Picture by Andy 101
I don’t always agree with David Ford, leader of the Alliance Party, but I do agree with something he said this morning. He was being interviewed by Noel Thompson, I think, and was asked why his party hadn’t followed the lead of the UUP and quit the Executive. His reply was that to do so would require evidence.
We all need little jolts like this from time to time. It’s easy to forget that, according to the British system of justice, a person or persons is/are innocent until proved guilty. The charge has been made by the Chief Constable (or so it has been alleged) that the IRA are still active. The one thing (let’s leave his reasons for another day) that the Chief Constable did not offer was evidence for any such assertion. Yet it is on the back of George Hamilton’s claims that the UUP has stomped out of the Executive and has accused the DUP of weakness in not following their lead. The DUP, instead of citing the notion of evidence, has wittered on about not quitting the battlefield and confronting wrong-doing, etc., etc.
Another question that has not been focused on is, why did the Chief Constable say what he did? If he had evidence that the IRA still is in existence as a paramilitary organisation, shouldn’t he have made reference to that in his statement? After all, he must have known that the unionist parties would seize on this like a dog that’s been deprived of red meat for forty days and forty nights.
So a question for you this morning, George and Mike and Peter: do you believe in the notion of innocent until proved guilty? And if you do, what the hell have you been up to for the past two weeks?
I think, Jude that this little drama ( not forgetting the mourning of two families) has been a serendipitous shot in the arm for the peace process. Nesbitt’s mischievous walk out has galvanised Maginness to completely disown the IRA. It has driven Sinn Fein ( earlier than they might have been comfortable) to shed any lingering baggage. Maginness referred to ALL involved in the murders as dissidents and/or criminals. So, if there were IRA men involved in continuing violence, they were dissidents in Sinn Fein’s eyes. It’s history repeating itself really and was always going to happen. I think Unionism has facilitated Sinn Fein making things crystal clear for everyone. The link with the IRA is gone. I don’t think the Unionist people will be best pleased…oops.
Good points, Freddy. I think SF can disown the people who did the killings as criminals/dissidents because their line for some twenty years now has been ‘strictly politics’. It follows that anyone out there getting down to settling grudges lethally is, um, beyond the pale. This is just the latest manifestation of it.
Well Jude , you know i’ve been asking that same question these past few weeks. It comes down to a couple of ideas.
Unionists have a very odd idea about “law” anyway, given that this whole state is founded on their lawlessness.That would be a good place to start because everything comes down to that when the skins of decades are peeled back one by one.Let’s not get too tied up in their idea of “law” when we know that this whole recent debacle has nothing to do with law or morality and everything to do with political power-playing between the UUP and the DUP. TV Mike {Nesbitt }took a swipe at the DUP while Peter Their Great Leader was offside on holiday. Already there will be defectors to the UUP fold from disgruntled DUPers who think they shouldn’t be sitting down with republicans at all…armed or otherwise.
Then there’s the other scenario with the Chief Constable.
Is he simply that loose cannon on this roiling ship …cast-iron smashing about willy-nilly and destroying the very delicate firmament that has been laboriously stitched together over many years of fudge and obfuscation?…… The very necessary ambiguity , I might add, given some of our political savants inability to bend with political winds or flow with the political currents…..the very talents needed for political thought at all.
Has he reached his position at the toppermost of the poppermost of our police services only to be discovered also lacking those same political qualities required and has been finally exposed as no more than a bull in a china shop?…A bull that threatens to wreck every piece of delicate china that several governments have spent years of quiet intensity behind closed doors , building into a semblance of peace.
It is easily forgotten that this one man…this final gatekeeper …opened his mouth but as yet has produced …nothing. Everything that has since happened is based on this “lawful nothingness” so far.We’re back to the Emperor’s new Clothes in Norneverland {Yes, Brian!!} This place where magic reigns and the laws of physics and logic do not append. A situation where the invisible clothes have to be proven to be visible and every colour and every thread has to be described in exact detail for those unbelieving eyes .
“Yes we can’t see those trousers , but dammit…we “know” that they are there!”
Of course if you were a conspiracy theorist , you might conjecture , in your lowly-lit aluminium -lined room that this was all part of some grand design …some nefarious plan that govermental spooks have put in place to finally attempt the breakup of the monolithic nationalist and unionist parties and in doing so, dissipate their power and make them more malleable and manageable. If they could bleed -off a viable percentage of DUP and Sinn Fein supporters to the UUP, the SDLP and Alliance, then all their future troubles would fade away and they’d have a Stormont of five more evenly balanced squabbling groups to contend with.The Sinn Fein threat to the equanamity below the border would also be eased and conservatives in Ireland and the UK could finally breathe a sigh of relief…. The sacrifice being the easily replaced Chief Constable ….Just some musings…..
Jude, I find myself in the very strange position of agreeing with all you say on this.
After having a quick lie down to recover from the shock of this, I would add the following from a Unionist perspective. It’s a bit of an “Elephant in the Room” thing and it is this.
