An 11 Year Old Journalist Writes…

Posted on May 26, 2016 by fitzjameshorse

When I was 11 years old part of the English lesson was producing a newspaper. The idea was that the English double period on Friday was spent putting together THREE newspapers. One for each row of twelve boys. For the record, my newspaper was called “Topic”.

It was hardly cutting edge. Mostly I remember cutting pictures of politicians, sports people and pop stars out of newspapers and magazines and pasting them into our newspaper. Cutting and pasting…literally.

One morning there was a discussion about “news” and our teacher explained that it was not just about newspapers …there were magazines like the “Economist”, “Time”, “The Spectator”…..thats where real journalism and real news was. Essentially a murder, a bank robbery or a fatal car crash are only news for a few days and real journalism is the ongoing stories.

So watching “Newsnight”, we see in depth coverage of major events and somehow the stories affecting ordinary people get devalued.

So tonight I was watching the local UTV News which led of course with the formation of our New Executive. It was a depressing enough feature…a pantomime … Máirtín Ó Muilleoir (SF) and Simon Hamilton (DUP) nodding and agreeing with each other about facing serious challenges ahead.

But the second item on the News was the 1976 Kingsmill Massacre…and the inquests forty years later. A massacre of Protestant workmen. The testimony of the sole survivor was chilling. How he heard an 18 year old victim call for his mother..seeing the boots of a murderer as he walked among them, finishing off the wounded.

So much happened in those years. I think we rationalised it. That  when we heard the first item of news on the radio….”a body was found…”.

We needed to find a reason that it could not be me. Thus a British Army soldier or RUC man killed by bullet or roadside bomb could not be me. The men drinking in a bar…couldnt be me…the men in the “IRA Active Service Unit” or the alleged tout found hooded on a border road. None could be me.

I had different and precise fears about abduction and being tortured to death in a Shankill Road “romper room”. Some things are too painful like the girl I knew…a professional singer abducted and tortured to death after being made to watch the torture and death of the young man abducted with her. …he had only just met her that night and was giving her a lift home. The loyalist killers promised they would spare them if she sang for them.

Back then, Catholics like myself carried a “Prayer to St Joseph” petitioning that we “would not fall into the hands of our enemies”. Because thats a phrase that still chills me….”falling into the hands of your enemies”. It does not end well in Iraq and it does not end well in Syria….and for that girl I knew, it didnt end well in Belfast…..and it did not end well for ten men at Kingsmill.

So forty years later, the sole survivor gets to tell his story. His humanity comes thru. He has lived with the true facts, having saved the bereaved from the information that their loved ones had not died instantly.  We owe him a debt….and  owe others like the Bloody Sunday, Claudy, Ballymurphy and La Mon victims a debt.

You might tell me that “we should move on” or maybe just tell me that I should move on. But we do not deserve to move on because increasingly we have neglected victims and frankly we chose to believe that “our people were not as bad as their people”.

There will be no court cases of course but the very least that the Kingsmill bereaved deserve is to know the names of the killers…the murderers. Will anyone allow that to happen?

DUP and Sinn Féin now share the spoils. This is a coalition….there is  not even any pretence as Arlene and Martin stand shoulder to shoulder. Frankly I cant see this latest farce not having consequences for Sinn Féin. Máirtín ÓMuilleoir will be implementing Austerity and piously talking about finding new solutions in Health. Of course there are five long years ahead and Sinn Féin will be hoping that with DUP blessing that they can go to West Belfast, Mid Ulster and South Down with something to show.

But really hard to see how this “new, young” Executive deserves more attention than Kingsmill. Disturbingly local BBC and UTV will be as supportive of this coalition as they were of the old unionist regime fifty years ago. The media will be as uncritical of Mairtin Ó Muilleoir, Simon Hamilton and the rest of the Government as much as they were uncritical of Terence O’Neill and William Craig.
The virtues of Stability will be fed to us. Arlene Foster is the new James Chichester Clarke and Martin McGuinness is the new Brookeborough.

