I’ve just ingested a bowlful of Rice Krispies (other types of cereal are available), tea and a small mountain of home-made bread. As I was slathering on the butter and marmalade I was listening to Radio Ulster /Raidio Uladh; they were questioning the DUP’s Simon Hamilton and Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy about the suspension of talks.
Was it an interesting listen? No. In part that was because I’d already heard pretty much all of what was said by both questioners and answerers. There was, though, one aspect of the exchanges that struck me: the questioners and answerers didn’t get to the heart of the matter and stay there.
To give credit where credit is due, I think the matter of MLAs continuing to be paid while the Assembly remains in mothballs was raised. I think. If it was it was raised only in passing. Which is a pity, since it’s an important matter if people should be paid for attending GAA games or joining the thousands of Orange marches over a couple of months.
But an even more important matter than pay was not asked . That was, Why are the two parties unable to come to an agreement? Buttonhole the man or woman in the street (assuming either has a buttonhole) and ask why the politicians on the hill haven’t gone back into government, and chances are you’ll be told it’s because our politicians are useless, two parties incapable of agreement. That’s what you’ll probably be told but it’s not why talks have stalled.
I blame all parties – and I include the media – for not focusing on one central issue. Certainly as I masticated and swallowed this morning, the question wasn’t asked and the answer wasn’t given.
The question? Here it is: will commitments made in the Good Friday Agreement and the St Andrews Agreement, in particular an Irish Language Act and a Bill of Rights, be implemented? That’s it. Will previous commitments, signed up to by the parties and the two government, be followed through on?
If I said I’d give you a lift somewhere tomorrow, then drove blithely past you, would you be annoyed? Almost certainly. And if I then made a fresh date on which to give you a lift and did exactly the same thing, would you be fuming? Indeed you would. You might even resort to violence. You’d certainly be slow to trust me in anything again.
That’s what’s separating the two major parties: trust. And it’s at best lazy journalism not to deal in detail with this central issue, and instead talk about “parties unable to agree with each other” or “the need for compromise”. The compromise was made when the Good Friday Agreement and the St Andrews Agreement were made. How is it possible that the media haven’t focused on this central matter? How is it possible that Sinn Féin haven’t hammered home this breach of trust issue again and again, so the public know what the problem is and where responsibility lies?
Or do the media not believe that agreements have been welched on by the DUP? That would be appalling and is surely not possible. Even more appalling would be if the media do believe that welching on previous agreements is at the heart of this suspension but choose not to ask all parties about the matter.If our media aren’t going to hold power to account, who is?
The media has its own agenda Jude and top of that agenda is a necessity to make sure that Sinn Fein are not seen to be in the right. For those of us who have two brain cells to rub together their agenda is quite clear. As you said the compromise was made when the agreement was signed. However, can you see the horror on our unionist friends’ faces when they see PSNI officers going around with ‘Garda’ on their backs, road signs ‘as Gaeilge’. Yes, that is what was signed up for by all parties and before anyone tells me that the DUP did not sign up, they took the agreement in total and were happy to sign off on it. Full implementation time looms, no more kicking the can down the road and with the sectarian marching season looming, no wonder the DUP are digging their heels in, but squirm as they may, there is no way out, equality for all has to be the bottom line.
James, I have been thinking the same thing every time, in media, the DUP plead ignorance of the multi-lateral agreement to institute the legislation to underpin and promote the First National Language.
The classic case on the matter is, and any lawyer will be able to tell you it’s name L’Estrange v. F. Graucob Ltd. (1934 2KB 3940 (sorry, no sq.brackets on my pc) and, again, any lawyer will know this case, it has such impact on every day life, whether one is a Lawyer from Lisnaskea or Enniskillen.
The point in this case (albeit there are EU attempts to restrict the rights of suppliers) is that, if you put your name to a contract, you are then bound by all of it’s terms.
If Dodds and Foster, and their overlords in the orange order cannot read, and understand, their own language, can they not obtain assistance from elsewhere in agreeing what they originally agreed to.
Are “Rick Krispies” named after a particularly annoying and self righteous “commentator”!
