More fudge ahead?
The Belfast Telegraph’s Noel McAdams predicts the election will be called tomorrow, with no final agreement on what is to happen on 26th March, but the Secretary of State for Wales, etc, seems less certain. After meeting with the DUP leader Ian Paisley this morning, the BBC report quotes Peter Hain as saying “I am convinced that Ian Paisley is ready to be first minister on 26 March, as I am convinced Sinn Fein are going to deliver practically on the ground in what they have promised to do in policing and support for the rule of law.” Meanwhile, other reports quote him as saying, “There now needs to be delivery of practical co-operation with the police by Sinn Féin and delivery on practical power-sharing by the DUP. “Provided these two are in place, I think we can move towards an election on March 7, with power-sharing and devolution on March 26.” [added emphasis] More fudge anyone?
According to ananova Paisley is also reported to have “stated his belief that Assembly Elections scheduled for March 7 would go ahead.”
Parcifal
Too right he would, he can go to the polls and say look we got SF to sign up on policing but we wont play ball until they back it up.
Not a bad position to be in.
Anyway from a previous thread can you trust the dear old Beeb’s reports anymore since they are all pro-process and will spin appropriately? It’ll be UTV News for me!
scowling at each other, and constipated thinking is a funeral dirge.
the simple fact is this ain’t gonna fly unless they both get on the dance floor and start shaking their booties.
An election on March 7, with power-sharing and devolution on March 26 – why such a long delay between voting and the exercising of power? Surely this is a recipe for disaster.
smcgiff,
dunno it might be a recipe for some pizza delivery
Ironically (but not unpredictably), Paisley seems to be using an implied threat of violence in order to ensure the election goes ahead:
“I couldn`t really see the British Government not giving us an election because if they don`t, I think they would have trouble here.
“The greatest thing about elections is when things are tense and people have an opportunity to vote and to have their say, then you don`t have the dangers of an overspill of violence as a result.”
Is that his idea of a conciliatory speech?!?
Ian
Read the other set of oracles….Paisley really wants an election, whats that tell you?
I meant to add the link to that quote:
http://u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=79621&pt=n
Yokel:
“Read the other set of oracles….Paisley really wants an election, whats that tell you?”
That he wants the luxury of having an election without committing to power-sharing so that he can consolidate gains against the UUP yet still hold onto the backwoodsheadbangers vote?
If he gets his way, presumably he still won’t have a mandate to share power with Sinn Fein, so what’s the point? Will there have to be ANOTHER election if and when the DUP finally decide to do so?
It’s not unreasonable to be asking these questions, given that he STILL won’t talk directly to his supposed partners-in-government!
Officially all SF have done is mandate its to table to say when they see fit to support the police & courts so in practice they’ve not done much either. Such detail helped it get through the AF.
Politics Ian, thats what it is thats how its played on both sides. Paisley wants a mandate on his interpretation of the ST AA because thats all he needs. If thats the ground he fights on he’ll get his mandate.
‘top table’
Adams calls on republicans to report crime
http://www.belfasttoday.net/ViewArticle2.aspx?sectionid=3425&articleid=2004795
Delivery
Isn’t it time Paisley showed just a little courage, instead of mean spirited responses, and did the right thing for Unionists, as Adams has done and is doing for Republicans.
Paisley and Adams in words never sparse
Will for years on end spin out this farce
Each word and each sentence
They’ll surely both parse
While the Norn Iron voters
Get screwed in the arse
With Croppie lie down
And Jaffa shut up
The odds are now rising
On this polithick pup
That never has known father or mother
An Assembly unlike in the world any other
A sectarian pottage a mess without end
That will surely in time
Drive us all round the bend
excellent Greenflag.
If you can make a poem out of it, I’m sure you’ll escape section 2 of the mental Health Act. 1988
Cruel, parcifal, cruel! I thought he did quite well to resist not putting repartition in there somewhere
.
(Let’s just hope they’re no more verses).
lol rubicon,
I meant to say that he had indeed made a good poem out of it. Now I see the ambiguity.
looks cruel indeed, must be more careful.
However your point about repartition is superb.
I fear there is more to come
Cruel is Parcifal raising the specter of Ian Paisley’s bootie shaking. No poetry in that image! I’d make a crack about McGuinness on the dance floor but I’m afraid I’ll run into him somewhere and have to pay for it.
Parsifal
‘I fear there is more to come
Too true
The worst is yet to come and I don’t mean the ‘doggerel’:)
As oer Rubicon Adams did cross
Kowtowing to Paisley as Boss
The search for peace Grail
Can’t now surely fail
Lest Nigel derail
And become DUP
Lead albatross.
Parsifal of mien rationale
And temperament non neanderthal
Now sees ‘repartition’
In each Slugger edition
As a blow to the Irish morale
For SF the road to perdition
Is filled with DUP condition
As they hop and they dance
To the Ayatollah’s stance
They’d do better to demand
Repartition.
Though Paisley’s now old and frail
From decades of anti Gael wail
This wily tactician
Will keep finding conditions
To turn Adams & Co quite pale .