadly enough, a common enough occurrence in this part of London.
Very easy to be a hero if your not there. Real life heros are different to keyboard heros.
have your say