Ian Paisley Jr. on the past

On Thursday 21 November, Ian Paisley Jr. said to Stephen Nolan:

"Like most people I woke to Mr. Larkin's statement with shock." 

Ian Paisley Jr. then explained why he and his party stood fast against the Northern Ireland Attorney-General John Larkin's call to end Troubles-related prosecutions. Paisley further said that, "I could not share what I think of Mr. Larkin on the air."

In August 2010, Ian Paisley Jr. said to a panel event in Belfast here:

"Northern Ireland’s future should not be sacrificed on the altar it’s the troubled past... Let’s stop kidding ourselves. We are never going to believe in each other’s versions of the truth. And I think it’s about time that we moved on... the cost of doing any inquiry is going into the hundreds of millions of pounds and I don’t actually believe it’s going to get us any further..."

Further reading

David Davis, the Conservative MP for Haltemprice and Howden stood in support of John Larkin's proposal. He said here that John Larkin's "comments not only reflect the spirit of the agreement, they also recognise the increasing impracticality of getting to the bottom of such killings."

Peter Hain, the former secretary of state for NI said here that he saw "some merit in the proposal from the Northern Ireland attorney general". He continued: "Rather than incurring enormous expenditure and effort pursuing crimes committed during the Troubles decades ago... justified grievances, including those of widows of prison officers and police officers should be addressed in other ways so that Northern Ireland can move on from its hideous past."

Senior RUC officers, including three ex-heads of Special Branch, have told the Haass team that John Larkin's controversial proposals should be implemented. 

Read David Davis in full here. Peter Hain here. Story on RUC officers here.

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STEM - There is a disconnect in the Executive

Judith Harvey was recently appointed as general manager of W5. She explained to the Gavin Walker on behalf of the Northern Ireland business magazine Business First the importance of science in schools. She said:

"Science, Technology and Maths (STEM) is relevant to everybody, every day - and that's what we have to impart to our young people before they have made academic decisions that close the doors on potential career paths. Too often our students in both primary and post-primary, are taught the process of science, but not the relevance it has to their lives."

Science is obligatory to GCSE in schools in UK and Ireland, this is not the case in Northern Ireland. Asked if Stormont is failing students, Judith said:

"There is a disconnect in the Executive. Where one part says that STEM is the economic driver for the economy, and we have to put the economy at the centre of everything we do, another part allows science to drop down the educational hierarchy. This send out a contradictory message about STEM to pupils, teachers and parents."

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Between the Tory far right and the BNP

Sometimes it's refreshing to speak plain English. To just say what everyone is thinking. Daniel Finn in the London Review of Books confronted the DUP political ideology and practice, one that is out of step with life in the 21st Century, Catholics in Northern Ireland and progressive Protestants. Daniel Finn said:

"In British political terms, the DUP slots in between the right of the Tory Party and the BNP, with a generous side-helping of fundamentalist Christianity. The party’s environment minister, Sammy Wilson, recently vetoed a government global warming campaign on the grounds that global warming isn’t caused by human activity, while another DUP stalwart, Mervyn Storey, who chairs the Stormont education committee, is trying to have intelligent design included in the school biology curriculum."

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Politicians need to catch up with the people, Ctd

In May 2013 former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland was one of three members of the Elders, a group of global leaders that tackle issues related to conflict, met a number of young people from Northern Ireland in Dublin to hear their present concerns. Brundtland said:

"Talking to young people who have grown up with the peace process showed us that a lot more needs to be done to build a truly inclusive society. They shared their disillusionment with a political system still dominated by sectarian interests. High levels of unemployment and continuing segregation leave young people in marginalised communities particularly vulnerable to violence and this is yet to be properly addressed."

 

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It's not acceptabe outside Stormont, so why should politicians be able to get away with such childish behaviour?

John Cunningham speaking at the launch of efforts to devolved corporation tax to NI.

John Cunningham of the Camlin Group said that, "if [Stormont] were a business they would be bankrupt." He further said of Northern Ireland politics:

"It’s like watching children argue, arguing at school. What relevance does it have? Why don’t they put it all behind and really look and address the problems that we’re facing... They’re only going to keep us in the past. They’re not going to keep our young people at home. They’re not going to put prosperity into the Province."

For John Cunningham the proper way is all about looking forward and the future. He said, "If this place is to survive and prosper it needs to look at things in a new way." He also said that any institution which is locked in the past is irrelevant. Jeffrey Peel wholly agreed. He said that, "Cunningham’s frustration with the nonsensical, circular squabbles of tribal politicians is absolutely on the nail, of course.

If we consider for a moment what is accepted of civil society, the behaviour of Stormont politicians is neither justifiable or tolerable. If we are to create a shared country we need diplomatic statesmen. The basic premise of democratic society is that politicians will necessarily have to work and govern alongside men and women they don't see eye to eye with. Democracy therefore requires open and workmanly relations. Politicians who can actually talk and show common courtesy and decency to other lawmakers. Politicians who can compromise and make arrangements. It's not OK for our politicians to be uncompromising, intransigent, belligerent, indignant and obstructionist.

Why does everything have to be made personal?

Students at college and university would never get away with rude and incivil behaviour. People in business would never get away with it. Students and workers have to pass rigorous character and personal assessments and stand by a strict code of social norms if they want to move up in their career. The highest standards of conduct are expected and nothing less is accepted.

The kind of incivility, childishness and babyishness that characterises Stormont would never be accepted anywhere else, so why should it be OK for Stormont politicians to behave like children? Not only does this mean bad government, but it also alienates the normal, functioning sections of society who see no relevancy in the political forum. As David Trimble said, "The 'Garden Centre Prods' are appalled by the amateurish nature of our present devolution." The same applies to Catholic no doubt. Not that religion matters.

The most functional people in society don't vote which, as Mick Fealty said, is "as good as an approval, albeit a lukewarm one." And so the negative feedback loop continues. The congress of clowns sustains itself by its very childishness.

We need politicians who don't make everything personal and who don't forever live in the past but who care about the present and who, against a backdrop of rising youth unemployment, healthcare uncertainty and a failing economy, feel the fierce urgency of the now.

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Stormont do nothing politics

On August 22 2011 Alex Kane wrote that "it [had] been 5,605 days since the Northern Ireland assembly was first elected, on June 25, 1998 and practically no movement [had] been recorded in any area of politics here in all that time."

800 days later and little has changed. No meaningful programme, no agenda, no business, no focus on the issues that matter to the people. Where there is activity it's the politics of lets piss-off the other side. A grand theatre of torpidity and estrangement.

The Richard Haass talks are a grand illusion which give the impression that much is being done. Other gestures and morsels are handed out to prop up the illusion of a functioning government. Like when politicians debated the decision to privatise the Royal Mail after the decision has been stamped, sealed and placed in the out-tray. Like the latest news on the duplication of legislative effort; as the DUP's Alastair Ross is introducing a Bill on a matter that is already in the system.

After UUP MLA Jo-Anne Dobson's private member's bill on 'opt out' organ donation, DUP's Alastair Ross introducing his own bill on the issue
— Sam McBride (@SJAMcBride) October 16, 2013

The public need to demand more and better from their representatives. Alex Kane wrote in summer 2011 that "thirteen years is a long time, a very, very long time, to get your act together and do what you were elected to do." Now standing 15 years post-Good Friday Agreement, we're very quickly approaching the realm of the absurd.

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