12 APRIL 2023 | NEWS
PRESIDENT BIDEN VISITS NORTHERN IRELAND
US President Joe Biden has visited Northern Ireland to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, which brought peace to the island of Ireland in 1998.
The President is also understood to have had a 45-minute meeting with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, in which they both re-affirmed their “shared commitment” to the 21st-century governance of Northern Ireland.
Mr Sunak was not present for Mr Biden’s actual address at Ulster University in Belfast, and the latter has now moved on to a tour of the Republic of Ireland. The President has Irish roots that can be traced back to his great-grandparents, and has always been fond of the country.
In a press statement, Downing Street said that both the President and the Prime Minister had “expressed their sincere hope” that power-sharing could be restored in Northern Ireland. Elections were held for the Northern Ireland Assembly in May 2022, but due to a refusal by the largest party (Sinn Féin) and the second-largest party (the DUP) to proceed with a power-sharing arrangement, it has not been in session since then.
But Mr Biden also appeared to be prompting the opposing factions in Northern Irish politics to come together to restore the former power-sharing arrangement, saying in his speech: “That’s a decision for you to make – not for me to make.”
For his own part, Mr Sunak thanked the President for the role that the United States played in brokering the present peace in Northern Ireland, while speaking very positively about the booming trade between the US and the UK.
ILLEGAL MIGRANT NUMBERS SOARING
It has been reported that over 1,100 migrants have arrived on UK shores in the past week, travelling in small boats from northern France.
This figure is said to be more than double the capacity of a barge that the UK Government has recently leased for housing migrants arriving from across the Channel, further to its plans to move away from using non-disused hotels for this purpose.
It is also understood that a range of other properties are also being considered, including a former prison and two military sites belonging to the MoD and the RAF.
Further afield, there has also been a surge in migrant numbers reaching Italy, which saw the country’s coastguard rescuing around 1,200 people in two boats over the Easter weekend. The Italian Government has declared a national state of emergency in response.
The UK Government had hoped that its plans to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda for asylum processing in that country (but not destined for the UK) would act as a deterrent. The plans are currently logjammed, awaiting a verdict from a Court of Appeal later this month.
But the Executive Director of Médecins Sans Frontières, Natalie Roberts, told journalists: “The idea that these deterrent policies put people off – we’ve seen through long histories, our organisation has worked with refugees and migrants since we started and there are other organisations who work with refugees and migrants, and it doesn’t play into their thinking about national policies in the country that they’re aiming to get to.”
She added: “An awful lot of effort and money is being put into some of these schemes, which are not going to make a difference.”
SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT TO CHALLENGE WESTMINSTER VETO OVER GENDER RECOGNITION REFORM BILL
The Scottish Government, under new leader Humza Yousaf, is to issue a legal challenge to the UK Government after the latter used a clause in the legislation establishing devolved government in Scotland to block a bill that had been passed with a significant majority in the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood.
The governing SNP party has announced its intention to formally challenge this move through the court system, with its Social Justice Secretary, Shirley-Anne Somerville, saying that the move in Westminster had been an “unprecedented challenge to the Scottish Parliament’s ability to legislate on clearly devolved matters”.
She added: “To uphold the democratic decision of the Parliament, and ensure proper protection of devolution, Scottish Ministers will now lodge a petition for judicial review of the Secretary of State’s decision.”
But the Prime Minister said had received some “very careful and considered advice”, which indicated that the new legislation – had it been implemented – “would interact with reserved powers, about the operation of the Equalities Act, the protection of women elsewhere in the UK as well”.
He added that the UK Government expected to follow the court proceedings through to their conclusion. Ministers are reportedly concerned that some of the Scottish legislation’s provisions would run contrary to the Equality Act of 2010, the provisions of which apply throughout the United Kingdom.
This is the first time that the UK Government has used its powers under the devolution agreement to block legislation passed by a devolved institution, in this case since the inception of the Scottish Parliament in 1999.
Lord Hope, a former Supreme Court Judge, told the press that the Scottish Goverment’s chances of winning its case, in legal terms, are “very low”, adding that it would be very difficult for a court to see how the Secretary of State for Scotland, Allister Jack, had not “acted reasonably” in withholding approval for the new legislation.
It is anticipated that Ms Somerville will make a statement to the Scottish Parliament once it resumes from its Easter break, setting out how the Scottish Government intends to proceed with the matter legally.
