New online joining system LIVE!

In the past local members who wished to join online had to join the Party via the main Conservative Party site in London.  However, now members can renew their subscriptions, or make a donation to the Party, via our very own payment Gateway using PayPal.  We accept all credit and debit cards. 

Click here to check it out…

Needless to say, new members can join this way too. 

We always need money and new, energetic and committed members.  Please use the new facility so that we can continue building the Conservative Party right here in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland, England and Wales are today being hit by an ill-judged strike which is crippling local services.

The members of the Unite union say a 2.45% pay increase is impossible to accept as it falls below current inflation. While this may be the case, the decision to strike does local council workers, and the general public, few favours.

Tourism is a key aspect to the Northern Irish economy. So when one of the three local airports and one of our major tourist attractions have to be closed in the middle of the busy summer season, we don’t necessarily convey a positive image to the outside world.

Since the welcome reforms of the 1980’s, the ability of trade unions to hold the nation’s finances to ransom has been diminished. We also note how well publicised strikes of recent months have done little to garner better financial packages or wider public support.

Above all else, the public is increasingly irritated at the level of sevices provided by councils. So, when fortnightly bin collection is delayed yet further, public antipathy will only grow.

The unions want the employers to come to the table to talk to them. The idea that only a strike can bring such a discussion is wholly preposterous.

The Chancellor has today announced that the proposed 2p increase in fuel duty is to be postponed yet again.

This news comes as no surprise. With pressure increasing on the Prime Minister to do something constructive to help families and businesses in the UK, the idea that a further tax increase could be applied in the autumn would have been electoral suicide.

However, Mr Darling indicated that the 2p increase had not been shelved entirely and would be reassessed in Spring 2009.

This comes in stark contrast to the proposals announced by the Conservative Party last week to introduce a Fair Fuel Stabiliser if elected. Had the Stabiliser been introduced at the 2008 Budget, duty would currently be 5p cheaper than at present. It is this kind of positive action which only we can deliver to aid the lives of people in Northern Ireland.

The news that a Labour MEP has criticised the comments of the DUP’s Iris Robinson on homosexuality comes as no surprise.

The surprise, however, comes with the response of the DUP to Mr Cashman’s publication of the letter he sent to Mrs Robinson.

The party statement reads; ‘If Mr Cashman was genuinely interested in hearing from Mrs Robinson, he would not have made the details of his correspondence available to the media.’

This attitude beggars belief. So, Mrs Robinson is allowed to air her half-baked ideas on homosexuality and expect these to be accepted as the norm but Mr Cashman is not allowed to voice his criticism of her views via the same medium?

With freedom of speech now coming under attack from the DUP, it would seem that, as far as they are concerned, there is no such thing as civil liberty.

According to BBC News several retailers have decided to open on the 12th of July.  As this year the 12th falls on one what should be one of the busiest Saturdays of the year, this seems to make obvious business sense.

However, it also marks yet another instance of the normalisation of our society.  Increasingly people, regardless of their faith (or lack of it) opt-out of the Orange festival - preferring, instead, to spend quality time with their friends and families.  The retailers’ decision reflects changes in our society.  Less people are fleeing the marching season and more people are staying at home and want to fill-up a long weekend with their favourite pastime - shopping or eating out. 

However, more fundamentally, we must consider whether, longer term, this public holiday should remain ‘public’ rather than voluntary.  After all only a declining minority of the population wants to celebrate this “festival” - one that means little if anything to most of us and has nothing at all to do with Britishness.

The DUP, on the other hand, wants to “strengthen the role of the loyal orders” within “Ulster society”.  On the DUP’s web site, under the title “DUP Delivering” the Party has 2 PDF documents available for download.  One focuses on the Party’s achievements in de-rating Orange halls.  Another focuses on reform of the “communities festivals fund”.  Achievements?  I think not. 

In the same way that Sinn Fein fixates on the Irish language and its protection - a language next to no-one chooses to use for daily communication - the DUP wants us to live in a society where the ‘loyal orders’ have a greater role in our society.  One Party offers Irish neo-Marxist nationalism; the other, a fundamentalist, intolerant, “Protestant Ulster” nationalism.

But, thankfully, I suspect that a new majority is emerging in Northern Ireland society that is leaving these two forms of Nationalism behind.

A report today by the Institute for Public Policy Research says the Formula, which calculates how the devolved nations are financed, is ‘inequitable and could undermine the Union unless reformed’.

