Opinion

Brian Feeney: Johnson's government has torn up the rules of democratic behaviour

Brian Feeney

Brian Feeney

Historian and political commentator Brian Feeney has been a columnist with The Irish News for three decades. He is a former SDLP councillor in Belfast and co-author of the award-winning book Lost Lives

Secretary of State Brandon Lewis
Secretary of State Brandon Lewis Secretary of State Brandon Lewis

Westminster goes into Christmas recess about December 17.

So there isn’t going to be an Irish language bill, or heads of bill at Christmas. Which Christmas you might ask. Of course there isn’t going to be an Irish language strategy at Stormont either. No doubt our invisible proconsul or one of his minions will issue a meaningless, misleading, condescending statement full of weasel words not explaining anything.

It’s the same with making abortion services operational. Why did he extend the delay before enforcement until next March? Simple: so that there won’t be any action the DUP opposes and the health minister, who also refuses to implement abortion services, doesn’t get penalised. By March you see Stormont will be closing down for the assembly elections on or about May 5.

You might also ask why did Mary Lou McDonald believe our proconsul in June when he promised to legislate at Westminster for Irish? Why did Michelle O’Neill believe his letter expressing his intention to legislate by the end of October? Why didn’t they demand a binding written undertaking?

There are two reasons. First, normally between politicians meeting face to face a deal’s a deal. After all, didn’t our proconsul’s promise to legislate for Irish in return for Sinn Féin nominating a deputy first minister sound so convincing to the DUP that they booted Edwin Poots out? However, in the immortal words of Sam Goldwyn, “A verbal contract ain’t worth the paper it’s written on.”

Secondly, and this is the more important reason: with this unprincipled government there’s no such thing as a binding written agreement. Ever heard of the Withdrawal Agreement containing the Irish Protocol, the Trade & Cooperation Agreement containing the Fisheries deal, since trashed by Johnson?

Our proconsul’s official title is Right Honourable. He’s a law graduate, a barrister and a Cabinet minister. Within weeks of agreeing the Withdrawal Agreement he was on his feet in Westminster making one of the most shocking and infamous statements a British minister has made, namely that his government would “break international law”. He then added absurdly, that it would only be in a “very specific and limited way”. As a former practising barrister he would know that would be a novel defence laughed out of any court. Was that behaviour honourable? Right honourable? The most senior law officer in Britain, Sir Jonathan Jones, KCB, QC, Procurator General and Permanent Secretary in the government’s legal department resigned in disgust. He was honourable and so were his actions.

Fast forward to April 2020 and our proconsul is weeks in the job. Two months earlier the New Deal Same Approach con job cajoled the parties back to Stormont. One of the promises, agreed with the Irish government, was to implement the Stormont House legacy agreement within 100 days. Within sixty days, just before Easter, our proconsul announced the British government was ratting on the Stormont House agreement.

Now of course our proconsul doesn’t just think these wheezes up himself. He’s slavishly carrying out the orders of Johnson, legal or, incredibly, as he told the Commons, illegal. Just obeying orders proved to be an unsuccessful defence at an earlier very famous tribunal. Yet our proconsul proceeds without shame unable to smell the stench rising off the government in which he plays an active part.

More examples could be adduced, but you get the picture. It’s not just that you can’t believe anything any of Johnson’s ministers say; you can’t trust them to carry out anything they’ve committed to in writing. Anyone dealing with this British government, EU, Dublin, SF, now knows this British government is completely untrustworthy. On Monday the French Interior Minister Darmanin appealed to the British to end “double talk”. They say one thing in private and another in public, he complained.

Hold your nose. This proconsul is one of a government which has torn up the rules of democratic behaviour.