A fantastic result for Sinn Féin presents a strategic challenge - the nationalist electorate has been energised by Stormont politics, yet only it seems in order to reject Stormont politics. Brexit gives republicans every reason to put devolution on hold for several years, if not permanently. But how to maintain that electoral momentum without its most effective arena? The assembly may be allowed to limp on without the executive and Sinn Féin also has the Dail, which could be an early springboard into government. If it becomes plainly obvious that Stormont has been abandoned, however, the permanent ‘northern crisis’ will have no institutional focus. Or as the classic management advice puts it: never start a row in your own office. Because then you look pretty daft if you have to storm out.
**
It says a lot about your style and tone when Peter Robinson is the soul of good grace beside you. The former DUP leader has made his first public comment on the Stormont crisis, with an implied critique of Arlene Foster for causing it. Yet closer inspection of Robinson’s comments reveals no divergence from Foster’s position - he has simply elucidated it with the bare minimum of civility, further underscoring the failings of his successor. There are just two problems with this more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger performance. Robinson spent almost a decade marking Foster as his successor, and his closest lieutenant in the party was and presumably remains Jonathan Bell - who if he did not cause the crisis, certainly caused it for Foster.
**
With that pesky election out of the way and RHI about to be shunted into inquiry purgatory, questions about the DUP’s £425,000 Brexit campaign donation may take on greater prominence - and such questions are most unwelcome. The openDemocracy UK website - a paragon of worthy centre-left journalism - commissioned Galway-born, Glasgow-based Peter Geoghegan, a respected reporter on Northern Ireland affairs, to ask DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson where the money originated. Donaldson then reportedly complained that openDemocracy was investigation the DUP and not its political rivals, warned the DUP “will be watching your website very closely to see if you are going to be fair and balanced” and claimed he could tell from Geoghegan’s Irish accent that he would not be impartial.
**
DUP economy minister Simon Hamilton was sadly unable to deliver any transparency on RHI before he left office the evening before election day. A court had confirmed the previous day that the RHI claimants list can be released - predictably enough, as law and contract actually requires it to have been made public already. But the department needed to distinguish between the names of companies and individuals, so Hamilton’s commitment to openness was frustrated at the very last minute. He was also regrettably forced on his final day to block all Freedom of Information act requests on RHI, including a News Letter application to see DUP special adviser John Robinson’s declaration of interests. Although the purpose of declaring interests is accountability, the declaration itself is “third party personal data” and therefore so secret that not only can the Department not release it but it can “neither confirm nor deny” it exists - a phrase normally associated with intelligence cover-ups.
**
It is not just the Department for the Economy that seems unsure of what it can say at election time. Channel 4 News and BBC Newsnight both omitted RHI from their assembly election reports, choosing instead to blether on about two tribes and so on. Challenged about this online, Channel 4’s chief correspondent Alex Thomson claimed the legal requirement for impartiality would not let him cover RHI and be fair to all five main Stormont parties in his allotted five minutes. Could he not just have asked every party about it?
**
An important question that slipped between the cracks in this election is whether Sinn Féin has abandoned the consent principle. The party’s 2016 assembly manifesto sought “island-wide referendums on Irish unity”, which corresponds to the requirements of the Good Friday Agreement.
However, this year’s Sinn Féin manifesto sought “an island-wide referendum on Irish unity”, echoing the dissident republican demand for one all-Ireland poll. The difference in language between the manifestos would seem to make this deliberate and unmistakable.
**
With some form of direct rule now imminent, a great deal of liberal hope has been placed in London breaking Stormont’s deadlocks on social policy, especially on same-sex marriage, abortion and a languages act. Such controversial action seems unlikely, not least from the Tories. The only pressing intervention is to set a budget by July and the most obvious item in that is water charging. Contrary to popular belief, we have had domestic water charging for a decade - but Stormont pays our bills, via an interim arrangement it must regularly renew. So a direct rule finance minister could let that lapse and portray it as non-intervention.
**
Asked to list her weaknesses, Arlene Foster has said she is “very driven”. This is reminiscent of the job interview joke, where an applicant says their weakness is “honesty”. “I don’t think honesty is a weakness,” says the interviewer. “I don’t give a s*** what you think,” replies the applicant.
newton@irishnews.com