Grma, michael c. I tend not to eat people, except absolutely necessary…
An ILA has certainly been agreed to but what exactly the details of a ILA are have not been either agreed of fully articulated in public.
The DUP were wrong to say they point blank reject anything called a ILA, they should have said we agree to it in principle subject to what the details are.
We still don’t know what exactly a ILA entails. Carál Ní Chuilín proposal is the only definition of a ILA we have heard and I highly doubt there is major support for things such as 10% of civil servants needing to be fluent Irish speakers or dual road signage across NI. There’s confusion however whether or not this is SF position though since Máirtín Ó Muilleoir was on Radio 4 this morning and said claims that SF want 10% of civil servants to be fluent Irish speakers were, in his words, “bumpkin”.
I think clarity from SF to the details of a ILA would be helpful. Until then it’s impossible for me either support or reject it, I can’t make a informed choice and wouldn’t be willing to support it and give SF a blank cheque on the subject.
“Máirtín Ó Muilleoir was on Radio 4 this morning and said claims that SF want 10% of civil servants to be fluent Irish speakers were, in his words, “bumpkin”.” Correction, Scott – he said “bunkum’…I agree with the point you start with – an Acht na Gaeilge was agreed in principle, not detail. “I think clarity from SF to the details of a ILA would be helpful. Until then it’s impossible for me either support or reject it.” Quite right – you can’t support or reject IN DETAIL. But you can – DUP have – supported the idea of an A na G in principle by signing the St Andrews Agreement. So why don’t they concede they’ve done that rather than deny it? Then there can of course be room for discussion, suggestions, counter-suggestions – the lot. The key and sole point at issue here is, will the DUP live up to its commitments in the St Andrews Agreement, and is it opposed to a non-implemented part of the GFA , a Bill of Rights?
Thanks for the correction Jude, I knew the word “bunkum” but not the spelling. Every days a school day isn’t it.
Largely in agreement the DUP should agree to a ILA in principle, but I imagine the trouble here is the detail. I can’t be sure of course I’m obviously not in the negotiations but without some sort of agreement of at least the broad brush strokes of ILA agreeing to it in principle is pointless as it’ll never be implemented.
As I said I’d be extremely interested to hear what exactly SF proposals for a ILA are. At least we could at least debate something of substance rather than the semantics of whether it’s called a ILA or a culture act.
Ha haaa, Scott – old teachers never die, they just keep on correcting…
I partly agree with you again – re agreeing to the principle of an Irish language act – but I really feel that should have been a given from the start, since it was agreed to in the St Andrews Agreement. As to the form it takes, I shouldn’t have thought that would have led to too much haggling – there are models in Scotland and Wales, for example, and the sky remains in place in both countries. I also think it’d be well to remember that the Irish language community are very keen on an Irish language act – so it’s really what’d meet their needs that should form the content and shape of an Irish language act. I also would be pretty uneasy about calling it ‘a culture act’ or some such. Again, it’s a question of living up to previous commitments – and one of those was an Irish language act. Trust is central here and to be honest most republicans I talk to have virtually no trust in the DUP right now.
Final point, Scott: I was going on about the need to engage/argue/contradict/agree with each other in blog comments. I don’t always (to say the least) agree with you, but I think you’re a model for civilized discussion/debate/argument. And no, there’s no catch. I just like to give people their due. So maith thú – well done – and keep on commenting. You could teach a few people here how to do it…
Thank you Jude, I try my best to behave myself on here.
The DUP seemed to be goosed….they , for reasons of perceived racial and religious superiority and an undeniable odium for everything Irish , have backed themselves into a very tight corner. From their inception in 1971 they have continually roared NO , NO , NO….even before the question was asked . They launched a ” Smash Sinn Féin ” campaign which backfired spectacularly…..Sinn Féin now being the largest all-Ireland party.. They , for electoral gain , whipped up their , not overly intelligent , supporters into an uncontrollable sectarian frenzy …. time and time again until they’re unable to separate fantasy from reality. Having had no foresight or inkling on how the future might pan out , the DUP are now prisoners of fate. They may arrogantly lord about for the present but their myopia prevents them from seeing the coming implosion…..they’ll be very glad of a deal when all is said and done…it’s just coincidence but the next census results are in 2021 ,the 100 year anniversary of the inglorious foundation of this mess.