Whether or not the IRA (in whatever form that may take) killed Kevin McGuigan, matters not one jot to any Unionist if they are being honest with themselves. We are kidding ourselves if we say otherwise. Callous though it may sound, all we care about is that the IRA is now pursuing it’s POLITICAL OBJECTIVES (using your capitalisation thing there Jude) by “peaceful and democratic means”. Wasn’t that what we signed up to in the GFA?
I not saying that I endorse criminality or the law of the jungle reigning on our streets but I fail to see why a beef between two IRA men that has resulted in the death of both of them is any cause to derail our political structures – if anything it should serve to strengthen them.
I might be wrong but I can’t imagine there will have been many sympathy cards sent from DUP head office to the McGuigan or Davidson families. All I (selfishly) care about is that the IRA are no longer pointing their weapons in my direction or my family’s in the aim of achieving a United Ireland. And I do not think that they are.
As you will know from our other exchanges, I am highly suspicious of Sinn Fein’s true motivations in Stormont. And I am sure that former IRA men are up to all sorts of other criminality. But I would be lying if I said I was not convinced that the IRA were now pursuing their POLITICAL OBJECTIVES through peaceful and democratic means through Sinn Fein (or at least giving it a lash for the time being). The world ain’t perfect but that’s good enough for me.
I say “get back in the ring UUP and don’t leave it DUP”
George – either you’re a crypto-republican or I’m a crypto-unionist – wouldn’t change a jot or tittle. Maith thú. Your post should be compulsory reading for every unionist – and nationalist/republican. It can be galling to be pursuing the political path and then told you’re not good enough…
It’s not the common or garden Unionist on the Shankill omnibus that needs to read the post Jude – they already know this and they are shaking their heads in disbelief at the antics of their political leaders.
Even if they might not articulate it well, what they want is jobs, decent housing, education, a working health system, hope. Not dissimilar, I would wager, to the common or garden Nationalist on the Falls omnibus (or black taxi).
They don’t want their political leaders “Grandstanding” or making “Churchillian” proclamations about the end of the world as we know it. They want them to stop making a mountain out of a mole hill, they want them to roll their sleeves up, they want them to start delivering.
The trick is how do we get them to do that? No idea I’m afraid Jude. Any suggestions?
Nah – I’m just an unpaid hack…
Well George , you get what you vote for , really .That’s the key.Why are gormless people being voted into positions of power? Is there anyone out there who can walk and talk without putting their feet in their mouths that will really represent them?….I mean someone like Naomi Long is head and shoulders better at politics than anyone in the DUP, for one example. She knowledgeable and articulate. She doesn’t appear to be a bigot . Man, she can talk a streak and if you wanted a unionist -type representative who seems to be able to live in the real world as opposed to the Flat Earth nightmare that some unionists appear to inhabit…welllllll…you could do a lot worse, couldn’t you?So what happens ? it’s as plain as a pikestaff that the most intelligent person was ousted . That’s the “people” who did that , y’know.Naomi lost ….
Well obviously Herr Peter doesn’t, after petitioning Cameron to revoke the licence of two innocent men….( a slight difference from the clemency plea a few days ago ) but then Unionism never really relied on the law of of land .Their xenophobic, attitude towards the stranger leads them into a delusional paranoid world of hypocrisy and lies….they are bereft of guilt ,constantly indulging in the demonisation of all ” themuns” with sociopathic exuberance. They would love to expunge us entirely and return to their pre-1969 mittesque land of “milk and honey”
Perhaps the question should be, what has political unionism been up to since 1968? I seem to recall there was a problem with the choice of Coleraine as a seat of learning and the right of one man/woman, to one vote. It is ironic that The DUP are actively seeking a suspension of the Legislative Assembly before it convenes, as a pretext to engage in further talks about talks designed to exclude elected representatives from one section of the community. This at a time when draconian cuts will directly impact on a school of modern languages and lead to job losses. Mr Robinson et al wish to remain on a battlefield, in order to engage in a battle designed to inflict unprecedented welfare cuts on the entire population and to leave the field with flying colours. The reality is that the battle lines are no longer intact with defections providing evidence of disillusionment with misogyny, sham battles and procrastination in the political process. Justice might be served if political unionism engaged in battle with social and economic policies that contribute to poverty and unemployment on this part of the island. That would be a legacy issue.
I think you make some fair points there iolar .Certainly those of us who can remember things such as the choice of Coleraine as a university campus and the building of a white elephant non-town like Craigavon{Just dig that crazy name , man!}……Many of us have case to wonder if they’ve learnt anything from their mad experiments in social engineering never mind their idea of politics. Given that they still think they’re on a “battlefield” as Peter Our Great Leader would have it…some twenty years after the war ended, it’s little wonder that they haven’t gotten round to trying this “political ” lark thing for real , yet.I’m brought to thinking how Germany was faring economically some twenty years after World War Two ended and a new economic mindset set in . The place was renewed .We had a similar chance for a kind of social renewal and every notion of it has been squandered in the past few years by recalcitrant non-politicians.