Broken down, the report shows that public spending per head in Northern Ireland each year is £5,684. This figure is 21% above the UK average and £1,161 more than spent per head in England.  While the report notes that the recent budgetary agreement amounts to a spending ’squeeze’ in Northern Ireland and Wales, we have signifcant concerns over the difference in public spending here and across the water.

Much commentary recently has focused on how tighter economic circumstances nationally have contributed to this squeeze. However, the report is right to note that a perception in England is emerging that English taxpayers are propping up the devolved nations at detrimental cost to their own services.

In the current economic climate, this is dangerous territory for the Union. Northern Ireland has to get beyond the stage where it is financed largely by public spending and English taxpayers’ money. We have to move past an over-reliance on the Treasury in London to bail us our when times get tough. The begging bowl attitude which the DUP has shown in relation to water charges is perhaps the most obvious example of this.

The report suggests that greater fiscal autonomy should be devolved to the Assembly. While many politicians have their doubts over this, it would certainly make them much more accoutable for local public spending.

The people of Northern Ireland deserve better. They deserve politicians in office willing to take the difficult decisions on account of what is in the pot. Ultimately, the longer the begging bowl attitude continues, the greater the threat to the longevity of the Union.

Is there anyone left who hasn’t criticised the Minister for Education?

In yesterday’s Belfast Telegraph the Children’s Commissioner, Patricia Lewsley, noted her concern that the process undertaken by Ms Ruane has done nothing to take on board the views of young people with regard to the way ahead.

The Minister has now seemingly managed the impossible. All shades of people in Northern Ireland, even supporters of her own party, are opposed to her proposals. The latest idea to emanate from the Department is that a leaflet detailing the proposed changes should be sent to all homes in the country. So, the Minister is suggesting wasting taxpayers’ money detailing a policy which has not even been approved by the Executive!

The Education Committee in the Assembly has, not surprisingly, been unable to issue a joint response on the issue. Instead, it has published each party’s view on the future alongside the views of educationalists such as the AQE and the National Association of Head Teachers. Considering that academic selection can only be ended with the agreement of the Assembly, it would seem that the issue is as far away from being solved as ever. Until the Minister begins to constructively work with all groups, and stops issuing policies which are only a stay of execution, then the risks to the education of young people today and tomorrow will only be exacerbated.

The BBC reports today that the Ambulance Service in Northern Ireland is to be forced to make efficiency cuts that will directly affect frontline services.

With a projected budget decrease of £1.5 million over the next three years the result, naturally, is that the Service has to cut the amount of time ambulances are available to take people to hospital.

This is utterly ridiculous. Across the UK the number of managers in the NHS is increasing almost three times as fast as the number of doctors and nurses. The bureaucracy, now a hallmark of so many of our public services, is stifling the ability of medical professionals to do their job properly. We recognise that efficiency savings in the public sector must be made. However, cutting frontline services is unacceptable.

The reforms to the health structures in Northern Ireland, due to be implemented next spring, are supposed to bring decision-making closer to the general public. While we have our doubts over this particular promise, the real question must be how much the reorganisation will cost and what services will be shelved as a result.

Poor Gordon…when will it ever get better?

While the circumstances which led to the calling of a by-election in Glasgow East on 24th July were both unfortunate and out of the Prime Minister’s control, the public relations disaster that is their failure to even find a candidate takes the Government to a new low.

You would have thought that the sixth safest Labour seat in the country would have suitors clammering to be selected. Evidently not!

According to a former Scottish Labour spin doctor, Lorraine Davidson, defeat on the 24th may well spell the end for Mr Brown. It would seem that even in the staunchest of Labour lands, the faith in the leader has all but evaporated.

As the Government considers putting an extra 2p on fuel duty this autumn, the Conservatives have today announced proposals for a ‘Fair Fuel Stabiliser’.

Speaking this morning, Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said that had the proposed Conservative system been used for the 2008 Budget, motorists would curently be saving 5p per litre on fuel costs. The proposals, now open to public consultation, would see fuel duty come down as oil prices go up with the quid pro quo being that when oil prices go down, fuel duty goes up. This would, according to Mr Osborne, let the Government ’share the pain’ of rising prices.

With ‘Ditherer-in-Chief’ Gordon Brown making noises last week about postponing the 2p raise, the Conservatives are proposing a system which seeks to tackle one of the biggest problems facing families in the UK today. As the days pass, it would seem we are the only party able to propose the radical changes which are necessary.