It’s time for DUP to follow their leader

STORMONT ministers have united around a new sound bite “we have to learn to live with the virus”.

In recent days, the same phrase tripped off the tongue of both Arlene Foster and Michelle O’neill.

This common slogan is better than the open division which broke out when the Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots tried to explain the second wave of Covid 19 through the prism of green/orange politics.

He blamed it on nationalists following the example set by Sinn Fein leaders att endin g the IRA man Bobby Storey’s funeral back in June.

That claim prompted derision from the DUP’S political opponents and independent data analysts.

Ev e n tu a l ly t h e Ag r i c u l tu re Minister clarified – but didn’t apologise for – his words.

He insists he didn’t mean to put the spread of the virus down to religion and cherishes his “Catholic friends and neighbours”.

Mrs Foster reckons the Poots clarification is “the end of the matter”. However questions remain. Was Mr Poots acting with the full authority of the DUP in putting down a marker that preserving livelihoods should be at least as important as saving lives in the weeks ahead?

When he told the BBC’S Talkback programme that the Stormont Executive should “take an entirely different approach” how did Mr Poots not think his words might be viewed as a challenge to the authority of his own leader?

She had, after all, just gone out to bat for the four-week clampdown on hospitality and close contact services.

Calm has been temporarily restored. But how long will it be until anoth er DUP politician decides to question the latest compromise painstakingly hatched across the Executive table? The

First Minister is sometimes seen by others as “the adult in the room” cajoling h er c o l l eagu es to a consensus over Covid policy.

However, it’s a thankless task. Even as Mr Poots was beating the retreat, another DUP sceptic, East Antrim MP Sammy Wilson, was questioning the basis f or the current clampdown as “skimpy”.

Th en f o r mer l e a d e r Pe t e r Robinson entered stage left, lambasting “border poll deniers” and implicitly criticising his successor for not preparing her supporters for the potential battle ahead.

This repeated an argument Mr

Robinson made

two years ago (much to the chagrin of Sammy

Wilson). Mr Robinson’s comments would be viewed as less problematic by those close to Mrs Foster than an assault on her Covid policy.

Nevertheless they illustrate the increasing tendency within what was once a tightly controlled party for arguments to play out in public.

Is this a bad thing? I don’t think so. With so much at stake during this pandemic it’s only right, for example, that someone like former MLA and cancer sufferer Jimmy Spratt should exercise his freedom to disagree in public with mask sceptic Mr Wilson.

Clearly Mrs Foster doesn’t enjoy the same iron clad authority as either the late Ian Paisley or Mr Robinson did during their heydays.

However, I don’t see any obvious challenger gaining traction. There is a faction within the DUP which is increasingly unhappy about the economic price being paid as a result of the Covid clampdown. But Mr Poots didn’t do himself much good by pushing out his nationalist/unionist line on Covid, then pulling back.

The other Stormont DUP ministers are loyal to Mrs Foster. Whilst some of the party’s MPS may harbour their own ambitions, the middle of a pand emic doesn’t seem the right time for a leadership heave.

Whatever is going on in her own party, the First Minister has to deal with the wider picture. There are compromises to be made over matters like attendance at sports matches and when and whether this clampdown should end.

That’s when the ambiguity of Stormont’s “learning to live with the virus” sound bite will be tested.

In the US, when Donald Trump mo u t h e d those words, his challenger Joe Biden countered that the President’s policies really meant many people were having to “learn to die” with Covid-19. For all our sakes, let’s hope the balance struck by the Executive won’t mean any of our leaders stand accused of that.

Increasing tendency for arguments to play out in public

I don’t see any obvious challenger gaining traction

POOTS HIS FOOT IN IT Arlene Foster and Edwin Poots

FLASHBACK Ian Paisley and his ministerial team in 2007