Opinion

Newton Emerson: What the DUP is dreading is UUP in opposition

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.

DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson

The DUP has blocked new rights for a Stormont opposition, much to the frustration of other parties. A wide range of rights, such as asking the first question to ministers, were included in the 2016 law that created an official opposition. However, the assembly has to switch those powers on through its internal rules, known as standing orders. This has been repeatedly discussed in all-party committees and was finally agreed last November. But when the changes went to the assembly this week, the DUP complained they “disproportionately discriminate against back-benchers from the larger parties”, who might not always get to ask ministers a question.

An incredulous Jim Allister asked if the DUP understood what opposition means - ministers would be from the larger parties, after all. It made no difference: standing order changes require majorities of unionists and nationalists, so the DUP was able to veto it on its own.

In January, Jeffrey Donaldson said he was considering all options after May’s election, including going into opposition. It seems clear that what the DUP is really considering - and dreading - is going into government with the UUP in opposition.

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Last week, the DUP denied that withdrawing its first minister is having any effect on the health service or passing a budget.

This week, addressing a business conference, DUP economy minister Gordon Lyons denied the withdrawal is having any effect on inward investment.

What is the point of the DUP’s supposedly drastic protest against the protocol if the party then goes on to insist it makes no difference?

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Mike Nesbitt’s private member’s bill for libel reform has passed one of its last major stages but only after Sinn Féin and the DUP watered it down. In the assembly, the two main parties revealed their interests by talking endlessly about politicians, journalists and social media. Neither made any reference to the main purpose of libel reform - protecting scientists, academics and medical researchers from private companies criticised in their work. Nesbitt’s bill largely copies legislation Westminster introduced in 2013 after a doctor was sued for questioning the safety of an artificial heart valve. Only the former UUP leader and Alliance MLA Andrew Muir even mentioned scientists in a debate that lasted almost three hours.

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There were testy exchanges at Stormont between UUP health minister Robin Swann and the SDLP’s Justin McNulty over recruitment problems at Daisy Hill hospital. The minister accused the SDLP of electioneering by trying to “rebadge” Daisy Hill as a cross-border hospital. The SDLP has complained Swann will not consider “cross-border solutions” to safeguard Daisy Hill’s future.

What everyone seems to miss is that the border has two sides. Spreading the workload across it could threaten the future of Dundalk’s small hospital, or require patients in Newry to travel to the nearest major southern hospital in Drogheda. Unless that is acknowledged, all this is a diversion.

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Sinn Féin has been ridiculed by other parties in the Republic for attacking the Irish government’s €200 electricity credit as “the bare minimum”, while on the same day praising Stormont’s £200 energy payment as “crucial support”.

The partitionism was even worse than it appeared. Although the Stormont payment was arranged by the executive and the money is technically distributed by Sinn Féin communities minister Deirdre Hargey - hence the praise - it will actually be administered by the UK’s Department of Work and Pensions, as Hargey’s department does not have a computer system capable of adding the payment to benefits.

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It is no secret that Northern Ireland’s overloaded sewage system is strangling economic growth. “Essential sewage investment” was a pledge in New Decade, New Approach and there was a huge row when it turned out the government had its fingers crossed over the £2.5 billion bill. Then there was another row when the DUP’s Edwin Poots suggested domestic water charging. But nobody likes to think about drains or bills so the subject keeps bubbling under. An insight into its seriousness emerged when Belfast City Council approved converting the former Debenham’s store in CastleCourt into a cinema, cafe and two shops. The sole objector was Northern Ireland Water, which wanted a “net reduction in discharge rates from the site”. It only relented after assurances that other approved developments in the city centre have been held up. Belfast has reached the point where engineers fear a post-movie bathroom break could trigger the apoocalypse.

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Belfast’s councillors cannot stop debating ‘hate speech’, even when discussing how to keep out of debates on hate speech. Council officials have drafted a sensible policy to deal with preaching, protesting and busking, which would licence the use of amplifiers, restricted by time and number, rather than try to police what is sung or said. The DUP and People Before Profit keep objecting to it and this week the SDLP joined in, all squabbling over concepts of hate speech, free speech and freedom of religion that are above the council’s pay grade. The beauty of the draft proposals is that they approach the issue primarily as a noise nuisance. Alas, there is no fun in solutions that do not let people preach in the council chamber.