Opinion

Brian Feeney: Theresa May continuing to ignore impartiality

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

British Prime Minister Theresa May delivering a speech on Brexit at the Mansion House in London. Picture by Leon Neal/PA Wire
British Prime Minister Theresa May delivering a speech on Brexit at the Mansion House in London. Picture by Leon Neal/PA Wire British Prime Minister Theresa May delivering a speech on Brexit at the Mansion House in London. Picture by Leon Neal/PA Wire

All the evidence of the last 35 years shows that when the two governments keep an eye on this place and its protagonists and meet regularly matters run more smoothly.

The last best example was the years 2006-7 when Blair and Ahern shoe-horned Sinn Féin and the DUP into an executive after giving them an absolute deadline of November 2006 to clinch a deal.

The last big occasion of London and Dublin acting together to strong-arm the parties was 2010 when Brown and Cowen pinioned the DUP at Hillsborough and compelled them to accept devolution of justice and policing.

Up until then both governments had an identity of interest and objective. Since then they’ve drifted apart. They don’t meet. After they believed they’d completed devolution the Irish government walked away. Under Enda Kenny the north may as well have been on the dark side of the moon.

For the British however the opposite was the case. The Conservatives hadn’t won an election since 1993 so in 2010 David Cameron, desperate for a win, interfered in the north’s politics to try to squeeze out a couple of extra seats.

He prevailed on the UUP to link up formally with the Conservatives in the embarrassing failure that was UCUNF.

However, in the process Cameron meddled disgracefully here.

He fielded candidates in all but two seats in the UK and those two seats were North Belfast and Fermanagh/South Tyrone to give unionists a free run against Sinn Féin. Typical of Cameron, cynical, careless of the consequences. So much for ‘no selfish interest’ in the north.

As soon as the UCUNF fiasco bombed and Cameron found himself in a coalition he dropped the UUP and swung to the DUP favouring them in any way he could to gain their support in tight votes when the Lib Dems wouldn’t support him. So the DUP got crumbs off the table which damaged society here, most notably the end to 50-50 recruitment to the PSNI.

Cameron didn’t care as long as it helped his Commons arithmetic. During those years while Kenny’s government sat on their hands the DUP were able to block any progress here because the Conservative proconsuls backed them and let them away with it.

Theresa May continued Cameron’s bias towards one community in the north disregarding the Good Friday Agreement’s ‘rigorous impartiality’ requirement. But hey, this is the English government. They have form. When a Commons vote is at stake what’s an international treaty?

The most egregious example of this process was exposed again last week when Lord Justice Girvan burst Arlene Foster’s puffed up self-importance and declared her block on allocating funds for legacy inquests unlawful. He correctly pointed out that there is an obligation under the European Convention on Human Rights which is not conditional on a political agreement to conduct a full, open, transparent inquiry into why public bodies have taken a life.

Now here’s the thing. That obligation applies to the British government who have been blocking funding at the behest of the DUP for at least three years until there’s a political agreement.

Why does the Irish government not step in and demand a British-Irish Inter-Governmental Conference (BIIGC) on that issue? Upholding Article 2 of the ECHR is not a devolved matter. It is the British government which signed the ECHR, not Stormont. It’s a matter for the sovereign government that can’t be devolved.

The British government is required under its international commitments to conduct a timely investigation into state killings. Some of the relatives of those killed have been waiting 45 years.

The British-Irish Agreement, part of the Good Friday Agreement, is to ‘deal with the totality of relationships’ between Britain and Ireland and ‘there will be regular and frequent meetings of the Conference concerned with non-devolved matters’ – like honouring Article 2 of the ECHR for example.

Why did Kenny’s government since 2013 allow legacy funding and indeed legacy matters as a whole to become unlawfully dependant on a political deal in the north?

Why did they not call a BIIGC - even to keep the British honest - when the British threw in the spoiler of national security which again cannot be devolved?

Fat chance now with Brexit poisoning any British-Irish cooperation.