Maybe the English teacher was wrong in 1963. Publishing three newspapers might have prepared us to read a broadsheet like The Guardian instead of a tabloid like the Daily Mirror. Or have us watch Channel 4 News instead of Jeremy Kyle or locally we might be sophisticated to watch Mark Carruthers rather than Stephen Nolan.
Maybe the cutting and pasting I did to produce a newspaper in 1963 is not that much different to writing “Keeping An Eye On The Czar of Russia”.
But how insular we all are in the Norn Iron media and Blogosphere….how gossipy …how irrelevant…covering minutiae.
We miss the real story.
It is nice of BBC Norn Iron to run off to Coleraine Grammar School to interview Claire Sugden’s Politics teacher. Didnt she do well? But what was happening behind closed doors at Stormont over the past few weeks and months is probably more interesting.
“Move on” they tell us.
The Ministry of Truth…our own little 1984….where the voices from Kingsmill and Ballymurphy count for nothing.

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The New Executive

Posted on May 25, 2016 by fitzjameshorse

Well three weeks is certainly a long time in Norn Iron Politics. I was pretty disappointed as the results came thru. But today as the new Executive takes up office, I am actually quite happy.

As it turns out, the biggest loser is the Alliance Party. That delights me. In hindsight, they have had power beyond their mandate since 2011 and getting used to being “also rans” in the Assembly will be hard for them. No mandate for Government and no mandate for Opposition. They wont even be chairing a scrutinising committee.

They really should have seen it coming. I cant believe that canvas returns over the last two months led them to believe they would turn eight Assembly seats into the magical TEN to claim an Executive seat “as of right”. So clearly they thought that David Ford could dial a friend at DUP-SF and that they would be given a lifeline thru the Justice Department. Indeed they were so confident that they presented demands to DUP-SF….were kicked out after less than ten minutes and optimistically left the door open for DUP-SF to come back to Alliance. And they….didn’t.

The Alliance Party do not take reversals well. They have an exaggerated sense of their own righteousness. So cue internal bickering which will see David Ford resign sooner rather than later. And the television appearances tonight should be interesting. David Ford will be doing his irritating Mr Angry impersonation. And self-styled Ginga Ninja, Naomi Long will do her shrill Ginga Whinga act.

The New Executive is indeed different. Streamlined to just eight ministries. UUP and SDLP preferring the dignity (and pragmatism) of Opposition to giving any credence to the Executive being anything more than a DUP-Sinn Féin coalition. With SF also failing to get a magic number of MLAs….THIRTY (Petition of Concern veto mechanism) ….Sinn Féin is now reduced to being a “junior partner in a centre-right coalition” (credit to Christopher Stalford MLA).

And of course the New Executive only gets off the ground because the impasse over Justice is unblocked by Claire Sugden MLA, Independent Unionist taking up the invitation from Arlene  Foster and Martin McGuinness.

Claire Sugden’s three weeks has been better than David Fords.

Nominally the Justice role has gone from a “Neutral” party Alliance. But seriously does anyone think that Alliance isnt “unionist”. While Colum Eastwood is right that SF view of Justice is “no nationalist need apply”, I would regard both Claire Sugden and David Ford as “independent unionists”.

To be a unionist or indeed nationalist does not imply unfairness in the delicate role of Justice Minister. It is about appearances. The bottom line is that whether thru Inquests, Inquiries or Investigations, there is little hope for victims of Injustice. The British Government and Sinn Féin are guarantors that Justice will always be denied. Is Claire Sugden the Minister to unlock the Truth?

Well….Arlene and Marty would not have asked her if they thought she was.

She is being dismissed too easily….and a lot of it seems gender based, a 29 year old woman elected for the first time, just three weeks ago. True, there is nothing in the previous Assembly (she was a co-option) to indicate that she will be a stunning success. Nor is there anything to indicate she will be a disaster. Necessarily the role of an Independent back bencher is limited.

We should be more mature. Is she a DUP-SF stooge? Or will she turn out to be their worst nightmare…independent. And how will she handle or be handled by the mandarins and assorted spooks within the Department of Justice….not to mention PSNI, Prisons Service, the Law Officers like Larkin and McGrory and the heavyweights in the Judiciary?

