Last year, Stormont supposedly came close to collapse after the Provisional IRA avenged the murder of Gerard ‘Jock’ Davison by murdering ex-IRA man Kevin McGuigan. Last week, the polls had barely closed when an attempted murder took place. Victim Scott McHugh had been questioned over Davison's murder but released without charge. Reports differ on who may have been responsible for the latest shooting but unionism’s complete indifference is a staggering contrast to its previous sensitivity. This week, apparently by coincidence, UUP leader Mike Nesbitt received a briefing on paramilitary activity from chief constable George Hamilton, confirming there has been no change since last October’s official assessment that the Provisional IRA is still active and controlling Sinn Féin. Although that was the assessment that caused the UUP to walk out of the executive over McGuigan’s murder, that is not the reason why he has refused to go back into the executive.
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In a less serious but equally cynical demonstration of how there is no stopping our ‘fresh start’, the polls had barely closed before a booklet dropped through letterboxes outlining benefit changes due to welfare reform. Because the DUP and Sinn Féin-controlled departments directly responsible for agreeing and overseeing the changes have just been merged, renamed and vacated by their ministers, there was no need to mention them in the booklet, which was described throughout its 22 pages as simply coming from the “Northern Ireland Executive”. Phew!
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The opening of Ulster University’s new central Belfast campus has been put back by a year without explanation - either to the public who have ended up paying for it or to the private developers who have committed a fortune to building accommodation around it. The university is denying rumours that the delay will be even longer and is due to a problem with the foundations, which may sound like a pun to those in the know. In order to deliver the £300m relocation project, a ‘University of Ulster Foundation’ was established with a 13-member board of managers and developers. This was disbanded three years ago, again without explanation. So whatever the pile-drivers have struck, the new campus has no foundation.
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It may have seemed trivial but the question of whether People Before Profit’s Eamonn McCann should wear a tie in Stormont showed an arrogant disregard for democracy. The assembly is not a private member’s club. If a public representative wants to turn up in a pink tutu, how is anyone but the public entitled to stop them? A more pressing challenge for the new speaker is how to make McCann bring his remarks to a close - something that has defeated interviewers and panel chairs for over half a century.
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Sinn Féin, with 28 seats, is just two below the threshold to raise a petition of concern. By a remarkable coincidence People Before Profit has two seats. This means that every time a petition is attempted, by unionists or nationalists, Sinn Féin can accuse People Before Profit of betraying its overwhelmingly nationalist voters. In fact, this would fit so well into the tribal subtext of Sinn Féin’s attacks on its minor new rival that it would be a surprise if such scenarios were not deliberately engineered.
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The PSNI has denied that political pressure led to it arresting 15 people at a suspected dissident republican funeral in Strabane. The arrests were made so promptly that all 15 are believed to have still been in fancy dress. Usual police policy is to let everyone enjoy their death-cult day out then make arrests safely a few weeks later, much to the annoyance of parade-obsessed unionists. But officers are unlikely to have risked a riot to placate unionist moaning. Dissident leaders failed to attend the funeral for fear of being caught up in the Dublin criminal feud that claimed the life of the deceased. Is it possible that the law was enforced straight away thanks to the unwitting help of even scarier law-breakers?
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The nearest thing public relations has to a scientific law is that following a gaffe, a politician should immediately issue an unqualified apology then say nothing more. The media will then move swiftly on, probably to Gregory Campbell. Yet two weeks after his N-word tweet, Gerry Adams continues to bring the subject up himself in blogs, media interviews and letters to the press, only digging the hole deeper as his convoluted attempts at self-justification veer into dubious nonsense about white slaves. It seems that Adams can never be sorry without qualification and there is nobody in Sinn Féin who can make him put down the shovel.
newton@irishnews.com
