Opinion

Alex Kane: DUP and Sinn Féin are playing James Brokenshire for a sucker

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.

Secretary of State James Brokenshire told the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee that an Executive must be in place by November 6
Secretary of State James Brokenshire told the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee that an Executive must be in place by November 6 Secretary of State James Brokenshire told the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee that an Executive must be in place by November 6

There's a part of me - albeit an infinitesimally small part - which wants to feel sorry for James Brokenshire. And then he goes and spoils everything by opening his mouth.

Halfway through his briefing to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee on Wednesday morning I was expecting someone from Monty Python to burst through the door and say: "You're not the secretary of state. You're just a very naughty boy."

Nobody takes him seriously. Nobody fears him. Nobody listens to him. Whatever you may have thought of Peter Mandelson or Peter Hain (or a number of others), at least they had clout. They spoke with authority. They sounded like they knew what was required of a secretary of state. But not poor old James.

Why is he so afraid of raising his voice, removing his gloves and telling people exactly what he thinks of them? Why does he allow himself to be routinely humiliated by politicians? Why doesn't he realise that extending the deadline - I can't even remember if this is the fifth or sixth time - makes him a puppet for Sinn Féin and the DUP; and a laughing stock for just about everyone else? Not one person, not one single person that I spoke to on Wednesday had a kind word for him. The general view was that he was `completely out of his depth,' `clueless,' or, in the words of a very senior civil servant, `a mere branch manager without clout or authority of his own. A hostage to fortune caught up in the broader DUP/Conservative deal.'

So maybe I shouldn't be too hard on him; after all, he's not in a position to rattle DUP cages. Crucially, he knows that Arlene Foster is more important to Theresa May than he is, so why risk his membership of the cabinet by having a go at the DUP while cameras and microphones are 'live.'

That said, he needs to find a way of making abject crawling sound just a little bit more like a thought-through strategy. Even the pleasant and always polite Lady Hermon had him on the ropes on Wednesday: which is a bit like being felled, filleted and barbecued by Mary Berry. It really was that bad a day for him.

Meanwhile, we'll all have to struggle on for another few weeks: reading the runes, analysing the body language and buttering the parsnips, as we wait for Michelle and Arlene to come up with something. But what?

As I've been saying for some time there is no chance of a stable, consensual, lasting, genuinely power sharing deal between the DUP and Sinn Féin. Whatever the negotiating teams may be tinkering with, it's pretty clear that grassroots members and voters of both parties aren't prepared to bend and compromise at this point. It looks like all-or-nothing territory for both sides. It's the first time since this process began in the mid-1990s that I can remember the key parties being so concerned by what was happening at grassroots level. Leadership and direction is now coming from the ground up; another reason why securing a deal has proved so difficult this time.

I have a reputation as Northern Ireland's most pessimistic commentator, but even I was pretty sure that we'd end up with the usual sticking plaster solution. But now.....I'm not so sure. And if we can't even pull off the same-old, same-old, then we're actually more screwed than I thought we were.

What I think James Brokenshire needs to do is find a platform and make the speech of a lifetime. He needs to speak directly to the people of Northern Ireland, setting out starkly and clearly where we stand. He needs to list the immediate and long term consequences of what happens when, as seems likely, a deal isn't done. He needs to make clear that direct rule isn't just a short term fix and would, in fact, entail the collapse of the institutions, the end of the assembly and MLAs (along with salaries, expenses, staff and constituency offices) and the replacement of the Good Friday and St Andrews agreements. He must leave the electorate and parties in no doubt about supposed soft landings and a return to drawing boards. In other words, if this process goes down, it's not coming back any time soon.

That's what a scretary of state needs to do: not set new deadlines and then never quite get around to direct rule. He's being played for a sucker by the big two parties. He's being played for a sucker by the prime minister.

For the sake of his own integrity and legacy he needs to rise to the occasion rather than constantly fumble and stumble, an object of pity for some and derision for others. Dear Lord, I'm even beginning to warm to the memory of Theresa Villiers.