As for the rest of the Executive.
Good choices on DUP side. Peter Weir (ex UUP like his boss Arlene) will be an asset and some deadwood has been weeded. Looks more like Arlene Foster’s choices than Peter Robinson’s.
As expected, Máirtín Ó Muilleoir gets an Executive post…Finance. And whether or not you regard him as genius or a shameless self publicist, it will be interesting two years before he is booted out to be replaced by another SF MLA.

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Alliance Party…Down and Hopefully Out

Posted on May 25, 2016 by fitzjameshorse

I am not usually the kinda person who would kick anyone when they are down. But in the case of the Alliance Party, I will happily make an exception.

They were content to drift along, picking up extra Executive seats as a reward from DUP-Sinn Féin for keeping them in power. Alternatively…Alliance selflessly served the community. But to be honest, not even the Alliance Party believe that.

Now they are not in Government, they can hardly be surprised that UUP and SDLP dont want to touch them with John Taylor’s legenary ten foot pole.

It has of course been interesting to watch Alliance try to sell themselves over the past week.It should make the next annual Conference interesting. Perhaps the Dunadry Hotel and La Mon House would  be unsuitable venues. A very large window bathed in red light in Amsterdam…that would be different.

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Congratulations Gladys!

Posted on May 23, 2016 by fitzjameshorse

A big shout out to Dr Gladys Ganiel who is well known as a commentator on Conflict Resolution on Slugger O’Toole.

Less well known is that Gladys is a pretty good long distance runner. Today she has been selected as first reserve for Ireland for the Olympic marathon.

Congratulations!

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Liberal Unionism…Buried With O’Leary

Posted on May 23, 2016 by fitzjameshorse

“Romantic Ireland is dead and gone…its with O’Leary in the grave”.

I saw this headline on Slugger O’Toole today. A piece written by BBC Walker. I was almost tempted to read it. I didnt read the full article because I think the headline says so much more than the article can say.

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What exactly is “liberal unionism”? I have grown up with that phrase and it never meant very much. Certainly in the 1960s, there were unionist politicians with the reputation of being “liberal”. It is of course a relative term…but usually applied to decent men who had a preference for Norn Iron as a part of the “United Kingdom” and thought the best way was to oppose the naked sectarianism that too often under-pinned a worthy cause and to encourage Catholics and nationalists to engage with Norn Iron. After all, things like health and social security provision were much better in 1960s Norn Iron than in 1960s Republic of Ireland.

But “liberal unionism” still seems too broad a term. I half-remember names and faces of Decent Men. Yet the Debate within 1960s unionism seems to be dominated by two men “liberal” Terence O’Neill and his nemisis Rev Ian Paisley.

O’Neill …the “liberal” became Prime Minister of Norn Iron who had an agenda of making Norn Iron more inclusive. This seems in retrospect to have been little more than sipping tea with Reverend Mothers in the staff rooms at Catholic Girls Schools. O’ Neill may not have been sectarian but he was certainly patronising. His belief that if a Catholic has a good house and job, he will be a good unionist is risible by 21st century standards but it seems a belief based in pragmatism rather than a genuine understanding of the Catholic position.

Certainly Decent Men like Porter and McIvor sat on unionist benches at Stormont…but as Ministers after 1969, any “liberal” instincts were swept aside and they found more release as High Court Judges.

Yet Phelim O’Neill, cousin of Terence, who steadfastly refused to have anything to do with the Orange Order and became a founding member of the Alliance Party is more fondly remembered. And yet there are others lost to History, like Bertie McConnell and Bob Nixon.

Yet Nixon deserves a special mention as the Stormont MP who revealed that unionists in Derry had lobbied to have the proposed second university sited in Coleraine, rather than their own city.

So there is a division at the heart of “liberal unionists”. People who were pragmatists enough to see that the Norn Iron state could not control a restless and growing minority. And people (like Bob Nixon) who were minded simply to do the right thing. Yet somehow these two attitudes merged as pro-O’Neill (circa 1966-69) and a common revulsion against the sectarian street theatre of the Paisleyites.

Effectively “liberal unionism” died with the overthrow of Terence O’Neill. Some would drift out of Politics and others would re-allign to form the Alliance Party.

