Opinion

Newton Emerson: Person looking most uncomfortable at republican shamelessness was Arlene Foster

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

IRA leader Bobby Storey’s funeral unquestionably drove a coach and horses through coronavirus regulations and Stormont guidelines. It was absurd for Sinn Féin to claim otherwise but the party has made it clear that paying homage to ‘the army’ trumps all.

The person who ended up looking most uncomfortable amid the republican shamelessness was DUP leader Arlene Foster. She only very reluctantly called for her Sinn Féin opposite number Michelle O’Neill to step aside after other parties had done so, and left the actual announcement to her DUP colleague Jeffrey Donaldson.

This was doubly forgiving, considering how often O’Neill called for Foster to step aside after Stormont’s 2017 collapse.

Foster has little choice but to maintain the new Stormont truce and there is also the minor detail that she would have to resign herself if the deputy first minister stood down.

A further headache for the DUP is loyalist rumbling that Twelfth celebrations might as well proceed, given that lockdown is apparently optional.

The trap for unionism is so obvious that even the Orange Order walked quickly around it, saying its parades are still cancelled.

Not everyone can be counted on to show as much sense.

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The Stormont truce is rapidly returning us to the days of the DUP-Sinn Féin stitch-up, as the three smaller executive parties are finding out. SDLP transport minister Nichola Mallon turned up to an executive meeting this week to discover a decision on face masks on public transport had been dropped from the agenda, without any explanation, despite this being her remit and an issue she has been discussing for weeks.

The same day, Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald told the BBC that money for Troubles victims pensions would be allocated in this week’s quarterly budget adjustment, although this had not been put before the assembly.

“Perhaps we should just abolish the assembly and let SF/DUP brief insiders and lobby groups on what they’ve decided,” SDLP MLA Matthew O’Toole tweeted.

Or perhaps other parties should go into opposition and deprive the big two of their political mudguards.

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That quarterly budget adjustment, known as the June monitoring round, was presented to the assembly on Tuesday, with Sinn Féin finance minister Conor Murphy redistributing £250 million of unspent funds. He also revealed, in response to a UUP question, that the executive has received an extra £2.4 billion from the Treasury over the past 12 months: £1.4 billion for coronavirus assistance and the remainder as automatic increments due to extra public spending in Britain.

This is equivalent to 25 per cent on top of Stormont’s usual budget or over five times the annual value of the DUP-Conservative confidence and supply deal.

For all the challenges the executive faces, it has few excuses not to deliver with such a collossal increase in resources.

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There were pathetic scenes in the assembly as all parties fell over themselves to endorse a Sinn Féin motion “recognising the concern and anxiety that exists among teaching and non-teaching staff, as well as among parents and young people, in relation to the eventual reopening of schools.”

Principals and boards of governors were also effusively praised.

The real anxiety among MLAs is that they know this issue is coming to a head, their constituents are running out of patience and the matter will not be resolved without antagonising parents, teachers or both - something that particularly horrifies the shallow populists of Sinn Féin, although nobody else is exactly relishing it. Hence the rush to flatter everyone involved. The mystery is why politicians think this brown-nosing makes any difference. How many people will even notice it, let alone be placated by it?

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China has threatened retaliation against the UK for extending passport rights to Hong Kong. Any impact in Northern Ireland will be felt first at our universities, whose financial stake in the People’s Republic goes beyond their well-known dependence on overseas student fees. Queen’s has a portfolio of “strategic partnerships” with China, including a medical college and engineering research. Ulster University has had a wide-ranging deal with China’s Ministry of Education since 2011, under the brand name the Confucius Institute.

Beyond the universities, Stormont has a trade bureau in Beijing and of course there has been an assumption Chinese trade would help plug the Brexit gap. There will be no more mention of that.

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The non-profit company that runs the AQE transfer test has said it will only return £20 of its £55 fee if this year’s tests are cancelled, in order to cover its costs.

Children’s Commissioner Koulla Yiasouma says the full sum should be returned, noting that “people who booked holidays have got a full refund” and “I would assume the same rules would apply for this as in any commercial transaction.”

In fact, commercial law only rules out “unjust enrichment” in cancellations beyond a company’s control, so retaining costs is considered reasonable.

Holiday refunds are paid in full because the travel industry markets itself as offering extra protection. If the commissioner is unsure about any of this, she can check it with her in-house legal team.