How deep is Sinn Fein’s love?
The Tonight Show (TV3)
FOR Sinn Fein, one of the main virtues of their policy of abstention from Westminster is that, for many years, it didn’t matter a damn. Their votes in the UK Commons would have made very little difference one way or the other to the great issues of the time, and so it was an excellent arrangement all round.
They could claim they were doing this as a matter of principle, though it was the kind of principle which didn’t actually cost them anything, thus negating one of the essential ingredients of principle, if not the entire concept.
In fact, not only did it not cost them anything, they actually gained much from it, with MPs such as Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness receiving shedloads of “allowances and expenses” from this parliament that they despised — which suggests there was a kind of a principle involved, that of taking advantage of the largesse of the Brits.
And while this was not the principle on which they stood, their supporters would have found no fault with it, and probably the Brits were fine with it too. After all there would have been certain honourable members who were happy not to be sharing the Palace of Westminster
with people associated with the IRA who, for a long time, had been diligently trying to kill said honourable members on some other point of principle.
Jeremy Corbyn, though, was always happy to see them. And in the fullness of time it seems he and Sinn Fein have maintained their cordial relations and have somehow arrived at this place in which they have become enablers of the policy of Brexit which could bring catastrophe to the UK — and, by the way, it wouldn’t be great for Ireland either, but that doesn’t seem to be enough of an incentive for them to vote against it.
We need to keep reminding ourselves that Corbyn is effectively a supporter of Brexit, and that Sinn Fein, by refusing to take their seats, are helping it along in their own inimitable style.
Yes, the principle of abstention which wasn’t really a principle at all, has finally become meaningful in the most acute way, with the May government prevailing last Monday by three votes on some particularly insane version of Brexit amid a general air of extreme volatility.
The following night, David Cullinane, of our own nationalist party, Sinn Fein could be seen on The Tonight Show with Matt Cooper and Ivan Yates, which wasn’t very helpful, but which is as good as we’re going to get from Sinn Fein on this matter.
Still, it was to the credit of The Tonight Show that they had him there, if only to confirm that the people who voted for Sinn Fein knew what they’d be getting from the party on Brexit — which is
nothing.
It was actually quite odd to see a Sinn Feiner being pressed at all on this, because most of the media seems to have simply accepted their position as if it was perfectly reasonable. Indeed, I have seen several journalists actually volunteering to make the argument on their behalf, that the “principle” of abstention has been settled, and there’s no way around that.
But Matt and Ivan were insisting that a day is coming when a Sinn Fein vote in Westminster could be absolutely crucial in getting the right result for Ireland, which suggests there are in fact other “principles” to be taken into account here — since the main reason for the existence of Sinn Fein is supposedly their love of Ireland, do they not love Ireland enough to adopt the higher principle of saving us from Jacob Rees-Mogg?
Is their love of Ireland not greater than their hatred of the Brits?
And by the way, they also had a policy of abstention from the Irish parliament, but found it within themselves to find some better principle there.
Then again if the worst that is going to happen to them is a few uncomfortable moments on The Tonight Show, why should they bother trying to do the right thing for Ireland?
Doing the right thing for Sinn Fein — that is the principle.