“Sinn Féin and the DUP agreed the wording of this legislation, to create a new department.”
He may have been standing up for Newry at the recent North-South Ministerial meetings noted yesterday [Did the rest of the Executive know? - Ed], but Northern Ireland Regional Development Minister, Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy, MP, MLA, seems surprised that the NI Executive apparently didn’t get around to agreeing the draft legislation on policing and justice powers today. Didn’t he know they were only “to be shown” the draft? Still, there’s always next time.. and a few more steps to take. He does, though, describe how that mandatory coalition semi-detached polit-bureau works in practice. Or doesn’t work. From the Sinn Féin statement
Speaking following this afternoon’s Executive meeting Mr Murphy said; “Sinn Féin and the DUP agreed the wording of this legislation, to create a new department. It was ready for agreement at the Executive this afternoon. It is now up to the DUP to explain to the people why this didn’t happen.”
I get a headache every time I read one of your bewildering tirades. Be pithy.
Anyone out there really think Robbo’s going to agree P&J BEFORE the general election?? Not with Jim Allister breathing down his neck he isn’t
Some-one should stop this numpty from posting (pete) this crap
I think PR did say he was going to let the Executive see (and presumably, if it was previously circulated for consultation) agreed, in one sense. But the Assembly needs to debate things. So that can wait while PR and CM go on their (respective) holidays. At their own expense, presumably.
Alex Attwood: “As Peter Robinson made clear yesterday, identifying a Ministerial candidate ‘doesn’t bring us any further forward in terms of when policing and justice might happen.’ So, on Sinn Fein’s watch, further progress will still be on DUP terms and in a DUP timeframe. ..
“Yesterday, Peter Robinson resurrected the old order saying ‘I’m going to veto it’ (a nationalist Justice Minister). So on Sinn Fein’s watch, out the window goes the equality guarantees of the Good Friday Agreement and back in comes the politics of veto.”
Jim Allister: “Such is the urgency to deliver on the Sinn Fein agenda that I predict the financial deal, which will be reached, will fall far short of what is required and vital services, like education and health, will struggle to make up future shortfalls. Just as at the outset of devolution these local politicians botched their negotiations with Whitehall, and got a mere fraction of that they promised, so their desperation to get policing and justice will result in the Treasury again wiping their eye.
“None of these matters are being driven by the politics of prudence, but by the politics of whatever it takes to hold together the latest deal.”
No sign of UUP or Alliance press releases.
11 links. Seriously. Make a friggin point. Blogging as a crossword puzzle. *tediumed*
omg !!!
i *tried* to read that, i really did but my eyes kept leaping all over the place when i was trying to read it !!!!!!!!!!!!! no seriously they did.
Seriously, you click on all those links and you get guided to nearly 100 other links. How the feck can anyone other than an idiot savant make sense of this and work out the point? Then you click on those links and its up to near a thousand self-referencing links in just two generations. Mental.
If people don’t like Pete’s blogs, don’t read them.
For me, Pete Baker is one of the great bloggers, and I love his very original style – a style that others on Slugger [Who's that?-Ed] can immitate but never match.
slug,
I don’t read them, not the links anyhow, but once in a while tracking back the self referencing craziness through many 1,000s of russian doll links is intriguing until even that is beyond my stamina. Try it, open a new window every link, your browser will crash and you will have less than 1% source material.
Pete’s says:
“Still, there’s always next time”
When is the one thing SF is surely running out of…
“Sinn Féin and the DUP agreed the wording of this legislation, to create a new department.”
where is it?
Pete, don’t be a wanker all your life. Have today off.
And if you’re not too busy could you try to bar my IP number from accessing this site ?
)
I wish people who had a problem with Pete’s contributions would just stop reading them, rather than drop in to fill up the comments area with whining each time.
Nevin:
Jim Allister: “Such is the urgency to deliver on the Sinn Fein agenda that I predict the financial deal, which will be reached, will fall far short of what is required and vital services, like education and health, will struggle to make up future shortfalls. Just as at the outset of devolution these local politicians botched their negotiations with Whitehall, and got a mere fraction of that they promised, so their desperation to get policing and justice will result in the Treasury again wiping their eye.
It’s interesting to hear Jim concede that the Treasury tries to wipe the eye of the politicians here. I wonder how he thinks that will change under his desired approach, ie direct rule.
And I don’t know how the Sinn Fein agenda is being advanced given that Sinn Fein are not going to get the ministry.
No sign of UUP or Alliance press releases.
There’s not a lot worthwhile to say about the latest DUP/SF footwork.
How the feck can anyone other than an idiot savant make sense of this and work out the point?
Presumably Jim would like Treasury to screw people here directly?
Hmm..that happened for 30 plus years – massive under-investment in infrastructure, roads, water and sewerage.
But hey, better to have a return to part-time disinterested English Socts and Welsh MPs than have democratically elected locals in government.
This is just insane.
I think the central point is that two parties are dominating, to the complete exclusion of the others, the Executive and Assembly, in the process of the most important action taken by the new form of government.
To recall, SF and the DUP gained 56.3% of the vote in the 2007 elections, with a turnout of 62.3%. That means with around a third of the vote, they are in complete control, ignoring the wishes of the majority they do not represent.
And perhaps that they are being more and more open about it. It is as unsustainable and destabilising as one might expect – and as voluntary coalition would be.
“And I don’t know how the Sinn Fein agenda is being advanced given that Sinn Fein are not going to get the ministry”
CS- I would imagine the fact that the ministry is been created is moving NI in the direction SF want, neither the DUP or SF will take the post this time round, as there is every possibility of SF been the largest party after the next election there may well be a republican minister for P&J in the near future.
ITT: post-y2k web newbies & intellectual lightweights criticise a veteran blogger’s writing style.
PROTIP: STFU to avoid yourselves further embarrassment.
[ No need to thank me, advice ia free on this occasion. ]
Protip?
Have I stumbled into the WoW forums by mistake?
“I wonder how he thinks that will change under his desired approach, ie direct rule.”
CS, I’m not sure that Jim has thought through the current conjoined approach by London and Dublin re. policing and justice – or the consequences of the Mowlam modification of the 1998 Agreement.
If you don’t read the links, and insist on suggesting the writer is being incoherent, then you are as good as self certifying yourself as an idiot.
I’ll join any of you in a conversation about this, but not on this thread. There is another thread for this conversation, which unlike most others on the site is permanently open for this very subject:
http://url.ie/1ztv