The most interesting point to make about Jamie Bryson’s contribution to the Nama inquiry is that it is amazing how much trouble one person can cause when they have no fear of the libel laws. Or at least that is the most interesting point I can make without saying something libellous. Having offered himself up as a ‘loyalist blogger’ too impecunious to sue, Bryson rather obviously became a conduit for internal DUP score-settling. Then his sources seemed to grow in number, stature and variety as everyone realised the door was ajar. The resulting profile brought Bryson to a Stormont committee, which with pleasing completeness was the one place he could repeat his claims without being sued. There is much for the media to consider here as it tries to stay ahead of the public conversation and there is also something for the DUP to ponder as it continues blocking libel reform. The internet means that gossip will out. Trying to stop it with an archaic libel regime just means it will come out like this.
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Jamie Bryson did the establishment an accidental favour by knocking the new paramilitary monitoring panel out of the headlines. Scrutiny was not proving conducive to the credibility of a body that will update the PSNI’s assessment of paramilitarism by... asking the PSNI for its assessment of paramilitarism. The panel’s three appointees comprise a former top civil servant at the office of the first minister and deputy first minister, whose key skill is presumably assessing Sinn Fein and the DUP; a Christian barrister from Newtownards, which should cause few unionist objections; and the independent reviewer of national security policy for Northern Ireland, who despite being an actual securocrat has caused no Sinn Fein objections. Of course, Sinn Fein knows that real securocrats are not enemies of the peace process.
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Martin McGuinness appears to have slightly misunderstood the situation. On the first day of the reconvened Stormont talks, the deputy first minister said: “if people have information about a linkage between criminality and any political party... they need to go to the PSNI.” People - now including the paramilitary monitoring panel - are getting their information on the linkage from the PSNI.
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Gerry Adams appears to have misunderstood a slightly related situation, tweeting “well done 2 the Greek electorate” on the re-election of prime minister Alexis Tsipras. What the Greeks voted for was austerity, after Tsipras did a U-turn and split his party by accepting the EU bailout package he was initially elected to oppose. However, perhaps I have misunderstood Adams and he was signalling that a Stormont welfare reform deal is imminent - in which case, may I be the first to say well done Gerry.
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SDLP environment minister Mark H Durkan has described the December 2013 decision by his planning officials to close Boal Airport Parking as “ridiculous”. Responding to a question from Sinn Fein’s Alex Maskey, the minister said he met the car park’s owners and urged them to appeal against his own department - an appeal that was lost earlier this year, forcing Boal out of business with the loss of eight jobs. Durkan appears to have changed his view since January 2014, when he defended his officials after the story broke. “Planners have to make decisions based on planning policy. The decision to refuse was taken having regard to legal advice,” he told the News Letter.
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Jeremy Corbyn has reiterated his long-standing support for a united Ireland, proving how unwise it was for unionist politicians like Jeffery Donaldson to demand that he clarify his position. Now that Corbyn has provided clarity, Donaldson is not happy at all, demanding further clarification on the consent principle. What if Corbyn says he is opposed to that? Unionism is fortunate new shadow chancellor John McDonnell equivocated over his Irish republicanism when pressed to do so. He could quite easily have delivered a high-profile speech on Irish unity that would have put this issue firmly before the British public.
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Things all got a bit North Korean at the 2015 session of the Northern Ireland Pensioner’s Parliament - and not just because it is a ‘parliament’ elected by nobody. Motion after motion passed by 95 per cent or above (97 and 98 per cent were typical.) The exception was a proposal to immediately criminalise all age discrimination, which passed by a mere 76 per cent, perhaps because delegates realised it might outlaw the pensioner’s parliament. Even Stormont has more of an opposition than this. Did they all just get right-wing as they got older?
newton@irishnews.com
