So the DUP and Sinn Féin have dipped into the lucky bag and come out with their assorted plums or puke-makers.
The Justice Minister’s post, about which there was so much excitement (surely the media weren’t hyping that one up to sell newspapers/fill air-time?) has been solved by handing it to Claire Sugden. The DUP, with a brief flash of their blue underwear at the backwoods boys and girls, refused to countenance a Sinn Féin minister in the post, even for half the time. You could see that as a humiliation for Sinn Féin. Or you could see it as the DUP continuing its nose-hold arrogance.
Health, which everyone says is a vital area and terribly important, got pushed down to the last on the selection list. Michelle O’Neill won’t solve all the Health problems that exist here, since George Osborne and his mates are clearly intent on destroying the NHS. But she has an unflappable disposition that should stand here in good stead.
Of the new boys, Máirtin O Muilleoir as Finance Minister is a natural. He’s had plenty of experience of business over the years, he’s a go-getter in terms of developing new projects, and he’ll be well able to handle any attempted ambushes from the media or the ranks of unionism.
Infrastructure has got Chris Hazzard as its new Minister. He’s been more prominent in recent months and strikes me as an intelligent, articulate young man. Look for the A5 to finally power ahead.
Education was predicted as a target portfolio for the DUP and sure enough, Peter Weir has been given it. Will he bring back the Eleven Plus? Will he do his damnedest to kill the Irish language? I doubt it, in both cases. Weir is one of the more civilized members of the DUP, and while he will no doubt work for the maintenance of grammar schools, he’s unlikely to re-establish the stone-age Eleven Plus. Some middle way will be found. As regards Irish, he doesn’t have the boorish contempt for it displayed by Gregory Campbell and Sammy Wilson, but don’t expect him to push for an Irish Language Act or development of Irish –medium schools.
Finally, the new Minister for Communities will be the DUP’s Paul Givan. The Givans are noted for their fresh complexions and white teeth: don’t let that I’m-straight-up- honest-to-God appearance fool you. If you were one of those objecting to the development of Casement Park, you’ve just found a new best friend. If you’re a GAA supporter, try not to weep.
I suppose things could be a lot worse, Jim Alister might have made a pretty bad minister, Sammy and Gregory are too busy sitting in the (in their words, seeing as it is Brussels that makes British law…)) irrelevant Westminster cattle shed, and Nelson McCausland would have made a rather worrying minister, for a number of reasons, orange and red. Michelle O`Neill is a great person to have in that post.
There’s only one party in stormont that has ‘no alternative’. The unionists know it and if there were any that didn’t, they sure know now. S.f are trapped with nowhere to go but ‘play the game’. They cant pull down the house of stormont and admit they got it wrong so they blindly plough on hopping for divine intervention. To place a unionist daughter of a prison officer in charge of justice shows how desperate they are to make stormont work lol. Unless of course they have managed to get the irish language act, maze project etc banked? I won’t hold my breath.
Me thinks SF will now blame nationalists that didn’t vote, the SDLP and PBF for a unionist administering justice in the north. Pretty pathetic show altogether. Woe betide them if they step back and allow nationalist prisoners for example, to be further brutalised by the state. Whether misguided or not, nationalists don’t take kindly to the state brutalising their own people. Hats off to the British, they’ve played a blinder and paid the piper well.
I don’t usually disagree with you, WT, but on one point I think you need to give further thought: nobody picks their parents, and the sins of the father most definitely do not belong to the children of same. As to the Brits playing a blinder, on the plane back from NY on Monday I listened to a Bob Dylan album and in particular the one that has the refrain ‘Something is happening here but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr Jones’. I have a sense of things happening: M McG is right when he says it was as hard for QE2 to shake hands with him as vice versa. A bit like the DUP going into government with SF: something pretty profound must be happening to make that happen.
Jude, had you been listening to Sandie Shaw singing the Phil Coulter hit ‘Puppet on a string’, it would have been more appropriate.
But I do object to Sinn Fein rolling over for the DUP saying ‘No nationalists need apply’, but yet they readily accept a unionist in that post.
The more they allow the DUP to boss them the more support they will lose!