“From their inception in 1971 they have continually roared NO , NO , NO”
DUP has roots going back further than 1971. They were originally called the PUP- Protestant Unionist Party. Some of its policies were Orange Parades could parade anywhere, at anytime. Preference for Protestants in Housing, Jobs, etc. I believe they even had elected members to the NI Parliament/Local Councils.
They may have changed their name but I don’t think the mind set has…..
You accept that the print media [the three daily papers are going to edit the news to their own agenda and are expected to pander to their own readership’s slant, but the broadcasters here are supposed to be neutral as listeners and viewers from nationalist side, pay for the BBC’s licence fee and are entitled to have their views respected, so the BBC , as throughout the history of the colony, have always taken the news from a unionist slant exclusively. From UTV? Well as experience down the decades show, we expect nothing better. It’s unprofessional and tawdry journalism. but what’s new. I recall Kate Adie remarking with surprise that when she first reported from here on the hunger strikes of 1981, that the Ormeau Ave lot employed NO Catholics. I suppose we’ll just have to boycott their coverage of the centenary four years hence.
Tommye Gorman on This Week (RTE Radio 1, 1 to 2 pm) on Sunday sympathetically clucking how traumatic it would be for Unionists to see Irish Language signs on the M1. Wales, Scitland, Ellen Vannyn or Linda Ervine never mentioned.
The Roads Authority (or whatever they call themselves now) had no compunction about sticking Londonderry on every possible roadsign. Did they never wonder that the natives might be annoyed by this and prefer Derry/Doire on signs in ”their” areas? Then,at least, Doug Beatty would have known where the allegiance of the locals lay. But we do now know that the Alliance party are in favour of a stand alone Acht.
You simply cant run a Government/Executive in the way the DUP do business, no one should have to put up with it. Its not just their attitude but things like Red Sky, RHI, etc too. You must remember that the SDLP also put up with this kind of behaviour from Trimble/UUP back years ago. Indeed Trimble refused to even send documents to Seamus Mallon (both Ministers should’ve got a copy of each others papers, since it is a effectively a joint office) and repeatedly “summoned” Mallon to his office as if Mallon was inferior to Trimble. Seamus Mallon went into more detail in a Belfast Telegraph article after the Assembly collapsed and actually sympathized with Martin McGuiness pulling Stormont down, which was surprising given Mallon is not exactly SF’s biggest fan. So its wrong to assume this is a problem unique to just the DUP, its a problem which is spread across all of Unionism. At its core its a sectarian issue against Catholics. Some will say its because of Sinn Fein and its connections to the IRA (ignoring, of course the DUP/UUP’s links to Loyalists) but that’s nonsense, the SDLP put up with exactly the same thing and Unionists rejected power sharing with them going back decades, despite their often brutal condemnations of the IRA.
Sinn Fein now cant afford to go back into Stormont unless there really is dramatic change in the approach of Unionism, their voters are clearly demanding it. I’m sure most will certainly agree that Unionism wishes it had just forced Arlene to step aside for a few months instead of the ground its going to have to give in order to get Stormont up and running again.
Personally I don’t think Stormont is going to be revived again or it will be but it’ll collapse again sooner rather than later. I think more Gregory Campbell/Paul Givan stunts will be pulled in order to play to the bigoted gallery within Unionism even if it is revived.
If agreements aren’t going to be implemented and implemented in FULL then there really is no point. Time to go back to the drawing board. Whats troubling the British/Irish governments most about this crisis is the fact its republicans, not Unionists, that want rid of Stormont.
