Opinion

Newton Emerson: As quietly as possible, the DUP is preparing for a Brexit deal U-turn

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.

Gavin Robinson voted in support of an amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill while his DUP colleagues abstained<br />&nbsp;
Gavin Robinson voted in support of an amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill while his DUP colleagues abstained
 
Gavin Robinson voted in support of an amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill while his DUP colleagues abstained
 

Journalists are resorting to drawing diagrams to explain the latest Brexit votes in the Commons and it is notable the DUP has dropped off the edge of the page. As quietly as possible, the party is backing down in preparation for a massive U-turn in favour of the prime minister’s deal. It abstained from the critical government-supported vote this Wednesday offering a Brexit delay, despite all its MPs being present in the Commons and twenty of its hardline Brexiteer Tory allies voting against. This careful act of fence sitting just about managed not to break the confidence and supply agreement or signal a final rupture with the Tory Brexiteers but the moment of truth is only weeks away: the DUP is coming off that fence on the prime minister’s side.

East Belfast MP Gavin Robinson accidentally flagged that up a little early. He voted with the government on Wednesday after “getting caught up in the carnival atmosphere”.

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There is a “special place in hell” for those who call for a border poll without a plan for a united Ireland, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has told the Fianna Fáil annual conference.

Sinn Féin wasted no time ridiculing this, as Eastwood called for a border poll straight after Brexit negotiations at the SDLP’s 2017 annual conference.

Last August, however, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said she did not want a border poll without a plan for a united Ireland, only to call for an immediate poll less than 24 hours later.

It seems the main difference between both parties is that Sinn Féin can manage its U-turns far more quickly.

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“We have won!” tweeted John Finucane as the Supreme Court delivered its verdict on investigations held into his father’s murder.

Shortly afterwards, the Irish Times reported the story under the headline: “Family of murdered solicitor Pat Finucane lose Supreme Court case”.

The BBC also reported the verdict as a setback for the family. Such confusion is understandable, given a judgement only legal minds could concoct.

The court found the British government did promise an inquiry, should have held an inquiry and the investigations it held instead were inadequate.

However, the court also found the British government did not act in bad faith, does not have to hold an inquiry and the investigations it held were genuine.

How this is supposed to be progress is anyone’s guess. The Finucane family is, of course, still seeking an inquiry.

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The chief constable has presented his explanation to the Policing Board over the PSNI’s initial failure to disclose records on the Sean Graham’s massacre and many other loyalist murders.

Fading “institutional memory” of the Troubles and how to operate mothballed computers are being blamed, as most PSNI staff have only served since the Good Friday Agreement. It took a former RUC special branch officer with 30 years experience to realise information on a “VZ58” weapon, as requested by the Police Ombudsman, would have been filed during the Troubles as an AK47. A search for this term produced the overlooked records.

Rights and victims groups who had taken an interest in this case have fallen conspicuously silent on the explanation, as it is their general view that former RUC officers should have no involvement in Troubles cases.

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The PSNI needs help with modern computers, according to an extraordinary finding by Slugger O’Toole data-blogger Peter Donaghy. A worldwide panic over the so-called ‘Momo suicide game’, the top trending subject on social media in the United States this week, began with a single posting on the PSNI’s Craigavon Facebook page last week. There is no such game, as any parent mentioning it will know from their child’s eye-rolling derision.

By coincidence, a 2015 internal report emerged last week showing the PSNI had no strategy for operating its social media accounts over the preceding six years, entrusting them to a handful of untrained staff. The PSNI says a strategy and “a vast amount of work” has since been put in place since - but not enough to stop one account causing chaos.

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Deselected DUP councillor Tom Smith has gone demob happy. Having been shown the door after backing LGBT Awareness Week in Newtownards, he has now criticised his party for “petty political nonsense” in Craigavon. DUP councillors there declined to back a motion against dumping nuclear waste because Sinn Féin would not support a DUP amendment against dumping diesel-laundering waste. Smith clearly plans to go down fighting but it worth noting he has also called this week for direct rule. This, rather than a united Ireland, is what frustrated unionists are really mumbling about in the garden centre.

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New party Aontu has been somewhat vague about its policy on the Stormont stand-off so a comment by former Sinn Féin Craigavon councillor Fergal Lennon, who defected to Aontu this week, jumps out.

“The two governments need to implement Joint Authority to get departmental decisions made and to provide the necessary incentive to get the DUP to fulfil their responsibilities,” he said.

newton@irishnews.com