Northern Ireland Executive

The three main unionist parties in Northern Ireland have backed a motion of no confidence in First Minister Michelle O'Neill, arising from protests on the Garvaghy Road against the Drumcree Orange Order parade.

No confidence motions have also been listed against the three other Sinn Féin members of the Northern Ireland Executive.

They are set to be debated in the Assembly next Monday.

Now, the weather.

They said, we're not accepting the decision, we're going to block the road.

And the Sinn Féin First Minister, Michelle O'Neill, comes down from Stormont, where she's the head of the judicial system, the head of the Parades Commission, the head of the Northern Irish Government and the head of the PSNI, and then sits in the middle of the road and blockades a lawful parade from going ahead.

while simultaneously saying I'm responsible for the government that I'm protesting against.

It's a fucking joke.

You're the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party.

Your party is part of the Northern Ireland Executive.

Are you prepared to have a minister continuing to work with a political party who you say are deliberately, blatantly breaking the law?

well, I want the police to deal with this.

And 350 million comes from the UK Treasury in that space.

Another 350 million comes from the Northern Ireland Executive as repackaged monies.

And the last 300 million comes from City Deal partners, so the councils and the universities saying, right, we have skin in the game.

We're part of this.

And he said that the same would apply for Scotland and that should there be a majority support for a referendum, then obviously they would need to be having one here as well.

That... has led us neatly into the Cardiff Declaration with the leaders of the Scottish Government, the Northern Irish Government and the Welsh Government all coming together in Cardiff to sign this new declaration about their determination to end the union and also just by the by a cooperation agreement between Scotland and the Welsh Government which we'll maybe come on to in a moment.

And the Prime Minister now having to go back to his Eeyore-ish ways and just say, well, that's off the table for the moment.

Nothing to see here.

So, you know, the, very much the, the soundings from the unionist parties were that this meeting was not a, an, one in which Michelle O'Neill was representing Northern Ireland as First Minister.

It wasn't a meeting in which she was representing the Northern Ireland executive.

They were saying that this was, uh, the fir- this was the First Minister, uh, Michelle O'Neill, going in her capacity as a political leader, and that she wasn't representing the people of Northern Ireland.

And as I say, they were pointing to, um, I suppose the, what they, they see in the assembly in terms of the, the makeup of the assembly, about those opinion polls saying that Northern Ireland's future, they believe, is secure within the Union.