That credibility spot upon which the Stormont parties and governments have been jogging for the past several months is getting smaller and is about to vanish.
Smaller in terms of belief and believability.
If all the watching and listening at Parliament Buildings and at Stormont House on Monday was in the hope of hearing something new; something that would fit with a deepening and depressing political crisis, then the parties and the governments failed that test.
This was a same-old day; predictable soundbites, more or less the same scripts, the playing out of a blame-game in a place that has run out of ideas.
Pretend politics in a pretend Parliament Buildings.
DUP leader Arlene Foster repeated her “common sense proposal” of last week; restoring the Executive immediately, putting ministers in post and working on legislation on culture and languages.
It was an old offer wrapped in new words; rejected not just by Sinn Fein but by others.
On Monday Nichola Mallon of the SDLP likened the idea of an Executive before an agreement to “building a castle on sand”.
The north Belfast MLA dismissed the idea as “absolutely ludicrous”.
Michelle O’Neill called for “a short, sharp, focused negotiation”.
What has been happening for the past eight months? What would be different now?
You either have a stand-alone Irish Language Act or you don’t.
You either have marriage equality or you don’t. The same applies to a Bill of Rights and a legacy process.
These issues have been talked to a standstill.
Indeed, Alliance MLA Stephen Farry believes the trenches got deeper over the summer months. His party is arguing for the appointment of an independent mediator to facilitate the talks.
Farry believes the trajectory is direct rule, but said this is not inevitable.
At Stormont House, Secretary of State James Brokenshire spoke of a window of opportunity that is closing rapidly.
That same window has been closing for months. Like everything else at Stormont it is stuck.
There is no good Plan B.
Closing the Assembly? Stopping salaries? Direct Rule?
If Humpty Dumpty falls off this Stormont wall once more, then it will take a very long time to put it back together again.
The next steps have to be agreed London and Dublin steps; two governments on the same page whatever that page may be.
It could still be another Assembly election. Brokenshire has not ruled out that possibility.
Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney will meet the parties on Tuesday.
We will listen again, but don’t hold your breath.
Just watch that ever shrinking jogging spot.
We seem to be waiting for the inevitable; decision-making taken out of the hands of those elected back in March.
A political failure that won’t easily be fixed.
3 Comments
As we all know, reconciliation is not a one-way street. But yet Unionism is still to learn this lesson or take lead form their Queen and her olive branch acts in Dublin a number of years back.
What is very evident many within political Unionism see reconciliation as a weakness. They see it as a climb down from principals, but most of all Unionism is afraid of taking on the challenging questions that result from acts reconciliation.
Most of all, a level playing field that has equality as a benchmark shakes them to their core.
Since its inception Unionism has been spoon fed the idea that its superior and is entitled to govern and make rules that suit them and enshrine the Union; that changed in 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement for the UUP, but not for the DUP.
The DUP refused to accept that Nationalism was growing and that they now have a say in moulding the future of the North and the future of Ireland.
When we peel back the layers of the of the DUP onion, what lays is mistrust and paranoia. The mistrust stems from said entitlement culture and the paranoia a dark passenger created and nurtured by successive British Governments; but this
nurturing has left a void at their core and this void is ‘reality’.
Arlene Foster inherited a party that was welded to principals that many within their framework see as fashioned by god and laid out in the bible. Ms Foster knows that to turn away from this would be political suicide, but the irony is, is that if she doesn’t dilute these principal’s modern society will begin to reject the DUP – not your typical DUP voters of old, but generations to come and todays millennials.
The spotlight was shone on the DUPs antiquated beliefs when they were fortunate to become a fulcrum within the Tory Government and become a loosely affiliated partner. The media in England had a field day over the DUPs rejection of equality of the LGBT community and the dark Brexit money which was then mixed in with the RHI scandal; the British public lambasted them and they became a political joke – and remain so.
When quarters of the British press and public questioned the DUPs stance on equality, they batted it away as a non-issue; something only a party with an entitlement culture would do. Who in the modern political world uses discrimination of a section of society as a badge of honour? All backed by the Tory party, only because they needed them for sections of a deteriorating Brexit bill.
The DUP are now behind a blackball. Theresa May is continually under pressure within her own party and with the public. Society in the North want an Executive, but not at any cost. Nationalism and others are pushing for equality, and the more grandstanding the DUP do, the more they are looked upon as backward in their outlook on equality, globally.
The media have also given the DUP an easy ride to date. Not one media organisation has asked the DUP about their red line issues on equality. Not one journalist has asked Ms Foster et al why they are holding back society, but many have asked nationalist parties if their red line issues on equality are responsible for problems in health and education; are the DUP infallible in some editorial circles?
Reconciliation is a word that has now evolved into equality within our political process. Equality and parity of esteem is what is needed to move the North forward.
Unfortunately, the DUP are content with Brexit money and sycophants; ironically the DUP are holding their wee country back by not taking the lead from the their Queen and reaching out the olive branch. International pressure is just around the corner, and the DUP won’t be able to hide behind Theresa May for much longer. The DUP seem to be content on building a future on sand.
Rather than digging and with reference to John Hewitt: ‘surely there must be somewhere we could reach a solid track across our quagmire state, and on a neutral sod renew the old debate which all may join without intemperate speech’ – or is it simply bogged down in disdain, indifference and mistrust. Orange and green mixed together bizarrely makes a horrible brown. We need new colours and a different language.
“The DUP refused to accept that Nationalism was growing and that they now have a say in moulding the future of the North and the future of Ireland.”
The Nationalist vote as a percentage of the electorate is a tiny fraction under what it was in 1998 when it was 27%. The recent Nationalist Surge was only bringing them back to 1998 numbers and it was Arlene and not any SF/SDLP policy that motivated them.