“What a sad spectacle Gerry Adams has become..”
Not full-blown yet.. But it’s getting personal.. DUP leader Peter Robinson responds to Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams’ comments – noted by George earlier.
Mr Robinson rejected claims of bigotry in his party and said the Sinn Féin leader’s comments should be treated with “pity rather than scorn”.“What a sad spectacle Gerry Adams has become,” said Mr Robinson. “He has resorted to making outlandish and absurd claims in order to grab some media attention and seek support for his party’s present absurd position. “The central accusation made by Mr Adams is wrong. The DUP is committed to working the Assembly for the maximum benefit of all of the people of Northern Ireland.”
And the same iol report carries the counter-response.
Tonight a Sinn Féin source hit back at Mr Robinson’s comments: “Many people in the wider community are questioning Peter Robinson’s tenure as First Minister. “There has been one Executive meeting during his four months in office. What Peter Robinson needs to do is focus on delivering on the obligations his party entered into in the St Andrews Agreement.”
It looks like some still need reminding of how far that argument falls short of reality.. Adds More quotes hereAlso from the iol report
In an attack on Mr Adams’s role as MP for West Belfast, Mr Robinson added: “West Belfast has some of the most deprived communities in Northern Ireland – both Protestant and Roman Catholic – and what is their MP doing about it? Banging on about his party-political objectives.”
Mr Robinson said: “People will rightly judge this as yet another sad outburst from a man who is frustrated that he is no longer able to control events in the way he once did.”
Still, “This isn’t something we are going to fall out about.” Is it?
More from the Newsletter report
Sinn Fein was putting the “ideological approach” before the “logical one”, the First Minister claimed.
“Gerry Adams comments are to be treated more in pity than in scorn,” he added.
“They betray a fundamentally sectarian mindset – not only does he fail to comprehend that unionism is not a religion but that it is also possible to be a Roman Catholic and a unionist at the same time.
“If Gerry Adams thinks that by resorting to such behaviour he will rally his grassroot supporters who are disillusioned at the distance Sinn Fein has had to travel it is a sad commentary on republicanism.”
A suggested solution
The north should repartitioned so that the constitutional status within the UK is secure, at least in the short term. In return nationalists should be guaranteed at least half the posts in the Executive including one of the joint First Minister posts. An Irish Language Act should be implemented as soon as possible subject to a maximum public expenditure cost of £5 million per year while Ulster-Scots should no longer receive support. Similarly, policing and justice should be devolved as soon as possible but the department should not be lead by a Minister but instead a Civil Servant jointly appointed by the north, the south and London- the current members of the Alliance Party just aren’t good enough. The MLK museum should be given the go ahead provided that the funding comes from the south.
Education is more tricky, but reflecting the importance of choice, schools should be free to admit pupils on the basis of academic selection. However, the funding for these academic selection schools would progressively be reduced (by say 10% overall) with the savings directed towards increasing the schools funding supplement in respect of children entitled to free school meals. In addition, schools in deprived areas would be able to offer additional pay to attract the best teachers. The corollary is that there should be greater scope to sack poor teachers and close poor schools – there is more than enough capacity in the system to allow for this.
This is only a suggestion- but it would be nice if Sluggerites could use their collective brainpower to come up with a fair and sustainable solution to the current political impasse.
Mick Hall,
Spot on about the Brits’ game plan. This is something that is discussed hardly at all… wonder why that is. SF i think still boxing clever though…
Dublin Govt also revealed its own intentions recently with return to safe nationalism of cowen and out with bertie who was actually threatening the status quo…
Comrade Stalin – a couple more quotes I tripped over – give me a good belly laugh and tell me El Gordo wasnt speaking to the DUP and that the well known SF mouthpice the Belly Telly just misinterpeted him.
Stop the misdirection. You specifically claimed that Gordon Brown was addressing the DUP. Provide the quotation from Gordon Brown where he addressed the DUP, and I’ll admit that you’re right and I’m wrong. You are more than welcome to continue to enjoy the belly laughs, especially if you perceive them to be at my expense. I reserve the right to call you on your twisted misinterpretations of reality.
Gordon Brown, like any other British PM, cannot be seen to be taking sides. Furthermore, the British cannot alienate the unionists at this stage, due to volatility at Westminster. This wanky republican fantasy that the unionists are on the puppetstrings of shady characters in London, and that unionists will do whatever the British command them to, died a long time ago. Some people obviously haven’t figured this out yet.
Toby,
That little manifesto of yours is a path to civil war. If the conflict here has taught us anything, surely it’s that people need to talk and work stuff out, rather than eejits imposing shopping lists on people like your one which sounds like it comes from a rural SDLP internal memo.
Comrade Stalin,
“twisted misinterpretations of reality” – were you including the Belly Telly and Wee Reggie in that as well – or just me? lol
Mainly you. Keep on laughing.
Sammy, who wrote the GFA? Although you think it was SF, and that the British government, et al, are following a SF agenda, you’ll discover with a little research that the GFA was substantively prewritten by the British and presented to the parties for signing. The SF party got nothing for their capitulation except a get-out-of-jail free card for their gang members and a few pensionable jobs in Her Majesty’s administration for the boys.
Dave
You are absolutely correct, however it is the nature of the northern Statelet that perception is all and it is for this reason alone that it is unworkable in the long run.
Of course the UK Government knows this and has concluded there best bet is to concoct a scheme that will at least keep the lid on the place, in the hope of the Unionists eventually recognizing the reality of their position. Pigs and flying springs to mind.
Dave,
thats the beauty of the GFA – you can argue its a sell out of Republican principles and the DUP argued it was a sell out of Unionist principles.
Dave,
If you mean that the idea was always to have some sort of local administration, then yes, you might argue that this was presented by the British, although they had essentially just adopted it from back when it was a key nationalist demand in the early/mid 1970s.
The early versions of the British/Irish post-ceasefire joint consensus of what should happen here in the Downing St Declaration and the Framework Document have significant differences with the GFA. I remember the Framework document in particular had the notion of “three wise men” who would oversee the assembly. I always thought the GFA was a unionist document with nationalist decorations; the decorations were enough to placate the nationalists but scare the unionists. Once you get past those decorations, the whole document really is a surrender of republican principles. Not that this is a bad thing – somebody had to surrender after all.
I have also always thought that SF were making it up as they went along. They expected in 1994 that the IRA ceasefire would automatically lead to all-party talks within which the British government would announce it’s intention to withdraw from Ireland.