‘Accountable but not responsible’ is likely to join ‘jot and tittle’ when the epitaphs are written on Arlene Foster’s career, after she gave this explanation to the RHI inquiry for her liability on misconduct by special advisers.
It is an explanation that suggests the DUP leader owns neither a thesaurus nor a dictionary.
Foster believes she can justify her position in law - although the law in England is different. Nevertheless, it is an unjustifiable attitude in politics, let alone at the top of politics. Where would such a worthless buck ever stop? The epitaph really implied here is ‘responsible but not accountable’, which might end up carved over the doors of Stormont if it ever opens again.
However, if Foster’s excuses have barely changed, the same cannot be said for her demeanour. The former first minister appeared chastened and spoke quietly, with little sign of her usual curt defensiveness. Even if that was only an act, at least she has learned to do it. That could be the only - yet not insignificant - contribution the inquiry makes the getting Stormont reopened.
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There is less and less sign of Ian Paisley being chastened following his reinstatement by the DUP and the failure of the North Antrim recall petition - events which occurred in that order but were revealed in the reverse, presumably to stop the former affecting the latter.
In a BBC interview last week, the DUP MP portrayed his 57-day suspension from the party as a punishment in itself, rather than a precautionary measure pending a decision on punishment.
The same confusion was evident in a UTV interview this week, in which he said he “took a public humiliation”, as if humiliation is a punishment that discharges your debt to society, rather than your own emotional response to being caught.
This is a fascinating insight into the psychology of DUP pride, which of is course is the biggest padlock on the doors of Stormont.
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Nobody seriously believes Sinn Féin has any responsibility for RHI on the scale of the DUP. But in a power-sharing system it will bear some responsibility by definition and claims of this are now being heard by the inquiry, including some pretty embarrassing e-mail evidence. Sinn Féin’s problem is that, having brought Stormont down over the heating scandal, it needs a perception of zero responsibility. Hence the party’s emotive recourse to defending Martin McGuinness’s “integrity”, after Foster said she told him of whistleblower accusations. Legal action has also been mentioned against an unnamed DUP politician over related testimony - an unusual act mid-inquiry, not least because inquiries have legal privilege.
The risk for Sinn Féin is that all this just keeps its RHI involvement in the headlines and makes it look shifty and defensive. There is also a risk of ridicule. Constantly threatening to call your solicitor is dreadfully common - especially if nothing comes of it.
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MOT centres dropped diesel emissions tests 12 years ago but are still telling drivers otherwise, BBC Spotlight has reported. Like the RHI scandal, the story reveals deep dysfunction in how Northern Ireland is run, with the scandal brushed under the rug by multiple ministers, parties and officials. Exposure has not provoked better behaviour - the Driver Vehicle Agency told Spotlight tests were dropped due to staff health concerns. Yet in 2009 the top civil servant at the department responsible, Stephen Peover, told the assembly’s public accounts committee it was due to “a serious strategic mistake” in officials setting the time each test should take when they commissioned a £57 million PFI contract to upgrade test centres.
Peover went on to chair the Ulster Orchestra, where - as at the civil service - the band plays on.
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People were surprised to see a pop-up Lexus dealership in the heart of Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter on Culture Night - and that was not the only sign of a changed culture at the middle-class Twelfth.
Organisers asked homeless charity Extern to remove a 62-year-old woman and her belongings from the pavement opposite St Anne’s Cathedral. Incredibly, she was taken to a park in Dundonald and left under a tree.
Culture Night said it feared the “huge volume of material” the woman had surrounded herself might be accidentally set alight by a discarded cigarette once crowds filled the streets. Wet weather before the event did not change this assessment of kindling-dry detritus.
The woman herself, named only as Anne, said: “I was OK where I was but they said my bags looked messy.”
A Lexus saloon costs £73,000.
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Budget airline Norwegian and penny-pinching airport Aldergrove have fallen out in spectacular fashion, with Norwegian cancelling its Boston and New York services and advising passengers to fly out of Dublin instead, and the Crumlin-based airport accusing the airline of acting “moronically” and offering an “inferior” product.
Norwegian may not fully appreciate what all the cross-border fuss is about because Dublin and Belfast are only 100 miles apart. Its Belfast routes landed 60 miles from Boston and 70 miles from New York.
newton@irishnews.com
