DUP hokey cokey was nearly Sinn Féin’s dance

Posted By: September 19, 2015

Newton Emerson.Irish News (Belfast). Saturday, September 19, 2015
The DUP executive team has completed its first cycle of resigning, withdrawing its resignations just before the seven days notice period expires,  then resigning again. In five weeks’ time, Peter Robinson has to reappoint himself as first minister,  then step aside once more, an act sadly not referred to as disappointing himself. The image of the DUP repeatedly pressing Stormont’s snooze button is hard to avoid but could the whole crazy idea have come from Sinn Féin? In June this year, Martin McGuinness warned the other executive parties that if London took back welfare powers he would recommend to Sinn Féin’s ard chomhairle that he step aside and by replaced by an interim deputy first minister – officially to concentrate on negotiating with London but unofficially to concentrate minds in London by bringing Stormont to the brink of collapse. What is most revealing about this Sinn Féin herald of the DUP hokey-cokey is that the instant the threat passed, it was forgotten.

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The Westminster landscape needed five-dimensional geometry to explain when the Commons voted on the tax credits bill – the next phase of welfare reform. With some Tories reportedly wavering and the DUP inclined against, a government defeat was theoretically possible. Even a victory by less than the Conservative’s 16-seat majority would have been the perfect start to Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership. So what would be the effect of further Sinn Féin sympathies in the shadow cabinet, revealed the day before; of the secretary of state’s response to the DUP’s Stormont talks demands, made hours before; and of welfare reform as it relates to the Stormont crisis generally? In the end, the DUP’s vote against the bill was not decisive but Labour and the UK media are starting to ask if Corbyn’s antipathy towards unionists is a serious mistake in an almost-hung parliament.

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Whatever mistakes Corbyn is making, he has already demonstrated he is head and shoulders above most politicians in Northern Ireland. Having attained a position of actual influence, it took him less than 24 hours to compromise on a lifetime of fervent republicanism by vowing (albeit grudgingly) to sing God Save the Queen. The futility of stubborn principle turns out to be so obvious that even a Trotskyite dinosaur can grasp it at once. So what on earth is Stormont’s excuse?

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Is ‘senior republican’ Bobby Storey a Smashing Pumpkins fan? The American band’s first hit was entitled Bullet With Butterfly Wings. Its chorus goes: “Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage.”

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Occasional SDLP leader Alasdair McDonnell has proposed more American involvement in the Stormont talks. His wish may be granted in unexpected ways. Belfast businessman Gareth Graham has reported the Nama affair to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which in theory could lead to a Fifa-style overseas investigation under the notorious US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, complete with automatic extraditions under the notorious US-UK extradition treaty. Should any of this become (how shall I put this?) inconvenient it could be halted by US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, a member of President Obama’s cabinet. Perhaps ominously for some, Lynch is a long-standing advocate of aggressively enforcing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

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A detailed proposal on dealing with the past has been put together by Ulster University, Queens University Belfast and lobby group the Committee for the Administration of Justice (CAJ). Its most surprising feature is the prominence given to gender, with calls for any Stormont House laws and institutions to have “a gendered lens” applied “holistically throughout the process.” Most of the victims of the Troubles were men, so most of the immediately bereaved are woman. However, a further issue raised was that investigating the past has often meant hiring former police officers, who tend to be male. A CAJ paper said “this cannot be accepted,” recommending that “gender expertise” be recognised in recruiting. Is this about the gender of victims or the gender of people in the victims sector?

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The Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL) has proudly announced an extra £500,000 for “community festivals and projects under Together Building United Communities” ie bouncy castles at peace walls. On the same day, the Arts Council revealed it was facing a further £300,000 in DCAL cuts. This is no coincidence, as Sinn Féin culture minister Caral ni Chuilin is switching funds away from middle-class concerns towards anything that can claim to tackle deprivation or suicide. Of course that is entirely legitimate, but why not proudly say so? The pretence that some can have more without anyone else having less is what has brought us all to the brink of disaster.