Effectively Alliance was formed as a “liberal unionist” Party but the violence turned it into a coalition of unionists and “soft” nationalists which pursued a “cross-community” narrative. To some extent that Debate is ongoing within Alliance. But as the furore over Anna Lo making sympathetic noises about Irish Unity in 2014 showed…Alliance has firmly returned to its unionist origins.

Anna Lo WAS Alliance MLA for South Belfast. Paula Bradshaw IS Alliance MLA for South Belfast. I rest my case. Obviously unionism is muted but understood within Alliance. No point in rocking the cross-community boat.

But certainly pragmatic  “liberal unionists” have spent the past two decades courting and promoting the Alliance Party. Integrated Education is at the very core of liberal unionism.

The other side of “the pragmatic liberal unionism” is that Paisley-ism and its successor the Democratic Unionist Party ruined it all.

And this is what makes BBC Walkers article (or at least the headline so interesting). For any pragmatic unionist, who adopted “liberal unionism” and invested support in the Alliance Party , these are not the best of days. Unless DUP-SF intervene to save Alliance’s unworthy bacon, they are finished….no Justice Ministry and no Opposition.

But Pragmatists are….Pragmatists.

If “liberal unionism” has failed under O’Neill and David Ford, then the Pragmatists need new champions to make Norn Iron more British.

All the Pragmatists ever sought was (unionist) stability and the chosen programme was “liberal unionism” via Alliance puppets.

Stability. Stability. Stability.

As the headline suggests….Opposition is unstable and voting patterns may not change. The headline suggests that the best way for Norn Iron to survive is the “stability” of a DUP-Sinn Féin coalition.

“Real” liberal unionists rather than the “Pragmatic” liberal unionists must shudder at that prospect. And how nationalists and republicans should feel….thats a big question.

If Slugger O’Tooles favourite Party…Alliance…can no longer deliver the unionist Utopia….look out for some backtracking and some pro DUP-SF opinion pieces.

 

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The Power Of Columnists

Posted on May 23, 2016 by fitzjameshorse

Sometimes a blog post can be inspired by a comment made on a previous post.

So this post is in some way inspired by a remark made by commenter (sic) Wolfe Tone.

So….Irish News columnists….and newspaper columnists generally.

I dont suppose that I buy the Irish News more than once a month. I “should” buy it more often, if only to keep track of people I used to live beside or work with. Yes there are people who read the newspaper for the death notices. And do not underestimate the importance of this. I live too far away from people that I called colleagues and friends. And just last June, I bumped into one in Belfast and amid the usual “how is…..” There came the bombshell that a woman (42) had died some six months before.

Indeed  there have probably been three or four funerals since I retired in 2005, where people might have noticed my non-appearance. People were buried who would certainly have been at my funeral. Thats how I am ….not big on engaging with people but oddly saddened that people are buried without my showing up at the funeral.

The Irish News is an excellent newspaper for death notices. It is almost a West Belfast cliché. But spending eighty pence every day just to find out that everybody I ever knew is alive and well seems extravagant…..although when I do read the Irish News, I am always surprised that people die in alphabetical order.

But for the best part of twenty years, I bought the English newspaper, The Guardian. It is broadly supportive of Labour and Liberal Democrat…typically wishy washy stuff. So reading columnists like Ian Aiken and Hugo Young and their successors like Polly Toynbe and Simon Jenkins was a means of me having my view of the world confirmed.

So having watched the morning news on TV, I somehow needed Aiken, Young, Toynbe and Jenkins to frame it all in a way that made sense to my view of the world.

I retired in 2005 so I no longer buy The Guardian for the morning commute.

But it is strange that The Irish News has never engaged me in the same way. The Troubles MADE The Irish News. It was an embarrasing apology for a morning newspaper in the 1960s. EIght (sometimes six) broadsheet pages….with death notices on page 2, greyhound racing on page 7 and horse racing on page 8. Never underestimate the power of a good racing tipster.

But all of a sudden after 1969, the Irish News death notices were filled with “Second Lts killed in action” and just as suddenly if you lived in Ardoyne, Crossmaglen or Andytown, the Irish News was the newspaper with the contacts and the sources….andeven more importantly ….the historic and personal understanding.

By any standards, The Irish News is a damned good newspaper, better than its unionist rivals, The Belfast Telegraph and News Letter.

