Peter Robinson has come out. He seems to do this every time he has a summer holiday .A bit of rest and relaxation gives him time to think away from the hurly-burly of the working week and that wee lightbulb goes off in his head . Last year’s Special Performance came in the form of nixing the Maze proposal and all the lost investment that followed.
At long last he’s admitted that the current set-up of politicians are unfit for purpose. I ‘m inclined to agree . It’s a curiosity that only yesterday I mentioned in an article that some of our ministers were unable to deal with reality .The difference between right and wrong leaves them flummoxed . It hardly raised a ripple when I wrote it . I got one single comment.That comment wasn’t even about their grasp on reality. That gives you some idea how interested people are in who governs them. Our politicians actually have a carte blanche to do anything they want without sanctions. They can basically break the law and still keep their jobs . I don’t imagine another “democracy” on earth would allow ministers to bend the truth without a sacking or some kind of punishment.Imagine if they carried on like that in China . Remember the Expenses Scandal in the UK and the duckpond? Man…the press made merry with that one .It was a cartoonist’s dream. The media filled pages and stories for weeks on the strength of it. When something similar happens here..what happens? …Nothing. The sad fact is that we have absolutely no control mechanisms to keep our politicians in check.
If it was in Westminster and someone had fiddled their expenses, there would be a national scandal. Heads would roll.Cabinets would re-shuffle. prime ministers would be forced to resign. That’s not what happens in Norneverland. Here, that would be totally acceptable. Here a politician can insult the judiciary and simply walk away. Here a politician can simply say that the politicians are the all-powerful ones who make the law and the judiciary are simply there to carry out their wishes .No matter how crazy they might be. It’s a simple fact that we have made our politicians the most complacent and safe group of politicians that may ever have existed. Party by party , we are at a point where our politicians can do anything they want ..and get away with it .It doesn’t matter whether or not they can do their jobs rationally or not. In Nornneverland the emperor never wears clothes. Nobody cares anyway.
Having another election would not change any of that. There has been much talk about the good things that Stormont has done .The Giro d’Italia was cited .Well, fair enough , we have had these “glamour” events which government ministers love to bask and glory in,.Our golfing pal Rory had a good run and the first Minister and his Deputy rubbed a bit of that old fairy-dust on themselves . We now had a champion boxer to gloat over and there’s much clap-trap talked about him uniting the two communities just as Wee Barry McGuigan did thirty years ago…Oh , you missed that one ? Yes…the two warring tribes were as one some thirty odd years ago …for five minutes….
That was all lovely and touchy-feely but what we really wanted here was some form of intelligent and grown-up governance. We never got it.The only alternative is a form of Joint Rule by both the Republic and Westminster of course . That alternative is built into the Good Friday Agreement. If we had another election tomorrow we would simply be installing the same circus acts that we are currently enjoying ,so what would change?..Absolutely nothing.Wee Sammy would still be telling us black was white and the flat-earthers would still be telling us that the Giant’s Causeway happened sometime in the 1600s.
The bottom line is that the First Minister thinks that the system as is is inoperable and bound with dysfunction. He is the person at the top of the local food-chain , so he’ll also know that replacing it with the very same thing will bring in the very same result. As a DUP minister I feel he already knows that the only thing that will happen as this system develops is that the irrationality of his ministers will become more and more apparent and untenable and the whole thing will be an even greater laughing stock to the world outside. That kind of exposure to the glaring light could only be avoided by stalling the onward march .A Joint Rule scenario would give him that breathing space….If it doesn’t dissolve into another war-zone.
Harry,would you be a proponent of the”one sides as bad of the other crap”? I heard a woman called Anita or something on that tube Nolan’s show being egged on by motormouth to peddle this line this morning.All this nonsense about they can’t agree on anything,if there was an election in the morning they’d all be voted out.They’re all on big salaries and “ordinary people ” should bang their heads together.She never once was asked did she agree with welfare cuts and if she did’nt how could she agree with those imposing them? Conversely if she DID agree with welfare cuts she would have been exposed as not being so caring about “ordinary people ” at all.You see Harry one side is not as bad as the other.One side has bent over backwards to make the thing work,is certainly NOT in it for the money(if they left SF in the morning they would more than double their income as the party only allows them the average industrial wage) and is battling to protect it’s people from the worst excesses of British Tory aggression.
No, Michael. i don’t believe one side is as bad as the other. I think sinn Fein has stretched the hand of friendship further than Plastic Man or Mister Fantastic but it has been slapped down every time by Peter Robinson’s ministers. They’ve attempted to bridge the gap at every turn but are not given credit for it by anyone.
