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Newton Emerson

Newton Emerson

The Irish News

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Newton Emerson: The lesson from this week’s violence in Northern Ireland is that the British government will give in

Newton Emerson: The lesson from this week’s violence in Northern Ireland is that the British government will give in

THE lesson of violence in Northern Ireland is that the British government will give in to it, and so it has proved with the latest wave of racist...

yesterday 10

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Northern Ireland’s politicians have no power over immigration. London controls it all

Northern Ireland’s politicians have no power over immigration. London controls it all

Racism has been associated with unionist areas because that is where immigrants have been able to find housing. Republican communities take pride in...

thursday 10

The Irish Times

Newton Emerson

Andy Burnham’s Labour could fill growing electoral gap in Northern Ireland

Andy Burnham’s Labour could fill growing electoral gap in Northern Ireland

ANDY Burnham has said it again. The Manchester mayor has told Westminster’s The House magazine that he wants to scrap Labour’s ban on running...

thursday 10

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Sinn Féin and DUP say you wreck my bill, I wreck yours

Sinn Féin and DUP say you wreck my bill, I wreck yours

SINN Féin and the DUP have begun openly sabotaging each other’s legislation. The DUP denies it is trying to sink Sinn Féin’s Good Jobs Bill by...

06.06.2026 10

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Sinn Féin’s opt-out powersharing plan is historic. No wonder it’s being ignored

Sinn Féin’s opt-out powersharing plan is historic. No wonder it’s being ignored

The proposal would let smaller parties take the place of larger ones, rather than trigger the collapse of devolution

04.06.2026 10

The Irish Times

Newton Emerson

Who would be the winners and losers if our MPs were elected by PR?

Who would be the winners and losers if our MPs were elected by PR?

LET us start with the details we would all want to know first. If Westminster introduced proportional representation, it would be bad news for the DUP...

04.06.2026 10

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Stormont’s juvenile delinquents are old enough to know better

AN absurd bidding war has broken out over the minimum age of criminal responsibility, currently 10 in Northern Ireland, one of the lowest in the...

30.05.2026 30

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Sinn Féin stance in Northern Ireland makes it plain its natural coalition partner is Fianna Fáil

Sitting in government in Stormont has located the party quite clearly on the centre left, with the emphasis on centre

28.05.2026 20

The Irish Times

Newton Emerson

Northern Ireland’s road to net zero runs through Tyrone

NORTHERN Ireland makes over 40% of the world’s mobile rock sorting and crushing equipment. Most of it is manufactured by a cluster of firms around...

28.05.2026 20

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Please, Mr British government, can we have some more cake?

Translink has warned it must cut services and end discounts for young people and families because Stormont keeps freezing its fares. There have been...

23.05.2026 20

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

UK’s ‘generational ban’ on tobacco will give Dublin a headache

Ban will raise the current age limit of 18 by one year every year, until smoking dies out with the last of its adherents

21.05.2026 20

The Irish Times

Newton Emerson

Who speaks today for the makers, the strivers, the petite bourgeoisie?

NORTHERN Ireland is twice as bourgeois as it was during the Troubles, at least as a Marxist would describe it. The number of small business owners and...

21.05.2026 20

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Newton Emerson: Could Scotland and Wales decide when a border poll is called?

SCOTLAND and Wales want a Good Friday Agreement-type mechanism for independence referendums. That is the goal of the constitutional cooperation being...

16.05.2026 20

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

The money demands of nationalist parties in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland could backfire

There is temptation for nationalist parties to blame their shortcomings on lack of money from London. But, this approach may suffer diminishing...

14.05.2026 20

The Irish Times

Newton Emerson

The problem with our rights sector isn’t bias – it’s group-think

THE UUP has called for an independent review of Northern Ireland’s rights and equality commissions following the Supreme Court ruling last week on...

14.05.2026 20

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Newton Emerson: So who really cut funding for the NI Place-Name Project?

WHO cut funding for the Northern Ireland Place-Name Project? Strictly speaking, nobody. In 2022, administrative responsibility for the long-running...

09.05.2026 20

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Compulsory Irish in a united Ireland? Unionists won’t like that

A Conradh na Gaeilge report on unification asks if the language should remain compulsory

07.05.2026 20

The Irish Times

Newton Emerson

It’s time to be open about the exact impact refugees have on social housing

THERE was plenty of coverage and reaction last year when ‘intimidation points’ were removed from social housing by DUP Communities Minister Gordon...

07.05.2026 20

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Newton Emerson: Belfast City Council has wasted two years fighting over armed forces covenant

UNIONISTS have secured a victory at Belfast City Council, against determined nationalist opposition, by signing the council up to the armed forces...

02.05.2026 30

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Sinn Féin condemns dissident violence, but does it truly back the police?

Part of the aim of dissident violence is to embarrass the party by forcing it to condemn what it once supported

30.04.2026 30

The Irish Times

Newton Emerson

Where should the line on political speech be drawn?

THE Standards Board for England was abolished in 2012 after years of problems. Set up a decade earlier to enforce a statutory code of conduct on...

30.04.2026 40

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Will it be guns or butter, savings or spin?

SINN Féin ministers have been diplomatically restrained about the growth in UK defence spending in Northern Ireland. They do not like it, for obvious...

25.04.2026 30

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Unionists and Sinn Féin are like Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael – desperate to be loved

Populist giveaways and overstaffing are costing Northern Ireland a shocking €3.3bn a year

23.04.2026 30

The Irish Times

Newton Emerson

Sorry, but we can’t just recycle our slurry problem away

INSTEAD of spreading animal waste on the land and having it run into our lakes and rivers, we could use it to produce electricity, biomethane...