And yet I cannot warm to it. None of the columnists (the best Alex Kane is a unionist) really seem to speak for me. Rarely do any of them write a column that makes me say “thats what I think”. Brian Feeney is formerly SDLP but now downright hostile. Likewise Tom Kelly is formerly SDLP but he is boring. Newton Emerson is merely a “slabber”.

There are of course others but I have never bothered learning their names.

It is not that much different on Slugger O’Toole, the allegedly leading Blog. Look at any headline there on say Alliance Party, court decision, integrated education, SDLP and look at the author, Mick Fealty, BBC Walker, Pete Baker, Chris Donnelly, Alan Meban….and there is little point in reading the main body of the article. You will find no surprises.

Maybe thats why I blog. I dont see my view of Norn Iron or the world out there so…I just do it myself.

 

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SDLP: We All Woke Up Feeling Better

Posted on May 20, 2016 by fitzjameshorse

“A dog walking on its hind legs…its not done well but youre surprised that is done at all” (Dr Johnson).

The Norn Iron Executive at Stormont is a bit like that. A lousy government but (for those of us who remember the bad years) it is a small miracle that it is happening at all…nationalists and unionists sharing power.

Of course it has all changed since 1998. UUP was the lead player on the unionist side and SDLP was the lead player on the nationalist side. The British and Irish governments felt that things would be more secure with DUP and Sinn Féin leading the tribes…and thats what we have had for years. UUP and SDLP cannot be excused for not seeing this coming.

But of course from St Andrews, via Hillsborough to Fresh Start, the Good Friday Agreement has been hollowed out. The euphoria, especially on the nationalist side has long gone.

Yet I get a sense that things changed yesterday. Or more likely there is a possibility of change.

I make no apology for saying that SDLP should have gone into Opposition in 2011. You all know the reason but I will say it again. SDLP and UUP had 14 and 16 MLAs respectively and one seat each at the Executive but Alliance with 8 MLAs took two Executive seats.
At that point Democracy was turned on its head. We should have walked away.
Does anyone seriously want to defend that shameful gerrymander?
Certainly Alliance claim the extra portfolio Justice was a tribute to their unique neutrality…not a gift from DUP-Sinn Féin but rather a vote in the Assembly itself. But lets get real here….they sought, received and maintained an advantage over two other democratic parties.
They sewed their Downfall…they reaped their Downfall.
Karma.
What goes round…comes round.
Yes, Belfast Karma…serves the bastards right.

There is no real point in feeling sorry for the Alliance Party. They are sorry enough for themselves. More to the point, they just dont get it. As Alex Kane points out the sense of Entitlement in the Alliance Party is astonishing.

Has Election 2016 been a game-changer? Too soon to tell. But it os shaping up nicely. The reduction of the number of chairs around the Executive table has raised the threshold for entitlement to a portfolio in a power sharing Executive.
The magic number is TEN….and despite talking up an extra seat in East Belfast, North Down, South Belfast and South Antrim and breakthrus in North Belfast and Upper Bann….Alliance never even came close. They have stagnated under David Ford. The heady days of Naomi Long taking East Belfast at Westminster in 2010, looks like a one-off. Look around the Alliance MLAs and there does not seem much talent available.
Nevertheless Alliance have some bare-faced cheek. Now without a portfolio, they tried to negotiate holding on to Justice….making the DUP-SF an offer they couldnt refuse, they would generously “take” Justice if some other parts of the Alliance manifesto got into the DUP-SF Programme for Government.
Truly astonishing.
Let me be clear.
ALliance DO NOT HAVE A MANDATE.
The meeting between DUP-SF and Alliance lasted less than ten minutes. They were chased out of Stormont Castle.
From “bare faced cheek” to the “Bum’s Rush”.
Still Alliance are optimists. Their Party meeting last night decided to adjourn without making a decision on the Justice Ministry. Over the weekend, David Ford will sit by his phone, hoping from a call from Arlene Foster and Martin McGuinness.

