Opinion

Newton Emerson: Is the NIO having a laugh over Stormont talks venue?

Newton Emerson

Newton Emerson

Newton Emerson writes a twice-weekly column for The Irish News and is a regular commentator on current affairs on radio and television.

Newton Emerson
Newton Emerson Newton Emerson

In a twist on the usual end-of-year story about government papers being released, thousands of historic files have reported been “lost” - including some related to the Troubles. In fact, the government knows exactly where the files are and says it can account for all but “a couple” of them. It is the UK’s National Archives, an independent quango, that has lost track of the files after lending them to the Home Office without checking they had been returned.

The lost files story, accompanied by much hand-wringing about Britain hiding its colonial past, came after a story last week in which the National Archives had to correct its own displays on the British empire following complaints of bias and inaccuracy. Perhaps if it had been less preoccupied with spinning history at the front of the building, it might have noticed actual history being carted out the back.

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The DUP has denied a report that Nigel Dodds was offered the cabinet post of international trade secretary during June’s negotiations with the Conservatives. There is the slight hint of a Whitehall joke in this, as one of the trade secretary’s titles is President of the Board of Trade and Plantations. Perhaps the Northern Ireland Office is also having a laugh in proposing Darlington’s Rockcliffe Hall as a Stormont talks venue.

The five-star resort belongs to Middlesborough Football Club, which - like Stormont - was relegated this year. Darlington had the world’s first railway, making it the original place where the train left the station.

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Northern Ireland’s first human rights commissioner, Prof Brice Dickson, has penned a robust article in the Irish Times explaining that the Stormont talks issues Sinn Féin is describing as “rights” are nothing of the sort. Same-sex marriage, for example, is not recognised as a right by the European Court of Human Rights and this has just been upheld in a ruling by Belfast High Court. Prof Dickson also notes that the process for a Bill of Rights was delivered as per the Good Friday Agreement, only to fall apart for exceeding its remit. If Sinn Féin wants that process restarted the agreement requires the Republic to enact equal rights protections, which nobody north or south ever mentions. Should Prof Dickson’s successors not be pointing all this out?

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The Department of Health has released £3.9 million of extra funding for GPs to relieve immediate pressures, mainly due to an ageing population. This falls under a policy signed off 12 months ago by former Stormont health minister Michelle O’Neill, so it remains technically within the bounds of our present devolutionary limbo. Another policy that could still be rolled out without constituting direct rule is the AskyMyGP telephone triage service, which has been trialled in a small number of practices since 2016. This operates rather like an out-of-hours service, with patients phoning for a doctor to call them back. Anyone who needs to be seen in person is given a same-day appointment. Participating practices describe it as “a miracle”, with face-to-face consultations falling by 50 per cent and delays completely eliminated. Why is everyone not shouting about this from the rooftops? There may be a certain squeamishness about the implication that half of patients are usually wasting their doctor’s time.

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The Church of Ireland has objected to Belfast’s £400 million Royal Exchange redevelopment scheme, part of which lies opposite St Anne’s Cathedral, because it will encroach on the building across an existing square. Rev Alan Abernethy, the Bishop of Connor, has written to planners saying the cathedral is “an iconic building within the city and as such the open space around it should be preserved to enable a full appreciation of its aesthetic qualities.” This plea would carry more weight if St Anne’s was not surrounded on its other three sides by the cathedral’s staff car park - a grim tarmac apron reaching from the perimeter fence to the cathedral wall. Any suggestion this prime city centre space might be put to more aesthetic use tends to cause Holy horror.

newton@irishnews.com