23.04.2026 40

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Newton Emerson: Water woes, farm fury and campus cuts – but no dressing down

AN important social housing project at a north Belfast interface is being held up by lack of sewage capacity. The Duncairn site between Tiger’s Bay...

18.04.2026 30

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Has Stormont really thought through its Good Jobs Bill?

WHAT if Stormont’s Good Jobs Bill is a bigger issue for the public sector than for the private sector? In an open letter this week, 22 business...

16.04.2026 40

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Devolution isn’t proving a motorway to independence. It’s a dual-carriageway to nowhere

Three nationalist first ministers in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales may not prove the triumph for nationalism they seem

16.04.2026 40

The Irish Times

Newton Emerson

If we don’t even like power lines, what chance is there of building a nuclear reactor in Ireland?

MICHEÁL Martin has said he is “open” to nuclear power in Ireland, although he has questioned the cost. The taoiseach was responding to questions...

11.04.2026 40

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

One in five desks are empty in Northern Ireland’s classrooms: Pragmatism is needed

An extraordinary 40 per cent of all schools in Northern Ireland will be unviable by 2033, up from a quarter today

09.04.2026 40

The Irish Times

Newton Emerson

Keep calm and carry on paying more at the pump

THE 2000 fuel protests, a landmark event in recent political history, received significant support in Northern Ireland, including from the Ulster...

09.04.2026 40

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Northern Ireland doesn’t have a housing boom, it’s a housing squeeze we can’t escape

HOUSE prices in Northern Ireland rose almost 10% over the past 12 months, six times faster than the UK average, according to the latest figures from...

04.04.2026 30

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Sinn Féin swaps cynical populism for pragmatism on Northern Ireland property tax rises

Some thought has gone into the psychology of carefully boiling the fiscal frog

02.04.2026 40

The Irish Times

Newton Emerson

Why are teachers being asked if they are loyalist or republican?

WHY is the Education Authority (EA) asking teachers if they are loyalist or republican? The explanation lies with Northern Ireland’s unique laws on...

02.04.2026 30

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Is the DUP supping the Devil’s buttermilk with the drinks industry?

THE DUP has blocked the introduction of minimum alcohol pricing by UUP health minister Mike Nesbitt, claiming that evidence for its effectiveness is...

28.03.2026 30

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

There is plenty the DUP and Sinn Féin could do about housing if they wanted to

There is nothing Belfast City Council can do to to stop property developers and landlords bulk-buying houses and converting them into HMOs (Houses of...

26.03.2026 40

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Absence of religious fervour in debate about Sunday shopping in North is suspicious

The classic image of Sunday closure in Northern Ireland is of unionist councils chaining up playground swing in the 1960s – the non-swinging ’60s

26.03.2026 40

The Irish Times

Newton Emerson

What do you call a winter fuel payment in summer? Madness

IN November 2024, the Executive found a spare £17 million for a one-off winter fuel payment for pensioners who had lost the benefit when the...

21.03.2026 40

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

We need to understand the financial cost of a divided society. It might surprise us

Having this number to hand would be transformative

19.03.2026 40

The Irish Times

Newton Emerson

Newton Emerson: Does the DUP really have a ‘wrecker’s agenda’ at Stormont or is Sinn Féin just failing its voters?

TWO parties threatened last weekend to quit the executive. Alliance leader Naomi Long, addressing her party’s annual conference, said participation...

19.03.2026 40

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

The road to the A5 remains paved with contradictions

A JUDGE has accused two Stormont departments of being “entirely unfair and unacceptable”, “unprincipled” and of “gaslighting” in their...

14.03.2026 50

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

How the right to plonk a bungalow in your dad’s field caused all hell to break loose

Twenty years ago, NI officials tried to put restrictions on one-off rural house-building, and faced blowback from all sides

12.03.2026 50

The Irish Times

Newton Emerson

With home heating oil prices doubling in a week, should bills be regulated?

REGULATING the price of home heating oil in Northern Ireland would be surprisingly straightforward. It would be unusual – most developed countries...

12.03.2026 60

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Policing debates, pub licence rates and council stalemates

CHIEF constable Jon Boutcher has told a cross-border policing conference that the number of Catholic officers in the PSNI “isn’t good enough”....

07.03.2026 40

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

The DUP and Sinn Féin can agree to disagree – but please stop the sniping

HOW much should Stormont politicians discuss international affairs, a subject completely beyond their remit? It might be unreasonable to expect a vow...

05.03.2026 60

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Potholes say a lot about the similarities between the two parts of Ireland

We have become fascinating island study of how bureaucracies work in their own interest

05.03.2026 50

The Irish Times

Newton Emerson

Visitors to Britain must now pay £16. This hasn’t had the predicted results

Yesterday marked the start of strict enforcement when boarding transport to the UK, hence Aer Lingus requiring passports on all flights to Britain

02.03.2026 50

The Irish Times

Newton Emerson

Newton Emerson: Why not use driving bans to punish all types of crime?

CAUSING death by dangerous driving will attract a longer maximum prison sentence – 20 years instead of 14 – under the Sentencing Bill being...

26.02.2026 30

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

If Sinn Féin backs puberty blocker trials, why doesn’t it just overturn Mike Nesbitt’s decision?

Michelle O’Neill has said it is “disgraceful” that the UK-wide puberty blocker trial for children with gender dysphoria has been paused in...

21.02.2026 50

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Why won’t the PSNI stop pretending it can tackle all crime?

IT is clear from the reaction to last week’s story about flags that many people see the the PSNI as a sort of NHS for crime – a service that is at...

19.02.2026 40

The Irish News

Newton Emerson

Something borrowed but nothing new at Stormont

“TREASURY reserve” sounds like a particularly dry sherry. In fact it is the emergency fund for UK government departments, to be used as a final...

14.02.2026 40

The Irish News

Newton Emerson