Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Another Neal in the coffin at Stormont..
DISTRACTION has been the watchword of the week in politics both at Stormont and Westminster.
All the stunts, soundbites and claims and counterclaims, have been framed around two set-piece events.
The first was the announcement of a £15billion package of new measures from the UK government aimed at addressing the cost-of-living crisis.
Much of the spending is being paid for by a levy on the profits of oil and gas giants – a major policy U-turn after months of the Conservatives rejecting calls from opposition parties for a windfall tax.
But chancellor Rishi Sunak could not bring himself to call it a windfall tax. No, this was apparently an “energy profits levy”.
A £400 energy bill discount for every household and extra support for the most vulnerable will no doubt be welcomed by under-pressure families to ease soaring prices.
But many will be sceptical of the timing of this announcement, coming only a day after senior civil servant Sue Gray’s damning report into Covid lockdown parties in Downing Street.
What better way to push pictures of the Prime Minister toasting boozy leaving dos off the news cycle than by promising every household 400 quid?
Downing Street commissioning of the report in the first place will be seen by many as a way to buy Boris Johnson time until the public and Tory MPS lost interest.
If that was the intention, it appears to have worked. Any heave against Mr Johnson’s leadership seems to have been suppressed for now.
In Northern Ireland, much of the political focus this week has been centred on the fallout from a visit to these shores by a US Congressional delegation.
From the outset their message has been clear and aimed specifically at the UK government: A US-UK trade deal would be at risk if London presses ahead with plans to unilaterally scrap parts of Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol.
While this could focus minds at Westminster, the presence of the Americans did nothing to improve relations at Stormont.
Unionists were angered by Congressman Richard Neal, chairman of the influential House of Representatives’ Committee on Ways and Means, describing the Protocol dispute as a “manufactured issue”.
He also caused offence over using the term “planter” to refer to unionists in Northern Ireland. Mr Neal said he was using a historic reference in relation to the establishment of the ANNOYED plantation in the 17th century. And although he insisted his role and that of the US was as an “honest broker”, he faced accusations of having a “one-sided” view in favour of nationalists.
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson described the delegation’s fact-finding mission as the “most undiplomatic visit” he had ever seen to Northern Ireland. Many will likely look back on this week of misguided diplomacy as an unhelpful detour from the wider unresolved issues. Another week over and we are still no further forward on resolving the impasse over the Protocol, nor the DUP’S block on restoring Stormont power-sharing in protest against the Irish Sea trading arrangements.
The party will face further pressure to end their boycott on Monday as the Assembly is recalled following a Sinn Fein petition in a fresh bid to elect a new Assembly Speaker.
It is a role reversal from when the DUP recalled the Assembly during Stormont’s three-year collapse after Sinn Fein walked away from government over the RHI controversy and demands for Irish language legislation.
Just as Sinn Fein dismissed the move as a “stunt” back in 2019, so too has the DUP rejected the latest recall as a “stunt” this time.
With the DUP still refusing to nominate a Speaker, the exercise will offer little but an opportunity for grandstanding by MLAS
After a week of distractions, another week begins in a similar vein…
Americans did nothing to improve relations at Stormont