Country bumpkins and city and townee bunkums unite!!!! We’re all fucked!! Let’s not all dance around the head of a pin and try to count the number and the size of angels ,here. We all know why the whole caboodle came crashing down .The meedja mavens know exactly why it crashed too .It all happened live on television and radio and they saw it happening just as we did . in fact some of them actively helped it happen live on radio and television. I once asked the question ..”.Was Jonathan Bell a good man?” (in other words was he good or bad and if he was such a good man why did he incur the wrath of the DUP?) …Now you might say Jonathan who ? …and I’d rest my case…..but you might just remember him being one-time best buddies with Arlene Foster and you might remember him getting down on his knees and praying live on television to invoke his connection to the mythical Big Gee. You might even remember that he went ont o another life and ran as an independant unionist after falling foul of his best buddies in the DUP. Then again ….maybe you don’t remember any of that at all and maybe you don’t know anything about Arlene Foster’s £500 million RHI scandal. The Meedja Mavens mightn’t remember either, because so much else has happened since and they have minds like goldfish and the only hot media story is today’s story….but some of us remember why it all had to end…and we also know exactly why it could never , ever and should never ever be allowed to rise again in anything like the form it originally had.It is finished as an experiment and even some of the dimwits in the DUp know that too ,because they have professed to prefer Direct Rule.
The DUP and specifically Arlene foster proved to be be unfit for government and she went on a royal rant in the end .That was it….. finis. The media know why we are here now .The DUP can’t be trusted to share their equal governmental duties . Of course the local broadcasters and newspapers have nothing to write about if they don’t get the mess going again and the politicians will eventually not be paid at all as this pans out and beds in for the long haul. That’s fine and dandy .The world will not end …as it doesn’t end every other summer when the politicians go away on very l—-o…..n….g holidays and things simply tick along in their absense. You might ask sometimes why we might need them at all other than to prevent a dictatorship. The problem is that the Democratic Unionist Party actually do not understand what this “democratic” bit means and I’m afraid that until we get them to understand that everyone also needs a Bill of Rights in a divided society such as ours…. and we need deals that were already made attended to and applied before anything else happens ….then nothing else will happen. …and why should it?Some others blether that Sinn Fein wants a 10-0 win against unionism but that is patently untrue too. What they want is a society where everyone is equal before the law and where bigotry and racism is outlawed. It’s very simple …but then some find the simplest things the hardest to understand. in the meantime the Meedja will write about other stuff as they always do in the summer months.we’ll have more of the usual bonfire nonsense for starters .I see some dimwits have already set fire to a disputed bonfire. .What should happen is that the Fire Service sshould all take their holidays on the 12th fortnight and let the entire place burn to the ground. Other than that there’ll be the usual gubbins of hatred and orangemen will huff and puff , get drunk and eat ice-creams and young men will batter Big Drums until their knuckles bleed . Then someone will spot the Loch Ness Monster …as they do most summers.some poor gibbon tripping on mushrooms ,probably ….but it’ll make front page news anyway and give the Meedja something to scribble about. After that , all the action will be found in the local council halls……….
Despite vowing to listen to Lyric FM in the mornings, for the sake of my blood pressure, I found myself listening to a female presenter, on the BBC, badgering an Alliance person into telling the listeners just how bold Sinn Fein are. It literally went like this;
“Give me an example of SF being unreasonable.”
“Give me another example.”
It really was straight out of the Propaganda for Dummies handbook.
How do they get away with this stuff?
On another note (might as well get it all out), how the hell do the SDLP and Alliance justify their position of blaming SF as well as the DUP for not agreeing to resurrect Stormont? I’m sick listening to these clowns talking about SF being stubborn, as if it was perfectly acceptable for the DUP to deny equality to a whole raft of people, from Irish speakers to the gay community to women to non unionists in general. Apparently they have no problem with compromising on rights, just as long as they get their bum on a Stormont seat. Red Sky, NAMA and RHI are just a distant memory for these eejits. The consequences of no Stormont are presented as horrific, whilst the horrific reality of DUP supremacism is forgotten. The results of the last election suggest the voters have longer memories than the SDLP.
To complete my disillusionment with the “centre ground”, an Alliance representative, on the “View from Stormont”, last night, couldn’t even bring himself to call Máirtín “Máirtín”. Even the Unionist managed that. Odd, from a party which professes to support AnG.
I’ll try to be quicker with the tuning knob in future.
It seems to me that the stupider and more extreme that the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland can present the DUP and SF, then the better is their chance ,as sane ,eminently reasonable people, to make electoral inroads in local politics. The unionist party that’s not really unionist and the nationalist party that is definitely not nationalist , is all things to all men and is really nothing to nobody.