Is James Cleverly clever? Or maybe buck stupid? Yesterday he managed to turn what should have been an adult discussion of the protocol and the need for a resurrected Stormont into a clusterduck. He did this by blocking the leader of Sinn Féin from attending the meeting.
It is possible that this may have been clever. By reminding Mary Lou McDonald that she was not an elected politician to the northern Assembly, he (metaphorically, Virgina) rubbed the DUP’s tummy, showed he knew where the King’s writ ran. Take that, you nasty foreigner.
On the other hand his action may have been buck stupid. Sinn Féin leader locked out of talks? Shades of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness peering through the bars at Stormont as they protested their exclusion in the run-up to the Good Friday Agreement. Typical high-handed Brits, colluding with unionists to put Shinners in their place.
Whatever the reason, it has dominated the news and given a pleasant wind at the back of the Sinn Féin party. Leo Varadkar was only falling over himself to insist that no such exclusion would apply in any talks he would be engaged in, of course parties are free to decide who they believe would be best representing them. Leo the Lionheart was more than anxious to avoid any identification with the perhaps not so clever Mr Cleverly.
What could have been the end of the pig-headed thinking that has kept the Executive face-down in a Stormont field turned out to be a dialogue between the DUP and UUP (unionists), James Cleverly (unionist Tory) and the Alliance Party (the Lanigan’s Ball party).
Was much achieved? Yes, by the cack-handed Tory minister, who thought he was cracking the whip over the Shinners only to discover he had cracked it against his own bum.
Nice one, James.
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