Sunday 8 March 2015

What a Load of Shamrocks

And so, Sinn Féin adopts a formal policy in favour of abortion.

That seems a fitting end to an Ard Fheis at which, having been otherwise occupied or detained while the Swinging Sixties were going on, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness decided to act them out, despite, or because of, being well into their own sixties.

At least Adams did not bring out his trampoline.

These days, Sinn Féin really is just another political party. And what a party. A party of austerity at Stormont, but the party of anti-austerity in Dublin.

A party of increased municipal property taxes on one side of the Border, but the party of opposition to the very idea of such taxes on the other side of that Border.

The party that is too pure to go into coalition, hypothetically, with either of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, but which has sat for years on end in a permanent coalition with both of the UUP and the DUP.

There is nothing here of which the SDLP or anyone else ought to be afraid in the least. A credible alternative would be pushing at an open door. Or at a rotten gate.

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