Opinion

Protecting the shiny new DUP-Sinn Féin working relationship

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.

Daithi McKay's departure protects the shiny new DUP-Sinn Féin working relationship. Picture by Cliff Donaldson
Daithi McKay's departure protects the shiny new DUP-Sinn Féin working relationship. Picture by Cliff Donaldson Daithi McKay's departure protects the shiny new DUP-Sinn Féin working relationship. Picture by Cliff Donaldson

A Stormont assembly committee looks a bit like a court, from the outside anyway. It is established by law, has a statutory power to compel witnesses and evidence and can have people locked up for failing to comply. However, this sombre authority applies only in one direction. Sinn Féin former chair of the finance committee, Daithi McKay, allegedly arranged for the coaching of loyalist blogger Jamie Bryson on his Nama testimony, which included advice on implicating Peter Robinson.

If this happened in a real court everyone involved would be locked up. The DUP has now called on the police to investigate, while DUP chief whip Peter Weir says Sinn Féin's actions "run a coach and horses through the processes of the assembly". Yet nothing in law or in Stormont's standing orders rules out such extraordinary conduct. It is not clear what offence could be prosecuted or if there is even enough of a `process' to judicially review. It might also be tricky to define `coaching' in a way that would not include much of the inevitable communication between politicians, officials and others outside the committee setting.

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Daithi McKay's suspension from Sinn Féin and resignation from the assembly over the Bryson story indicates that whatever may be lacking in law and process, the propriety of Stormont has still been outraged. Or at any rate, it has been outraged by someone getting caught. Sinn Féin is suspected of protecting higher figures but protecting itself from southern interest in the Nama angle is an under-appreciated factor. McKay's departure also protects the shiny new DUP-Sinn Féin working relationship. Or at any rate, the appearance of a relationship.

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There is a huge ideological difference between helping a business by cutting its taxes and helping it with a taxpayer subsidy. The executive has just crossed that line with the Belfast to New York air route, which it previously exempted from air passenger duty but is now simply bunging cash at to the tune of £3m a year. It is a surprise that this is even allowed, given EU market regulation and America's strict rules on private firms accepting money from foreign politicians. The route's salvation will be especially welcome news for Sinn Féin finance minister Mairtin O Muilleoir, who uses it regularly due to his transatlantic publishing empire. One of his first acts on being appointed in June was flying to New York to "fulfil personal commitments and undertake ministerial engagements", according to an executive press release that was promptly withdrawn once the SDLP asked how these interests are distinguished. "No funds from the public purse are being used to cover the costs of this trip," the press release added. Perish the thought.

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The Parades Commission banned a loyalist flute band from parading through Rasharkin, leading to an exchange of views on whether this could be challenged in court. The band threatened to do so, while Mervyn Gibson of the Orange Order said the commission has "no right of appeal". The commission replied that it reaches all decisions with "regard to its statutory guidelines", meaning they can be brought to a judicial review. What it did not say is that it cunningly never reveals how it decides with regard to guidelines, meaning it is impossible to tell if it has applied its procedures consistently - which is the only thing a judicial review can review.

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Sinn Féin senator Fintan Warfield has linked the hunger strike with gay rights, telling a hunger strike commemoration that "queer representation" was "ensured" by "the 10 men who made the ultimate sacrifice in 1981". His explanation for this was frankly incomprehensible and he could cite no contemporary record of any republican prisoner saying anything even remotely relevant. The actual landmark for gay rights in 1981 was the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Northern Ireland, following a case brought to Strasbourg by Jeffrey Dudgeon, who is now a Belfast UUP councillor. Perhaps Warfield will pay tribute to him next time.

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A speed camera detects velocity, not amphetamines. This point appears to be lost on Castlereagh PSNI, which has warned motorists not to flash their lights to alert others to speed traps as this apparently prevents the apprehension of "not just speeders but uninsured drivers, disqualified drivers, drivers of stolen or ringer cars, drink/drug drivers, people who are using cars to commit crime, maybe a burglar heading to your home". However, it does make people slow down. Is that not supposed to be the purpose of a speed trap?

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There is no UK Green Party. The Greens are organised as three completely separately organisations in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Suspecting an early general election, they have issued a joint call for a pact of "progressive" parties to "prevent the formation of a Tory-Ukip-DUP government". This appeal has been signed by the Green leaders around the UK and sent to Labour, the Lib-Dems and Plaid Cymru. As none of those parties run in Northern Ireland, that means the Green leader here - Stephen Agnew - has just asked to form a pact with himself.