When are the North’s political leaders going to grow up?
FINALLY, Jeffrey Donaldson and his party the DUP jumped – or at least most of them did. After many ‘will they or won’t they’ occasions, the DUP has allowed the Stormont institutions to get working again.
Mr Donaldson claimed victory by pointing out that the 80-page ‘Safeguarding The Union’ document contained a significant number of gains in the party’s self-styled battle to affirm ‘Northern Ireland’s constitutional position in the Union’.
Gone is the ‘green lane’ set up under the Windsor Framework. It was a device intended for goods transported from the UK solely to the NI market, while the ‘red lane’ was for goods moving from the UK through the North and ending up in the Republic – that is, the EU single market.
From now on, it seems that there will be checks on goods for the NI market only if it’s suspected that crime is involved or if there’s a danger to public health.
This does sound like a dilution of the arrangements in the Windsor Framework. As to whether it will satisfy Brussels, whose sole aim is to protect the single market, we will have to wait and see.
Then there’s the claim that the ‘Stormont Brake’ has been toughened up. This was designed to allow the Northern Assembly to examine new EU rules insofar as they were to apply in the North.
Diluting
While Mr Donaldson may feel this is a positive move, others may not. It could have the effect of diluting the Northern economy’s ability to have the best of both worlds – namely equal access to both the UK and the EU. That’s something no other area in wider Europe could have. For instance, potential investors might be less inclined to set up in the North because of this new doubt about trading with the EU.
For the DUP to proclaim this as a victory is not a very progressive attitude for governing politicians to take when by rights they should always be trying to achieve the best opportunities for their people to do business.
Tying Northern Irish businesses primarily to the UK economy, which by any independent measure is in a poor state, while potentially reducing the ability of the North’s businesses to make gains by being part of the EU single market, is all because of the DUP’s deep-rooted political ideology. And who suffers? The ordinary people of Northern Ireland.
One only has to compare the economic figures North and South to see which is doing better, or examine the upheaval in the provision of services in the North compared to the South, or the level of turmoil in industrial relations on either side of the border.
Last week’s agreement between the British government and the DUP got a shot in the arm from the Irish Government. Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin said ‘no red flags were raised’. Mr Martin went further by saying the DUP’s ‘diplomacy’ worked.
It seems that many of the big players were willing to turn a blind eye to some of the changes, in order to get the Assembly and Executive back up and running.
However, I’m with the leader of the SDLP, Colum Eastwood, who argued that the development broke the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement and the move towards an all-island economy.
But isn’t that what has been behind most of the DUP’s political tactics ever since Brexit? Its members see anything that tends to equate the situation on both sides of the border as being a Trojan horse for a united Ireland.
Let’s call a spade a spade. Brexit suited hardline unionist politicians, because in their eyes it pushed North and South farther apart, and therefore, put back progress towards a united Ireland. What happened last week is yet another manifestation of the political efforts by the DUP to put more and more distance between North and South.
While we in the Republic may gripe about our politicians, the truth is that by and large we have been governed in a relatively stable and rational way for decades. Critical decisions have been made to enhance peoples’ lives. Political differences have been put aside in the interests of the greater good.
By contrast, the elected representatives in the North have allowed their political ideologies to get in the way of governing in a rational manner.
Many people explain this by saying, ‘well, that’s because of their history’. But the question has to be asked: for how long can the political leaders in the North be handheld?
They have been given every opportunity over the past few decades to grow up politically but have eschewed that option.
The fact that the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement have been working for just over 50% of the time since 1998 speaks volumes about that lack of political maturity.
Yet again, they are now being given another chance but, from what I can see, they may be farther apart than they ever were.
Goal
The DUP’s main goal is to ‘preserve the Union’ no matter what – even if it means throwing away the chance of the betterment of its people.
And Sinn Féin keeps harping on about the possibility of a united Ireland being ‘within touching distance’, when plainly it is not. And all the while, the people of the North are getting more and more frustrated with their lot.
While there will be much hype about the restoration of Stormont, it remains to be seen if it will be a durable arrangement.
Sinn Féin will milk the fact that it is top dog for all it’s worth. And, meanwhile, Donaldson and Co will grit their teeth and maintain that they have preserved Northern Ireland’s place in the UK.
Thankfully, because of reforms to the workings of the institutions, the power of one political group to pull it all down has been reduced. That in itself may make them work harder to get on together.
But this has to be the last chance saloon – at least for this generation of politicians in the North.