Confused? You will be.
So the great Adjourn or Not Adjourn.
So the DUP voted to Adjourn….and Sinn Féin, UUP and SDLP voted No. So….according to Robinson the whole sham would collapse because the DUP Ministers would resign. But Robbo back-tracked or so it seems. They did resign but Robbo stood aside and has placed Arlene Foster as Acting First Minister with the jibe that he couldnt trust the “nationalists and republicans as they might do something detrimental to the people of Norn Iron”.
By any standards thats an insult. The nationalists and republicans are as much people of Norn Iron as anyone else. We are not children of a lesser GOD.
So we have the bizarre situation that the Executive now comprises Arlene Foster of DUP presiding as First Minister with Martin McGuinness over an Executive of three Sinn Féin members, two Alliance and one SDLP. It is totally dysfunctional.
Talks will begin on Monday to find a way out of the mess. Or just as likely they wont take place. There is no guarantee that all parties will show up and there is no agenda.
It is openly stated (threatened) that it could take another decade before a new Agreement is found…or maybe the Assembly election scheduled for May 2016 will be brought forward. Nobody knows. Only SDLP seem committed to the Good Friday Agreement but increasingly it looks like it is terminally ill and life support could be turned off.
Probably too soon declare the Good Friday Agreement as healthy as Monty Python’s Norewegian Blue parrot…but SDLP look increasingly desperate to save it.
Meanwhile the senior “republicans” arrested yesterday have all been released.
The Norn Iron public are split between boredom (or even disgust) and tribalism.
Keeping An Eye On the Czar of Russia 
Historically what was the reason for Stormont in the first place.
Did the unionist ask for their own parliament?
What was the reason is wasn’t direct rule from the 1920s onwards.
even though Unionists wanted all of ireland to remain with in the UK, partition had been on the cards for quite some time. The 2 parliaments were supposed to be a compromise that gave give irish people what they wanted – keeping NI in the Uk because that was what the majority of northerners wanted – though britain didn’t object too strongly about holding on to NI. Also after the larne gun-running, the curragh mutiny and carson et al consorting with the kaiser on the brink of WWI – Westminster no longer fully
trusted the northern Unionists and wanted to keep them at arm’s length. .
Likewise in WW2…for all the rhetoric of “brave Ulster” and “treacherous Éire”…unionists would have run a mile if conscription had been introduced.
They might all commemorate the Somme but they had no great desire to do it twice.
Unionism has always been divided on Devolution and Integration. Ultimately 50 years of Stormont Rule gave them a power over nationalists that full integration with England would not have given them.
totally agree -Integration with the UK could never satisfy the Unionist/Orange power-lust. With ref to WWII, Stormont at the time begged its way out of conscription on the grounds of “a hostile part of the population”. I have often wondered exactly who they were referring to! Could this have been the first example of “creative ambiguity”?
later on, a senior British civil servant who was sent over to monitor the war effort (sans conscription) was appalled at how little they were doing compared with the rest of the UK. See Andrew Boyd -Republicanism and Loyalty in Ireland.
Have a look here to see how catholic ex-servicemen were treated by Unionists/Loyalists after both wars https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/catholic-ex-servicemen-dont-count/
It’s just not cricket old chap.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3230804/Cameron-won-t-Northern-Ireland-rescue-peace-process-tickets-cricket.html
Hobo…when Internment was introduced in 1971, Ted Heath was sailing his boat “Morning Cloud” for several days.
I heard Alistair McDonnell on Today FM yesterday drive time. I’m not a fan but I’m not the only one to say he was totally uninspiring. People are fed up with bloated government and the SDLP should be pushing for reform on that front.
I am a fan…mainly because he has always been decent to me and I cant say that for his detractors.
I think SDLP are actually quite happy about the last six months…the Election obviously but effectively this week they called Robinsons bluff.
I am pretty sure DUP thought that Irish Government could get SDLP to support their motion or abstain.
But SDLP did what was right for SDLP and I am glad.
I am also a fan of Alisdair. I quite like his angry-with-mark-carruthers-questions style on tv and slightly grumpy irritable manner. There’s something unspun and real about it. He seems a decent guy doing the right thing and pretty honest and straight talking. No bullshit. Also quite unafraid to do the SDLP thing and not just to do what other parties want.
Hes not a polished performer and has enemies but he is authentic.
I saw this as a political stunt by the UUP to try to make gains on the parliamentary elections. Which is why they didn’t vote for adjournment. They want elections now. Which calls into question the integrity of Detective Superintendant Kevin Geddis and was his statement his own? Did the UUP or OO have any influence it that statement? I think it is suspicious and my intelligence on the truth of that is probably nearly as good as the PSNI’s on who killed McGuigan.
Id go along with a lot of that.
Simply put I think the PSNI are hopelessly compromised. There is an element still linked to the whole “unionist” machine but just as compromised is the political policing that is part of the DUP-SF machine.
In many ways its “back to the future”.
I didn’t trust RUC who were too identified with Stormont.
I think the PSNI are just as identified with the new regime.