Opinion

Newton Emerson: Indiscreet Jim Wells desperate to leave the DUP naughty step

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.

Jim Wells
Jim Wells Jim Wells

Jeffrey Donaldson has “paused” the DUP’s threat to quit Stormont while he awaits the outcome of protocol negotiations. It is unclear what difference this makes to a threat that was already conditional on the negotiations.

Equally tortuous positioning is about to begin over re-entering the executive in second place to Sinn Féin. Assembly member Jim Wells says the DUP is “at the initial stages of policy development” and should have an answer in its manifesto for May’s election. He added: “if I have a vote in the process, I will be saying I believe we shouldn’t go in”.

Wells lost the party whip in 2018. Although he seems desperate to get it back, four years on the naughty step has left him as indiscreet as he is naive. There will be no yes or no pledge on taking the deputy first minister’s post. The DUP will concoct a threat not to walk back in that will be as hollow as its current threat to walk out.

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Stormont has plenty of money, gets more every year, has powers to raise even more if it wants to, and squanders on a vast scale.

That context notwithstanding, the Department for the Economy is being asked to cut £100 million over the next three years due to the end of EU grants (an irony with a DUP minister in charge) plus the plan by Sinn Féin finance minister Conor Murphy to redirect spending to health.

Among the proposals being costed by officials are reducing the number of university places or raising student fees. This is an unnecessary trade-off: Stormont only has to limit places because it subsidises fees. If fees were raised, places would become self-financing and universities could expand at will, as they do in England.

Hobbling universities for a crowd-pleasing fee cut has already caused enormous, pointless economic harm. This is no time to make it worse.

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A good piece of journalistic wisdom is never to demand anyone resigns, as they are unlikely to do so, making you look like a balloon.

Politicians might consider the same advice. Alliance MP Stephen Farry told Boris Johnson to resign during prime minister’s questions in the Commons. SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, sitting behind Farry, was not called to speak so tweeted Johnson “must resign now”.

Were they expecting him to quit at the despatch box?

Recent years have shown one or two MPs from Northern Ireland can make a difference, but not by puffing themselves up with hot air.

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The Department for Communities has launched a £100 emergency home heating grant scheme but a daily cap on applications is being reached within half an hour of the online portal opening each weekday at 9am.

Officials have told MLAs the cap is to stop the system being overwhelmed. However, the concern is not an overwhelming workload. The Department wants the scheme’s £2 million funding to last until March 31, the end of the public sector’s financial year. The daily cap is to ensure it does not run out sooner.

You can see how this makes perfect sense to bureaucrats. But as the number of grants awarded will be the same in the end, why not award them as quickly as possible when the weather is colder?

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The PSNI has asked Stormont to introduce fixed penalty notices for cyclists, in particular for cycling in pedestrianised areas. This has greatly annoyed cycling advocates, who point out the ‘pedestrianised’ centre of Belfast is a lawless free-for-all of cars, taxis and vans, both moving and parked.

But cyclists are not really the target. Recently published correspondence from the PSNI revealed official frustration over so-called ‘party bikes’, which are classed as bicycles so cannot be regulated. Party bikes could be kept out of Belfast’s pedestrianised area by raising the automatic bollards designed to exclude motorised traffic. However, the various authorities involved have never been able to agree a bollard-raising policy. Differences must be profound if the PSNI thinks it will be quicker to get Stormont to pass legislation.

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The assembly was recalled for an urgent debate on “keeping schools open and safe”, with MLAs demanding answers on classroom ventilation, facemasks, air filters and CO2 monitors. Sadly, there was no mention of the surface infection measures some schools continue to practice, involving restrictions on the use of books, stationery, school-bags, food containers, homework materials and computers. Covid was initially thought to be spread by viral deposits on surfaces, known as fomites, but this was quickly debunked. The World Health Organisation reported as far back as July 2020 it had no evidence of direct fomite transmission. Stormont updated its guidelines to schools over that summer and the Department of Education now advises the risk of surface transmission is “extremely small.”

Where this advice is not being followed, compliance needs to be ordered.

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A competition has been launched to devise the official pudding of the Queen’s platinum jubilee, which raises an obvious question: how will Sinn Féin ban it from Stormont? The DUP could demand it on the assembly menu under parity of esteem, as the Members’ Dining Room serves an Irish cheesecake.

Hopefully, both parties can get their just desserts.