You could be right, Sherdy, and to some extent I share your feelings. On the other hand, they may be doing what they believe is the right thing. I don’t think there’s much future in responding to prejudice with the same sort of thing. As George Bernard Shaw said: “I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it”.
“I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it”.
That’s right, you either accept you live in a pig sty or you get rid of the pig and make the place worth living in.
Rolling over and letting the pig walk all over you, you still get dirty, and the pig still likes it
Here, hold on, Jessica. This pig metaphor is getting out of hand. Next we’ll have talk of sausages and rings in noses…
“ere, hold on, Jessica. This pig metaphor is getting out of hand. Next we’ll have talk of sausages and rings in noses…”
It was your metaphor Jude, I was just expanding on it.
I do like sausages, not so keen on body piercing though.
Donegal is the place to go apparently for your better class of pig anyway. ;}
“As George Bernard Shaw said: “I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it”.
A Pig isn’t an animal I would use to compare the DUP with. Pigs are highly intelligent, kind , sensitive and has a sense of humour. All properties the DUP lack.
In fact, I would say you would come away dirtier after wrestling with the DUP than a Pig….
Enough with the pig talk, already…
“Enough with the pig talk, already…”
Yes, we wouldn’t want it to get boaring…
“All properties the DUP lack. ”
Judging by some of the agreements made which they failed to live up to, they do seem to be prone to telling porkies from time to time.
Perhaps they are just not capable of gong the whole hog.
Hmmm
I wonder can I get away with comparing shinners to monkeys?
Looks like it.
“The more they allow the DUP to boss them the more support they will lose!”
Agree totally Sherdy.
My philosophy when it comes to DUP type Unionists is they are like spoilt and rude children who demand everything their way and refuse to let other children play with the Toys. Giving in to such people only encourages them. On the other hand such children need a firm hand and told No. They might throw a tantrum for a long time but they learn to accept their lot. The DUP reject equality with Catholics just as much today as they did in 1986 or 1966. Don’t depend on SF’s outreaches being reciprocated because they wont be lol Sinn Fein taking such risks with their electorate is foolish, especially for the sake of being chummy with the DUP…..was that what the Hunger Strikers died for? Or the Leaders of 1916?……I didn’t even vote SF this time round, put it that way.
Thatcher and the British Government had to put the DUP in their place when the Anglo-Irish Agreement was signed despite massive pressure and it worked, the Unionists realized the British Government was greater than them.
the muppet show.
Billy – I let this one go but hey – no unadorned abuse, please. Give some reasons for phrases like this.
wasnt abuse it was just listening to them on the radio it was coming across like that the four of us were having some laugh heading home.sure its all you can do listening to them.
An t-Uasal Mairtin O Muilleoir
Up to his knees in l.s.d’s galore
Any ould chance
Of a cash advance?
Holy Cow – ach sin ceann mor !
I have to agree 100% with Colum Eastwood when he said the Justice Minister post has a “No Nationalist Need Apply” sign over it. When I noted this to Unionists on twitter they said “You cant expect a SF/IRA terrorist in the post of Justice Minister”, I replied “it was also blocked for the SDLP too” to which they could not give any credible reply. It is, as Colum Eastwood said, a corruption of the Good Friday Agreement that 3 executive posts will be filled by SF whilst 5 will be filled by Unionists. Power sharing? Far from it. What’s really shocking about this is that Sinn Fein have accepted this.
It was a really good grab SF getting the Finance Minister post but I think it would’ve been far better if they had got the Education post instead of Health, Health has been nothing but a headache for everyone who has ever got it.
“When I noted this to Unionists on twitter they said “You cant expect a SF/IRA terrorist in the post of Justice Minister””
That is the opinion that the leadership of unionism is promoting amongst its people.
Forget the SDLP and Colum Eastwood, they aren’t even nationalists, it might be more credible from them if they were..
Sinn Fein are doing what must be done, they cannot play on both sides of the fence. There needs to be another voice for nationalists who don’t want to be treated like dirt.
Sinn Feins main objective lies in Dublin. The north needs to be economically ready to play its part when the time comes and Sinn Fein are making sire that happens.
