Opinion

Newton Emerson: Parties turn up for Stormont talks - and nobody notices

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.

Stormont remains mothballed. Picture by David Young/PA Wire
Stormont remains mothballed. Picture by David Young/PA Wire Stormont remains mothballed. Picture by David Young/PA Wire

It is a testament to the hectic news agenda that Stormont talks took place this week and nobody noticed.

Alliance convened a round of meetings on Monday and all five main parties turned up. The DUP’s attendance was notable one day before the Westminster vote on the EU withdrawal agreement, while Sinn Féin took the exercise seriously enough to send its president Mary Lou McDonald.

The choice of Monday was pointed: it was the date secretary of state Karen Bradley gave before Christmas as her target for convening talks, since when her office has apparently done nothing. If the distraction of Brexit explains this it is only going to get worse. The most probable outcome of the withdrawal agreement’s failure is an extension of the Article 50 period from March until July, with reports of the EU and member states prepared to stretch this even further.

The statutory deadline to restore Stormont is August 26.

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What is odd about Arlene Foster’s claim there was never a hard border in Ireland is not that she defined a hard border as hermetically sealed but that she then used this definition to say the border can never be secured against smuggling and terrorism, even with the most Herculean effort.

It is as if she plans to say, in the event of a no-deal Brexit: “yes, this looks like a hard border. But don’t worry, it’s still useless.”

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If the DUP is learning any lessons from the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal on the need for transparency, this has yet to reach Ards and North Down Borough Council. DUP members there have voted against publishing audio recordings of committee meetings, although equipment for this has been installed at significant cost and other councils have put such recordings online for years. This might be passed off as a case of shyness if the DUP had not also voted against publishing councillors’ approved expenses online. The DUP said this would confuse the public. It seems likely that most members of the public would consider their understanding of this to be crystal clear.

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The culture of local government opacity is hardly limited to the DUP. When it was reported two weeks ago that the National Association of Councillors in Northern Ireland - effectively a trade union - was seeking equal pay with MLAs, this was denied by association chair and UUP Lisburn councillor Michael Henderson.

“We’re not saying we want more money; we’re saying we want a review carried out and proper judgment”, he said.

Yet association newsletters since seen by the Irish News contain updates to members on “equality between councillors and other political representatives”, while a line on the assocation’s website states: “We are actively working to try to bring councillors’ allowances and benefits closer to those received by other public representatives such as MLAs and MPs.”

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There is never a good time to endorse the government of Venezuela but Sinn Féin picked a particularly bad time. As Mary Lou McDonald vigorously defended sending a delegation to the inauguration of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, even comparing his failings to those of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, dramatic video was circulating online of opposition leader Juan Guaidó being arrested. Yet as the video went viral and caused further international outrage, Sinn Féin representatives doubled down with their student union analysis of plucky Maduro versus Yankee imperialism.

Of course, foreign relations leave everyone morally compromised. The PSNI chief constable faced human rights questions this week after meeting Northern Ireland’s new Chinese consul general. But cynicism is usually justified with pragmatism. What does Sinn Féin gain by its ridiculous Latin American posturing?

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The Western Health Trust’s medical director, Dr Dermot Hughes, has told its board that “complex” changes to services will be required to implement the recommendations of the hyponatraemia inquiry, which found a cover-up of the avoidable deaths of children in Northern Ireland hospitals.

The inquiry made 96 recommendations but the key one was for a statutory duty of candour. This was referred to specifically by Dr Hughes as taking longer to work out.

While there is no reason to doubt his assessment or commitment to implementation, it remains an extraordinary verdict. The duty of candour is no more than a requirement to be open with the truth. If this is complex to arrange in a small, unexceptional health trust, what does that say about existing NHS structures?

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Indirect rule is has taken another huge step towards legal formality. Supreme Court judges have decided that an appeal against the proposed north-south electricity interconnector should go ahead at Belfast High Court, not merely to decide the fate of the interconnector but to provide legal clarity on what civil servants can decide in the absence of ministers. The judges ruled that the case will provide “a clear factual matrix” for all the issues at stake, so its outcome can set a solid precedent on how indirect rule works. Arguing over a power-line seems like an appropriate way to resolve an argument over power.

newton@irishnews.com