Newton Emerson: Unionist unity is not the solution

Posted By: March 11, 2017

Newton Emerson: Unionist unity is not the solution

Newton Emerson: Unionist unity is not the solution
NOTHING TO SEE HERE: DUP leader Arlene Foster and deputy leader Nigel Dodds insisted this week that the party was in good shape, despite its poor showing in the assembly election and unionism losing its majority at Stormont. PICTURE: Niall Carson/PA
Newton Emerson. Irish News. Saturday, March 11, 2017
As surely as night follows day, a setback for the DUP has been followed by DUP calls for “unionist unity”. Nationalists tend to denounce this as sectarian, which is itself sectarian. Unionist unity is no more right or wrong than centre-left unity, for example. The real problem with fewer unionist parties is that, under proportional representation, it is counter-productive to unionism overall. Choice brings out more unionist voters, who then transfer down the ballot – generally to other unionists. First-past-the-post elections are different, which is why UUP leader Mike Nesbitt tried a unionist pact for Westminster and nationalist outreach for Stormont. In the end he could not ride these two horses at once. But unionist unity is still backing the wrong horse in almost every race.

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We could have a demonstration of those different electoral systems very shortly. Tory grandee William Hague has called for a snap general election, voicing a widespread view within his party that there will never be a better time to crush Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour. Theresa May remains opposed to the idea but if an election is called the DUP will lose all its Commons leverage, by which it has set great store.

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Flouncing out of meetings is an act of weakness. Do it too often and you soon become a laughing stock. Sinn Féin has stomped out of a meeting with the Secretary of State, James Brokenshire, over delayed inquest funding, which is a serious matter – yet denouncing Brokenshire for “waffle, waffle and more waffle” was juvenile language. The flounce was led by Gerry Adams, who never saw a peace process deadline he did not drag out for years. This is Sinn Féin’s second walk-out on the British government in recent months. Republicans stormed out of the Joint Ministerial Committee in January but had to return two weeks later, because nobody knows what the Joint Ministerial Committee is.

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A lot is riding on how quickly the RHI inquiry reports, as Sinn Féin sticks to its one red line that Arlene Foster cannot return without a clean bill of health. The DUP is starting to wobble over this, while Gerry Adams has suggested the judge could speed things up by reporting in “modular form”. But the inquiry chairman, Sir Patrick Coghlin, has ruled this out along with any prospect of completing the report within the six-month time frame. The judiciary sets great store by avoiding any impression of political interference, so the worst thing politicians can do is to start publicly staring at their watches.

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The Executive Office has been failing in its legal duty to consult children on policies that affect them, according to an investigation by the Equality Commission, acting on a complaint from the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People (NICCY). This is no great surprise, as consulting children on government policy is clearly ridiculous. Sympathy for the Executive Office must by limited, however. In 2010, when it was still called the Office of the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister, it commissioned a review into NICCY, which falls under its remit. The review produced such a damning verdict on the quango’s utter pointlessness that OFMDFM could have shut it down overnight. But that might have caused a few bad headlines the next morning, so nothing was done. Since then, NICCY has cost £10 million.

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The Irish language act promised in the St Andrews Agreement is premised on legislation in Wales, so a row gripping the principality is of ominous interest. Carmarthenshire County Council has ordered a mixed English and Welsh school (the standard model in Wales, known as “dual stream”) to convert to Welsh-only, under the council’s legally required scheme to increase the number of Welsh speakers.

Most parents are opposed, people have been told to “cross the border” if they don’t like it and council parties have split along proto-sectarian lines. Meanwhile, Wales’s language commissioner – who enforces the legislation – is ordering other councils to get on with their own schemes, escalating the row to regional level. This is a unionist nightmare. It is not clear if happening in Britain makes it better or worse.

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In politics, it is customary to criticize parties but not their voters – a wise firebreak in this little tinderbox. Sinn Féin MLA Máirtín Ó Muilleoir has broken this convention by promising to work with “the bright side of the road people” in his South Belfast constituency, whom he defined as Sinn Féin, SDLP, Alliance and Green voters plus UUP voters who transferred to nationalists. Other UUP voters and all supporters of the DUP – the largest party in South Belfast – are presumably dark side people and need not apply. When it was pointed out to the former finance minister that this was a bit dubious, he reiterated that bright side people would have “a seat at the front of my bus.” Ó Muilleoir made an even odder statement at the count last Friday, describing his poll-topping performance as “a vote for peace”.

As opposed to what? Does he think the dark side is building a Death Star?