Cheque signed.. now breathe life into Executive

AFTER lots of huffing and puffing about jeopardising the Government’s impartiality, and about advantaging the DUP “on both sides of the table at once”, the deal is done. It was never fatal, that a Westminster Government could have links with NI parties – don’t we complain enough that they don’t all run here, and certainly don’t understand us as well as they might? Nearly every negotiation has unequal power relations at its core; maybe that is why Sinn Fein was quiet about its own possible ambitions in the upcoming Dail elections – it has made no secret of its desire to be represented on both sides of the Irish border in future North/south institutions. So, there was a “magic money tree” after all, even if some of the £1.5billion is in pre-existing budget streams. No wonder Sinn Fein’s reaction is muted, asking for “refocusing”, not rejection; it is now more like “Supply and Demand” from the Treasury.

OUTRAGED

The Scots and Welsh are outraged the DUP’S 10 MPS extracted a seemingly better deal that their larger contingents of MPS ever could, because of our “unique post-conflict circumstances” and because their pivotal position was numerically sweet. For us, the more interesting question now is about Stormont and can this put it back together again? We believe the answer to be Yes. The DUP now needs to backfill swiftly, so their 10 MPS retain credibility in London, and after all they still have at least “500 mouths to feed” in and around the Assembly and MLA offices. Likewise, Sinn Fein dares not enter the Irish elections without being in Stormont, for fear of being accused of being wreckers and ridiculing them for wanting to run the Irish State under a voluntary coalition, while they could not even enter a compulsory, tried and tested coalition at Stormont. One wonders how much Martin Mcguinness is missed in these tetchy times. Over to Arlene and Michelle now to demonstrate their leadership skills.