The IRA funeral crisis is over at Stormont. Every other executive party backed an assembly motion calling for Sinn Féin ministers to apologise, rather than to resign. Sinn Féin did not vote against, which is as close to an apology as this form of politics can get.
The other parties also voted to consider an assembly committee inquiry, which as RHI showed, mainly involves witnesses saying they cannot prejudice a police inquiry.
The real scandal is increasingly at Belfast City Council, which handed Roselawn Cemetery over to republican “stewarding”.
Councils are not mini-Stormonts: they are run by their officials, with councillors little better than consultees. However, councillors can and have called for an independent inquiry into the funeral decision, which means blame would land somewhere inside the bureaucracy.
Signs of internal strain at this are already apparent, with statements and apologies issued from the council’s press office and separately by two senior officials via a public relations firm. Both officials have also threatened to resign if an independent inquiry goes ahead.
It may ultimately suit political parties to have this end with administrators at loggerheads.
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It is hardly unheard of for public authorities in Northern Ireland to back down before ‘community representatives’. Flags, parades, bonfires and murals are the most obvious instances. Amenities such as leisure centres can be even more irregularly available than crematoriums. Certain forms of business escape conventional regulation.
Threats rarely have to be made by the self-entitled, self-appointed hard men in question. Their implied menace is recognised across all layers of government.
In 2016, the Sinn Féin and DUP executive published an Action Plan for Tackling Paramilitarism, covering mere “paramilitary activity” as well as criminality. Its key recommendation is “promoting lawfulness”. The executive committed itself to spreading this message across society by word and deed, including by “promoting responsible cooperation with the authorities as part of a culture of lawfulness.”
The plan is based on a report commissioned under the 2015 Fresh Start agreement. It was reaffirmed as a priority by all five executive parties and the British and Irish governments in January’s New Decade, New Approach deal and reaffirmed again by the new Irish government under its coalition agreement. It is all there in black and white.
So when will the culture of the ‘black and whites’ be tackled?
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A leaked plan from the Department of Health shows officials are planning to introduce the Danish model of accident and emergency, where patients are only accepted by ambulance or referral. All walk-in patients will be triaged at new urgent care centres, where most of them will also be treated. Two-thirds of current A&E admissions in Northern Ireland are described as “inappropriate”, although the department admits this is its fault for giving most patients no other choice.
Experience in Denmark shows its model can work but medics need to screen ambulance calls and people still turn up at A&Es in person, where they are told to phone an out-of-hours GP to see if they should be there. Would Northern Ireland observe the Scandinavian levels of compliance this approach appears to involve?
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Stormont ministers are to get the power to introduce polygraph ‘lie detectors’ to monitor serious offenders during release under licence, under new UK-wide terrorism legislation.
As this argument could become contentious, it is fortunate it can be easily avoided. Polygraphs are not needed in Northern Ireland because they do not work. They have about as much scientific validity as phrenology, homeopathy or dowsing rods. Although they are used by some law enforcement agencies in the United States, the US Congress and Supreme Court both declared their ‘evidence’ worthless decades ago. Frankly, it is extraordinary the UK government is indulging this nonsense. Is it not supposed to be the DUP that makes a mockery of science?
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Queen’s University Belfast is chartering a plane to fly its Chinese students directly from Beijing, due to coronavirus concerns.
Addressing growing political tensions between China and the UK will be harder. Last month, China’s Ministry of Education warned students against studying in Australia as disputes between the two countries escalated.
UK universities could be next, yet Northern Ireland might be spared. Last week, China’s embassy in Dublin said Ireland should support its crackdown in Hong Kong because: “Like the Irish people, the Chinese people...will never again swallow the bitter fruit of foreign oppression and the nation being divided.”
If China is going to play this old Cold War game, Northern Ireland could be omitted from boycotts of Britain.
Think of it as Beijing’s version of the sea border.
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Developer Osborne+Co has received final planning permission to proceed with its 16-acre, £450 million Belfast Waterside project.
A welcome feature of the scheme is that its riverfront public areas have been designed not to be windy, unlike the extension to the Waterfront Hall, which has given the opposite bank of the Lagan a permanent gale.
