What odds a deal?

What odds a deal today? I don’t personally see it happening, and as I argued in a piece last week, if a deal involves unionism succeeding in returning us to the Drumcree era, then we are probably better off without a deal at this stage.

Sinn Fein have handled the current talks process pretty faultlessly to date, with the arrival of the two Prime Ministers a signal that the pressure on Peter Robinson to deliver on a date for the devolution of Policing and Justice has been cranked up several gears. Gerry Moriarty in the Irish Times struck the right tone when he observed that the DUP’s lack of humility could be the final undoing of the current phase of devolution, a view confirmed by the very fact that the DUP are seeking to stir the pot over parades as a price for devolution (something condemned by UUP stalwart, Roy Garland yesterday.)

Time, as ever, will tell…

The pan-Unionist front talks have seemingly buoyed elements of both leading unionist political parties whilst at the same time leading to key figures in the local Tory front walking away, taking with them the already barely credible claims of a new post-sectarian politics.

Meanwhile, the award for ill-conceived (and timed) political initiative of the year must go to Alasdair McDonnell, whose front page Irish News call for a centre-ground alliance between his party and the UUP was blown out of the water by the subsequent Hatfield House talks. Mind you, given the Labour furore over those talks hosted by Lord Cranborne, the fall-out narrative may be one which holds a reckless and inexperienced Cameron leadership to blame for a careless intervention at a crucial period in the negotiating process.

Categories Uncategorised

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated.