federation, fina, has voted to restrict the participation of transgender athletes in elite women s events. now on bbc news, it s time for political thinking with nick robinson. hello. welcome to political thinking, a conversation with rather than interrogation of someone whose political thinking helps to shape ours. once again, london and brussels are at loggerheads. once again, the row between the uk and the eu is about the status of northern ireland. once again, politics in belfast is deadlocked, with unionists refusing to share power with sinn fein. my guest this week is someone whose life and career is based on a refusal to take sides in that political battle. it is a decision that has paid dividends for naomi long, who leads the alliance party, which won a record number of seats in the recent elections. brought up in one of the most fiercely loyalist parts of east belfast, she insisted that politics should not be defined by whether you want northern ireland to stay in th
now on bbc news, it s time for political thinking with nick robinson. welcome to political thinking, a conversation with rather than interrogation of someone his political thinking helps to shape ours. once again, london and brussels are at loggerheads. once again, the row between the uk and the eu is about the status of northern ireland. once again, politics in belfast is deadlocked, with unionists refusing to share power with sinn fein. my guess is someone whose life and career is based on a refusal to take sides in the political battle. it is a decision that has paid dividends for naomi long, who leads the alliance party, which won a record number of seats in the recent elections. brought up in one of the most fiercely loyalist parts of east belfast, she insisted that politics should not be defined by whether you want northern ireland to stay in the uk or instead to be united with the rest of ireland. but does she and her party really represent anything more than simply no
political thinking helps to shape ours. once again, london and brussels are at loggerheads. once again come row between the uk and the eu is about the status of northern ireland. once again, politics in belfast is deadlocked, with unionists refusing to share power with sinn fein. my guess is someone whose life and career is based on your refusal to take sides in the political battle to stop it is a decision that has paid dividends for naomi long, who leads the alliance party, which won a record number of seats in the recent elections. brought up in one of the most fiercely loyal as parts of east belfast, she insisted that politics should not be defined by whether you want northern ireland to stay in the uk ought instead to be united with the rest of ireland. but does she and her party really represent anything more than simply none of the above? naomi long, from belfast, welcome to political thinking. hi there. do you everfind welcome to political thinking. hi there. do you e
hello and welcome to the programme that brings together leading uk columnists, bbc specialists, and the foreign correspondents who write, blog and broadcast to audiences back home from the dateline london. it s been a week either of sequels or of re runs. in the uk, we re waiting for sue gray again and her report on partying in government whilst the country was in covid lockdown. borisjohnson and the european commission are wrestling over northern ireland post brexit again. covid surges and an authoritarian government in asia locks down again and polling made australia s politicians nervous about the outcome of this weekend s election yes, you guessed it again. in the studio are janet daley american by birth, british by choice whose weekly column appears in the sunday telegraph, the irishjournalist suzanne lynch, who writes for the politicos brussels playbook and newly returned from filming in cambodia, the bbc s asia pacific editor, celia hatton. welcome
stable agreement which works for all parts of the uk and i wish the uk government well in that but with the crisis in ukraine the last thing we need to be doing a thrashing around here pointlessly. domestic legislation even if passed will not wash away the need to comply with an international commitment already made and neither is it going to change the fact that if the uk is neither in or aligned with the single market in the customs union it is still going to create a trade border that needs to go some way. to restore devolved government in northern ireland and to resolve the self inflicted wounds of brexit it going to need goodwill, trust and a negotiated settlement. i m sorry to say that the threats of unilateral legislative action by this government override its own deal very unlikely to be taken seriously in belfast, they won t be taken seriously in brussels and there is no reason why they should be taken seriously in this place either. i have been very clear that we ar