Power-sharing won’t deliver change as long as Foster leads DUP
Posted By: November 01, 2017
IRISH CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING
Distributed by Irish National Caucus
“ … Foster is no healer. Her default position is that of an unreconstructed Fermanagh Unionist circa 1956. She is willing to make gestures like visiting a Catholic school but only on advice. She’s 50 years too late for gestures. We have moved on from Terence O’Neill. She has repeatedly demonstrated she lacks the necessary spontaneous political nous.”
Brian Feeney. Irish News. Belfast. Wednesday, November 1, 2017
It was evident from the statements issued by the DUP and Sinn Féin on Monday morning that there had been no progress at all in negotiations since March.
The DUP want to set up an executive and deal with Sinn Féin demands ‘in tandem’ as they put it, whereas Sinn Féin wants its demands addressed before establishing an executive. They’ve had their eye wiped [been deceived] too often.
It must be said that a great deal of blame for the failure lies with the British government and our proconsul [Secretary of State James Brokenshire]. Remember that no sooner had talks begun after the March Assembly elections than Theresa May called a snap general election on Easter Tuesday, April 18. That scuppered talks until the election on June 8. During the campaign, the various exchanges of pleasantries between Sinn Féin and the DUP didn’t exactly make for easier relations in negotiations. In fact, the reverse because the election campaign-hardened both parties’ positions and that of their electorates which strengthened the mandates of both parties.
It took another three weeks of wheeling and dealing for the crippled Theresa May to rig up a rickety DUP crutch so she could limp on as prime minister again but meanwhile no serious negotiations here as everyone waited to see the outcome of the dirty deal the Conservatives struck. Then the parties broke for the marching season and the summer. So when people talk about eight months of negotiations leading nowhere, in reality, there have only been sustained talks since September thanks to the machinations at Westminster.
No matter – eight weeks, eight months. Locking Sinn Féin and the DUP in a room with several anterooms has never worked. Some apparent progress has been made when the two governments became involved most obviously at St Andrew’s in 2006 and to a lesser extent at Hillsborough in 2010, the last hurrah of Gordon Brown and Brian Cowen.
However, while on the face of it there were developments such as a DUP/Sinn Féin First and Deputy First Minister in 2007 and devolving policing and justice in 2010, in reality, we know the DUP was not acting in good faith on either occasion and not at all in daily practice in the last decade. All they wanted was to get their grubby mitts on power and run The North as if First Minister was prime minister of Toytown.
We’re now in the endgame. Since 2013 when the DUP reneged on the Maze Interpretive Centre there has been a stalemate. We’ve had the Haass talks, the Stormont House Agreement, the Fresh Start Agreement but in reality no progress at all in these so-called ‘agreements’ on critical matters in The North’s culture wars. On flags, emblems, parades, the past, the courts and, of course, symbolism of Irish identity exemplified by the demand for Acht na Gaeilge [an Irish Act]. Sinn Féin’s outreach has been thrown back in their faces until their supporters told them to take no more humiliation. Power-sharing was not delivering change.Nor will it as long as Arlene Foster leads the DUP. She is temperamentally and sentimentally unsuited to the task.
It was evident from the statements issued by the DUP and Sinn Féin on Monday morning that there had been no progress at all in negotiations since March.
The DUP want to set up an executive and deal with Sinn Féin demands ‘in tandem’ as they put it, whereas Sinn Féin wants its demands addressed before establishing an executive. They’ve had their eye wiped [been deceived] too often.
It must be said that a great deal of blame for the failure lies with the British government and our proconsul [Secretary of State James Brokenshire]. Remember that no sooner had talks begun after the March Assembly elections than Theresa May called a snap general election on Easter Tuesday, April 18. That scuppered talks until the election on June 8. During the campaign, the various exchanges of pleasantries between Sinn Féin and the DUP didn’t exactly make for easier relations in negotiations. In fact, the reverse because the election campaign-hardened both parties’ positions and that of their electorates which strengthened the mandates of both parties.
It took another three weeks of wheeling and dealing for the crippled Theresa May to rig up a rickety DUP crutch so she could limp on as prime minister again but meanwhile no serious negotiations here as everyone waited to see the outcome of the dirty deal the Conservatives struck. Then the parties broke for the marching season and the summer. So when people talk about eight months of negotiations leading nowhere, in reality, there have only been sustained talks since September thanks to the machinations at Westminster.
No matter – eight weeks, eight months. Locking Sinn Féin and the DUP in a room with several anterooms has never worked. Some apparent progress has been made when the two governments became involved most obviously at St Andrew’s in 2006 and to a lesser extent at Hillsborough in 2010, the last hurrah of Gordon Brown and Brian Cowen.
However, while on the face of it there were developments such as a DUP/Sinn Féin First and Deputy First Minister in 2007 and devolving policing and justice in 2010, in reality, we know the DUP was not acting in good faith on either occasion and not at all in daily practice in the last decade. All they wanted was to get their grubby mitts on power and run The North as if First Minister was prime minister of Toytown.
We’re now in the endgame. Since 2013 when the DUP reneged on the Maze Interpretive Centre there has been a stalemate. We’ve had the Haass talks, the Stormont House Agreement, the Fresh Start Agreement but in reality no progress at all in these so-called ‘agreements’ on critical matters in The North’s culture wars. On flags, emblems, parades, the past, the courts and, of course, symbolism of Irish identity exemplified by the demand for Acht na Gaeilge [an Irish Act]. Sinn Féin’s outreach has been thrown back in their faces until their supporters told them to take no more humiliation. Power-sharing was not delivering change.Nor will it as long as Arlene Foster leads the DUP. She is temperamentally and sentimentally unsuited to the task.
They say there are two types of politicians – warriors and healers. Maybe, but whatever she is, Foster is no healer. Her default position is that of an unreconstructed Fermanagh Unionist circa 1956. She is willing to make gestures like visiting a Catholic school but only on advice. She’s 50 years too late for gestures. We have moved on from Terence O’Neill. She has repeatedly demonstrated she lacks the necessary spontaneous political nous. It’s long past time for genuine accommodation but does anyone in the DUP see that it’s necessary? Will the DUP operate an agreed implementation timetable with Sinn Féin?
Nick Cohen in Sunday’s Observer referred to a 1989 essay by German writer Hans Enzensberger called The Heroes of Retreat. He extolled the virtues of hardliners who realized the game was up and dismantled the old structures and prevailing attitudes. Enzensberger says it requires ‘political self-effacement and tactical modesty’. Those qualities are conspicuously absent in the people leading the diminishing Unionist minority in Ireland.
A hero of retreat first has to discern the rules of the game have changed and react accordingly.
Do the DUP get it? They can’t play the new game without Sinn Féin.
Nick Cohen in Sunday’s Observer referred to a 1989 essay by German writer Hans Enzensberger called The Heroes of Retreat. He extolled the virtues of hardliners who realized the game was up and dismantled the old structures and prevailing attitudes. Enzensberger says it requires ‘political self-effacement and tactical modesty’. Those qualities are conspicuously absent in the people leading the diminishing Unionist minority in Ireland.
A hero of retreat first has to discern the rules of the game have changed and react accordingly.
Do the DUP get it? They can’t play the new game without Sinn Féin.
