Sinn Féin and the DUP are at one in wanting the devolution of policing and justice policy, and the transfer to Stormont of the vast sums of money that would be required. But their dispute over the timetable now constitutes the sort of crisis that requires Gordon Brown himself to turn up in Belfast and try to sort it out.
This is as far as disagreement now goes in Northern Ireland, where all parties are in government all the time, and where they really all agree about everything, including the permanent maintenance of exactly the present constitutional arrangement, which suits them all down to the ground, since it guarantees that they will all be in government all the time, despite the fact that they really all agree about everything.
Isn't democracy grand?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Indeed. But thats the very reason that Sinn Féin has embraced it. The Agreement if it works is good....if it doesnt we simply move to Plan B....which is even better.
ReplyDeleteThe DUP is anxious that there is no devolution of justice before the General Election.
They made too much of the Alliance Partys David Ford getting the portfolio. They hoped that Ford would be seen as "pro union" although the AP is of course "neutral" on the Constitution.
But Ford has now openly declared he is "totally agnostic" about the Union.
Of course the much talked about "Brown/Cameron/Clegg debate wont happen here as we cant vote for some of them anyway.
Yet another example of how you are denied proper politics. Although, having said that, so are we, these days.
ReplyDeletePlan B advocates will soon become, if they are not already, the teenage boys of Sinn Fein - any party has them - who up to a point are allowed to shoot their mouths off while everyone waits for them to grow up and buy in. As they always do.
Oh the position of Sinn Féin is that the Agreement was "heads we win....tails you lose".
ReplyDeleteWhich is why I said "Gotcha" when news filtered around our office that Trimble had signed up.
That was, and is, everyone's position on it. And they are all correct. This way, they all get to be in government all the time.
ReplyDelete