Opinion

Newton Emerson: Donaldson needs to stop the awkward squad setting the agenda

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.

Newton Emerson
Newton Emerson Newton Emerson

The DUP has voted against the Windsor Framework in Westminster, or specifically against the Stormont brake, the only part of the framework the government is putting to a vote.

The wonder is that anyone thought the party would do otherwise. Downing Street was reportedly hoping for abstentions or a split and is now furious at rejection of the brake, the device it designed to bring the DUP onboard.

But for Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the vote was a chance to avoid a split by letting his party’s Brexiteers register a futile objection. Ian Paisley had announced he was voting against in Monday’s News Letter, a day before Donaldson declared the party’s position.

The DUP only got into its Brexit mess by thinking a few of its less biddable characters were harmlessly parked in London, where their political hobbies could be safely indulged. Ultimately, Donaldson needs to stop the awkward squad setting the agenda, especially if he is going to lead from Westminster while a colleague serves as deputy first minister.

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It is now clear the DUP is stalling until after May’s council elections but apparently it is not clear enough.

Before the Westminster vote, Donaldson told the European Research Group of Tory MPs the DUP will not return to Stormont. This was immediately relayed to the Daily Telegraph, which reported it online as “hugely significant”.

Within an hour, the DUP leader clarified he will not restore Stormont “at this stage” – in other words, there had been no change in his position. By then, other news outlets in Belfast, London and beyond had implied devolution was dead.

More months of the rumour mill grinding away over nothing, accelerated by the internet, will not make Donaldson’s task any easier.

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While Brexit may never be over, it has received a timely punchline. The EU is about to announce a dramatic simplification of the single market, tearing up red tape and regulation. This has become an urgent priority in order to compete with China and avoid being crushed by the vast US investment and subsidy programme President Joe Biden has enacted to compete with China.

Deregulation was, of course, the whole point of Brexit. Unless London can cut red tape faster than Brussels, which is hardly guaranteed, Britain will become the Argentina of Europe and Northern Ireland will become the UK’s Singapore.

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Jayne Brady, the head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, has launched a campaign entitled “peace, planet, prosperity” that sets out “our concept for a new era of transformation over the next 25 years, providing a clear path to #OurGiantAmbition for a thriving, inclusive, sustainable economy”.

A glossy two-minute video for the campaign is being promoted via social media and the executive’s overseas bureaus in Brussels and Washington. Branding includes the logos for Brady’s office, the civil service and the executive office – what used to be called the office of the first and deputy first ministers.

But there is no explanation as to how this is possible without an executive or first ministers. Even if the campaign is more corporate guff than a policy programme, at Stormont that is often a distinction without a difference.

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A new St Patrick’s day Orange parade in Broughshane caused “delay and upset” for people heading to the nearby Slemish Mountain pilgrimage, according to Sinn Fein councillor James McKeown. The PSNI says it put some “local diversions” in place but there are no reports of anyone failing to reach Slemish or of any other problems or intent to cause them. The parade follows a St Patrick’s Day festival held last year in the 90 per cent Protestant village.

If there were some extra traffic around Scarva this year because republican bands turned up to celebrate the Sham Fight, would that not be hailed as progress?

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Another rise in attacks on emergency workers in Northern Ireland has led to another campaign for tougher sentences, this time via a petition calling for new legislation.

So it is time once again to mention that the NHS in England has been tackling this problem head-on since 2003, with a dedicated legal unit to bring private prosecutions against patients who attack staff. This has proved so successful it has effectively embarrassed police, public prosecutors and the courts into being more proactive. New legislation was not required.

Perhaps the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland is beyond embarrassment. That is no reason why health officials and managers here should not have copied England regardless many years ago.

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Last October, in one of his final acts as caretaker infrastructure minister, Sinn Féin’s John O’Dowd asked his officials to examine improved connections between Belfast City Airport and the Sydenham rail halt. The separate all-island rail review is also believed to have examined this issue, although it cannot be published without an executive.

A public campaign has grown in recent months for rail improvements around Belfast, including a new station for the airport.

How popular any of this would be with the airport itself might be judged by the £3 charge it has just introduced to drop off passengers by car – or its successful lobbying in 2015 to have a nearby private car park shut down.