Tag: ben lowry
11 days ago
newsletter.co.uk

Analysis: This is a very good time in Northern Ireland to fill up your home heating oil tank

Over the last couple of years, I have written occasional articles asking the question: is this a good time to buy oil?​

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25 days ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: Stormont seems unable even to debate a matter such the soaring cost of welfare, let al...

​Only in the last couple of years have I become aware of a term that has been gaining popularity among global thinker...

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25 days ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: A good cuppa tea is so easy to make, yet is so rarely made

​On pages 21 to 23 of the weekend print newspaper to you will read various Northern Ireland people talking about thei...

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about 2 months ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: Leo Varadkar's nationalism was a reminder why Northern Ireland still needs the two-sta...

​​It is almost seven years since Leo Varadkar became Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland.

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3 months ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: Farewell to Sandra Chapman as a columnist

For two decades Sandra Chapman has been a much-loved columnist in our Saturday News Letter.

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3 months ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: Unionism needs a debate - about pragmatism versus principle​

​The leader of the DUP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson is today telling his party members that he wants a debate within unionis...

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4 months ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: Free speech advocates hold an important summit in Belfast amid attacks on open expression

Eight years ago, the late Pastor James McConnell struck a crucial blow for free speech.

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4 months ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: It will soon become clear if the DUP split over the return to Stormont can be repaired

Crunch time for the DUP has arrived, in which it will soon become clear if the party is returning to Stormont or not.

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4 months ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: Unionists have slowly lost faith in any idea of the best of both worlds from the EU an...

Here is a question for the DUP and Ulster Unionist Party.

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5 months ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: The divide within the DUP over the primacy of EU law in Northern Ireland has now come ...

This week the DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson gave the clearest indication to date that he is near to a deal to rest...

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6 months ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: Ireland has repeatedly chided the UK yet it was Greece that was snubbed

In the picture above King Charles is wearing a tie filled with images of the Greek flag as he met Rishi Sunak at the ...

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6 months ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: The divide within the DUP is now clear, and it is over the primacy of EU law in Northe...

​This week a divide in the DUP that could yet delay a return to Stormont came into sharp focus.

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6 months ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: Belfast's extremist policy on Irish street signs is unfolding just as republicans want...

​​Belfast now has an extremist and divisive street sign policy that is intended to make people of a unionist backgrou...

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6 months ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: Yes, our editorial on the problems with Stormont was blunt - but was so for a reason

​If you want to get an idea of the pressure that the DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson is under, consider a press rele...

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8 months ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: ​The News Letter reported legal concerns about the Gillen plans for sex case overhaul

When the Gillen report on the handling of sex trials was released in 2019, the News Letter was alone in reporting con...

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9 months ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: We have big political problems in Northern Ireland but America's might be worse

​Northern Ireland has a fraught political timetable between now and the end of next year.

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9 months ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: Niedermayer documentary tells the story of a truly wicked IRA murder of a fine busines...

​Several years after he became boss of the Grundig factory in Belfast in 1960, Thomas Niedermayer ran into some excee...

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9 months ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: London must carry out its own review into disastrous PSNI breach, to assess if police ...

​Twenty years ago a cancer drug was wrongly injected into the spine of a boy in England, causing his death.

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9 months ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: The UK including Northern Ireland will not think big when it comes to major infrastruc...

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9 months ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: I have over time come to like the Northern Ireland weather

If you are reading this on Saturday morning in Ulster, you are likely being battered by rain, writes Ben Lowry.

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about 1 year ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: We do not hear any of the arguments against strikes, such as generous public sector pe...

In the early days of the ‘austerity’ of the Tory government of 2010 I remember reading that ministers feared social d...

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about 1 year ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: A Northern Irish man who climbed Everest, not just dreamed of it

​We all have dreams, and I have had some big ones.

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about 1 year ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: Bill Clinton helped to illustrate how the US, EU and Ireland envisage Northern Ireland...

Bill Clinton was a US president who sharply divided opinion in his home country, and yet his approval ratings stayed ...

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about 1 year ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: Unionists need to reject the Windsor Framework and think how best to go forward

​It is now more than a month since the Windsor Framework, and I think unionism needs to change tack.

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about 1 year ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: It has been a winding and complex route to defeat for unionists over the Irish Sea bor...

​So the Windsor Framework has been signed by the UK foreign secretary and the vice president of the European Commission.

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about 1 year ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: Unionists have not been alone in not wanting Sinn Fein at the helm

​Something very significant is happening within unionism at the moment.

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about 1 year ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: Unionist choice on deal is not as said between the 'unpalatable' and the 'disastrous' ...

To understand the origins of the current crisis over the Irish Sea border, go back to UK-EU long stalemate over Brexi...

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about 1 year ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: The deal over the Northern Ireland Protocol is unlikely to be one that unionists will ...

​It was beginning to seem this week as if a deal between the UK and EU would not in fact be finalised.

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about 1 year ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: Support for dissident republican terrorists could grow if the IRA goes unchallenged on...

​When Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell was shot on Thursday, political denunciation was swift.

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about 1 year ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: Abstaining from wine every year has shown me the value of Lent, which begins today

​It was pancake Tuesday yesterday, and in our Belfast office they were served with glorious toppings.

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about 1 year ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: Unionists have not as claimed got most of their demands in this reported deal over the...

Unionists are under great pressure to back the imminent deal between the UK and the EU.

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over 1 year ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: Do not expect unionists to cheer the anniversary of the 1998 Belfast Agreement

The secretary of state has used the prospect of passing ‘Dáithí’s Law’ as the latest way to put pressure on the DUP t...

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over 1 year ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: The church leaders attack London on legacy yet they are not beyond criticism themselve...

​Last month the head of the Roman Catholic church in Ireland suggested a role for the churches in legacy.

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over 1 year ago
newsletter.co.uk

Analysis: Northern Ireland home heating oil prices see yet another rise - but is this a good time...

An examination of recent oil prices by the News Letter editor, who like many other people is pondering whether to buy:

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over 1 year ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: As the January days get longer, at night restaurants in Belfast are packed

Recently I wrote about how I do not find January depressing (see link below).

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over 1 year ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: Unionists are not looking for lundies yet even unionists are claiming that we are!

​This week a moderate unionist councillor wrote on these pages that a united Ireland is not inevitable.

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over 1 year ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: After years of warnings about the distortion of the past, we are still heading towards...

The UK government is on the verge of making the legacy scandal even worse than it already is.

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over 1 year ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: Far from being depressing, January is one of the better months of the year

Next week is said to include the most depressing day of year.

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over 1 year ago
newsletter.co.uk

Ben Lowry: A UK-EU deal over Northern Ireland might be getting closer but Stormont seems set to s...

This week it became clear that the UK is edging towards a deal with the EU over the Northern Ireland Protocol.

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