What is Stormont like? According to commentators like News Letter political editor, Sam McBride, it’s like a shambles. Not right at all. He’s very critical of Michelle O’Neill in a tweet today – says in effect that she’s making a hames of Executive solidarity by criticizing Robin Swann for his delayed action and for adhering to the British approach to coronavirus.
From what I can see, it does appear that the British approach, starting with the wheeze of ‘herd immunity’ (thanks, Dominic Cummings) and moving on to having a health system where nurses and doctors don’t have the proper gear to protect them, is the shambles. In fact if you watched Question Time on B(ritish)BC last night, you’d know that Britain is the place where people are dying because of misguided government policy. And of course it doesn’t help having a British health secretary who doesn’t so much look like a rabbit caught in the headlights as a rabbit that’s been bounced off the front bumper. Several times.
Look. There is no doubt that, if you have an Executive, it’d be good if it could work in a unified way. But Executive solidarity can come at too high a price. Remember when Thatcher was on the slide? Was Michael Heseltine wrong to break cabinet solidarity and stride off down Downing Street? Was Geoffrey Howe wrong when he said of Thatcher “It is rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease only for them to find, the moment the first balls are bowled, that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain.”
Yes, it’d be better if the Executive could act as a unified entity. But to damn Michelle O’Neill because she points to glaring mistakes and dangerous adherence to British policy is to damn the person who complains that somethin’ just ain’t right. Think again, Sam.
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