Northern politics still dysfunctional and polarised

NORTHERN Irish politics and democracy is vastly different to that in practice south of the border or across the Irish Sea.

There are very obvious reasons for that of course but the power sharing administrations of devolved government in Northern Ireland remains dysfunctional and polarised.

Rarely since the Good Friday Agreement has there been a successful period in any of the power sharing administrations.

When the SDLP and UUP held sway during the time of Seamus Mallon and David Trimble, both were constantly looking over their shoulder at their opponents on their own side of the divide in Sinn Fein and the DUP.

Both Sinn Fein and the DUP chipped away at the support base of the SDLP and UUP and undermined them in power which has led to a situation in which both Sinn Fein and the DUP are now the dominant political forces in Northern Ireland politics.

The middle ground has collapsed and the extremes from both sides have been ruling the roost from quite some time.

The partnership of Ian Paisley as First Minister and Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister was quite an unlikely alliance and relations between the two became so normalised that they became known as the ‘Chuckle Brothers’.

However since Paisley’s retirement, there has been a testy and somewhat frosty relationship between his two successors, Peter Robinson and Arlene Foster and Martin McGuinness.

The dissolution of the power sharing government at Stormont has looked inevitable for quite for some time and Monday’s resignation by the Sinn Fein MLA from the Office of Deputy First Minister was not a surprise, given the troubles facing Arlene Foster in relation to the Renewable Energy Scheme and her reluctance to step aside to allow the matter to be independently investigated.

Once Sinn Fein put down an ultimatum as they did at the weekend through their President and Louth TD, Gerry Adams, Foster was never going to step aside and Sinn Fein had to do as they had threatened.

Elections will now follow and the likely outcome is both Sinn Fein and the DUP returning as the largest parties once more, where they will have to face each other again and share power.

That will take some doing as trust and relations will be at a low. Undoubtedly political pragmatism will win out and the parties will contrive some new working relationship.

The political mess is not good for us on this side of the border as the UK invokes Article 50 following Brexit this spring.