The PBD have shown they nothing more than EU left wing communists by refusing to declare.
We need another party to push for nationalist and republican issues, they would not even need to take their seats in the assembly.
The SDLP are unionist lite.
It does stick in my craw that SF rolled over and supported a Unionist for the Justice post as if any one of that ilk will be supportive of the families of collusion victims in their fight to get to the truth, and by victims I mean both communities.
Something profound is happening. Generations of Irish nationalists are becoming Northern Irish in part due the likes of McGuinness standing for GSTQ at Stormont and attending banquets at her majesty’s invitation.
To support the republic in the upcoming Euros is almost to feel like a bigot given the Northern Irish identity being fostered and grown with every passing year.
A bit like the DUP going into government with SF: something pretty profound must be happening to make that happen.
—–
Nothing profound about it in my view. The DUP have slowly realised that the GFA has given them a veto over every single move towards equality. SF are going down a cul de sac but are too proud to admit it. So onward we go, 5 more years of unionist veto and non delivery.
DUP will have no truck with a Sinn Féin or SDLP justice minister but will accept a unionist in the position. Where’s the surprise?
” “No Nationalist Need Apply” sign over it. When I noted this to Unionists on twitter they said “You cant expect a SF/IRA terrorist in the post of Justice Minister”, I replied “it was also blocked for the SDLP too” to which they could not give any credible reply”
SDLP are in opposition!
“It was a really good grab SF getting the Finance Minister post”
Why?
“It was a really good grab SF getting the Finance Minister post”
SF will be implementing the Tory austerity agenda -that same agenda they were completed opposed too and allowed for millions in penalties to be given back to the Treasurey. They hold the purse strings with responsibility for diverting block grant around departments, the DUP will do a good job at blaming them when finances are tight – I feel DUP made a good move in letting SF take Finance. With further cuts expected and a loss of an estimated £500m due to the devolvement of corporation tax, SF will find it very difficult to be consistent with their “other half” in the South.
“I feel DUP made a good move in letting SF take Finance.”
They both have taken a calculated risk.
“With further cuts expected and a loss of an estimated £500m due to the devolvement of corporation tax, SF will find it very difficult to be consistent with their “other half” in the South.”
I expect that figure will go down significantly with the UK lowering their corporation tax and there will be benefits from new jobs coming in so I don’t think that will be a major issue.
What will be though, is the declining block grant which has already been reduced based on the required reform of the public sector which has not yet begun. The Tories wanted this brought into line with GB which could be 25% job losses or more as well as a hefty redundancy burden.
This was delayed and money was borrowed to avoid it to go down the route of natural wastage instead.
This will be the biggest threat to Sinn Fein in particular around water charges.
They only today just made monkeys out of Fianna Fail over their u-turn on scrapping water charges in the south. The further cuts to the block grant means either there will be major jobs losses or new taxes in the north.
Since their manifesto was for more jobs and no water charges where are they going to get the money from?
Increased taxes is the only other.
Yes, the DUP have on top of this promised 1 billion towards health which is also a Sinn Fein ministry. Double whammy if health doesn’t get that budget and use it well.
If Sinn Fein fail, they will fail spectacularly. If they pull it off, they will have proven themselves worthy to the southern electorate who will give them an overall majority to lead the next Dail.
Big pressure, but now is the time to prove themselves worthy to lead this country and rid us of the southern jackasses that have for too long had a monopoly in the Dail.
“SDLP are in opposition!”
They weren’t in opposition in 2011 and the DUP opposed a SDLP Justice Minister then just as forcefully as they do now with Sinn Fein.
Of course who could forget Arlenes comment on nationalists last year too.
But as I also asked those Unionists on twitter: if you cant accept a SF Justice Minister because of the IRA then why are you accepting a SF Joint First Minister? Finance Minister? etc Of course I could also point out Nationalists are not comfortable with the DUP being in any position of power given their history.
“Why?”
Because the Finance Post is said to be maybe the most important post there, the DUP once said they will always get it because they are the largest party and have the first pick. They obviously conceded it to Sinn Fein in a deal.