Grma, on reflection, Remember all those junkets designed to promote inward investment, whatever happened? A question for our ‘security consultant’?
Unionism has failed and continues to fail the working class poor and the unemployed. Robinson and his DUP cronies are doing quite well for themselves. Can’t say the same about the average Sandy Row or Tigers Bay inhabitant. The FM should be trying to get investment for jobs and education for his constituents rather than trying to turn back the clock
If the question which sits atop today’s blog, Esteemed Blogmeister, were asked down here in the Free Southern Stateen, it would be duly classified under R for Rhetorical.
Of course, we do believe in the principles of B-Justice: ! Shur, what other kind is there, at all, at all?
One has only to steer an ear in the direction of the manipulated / manipulative broadcast media or apply an eye at the purchased press to catch a flavour of same to savour.
Consider, for instance, the performance of,(gulp) The Woodman on Morning Ireland this very m. when he had as his target, oops, guest, one Martin P. McGuinness,.
To say his treatment of this politician was in, erm, marked contrast with how he fawned over, oops, treated a politician of a different hue, one Jeffrey Mark Donaldson last week on the same show is neither to gild or paint the lily, be it ieither of the Easter or the Orange variety itself.
As one understands it, the second politician is Junior Minister at the office of the first, who is Deputy First Minister which would make the latter the Senior Minister to the former.
And when the plug was plugged, oops, the line went dead last week between the studio on Liffeyside and the studio on Laganside during the deferential discourse with the Jeffersonian Jeff (a moniker acquired due no doubt to his adherence to the lofty if not lefty principles contained in The Declaration of Dependence) The Woodman was left in a right old state of nonplus..
Luckily for Cathal Mac Coille (for it was he !) the line had not been deliberately sundered and so, as soon as the technical hitch had been stitched it was bizz as before with the missing moments seamlessly added on later as Stoppage Time. No probs.
Alas, not quite so this morning.
At first a strangely subdued Woodman seemed to be just going through the motions, as if his ginornmous grey matter was on matters of much greater import, such as the next item to be processed on the programme.
-Tell me, when is the last time you talked with the First Minister?
And when the Deputy First Minister had dealt with that seemingly innocent question, he went on to point out that the vast preponderance of talks between himself and his superior had to be institgated by himself, The Woodman showed a marked lack of interest.
Which reaction no doubt could hardly have taken the interviewee by surprise. This is the very stations which had run a less than subtle ‘McGuinness is Bad for You’ campaign when he had stood for election for the Presidency of the FSS.
This campaign was based on the legendary early posters for the Black Stuff – for instance, the ones which featured a toucan, that brightly feathered neotropical bird with the extra-large and colourful bill.
One thinks of RTE neutrals such as Ray ‘Of Sunshine Radio’ D’Arcy the unusual broadcaster who seems to moon with an unexpected part of his anatomy: his face. Who sends in an extra-large and colourful bill to RTE every year which is exactly TWICE the annual bill furnished by the President to the Government: half a mill to a mere quarter of a mill.
When Mr. McGuinness was a ‘guest’ on D’Arcy’s pre-election programmed the host mooned at him, along the lines of what he, the candidate, did during the terrorist campaign against the lawful upholders of British Justice.
Something not entirely dissimilar happened this morning.
When the Deputy First Minister was in mid-sentence detailing the Great Silence of the Unionist Politicians during the Hateful Violence on the streets o the Marchers in July, the Woodman suddenly awoke from his semi-slumbers: the allotted time was up !
-Whack !
-Mr. McGuinness, I have to halt you there. The time is up. Thank you for talking to us.
-Whack ! Whack !
There is a famous poem written in the USA in the nineteenth century:
-Woodman, woodman, spare that tree
Touch not a single bough;
For years it has protected me
And I’ll protect it now.
The poet was George P. Morris whereas the chopped down ‘guest’ this morning was Martin P. McGuinness.
Pope in the first instance, Pacelli in the second.
Could it be that the irony was lost on that upholder of a British standard scale of justice, The Woodman of RTE ?
Ca fios / Hew knows ?
(PS One understands there is an unwritten rule in Morning Ireland which goes as follows: Woodman, spare that Three. The three in question designed to allow three minutes Stoppage Time in lieu of a technical hitch).
Much to my regret,I never really considered the man on the Shankill omnibus, that is to my shame and an admonishment to my ego ! Of course he wants the past to remain exactly there…he also has a wife and children and wants exactly what we all want ,the very best for our offspring ,a brighter future ,a hopeful future ….to see his children flourish and grow strong and happy ,to produce the next generation of confident ,outward looking ,happy people…..How do we get this through to the politicians ….the backwoods men…..I know I’m sick of bigotry and hatred , lets try being human