Yet it seems that in this curious game of Bluff and Double Bluff, Arlene and Martin have a name or names in the frame.
Independent Unionist Claire Sugden MLA (East Derry). It smacks of desperation but she has already fought off a UUP challenge to take her seat. And if I was a high-ranking civil servant in the Department of Justice, I would be rubbing my hands at the prospect of “handling” a young and naive MLA.
Alternatively a Green MLA might take the DUP-SF shilling. But really Steven Agnew or Claire Bailey should really keep their distance.
Alternatively DUP-SF might find a willing Quangocrat outside the Assembly.
Or…as is being floated… A shared Ministry with a DUP and SF Minister.

John McCallister, the Independent Unionist who lost his seat deserves some credit for making Opposition possible. Mike Nesbitt of UUP also deserves credit for leading his Party out of the Executive last year and maintaining that position.
But it takes two Parties to be in Government and it takes at least two to be in Opposition.
An Opposition is after all an alternative Government. So the SDLP decision to walk away is crucial.
On a personal level I would not like to see too much agreement between UUP and SDLP. Leaving aside the unionist-nationalist problem, there is the much bigger problem that the UUP is a right-wing conservative Party and SDLP leans (increasingly) to the left.
As for Alliance…so what? They dont have a mandate to be in government or be part of the Opposition. Besides…even this weekend they still WANT to be in the Government.

The reaction to the SDLP decision seems mostly favourable. Certainly the Party is united. But it has been coming…a minority favoured it after 2011 but numbers have been growing and certainly the pre-election mood music was for Opposition.
Obviously a Party cannot go into an election “Vote for Us…we dont want to form a government”.
The Party fought on a manifesto and after election put its programme to DUP and SF. Their pwn “programme” is threadbare and the sole policy seems to be to stay in office.

But Sinn Féin has been savage about SDLP.
As I have said before SDLP membership of the Executive gives cover to Sinn Féin. Nominally every Executive since 1998 has been a four or five Party coalition as defined in the Good Friday Agreement. But increasingly the electoral power of DUP and Sinn Féin and the over-representation of Alliance (stooges to DUP-SF) has marginalised the Agreement itself…and marginalised UUP and SDLP. I would go so far as to say that at times it is uncomfortable and even humiliating…and SF has certainly enjoyed it all.
But there are deeper reasons for SF hostility. Having ridiculed and marginalised the “Stoops”, why should it bother Sinn Féin that SDLP have walked away?

Well I think that the numbers of DUP and SF MLAs is a factor.
THIRTY is the key number. That is the number of MLAs from one tribe required to block legislation. DUP have 38 MLAs and SF have just 28 MLAs.
Never has power-sharing looked so one-sided.
Remember that talk of Martin McGuinness as First Minister?
Remember that talk of Gerry Adams as Taoiseach?
Remember how Sinn Féin styles itself as the All-Ireland party. As Catherine Seeley MLA (Sinn Féin) put it…

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Alas you cannot see it on Twitter as it was quickly deleted. Presumably someone in the Sinn Féin Press Office pointed out that SF would not negotiate about government in the Republic but condemns SDLP for doing the same in north.
Its a topsy-turvy world.
Sinn Féin would rather govern Norn Iron than Republic of Ireland.
Still…a government run by DUP and Sinn Féin is hardly a coalition of equals.
The precedents dont seem good.
Look what happened the Irish Green Party, junior coalition Party with Fianna Fáil in 2010.
Look what happened the British Lib Dems, junior coalition Party with the Tories in 2015.
Look what happened the Irish Labour Party, junior coalition Party with Fine Gael in 2016.

Does anybody in Sinn Féin understand History?

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The GB Newe Solution?

Posted on May 19, 2016 by fitzjameshorse

The older I get …the more I think I have seen everything there is to see…at least twice.

So SDLP are heading for Opppsition benches. And Alliance are going nowhere.

Would Arlene Foster and Martin McGuinness really be confident about a Justice Minister if they did not have a plan in place. Possibly talks with the Greens and/or Claire Sugden (Independent Unionist).

Let me mention G B Newe. He was a Catholic who actually served as a junior Minister at the fag end of the “old Stormont”.He was that rarest of things…a Catholic Unionist and was brought into the cabinet to show that Brian Faulkner’s regime had Catholic support as well as being “liberal”. Newe was unelected and Catholics regarded him as convenient “Uncle Tom”.