“They weren’t in opposition in 2011 and the DUP opposed a SDLP Justice Minister then just as forcefully as they do now with Sinn Fein.”
No they didn’t. Their opposition to a Provo justice minister is much more forceful.
But we’re not talking about the last mandate. We’re talking about the current one. When did the DUP rule out a SDLP justice minister?
“Because the Finance Post is said to be maybe the most important post there”
But it’s not the most important. Its importance is hugely overstated.
Why do you think it is so important?
Well…. TV Mike was sour as old reeking shoes in his welcoming comments on the new ministers. Trying to match him for bitter bile was…Jim Allister, looking, sneering and sounding ever more like the Child Catcher from “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” ….he will, no doubt , have Faerie Stories and pantomimes written about him in years to come .There is a huge hole in the affair of course. The fact that nationalism of any sort aren’t asked about being a Justice Minister .I can understand that it is a cross-community post, but surely the recipient is still a unionist and wasn’t it unionism’s original truculence that created the Troubles? I certainly remember it like that but all these new youngsters will have their shallow memories removed anyway…. Has anyone really forgotten all that ?.Why should any unionist be asked to deal with Justice? That simply sounds daft to me . It’s just nuts!.In a place like Norneverland Justice should be farmed out to a complete outsider…preferably from the other side of the planet , who’d been raised in a cloister by hooded monks and never allowed to read or see anything to do with the outside world forthis past two hundred years.. That would be the real solution . Then again there’s the very good argument that Health or Education were every bit as important posts as Justice is .
Anyway . it’s obviously another fudge to keep the old show limping along and Our Marty and Arlene actually sounded like they could have a conversation without cutting out each other’s tongues. I must admit it’s welcoming to see Máirtín Ó Muilleoir getting Finance . He strikes me as a man with a bit of wit, as we say locally ..and more importantly a sense of humour. That’ll have to do for now …or for the next five years……
“…raised in a cloister by hooded monks…”
According to a Civil Service source, Gregorian Chants are now a thing of the past.
How’ya Paddy? the key thing about justice is the potential access to documents the RUC have not yet shredded a minister might have.
The daughter of a screw will ensure any sensitive information, implicating the previous regime will be pulped, even more thoroughly than our previous unionist justice minister, Ford!
Ní dheachaigh sé ar chúl scéithe leis/He did not mince his words.
Look on the bright side. We got focail eile from Charles i dTír Chonaill and the launch of the ‘Buckingham Banger.’ An raibh sé ag iarraidh déanamh suas leo? Was he trying to curry favour?
Perhaps experience may now be defined as doing things the wrong way for 18 years.
“Weir is one of the more civilized members of the DUP,”
Does civilized mean:
belonging to the Orange Order and the Royal Black Preceptory; and
refusing to accept the GDA, saying that the only positive comment he could summon for the Agreement was that it was “very nicely typed”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Weir_(politician)
Though I suppose he accepted the St Andrew’s Agreement – otherwise he could hardly be Minister.
I suppose I had in mind his manner, ben, and while I’m sure what you say is true, I don’t remember him coming out with some of the stuff that Sammy Wilson et al come out with.
PS What are the credentials of “less civilized” DUP members?
Sinn Feins picks seem odd to me. The economy and finance were always going to be the first two picks, so whatever one the DUP didn’t pick SF would take. DUP took Education so that ones off the board. To me the next highest value ministry which could affect change would be communities but they took infrastructure instead. Infrastructure is certainly important but in an age of austerity there will be little in the way of resources for big building projects.
I can’t really see a reason for this pick other than maybe they perceive the infrastructure portfolio as “easier” and less controversial?
Well Jude, -today – the day a humiliated Martin McGuinness, ‘gushingly’ presented the ‘No Taig Need apply’ Job – to the daughter of one of the ‘criminal’ cabal who abused and tortured our Ten Hunger Strikers, I thought – ‘this cannot get any worse’.
Then I switched on the local lunchtime news and had to reach for the sick bag, when I saw the fawning, genuflective, cottiers in Donegal Town square, sing a loving welcome, to the Colonel- in- Chief of the Parachute Regiment and his adulteress.
What have we become ?
Have we foresaken all of our dignity?
