WATCHING the RHI inquiry is riveting. Certainly the inquiry chairman, Sir Patrick Coghlin, has an unenviable Solomon-like task of filtering out the conflicting narratives being presented by the various witnesses.
Paul Frew, the DUP MLA for North Antrim, has admitted the RHI inquiry does not reflect well on the DUP. That’s an understatement.
While the evidence gives us a fascinating look into the machinations of the DUP and how they operated in the executive, it’s the final report and what action is taken that really counts. Quite often during evidence taking, official inquiries tend to be racy like CSI investigations only for the final report to be a damp squib.
The RHI inquiry was set up by an executive minister but the executive no longer exists. So who exactly will the inquiry report to and who, if anyone, can take any action on the findings of the report? Certainly the code of practice for special advisers can be overhauled by the civil service but following the inquiry, the civil service will have to change too.
Which takes us back to the DUP. The DUP should be demonstrably and publicly seen to put its house in order. It’s their special advisers who are under the spotlight. If the DUP don’t reform then allegations will haunt certain individuals throughout their political careers. The DUP is credited as being one of the most disciplined political machines on the island of Ireland. That reputation for discipline appears to be crumbling.
The DUP MP Ian Paisley jnr is a fairly independent individual. He has received the longest parliamentary suspension given to any member of parliament since 1949 – yet he will run for office again and presumably be endorsed as the DUP candidate. If Mr Paisley had been a Sinn Féin MP, the DUP would be not only calling his retirement from public life but its politicians would be taking to the airwaves to moralise about the issue too.
That said, the recall and the possible running of a by-election is a complete waste of public money following the parliamentary sanction on Ian Paisley. He is popular in North Antrim and will easily win re-election.
As has been shown many times, the electorate has double standards too – on the one hand expecting probity in public life while on the other accepting the benefits of pork barrel politics delivered to a constituency by elected members surrounded by controversy. It’s perplexing and frustrating to have rules and sanctions aimed at improving standards in public life only to have the outworking of those rules undermined by the public they serve. But that’s democracy for you.
In other countries it can be worse. Former president and the frontrunner for the Brazilian presidential elections, Lula da Silva, was leading in the polls despite being in jail serving 12 years for corruption in public office. (He reluctantly withdrew last week).
In other parts of the DUP the famed discipline appears to be fraying at the edges too. It’s hard to tell these days if the DUP MLA for South Down, Jim Wells, is in or out of the party. Having lost the DUP whip for slating the leadership, the press office and special advisers, he pops up on the media as an alternative to TUV leader Jim Allister to give his views on his colleagues.
None of this makes life easy for the DUP leader Arlene Foster. It’s difficult to hold the leadership of a provincial political party when the local executive doesn’t exist and the power such as it is resides in a parliament of which you are not a member. So far her tenacity is seeing her through.
There has been a rumour circulating for some months that she may face a leadership challenge. Whilst to an outsider, like this writer, it’s hard to see what purpose this would serve, that has never stopped the ambitions of many a politician trying to scramble to the top table.
Apparently, according to the rumour mill, a DUP MP has itchy feet. Despite the series of calamities, the leadership duo of Foster and Dodds is the best combination the party has got.
Notwithstanding the self-dug potholes, the DUP heartlands seem solid but if there’s one life rule in politics it is: Take nothing for granted.