Martin Mcguinness has been more statesmanlike to a fault than ever Peter Robinson has ever been ..This latest situation is being brought about solely by the DUP and assorted unionism who are plying the line that because Sinn Fein wants a republic that they don’t also want local government to work .This is far from the truth because Sinn Fein want local government to work in a mature and reasoned way before they can convince their unionist neighbours that there is nothing to fear from being compatible neighbours in an all Ireland future. For Sinn Fein that work begins at home in Northern Ireland.. For the DUP, that compatibility is the thing they fear most and they are pushing hard to bring it to an end.A blind man can see that the dUp have not been behaving like true democrats. Their behaviour in the past year has been simply that of spoilt children.
glad to see you are considering the interim joint Sovreignty/authority option – the only form of government that hasn’t been tried for NI.
eurofree3.wordpress.com published several posts arguing in favour of it with “interim” lasting for as long as needed.
It is increasingly looking like the only way out of the enduring stalemate and is a win/win solution for both sides and everyone in-between
Ben, I’m not considering it at all. I just see where the DUP is pushing us all.. If they crash this car , that’s all that’s left for them…no number of further meetings is going to knock some sense into them. It hasn’t before .Why should it now?
You are absolutely right. paddykool,, that no amount of meetings will knock sense into them. In the past they have continued being paid salaries for doing nothing. I wonder if their salaries were stopped if it returned to direct rule, would that focus their minds? All sides would have to sign an undertaking to carry out the programme of government that WM had drawn up for them; that there would be a genuine shared approach and that petitions of concern would not be used willy nilly. Failure to do so would result in them all being sacked an new candidates selected for election. This time WM intererviews all nominated and decides which should stand for election. If the nominees do not show sincerity in carrying out the role on a genuinely shared basis they would be selected.
Probably sounds too pie in the sky but something drastic has to happened. What Westminster needs to start grasping is that it is the people of Northern Ireland who are suffering because of this present charade. The people are being let down by the politicians and deserve better.
However, a very strong Secretary of State for Norn Irn is needed and I don’t see that happening any time soon. To me it looks like the dUP say to WM jump and Cameron asks how high? They behave as they do now because the Westminster Government allow them to.
Yes I think the two governments should have joint authority – that is Dublin and Edinburgh (If Scotland becomes Independent)
Now that’s what I call fresh thinking, Brian….
Hi Brian …Do you think Scotland would ever contemplate taking on this poisoned chalice? It’s certainly a new angle alright. They might consider they have enough nutters of their own though before importing even more problems from our lot.
Harry,
I concur with your view we ought to consider joint sovereignty as an interim option because Stormont isn’t and can’t work with the current creationist mob. But – like Michael above, we need to encourage people to look beyond the devious pro-Union media mantra that all political parties are as bad as each other…
Unlike the pro-Tory political unionism factions here in the North, Sinn Féin and SDLP oppose Welfare cuts solely on the basis of their impact on the poorest in our society and that’s a commonplace anti-austerity platform across European democracies; it’s a normal left verses right politics issue unrelated to our unique constitutional dispute.
Similarly, the DUP and UUP have opposed implementing various aspects of the GFA (Bill of Rights, Irish Language Act, etc, etc) and reneged on a previously agreed programme for government (Long Kesh etc). Furthermore, it was political unionism alone which walked away from Haass & O’Sullivan talks and subsequent efforts to revive those talks.
I think, the time has come to invite Irish-Americans to demand the USA Government help fund transition to joint sovereignty (well they fund Israel to the tune of billions every year) as the status quo stinks!!!
I couldn’t agree more. As I say in the article , though, the DUP are deliberately pushing for this option.They want to present it as a failure of Sinn Fein’s making when it is clearly not. The lie they want to tell is that Sinn Fein are not working when it they who have walked out of talks when reasonable conclusions were reached. They gave such poor leadership throughout 2013 that we are still paying for the ensuing police action. They have never embraced the Nationalists in the way that nationalists have reached out to them.There are many examples of this and I’ll allow you all to list them….
They have now sided with the Tories when they could have joined with Sinn Fein for a better health care deal…the Tories are now turning inside out to sweeten the Scots….who absolutely abhor the Tories….They didn’t ……so again they are huffing. They want a new rule book.Well sorry .To me , they haven’t a clue how to debate an issue convincingly so why should they be given another chance.? I can’t see what new thinking they can now bring to the table.If they have any new ideas we’d have seen them by now.I think Peter Robinson knows the game is up.He doesn’t want to be the one holding the empty bucket when it ends.I’m afraid it’ll be him alright though…unless there’s a leadership change sometime soon.
American intervention has been so helpful in SE Asia the Middle East and South America it should definitely be tried her – Not!
What about tryptich sovereignty Harry/Paddy? London, Edinburgh, Dublin; or even through some Belfast into the mix. The Unionists would have the comfort of their kith and kin north of Berwick and the Queen in her big hoose. Surely that should make them doubly secure?
Ah …the wee timorous beasties would need all the security blankets we can pile up. Mind you I’m not sure Her Maj would have anything in common with any of them either.They do love to kiss ass though.