Is this the United Ireland dream- that cost us so many thousands of innocent lives?
Does anyone fucking care anymore?
Tr – I feel your pain. Seriously. But I’d say again: people shouldn’t be judged by who their relatives were or are. I confess I felt something similar watching the Man Who Would Be Tampon and his ex-mistress making Donegal’s butchers (why must it always be butchers?) and sundry others all moist and weak-kneed. But C + C were there because they were told to be there. Why were they sent there? I doubt if it’s to humiliate the Irish. I sense something more positive behind all this.
“Why were they sent there? I doubt if it’s to humiliate the Irish. I sense something more positive behind all this.”
They weren’t, it was Dublin who invited them, they were not ordered to go but made a personal choice to.
Why? Because they genuinely want to spend more time in Ireland.
Dublin was the second city of the British empire for a long time, they never wanted to give it up, it was the brutality of the war of independence that turned the English people against the military campaign to keep Ireland.
I do sense a change in attitude, a change in tact. The royal families desire for peace and friendship with Ireland is most certainly genuine, of that I am in no doubt.
If you think there was some push from the British state to pursue friendship or “something more positive” then you may be disappointed i’m afraid Jude.
Unionism are not genuine in their new found outreach. Trust them at your peril.
I find it almost impossible to trust the British or unionists for that matter I learned that the hard way and unfortunately it will never be forgotten.
I have to agree truth revisionist, , i am having a very hard time with the justice minister( irony of ironies ) , a mistake and I feel a shock to all those who gave their lives for Ireland. As for those in Donegal who cheered the titular One Para commander, shame on you. It was an embarassing scene to say the least
Jaysus, truthrevisionist, I only thought I was hard line. Maith tu.
https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2016/05/24/a-royal-visit-black-spider-over-ireland/
Dia duit ar maidin Jude, Hazzard is a bright young lad, Peter, a matter which once may appeal to DUPpies, as, what was speaker in the QUBSU, and a wholly neutral position, foolishly left on a photocopier a letter he had written appealing to fellow unionists to get out to vote against nationalist candidates in a student election.
Has he changed, I doubt it.
On the other hand, as a strong supporter of ‘the qualifying’ I hope he does reinstitute the transfer test, as I pointed out to His Grace, Bishop McKeown, many years ago, would you be as well educated and where you are now if it hadn’t existed?
His answer, ‘no’.
Dia duit tú féin, Mark. Your final paragraph is true, but it doesn’t include the central problem: for the success of the 30% who get to grammar schools, 70% are encouraged to see themselves as failures. That can’t be right.
Correct Jude, but, it’s like the old story of, if there were nuclear war pending and you had seven spare places in a bunker in your garden, whom would you invite in?
I strongly suspect you would not invite Bssc graduates, nor (ta bron orm) Art’s graduates nor even the gobshites with primary and masters in the law’s, rather, plumbers,Doctor’s sparks, joiners engineers and, if you had wanes, a teacher.
Our new minister for education might take a look at the german system where, practical skills are not just taught but valued more than academic one’s.
There is a place for academic second level establishments, we presently have too many here but, concentrate on permitting our brightest children to excelll in true academic schools while the others can do practical subjects which create wealth rather than social science working shelf packing!subjects
I’d suggest a look at the Finnish system. Much fewer hours of child-school contact, emphasis on happiness as well as academic/practical skills. Result: most successful education system around.
I disagree on this notion of the brightest children. Academic ability (much but not all of which is useless hoop-jumping) can emerge at any age. It’s not simply a matter of stuff being inside your skull that lets you be smart; it’s as much the stuff outside your skull that allows you to develop fully. Education – educo, I draw out.
Jude, your line on the inequities of the 11 plus do you a great service I feel. To hear contributors try to defend such an ignoble and elitist program is so disheartening. I think all right and just people must stand against it, even if ( like me) we have benefitted in the past. It suits unionism because they aren’t taught to value ‘community’. It’s all about the individuals direct line to God and that seems to inform the way they approach life. Surely each child must be cherished and valued amongst the community. Each one has his or her own gifts. GRMA.
Grma tú féin, Freddy…