As the EU referendum campaign commences, arm yourself with two pertinent facts. The UK’s net contribution to Brussels is £9bn a year - about the same as the UK’s net contribution to Northern Ireland. Support for Brexit in Northern Ireland is 25 per cent - about the same as support for a united Ireland. That should be enough to silence republicans and unionists respectively. Responding to vested interests requires a little more effort. The Ulster Farmers' Union has declared that leaving the EU would raise food prices by “at least 30 per cent” - a claim apparently based on the loss of subsidy to its members. However, leaving the EU would also remove EU tariffs and most economists agree this would cut food prices to global market levels - about 15 per cent below what we pay now. However, it would put most of our farmers out of business.
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Martin McGuinness has demanded that secretary of state Theresa Villiers resign over backing Brexit because “she is not elected by and does not represent the people of the north”. It has long been Sinn Fein’s position that the secretary of state is unelected and unrepresentative, so why should a personal stance on a referendum escalate this to calling for her head? McGuinness must not know one of the golden rules of journalism. Never demand that anyone resigns - because when they don’t, you look very silly.
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After last week’s ‘public interest immunity’ application, the second week of the Arlene Arkinson inquest has heard a claim that her presumed killer Robert Howard was a police informer, plus testimony that a detective superintendent from Kent threatened to report the PSNI to the Police Ombudsman in 2002. The Kent officer was investigating the murder of a 14-year-old girl in London and feared the PSNI was leaving loose ends that would compromise his case. In 2008, the ombudsman upheld a separate complaint from Arkinson’s family over the quality of the original RUC investigation. As Howard seems most unlikely to have had useful information on paramilitaries, what all this points to so far is a shambles followed by severe resistance to admitting it. It also reveals how low the baseline for ‘truth recovery’ lies, before Troubles-related issues are even factored in.
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Stormont’s watchdog Public Accounts Committee has lifted its petticoats and declared the Northern Ireland Events Company to be the “biggest scandal” it has ever seen. While some jaw-dropping new details have emerged in the committee’s latest report, the real scandal is that police are only now preparing a report for the Public Prosecution Service, 12 years after multiple whistle-blowers brought copious evidence to the officials supposedly in charge. As we know from Troubles cases, this is a length of time that degrades any prospect of a meaningful investigation - and frankly, that looks like the point.
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Sinn Fein and the SDLP have used a petition of concern to protect the exemption of schools from fair employment law. The SDLP said it “supports equality of opportunity for teachers” but complained that the UUP proposal was tacked onto an employment bill with one day’s notice and more time is required for something that would “fundamentally change teacher recruitment”. So how fundamental is discrimination to the SDLP and how long does it need to decide that it is wrong? Sinn Fein said it “will not support rushed amendments in relation to employment and equality legislation”. Yet in 2013 it voted for a UUP motion calling on the first minister and deputy first minister to repeal the exemption, after which it did nothing to take the matter further. The SDLP voted against, so at least it is consistent - while at least Sinn Fein has the decency to be embarrassed.
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Ending religious discrimination may not be the sort of thing you want to rush into but assembly members were overwhelmingly delighted to back half-baked amendments against sugary drinks and smoking in cars, both proposed by Sinn Fein. The sugar tax idea is particularly stupid as it would breach EU single-market rules - a fact already established in a case between Finland and the European Commission, which concluded only last month. Although this obviously involves one of the founding principles of the European community, no reference to Europe - let alone Finland - was made throughout Stormont’s ‘debate’.
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The PSNI has ended an investigation into MLAs’ expenses, following irregularities raised by BBC Spotlight. The reasons police gave for closing the file are that they did not receive a complaint from “regulatory authorities at Stormont”, apparently after asking those authorities if they would like to make one, and that “demands on our reduced resources” mean officers could not proceed without Stormont’s help. This all sounds like the post-agreement equivalent of staring silently at a spot on the wall during questioning. Interestingly, the power of the Stormont authorities to call the police if they suspect a fraud is simply the power everyone has to call the police if they suspect a fraud. Is there not a role here for independent activists?
newton@irishnews.com
