Opinion

Sinn Fein called it wrong over welfare withdrawal

Alex Kane

Alex Kane

Alex Kane is an Irish News columnist and political commentator and a former director of communications for the Ulster Unionist Party.

Alex Kane
Alex Kane Alex Kane

No matter how often you try to tell them, Sinn Fein seems congenitally incapable of grasping the fact that Northern Irelandor whatever they choose to call the placeis still in the United Kingdom. Which means that when theres a general election the party or coalition with the most seats in the House of Commons has the political, electoral and legal authority to govern. Thats the way the cookie crumbles.

So when Martin McGuinness says that Sinn Fein has been mandated by over 176,000 voters David Cameron is entitled to reply I have been mandated by 11,334, 576 voters. And while it is true that Conservative candidates in this part of the UK are still flat lining on the electoral equivalent of a life support machine, at least Cameron fielded candidates here. Sinn Fein didnt field candidates anywhere else, lost one of their five seats and cant even be bothered to fight Cameron in the one place where their votes might make a differenceWestminster: the place where their fellow nationalists in the SDLP, SNP and Plaid Cymru have taken the battle.

But no, Sinn Fein has decided that the best way to fight Camerons cabinet of Tory millionaires (what a tired old clich from the clownish Marxists of Irish republicanism) is to renege on the deal it made last December and then threaten the very existence of the Assembly itself. Even Baldrick would rule that out as a cunning plan.

Marxist Marty insists: the enormous challenges facing the political process require engagement from David Cameron. To date he has refused to meet with me or engage in any attempt to resolve the current difficulties. Aw diddums. Poor old Martin. You wreck the SHA. You rubbish his cabinet. You give him an enormous headache over the Assembly. You want to build some sort of Celtic coalition against him. You wont take your seats in the Commons (where your MPs might bump into him). And then you treat us to a poor me mantra about not being able to get a meeting with him. Grow up. Cameron has much bigger problems than you to deal with.

The fact of the matter is that Sinn Fein called it wrong in March, a few weeks before the election, when they forced the DUP to delay the Welfare Bill. They got it into their heads that theyd be dealing with Miliband and Salmond after the election, that the DUP would be sidelined and that theyd be able to screw extra funds from Labour and present themselves as canny negotiators and champions of the unionist and republican working classes and disadvantaged. They didnt expect to be dealing with Cameron, let alone Cameron with a majority and the potential cushion of 10 unionist MPs.

Worse, they didnt have a Plan B. So confident were they about the outcome and the easy pickings for them from a new coalition government which would still treat the north as a special case, that they didnt prepare alternative options. They just assumed that all would go according to plan up here, allowing them to reap further electoral benefits when the Republic goes to the polls either later this year or next year. Pigs ear is the phrase that now comes to mind: the very last phrase that Sinn Fein wants coming to people's minds in the run up to the 1916 centenary.

Adding to their woes is the fact that Cameron knows that its not in their interests for the Assembly to collapse. And nor is it in their interests for the Secretary of State or Chancellor of the Exchequer to step in and impose austerity cuts, because that would simply demonstrate how helpless and ineffectual Sinn Fein is when it comes to standing up to the Brits. What this latest crisis comes down to is a collective effort by Cameron, Kenny, the other Executive parties and a clutch of US politicians to pull Sinn Fein out of the enormous hole that their own stupidity and hubris has landed them in.

Of course, wed all love to just sit back and belly laugh at their predicament. But since their predicament is our predicament we dont have much choice other than helping them. Well have to find something to give thembut not too much, just in case the DUP gets upset and dig their own hole in the hope of balancing the scales again.

But there are timesand yes, I know its wrong of mewhen I think we should just let them dig their holes, let them jump in, and then take the ropes and ladders and walk away. Tempting, isnt it?