WE may see a gentler Arlene Foster after May’s Stormont election but for now it is clearly a case of hardline Arlene - Hardlene? - to reassure the troops that a leader who is ex-UUP is not about to go soft.
Refusing to attend Easter Rising commemorations is part of this, although that message was too fumbled to have been properly planned out.
By contrast, this week’s mini-reshuffle was an unambiguous signal. Instead of appointing fellow ex-UUP defector Peter Weir to the Department of Finance, as the media had expected, Foster transferred Caleb Foundation member Mervyn Storey from the Department of Social Development and replaced him with veteran backbencher Lord Morrow.
Both men are very capable but they are also very much old-school DUP. Such a ruthlessly pragmatic positioning manoeuvre from the party’s new leader is rather reminiscent of its last leader.
**
As she accepted the post of first minister, Arlene Foster quoted Abraham Lincoln: “the best way to predict the future is to create it.”
Foster also mused on how, “as a young girl growing up in Fermanagh”, she could never have dreamt of reaching her current position, adding “I want to make sure that what is possible for me is possible for any young boy or girl growing up in Northern Ireland”.
It all rather recalled the quote by 1952 US presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson: “In America any boy can be president, and I suppose it’s just one of the risks he takes.”
**
A court has heard testimony of an MI5 overseas sting operation against dissident republican Colin Duffy, which as well as being dramatic in its own right bears a striking resemblance to the plot of The Last Panthers, Sky TV’s high-brow Euro-thriller about Serbian guns, dubious policing and criminal control of the mean streets of Marseille. Or in this case, Lurgan.
**
As it becomes increasingly apparent that corporation tax is unenforceable, Northern Ireland’s two main airports have joined Ryanair in calling on Stormont to devolve and cut short-haul air passenger duty instead.
Of course, they are hardly objective but a standardised assessment was made in 2013 by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, which was commissioned by voluntary sector umbrella body Nicva to compare Northern Ireland’s 20 largest tax sources for ease of devolution and economic impact.
This study ranked air passenger duty second and corporation tax fifteenth. The best tax to devolve was stamp duty - a finding replicated by separate studies in Scotland and Wales. Why is there no lobby for this?
**
The backlog of criminal cases in the court system due to the unofficial strike by barristers and some law firms, which began last May when justice minister David Ford cut the highest rate of legal aid, has now reached 817.
Yet strike supporters have to keep reminding the media of this steadily rising total because otherwise nobody would notice.
Hundreds of cases are always backlogged for years, victims and witnesses are rarely kept informed of progress at the best of times and most defendants heading for court are familiar with lengthy delays.
Obviously, a criminal justice system is necessary but it is fascinating to see how long ours can grind to a halt without causing the slightest public perturbance.
**
Newry and Armagh Sinn Fein has announced a “1916 themed Strictly event” as “part of the centenary events to commemorate the Easter Rising.”
Couples across the constituency have apparently been “shaking, jumping and jiving all winter in order to claim victory”, perhaps unaware that all those moves date back no further than the 1920s.
However, a Rising theme can be maintained if all the couples who lose are told they have really won.
**
The owner of a flooded business near Lough Neagh has claimed that nothing has been done to help him since the flood last week.
Meanwhile, the chief executive of the Rivers Agency has implied that nothing much will be done.
Testifying to the agriculture committee, David Porter explained that 30 homes and businesses had been flooded due to the exceptional weather, while lowering the lough level to ensure no recurrence would make access to jetties and quays difficult.
In other words, it is not worth adjusting the lough’s entire boating infrastructure permanently to stop a few building flooding occasionally. And that, alas, is that.
**
UUP former minister Danny Kennedy is calling on republicans to say ‘Northern Ireland’ instead of ‘the north’, following an assembly exchange with Sinn Fein minister Caral ni Chuilin.
Ni Chuilin finessed the issue nicely by declaring that ‘Northern Ireland’ is a phrase she will say but not a term she will use. It is a certainly odd that half the government of Northern Ireland never mentions it by name.
However, by telling other people how to speak, Kennedy is traducing unionist values of personal liberty and individualism. A better approach to dealing with someone who refuses to say ‘Northern Ireland’ is to drop a ‘mainland’ into the conversation. If they ask where that is, say ‘the East’.
newton@hotmail.com
