ARLENE Foster and Martin McGuinness were very upbeat on Monday: so upbeat, in fact, that you’d have thought that both of them had shared an It’s A Wonderful Life moment over Christmas.
It’s like they’d seen a ‘political’ Bedford Falls which didn’t include them and then realised that they could, no matter how bad things had looked before, make a difference for the better from now on. And about time too.
Back in May 2007 the DUP and Sinn Fein claimed to have reached an arrangement that would allow them to govern jointly and consensually.
They promised to end the stop-start nature of government they had inherited from David Trimble and the SDLP and, instead, deliver a Programme for Government which would change Northern Ireland forever.
They promised much the same in 2011 — hoping to defy Dr Johnson’s dictum that a second marriage is the “triumph of hope over experience”.
Yet by the end of 2014 Peter Robinson was admitting that the institutions “weren’t fit for purpose,” while Martin McGuiness confirmed that most DUP MLAs didn’t even talk to him.
For most of 2015 the two parties were at loggerheads, including a three-month period when it looked as though the whole political/peace process was about to tumble into the abyss.
Martin and Arlene say they are prepared to work together because that’s what the people want them to do.
Hmm. I’m pretty sure that’s what the people wanted them to do from May 2007, yet they managed to make an absolute dog’s dinner of every opportunity they were given: not least a massive majority over the UUP and SDLP and virtual control of the Executive and most of the departments.
Yes, they have chalked up a fair number of successes, but most of those are they day-to-day things which could just as easily have been done by direct rule ministers.
When it came to the big-ticket stuff, though—like legacy, shared future, integration and common cause—there was no agreement at all. Indeed the political parties, all five of the big ones, looked just as far apart as they had ever been.
The DUP and Sinn Fein snapped and snarled on a daily basis, while the UUP and SDLP complained about being ignored on key issues.
Alliance, meanwhile, tut-tutted about the dysfunctionality and incivility at the heart of government, yet, having convinced themselves that they were a vital cog in the wonky machine, decided to stay where they were and keep propping it up.
It can change: but only if the parties want it to. That change could begin with the DUP and Sinn Fein including some joint policy pledges and agreements in their manifestos, along with an unambiguous commitment to deliver them.
The likelihood is that they will remain the largest parties, so what have they got to lose with a pre-election agreement on key issues?
They need each other; they know they need each other; so why all the ‘ourselves alone’ nonsense?
The other thing they need to do is beef up the opposition stuff in the Fresh Start document, with key elements from John McCallister’s opposition bill and ensure that there will be effective opposition structures in place by the time the Assembly meets after the election.
Barriers need to be established for entry to the Executive, if only because the five party model has been mostly dreadful. This isn’t about closing doors to government: rather, it’s about opening doors to choice, accountability, scrutiny, effective debate and genuine alternatives.
The all-in approach to the Executive may have had merit in 1998. Today it’s just the sort of junket politicking we used to see in Latin America in the 1970s.
In other words, the only way we’re going to get opposition is if we force parties into it — albeit kicking, screaming and whingeing about self-serving ‘status.’
I have sympathy with Jim Allister’s views on voluntary coalition, but it strikes me that what he wants isn’t going to happen any time soon—and certainly not in time for the next election.
Anyway, it looks like it’ll be much the same result as we had last time, with Sinn Fein and the DUP in top dog place.
Which is why I think it makes sense for them to show some courage and indicate the policies they are prepared to deliver together; as well as creating the circumstances in which the smaller parties have to stand on their own two feet and offer something different.
There is no place in the Assembly for an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to the Executive. And nor is there any sense in limiting choices and restricting opposition.
Good government is possible here: but it requires courage from all of the parties. Time for Foster and McGuinness to give us a genuine Fresh Start.