Have we a new Newe….so to speak?

An unelected person ready on the sidelines to perform the duties of Justice Minister?

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Sending Out SDLP Membership Forms

Posted on May 18, 2016 by fitzjameshorse

A busy evening sending out SDLP membership forms to Mr Mick Fealty and Mr Brian BBC Walker of Slugger O’Toole.

I will be honest. I never really had either of them down as SDLP supporters but they are certainly full of advice to my Party. To be even more honest, I dont see any reason to heed the advice of our enemies.

Still it will only cost Mr Fealty £20 per annum for SDLP to pay him any heed. Mr Walker, a pensioner like myself can make his opinion heard within SDLP for just a tenner.

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Opposition?

Posted on May 13, 2016 by fitzjameshorse

Talking to rank and file members of SDLP over the past 48 hours, I get the impression that the Party would prefer to be in Opposition than in Government for this Assembly term.

Some caveats…most of the people I have been talking to were always in favour of Opposition but importantly people seem disenchanted with the outworking of the Good Friday Agreement. It is not just “sour grapes” that SDLP would only have only a marginal role …one Executive seat…in any Government. There is a genuine feeling that the Good Friday Agreement as signed in 1998 has been “hollowed out” by amendments at St Andrews, Hillsborough and “Fresh Start”.

As I have said before, the right moment for SDLP to go into Opposition was in 2011, when Democracy was stood on its head to facilitate the DUP-Sinn Féin coalition. The Alliance Party was given an the Justice portfolio….thus 52,000 Alliance voters had two Executive seats while 95,000 SDLP voters and 95,000 UUP voters had only one Executive seat each. A travesty that shames the saintly Alliance Party.

With the number of Government Departments reduced, the threshold for entitlement to a seat in the Executive has been raised above the level for Alliance to claim any except the DUP-SF gift of Justice. Manners have been put upon Alliance.

The striking thing about last weeks election is just how unchanged the political landscape is. DUP (38), UUP (16) and Alliance (8) go back to Stormont with exactly the same number of MLAs. Sinn Féin (28) and SDLP (12) go back with one and two less respectively. The five -party coalition must be partly to blame…if nothing changes, there is little point voting. The institutions expect and maintain the five party coalition. It is certainly stable but just as certainly it is stagnant.
UUP actually left the coalition a few months ago and as expected they have said they will not serve in the next Executive.

And SDLP?
SDLP are still “negotiating” with DUP annd Sinn Féin to get them to accept some progressive policies. It looks like shadow boxing.
Neither DUP or SF look likely to accept SDLP proposals, which sets the scene for one of those silly parade down the great Stormont staircase so that Colum Eastwood, flanked by his Assembly team, announces that SDLP will go into Opposition.
It would be better if we did not have sham negotiations.
The best SDLP could get out of agreeing to go into government is just one Executive seat and a paid Special Advisor.
Really the Party that does best out of SDLP going into government is Sinn Féin. It provides cover for SF to say that it is a genuine multi-party arrangement rather than a DUP-SF coalition.
There are complications. There is no space for Opposition…and the numerically superior UUP have got there first. At present the arrangement where leading unionist party (DUP) sits across the horse-shoe shaped benches from the leading nationalist party (SF) is meant to demonstrate the Grand Coalition…but any Opposition should face the Government. Unsurprisingly Mike Nesbitt wants the furniture re-arranged.
And of course there is the question of MONEY. In any civilised Democracy the Opposition should be state-funded…to pay for the research and staffing that an alternative government needs.
But…will the numerically stronger UUP constitute an Official Oppostion that is right wing and unionist get more funds than SDLP that is left wing and nationaliist.

I could do without sham negotiations which are expected to take two weeks. I strongly suspect that there is a second set of talks going on between SDLP and the Norn Iron Office to establish ground rules before SDLP decides to walk away from Government.
Certainly a DUP-SF coalition with Alliance clinging on to Justice (gifted by the DUP-SF in defiance of a mandate) underscores what the Government has been for some years. As Mark Durkan said, we live in a one-Party state with an orange wing and a green wing.
And SDLP really need to stop providing Sinn Féin…and the Alliance Party …with cover.

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