YOU'VE probably noticed that most stories about the improbable Bryson/McKay/O’Hara imbroglio begin with an introduction explaining what Nama, Cerberus and Project Eagle were.
They then go on to explain what McKay’s ineptly run inquiry was about.
That’s because it’s history. Nobody much outside the Stormont echo chamber of bloviating self-important nonentities cares very much.
Go on. Look up the six most popular BBC stories from last week. Nothing.
Then the six most popular BBC stories from Norn Irn. Nothing. The Ballymena tractor films rate but of the former North Antrim MLA not a word.
That certainly puts into perspective the ‘formal complaint’ made by the DUP’s Lord Morrow, not the sharpest tool in the party’s box, a parish pump political worthy who rose without trace on the DUP’s evangelical thermals.
In Fermanagh/South Tyrone his cutting edge contribution to politics is exemplified by his memorable intervention about the absence of parking tickets in Coalisland a couple of years ago, a matter of such earth-shattering importance it could merit the attention only of someone as august as a member of Her Majesty’s Imperial Parliament.
No doubt DUP figures with greater political nous will make certain that the ‘formal complaint’ will either be dealt with expeditiously or will take so long no one will remember what it was about. Perhaps the DUP missed an opportunity.
They might have pushed for a major inquiry as Martin McGuinness clearly anticipated. That’s the approach most beloved of the British prime minister of the sixties Harold Wilson.
When faced with a difficult problem Wilson preferred the full majesty of a Royal Commission.
He appointed 10 in his time. He said ‘a Royal Commission takes minutes to appoint and wastes years’.
As soon as you appointed one the problem went away. By the time it came back you were gone.
In this instance no one in either the DUP or Sinn Féin leadership will welcome a swift response to a complaint because both parties have successfully buried the embarrassment that caused the complaint.
Bad as the revelations have been for Sinn Féin, the last outcome the DUP wants is a resurrection of the allegations against Peter Robinson, other DUP ministers and senior civil servants and an examination of who in the DUP was passing information to Bryson.
Let’s remember that some of those currently rushing to Robinson’s defence were the prime movers in his defenestration from the Office of First Minister.
Remember the failed coup against Robinson and subsequent sacking of people like the unlamented Minister Poots?
If there’s any message from the last couple of years it’s this: avoid Bryson. He shares one similarity with Tony Soprano who said, ‘I’m like King Midas in reverse here. Everything I touch turns to s***.’
Can you imagine anyone in the DUP for one moment wants to drag Bryson back in front of an inquiry? Don’t forget Nama is the subject of not just one inquiry but three.
In other words it has gone away in exemplary Wilsonian fashion and there’s a triple lock on it as is fashionable these days.
When the police inquiry reports sometime in the next century it will then have to go to the DPP and as we know nothing ever emerges from that office.
In any case the findings are all too predictable. Some people will be found to have behaved unethically and in an unprincipled way but they did nothing illegal. So move along please. Nothing to see here.
It’s just a bit of history from a time known as B.A. – Before Arlene. A new era began in 2016 known as IAAA – It’s All About Arlene.
You wonder has Lord Morrow of Parish Pump spotted there’s not a word from Arlene. Even the party’s lightweight, its conference clown Wilson, shut up after an initial belch of bile.
The whole shemozzle fits the scene of Truman Capote complaining to André Gide about a bad review.
Gide quoted an Arab proverb to him. ‘The dogs bark but the caravan moves on.’ People may make a fuss but it won’t change the situation. History moves on.
Or as Churchill said, ‘You’ll never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.’
