Friday, December 28, 2007
Sinn Fein, their faltering game and one big European chance for glory…
Catriona Ruane probably has the stiffest test of all Sinn Fein’s new ministers. For that reason, I’m not sure that Frank’s analysis suggesting she’s performed poorly alongside her colleagues Conor Murphy and Michelle Gildernew, even if that was the impression given by northern delegates at a recent ‘closed door’ meeting in Dublin. Neither have faced the challenge she does in carrying forward actionable reforms in an area that is both prominent and which splits neatly down the Nationalist /Unionist divide. Nevertheless, he is less than impressed with the total impact of Sinn Fein, both on the governmental front, or in the decidedly partisan way they have dealt with public order problems such as the killing of Paul Quinn. He’s less than impressed with the response of the northern leadership to failure in the south:
It is telling that despite Fine Gael’s success Kenny fired Phil Hogan and a question-mark remains over Kenny’s leadership. Rabbitte and the authors of the Mullingar Strategy in Labour have been cast aside. Sinn Féin’s upper leadership remains intact and the move of key northern activists like Declan Kearney into positions of authority in the party in the South suggests that Adams, having listened to the opinion of Southern members for the last six months has decided to ignore it and continue to centralise control in the mistaken belief that someone other than him, and he alone, is responsible for the party’s disastrous election campaign.
The party’s response to the Paul Quinn murder is being distinctive by its very repetition:
.The murder of Paul Quinn brought out the standard Sinn Féin approach of blackening the name of the victim with accusations of criminality that seem unproven. What seems more clear is the eager desire among their political opponents to hi-jack the Quinn’s case to attack Sinn Féin, but they would have no campaign to manipulate were it not for Quinn’s murder and how Sinn Féin handled it.
He finishes with a useful corrective to Vincent Browne’s view that Sinn Fein is likely to be pro the EU Treaty in the upcoming referendum:
Ahh Vincent, take thy head out from the Mahon Tribunal and read a paper. Sinn Féin’s party leadership, and McDonald & Adams in particular, have been making clear their intention to not simply oppose the Reform Treaty, but to lead the opposition to it. Most recent press statement from the party on it is here. What makes Browne’s error all the more mystifying is that the former Sinn Féin European Director Eoin O Broin now writes for his magazine. This referendum campaign gives Sinn Féin the opportunity to portray itself as the ‘real’ opposition to establishment centrist politics and even the possibility of fighting a winning campaign, which would be a massive boost to a party going into Local Elections in 2009, and European Elections where only a miracle will save their seat in Dublin.
In truth, Sinn Fein has much more in common with UKIP on Europe, since both are concerned with protecting what’s left of their respective countries’ independent sovereignty.
With most other parties in favour, Frank may have fingered one way for the party to get back some of its equilibrium south of the border.
Mick Fealty @ 03:19 PM
I think you’re right Mick. although all the knives have been out for Ruane she has succeeded in getting rid of the 11+ no matter what compromise takes its place. She rid out the NIPSA row and showed plenty of steel on the issue. Voters are inclined to like a strong willed politician, so come the next electoral test I think Ruane might do better than some people on the far left would like.
Posted by on Dec 28, 2007 @ 05:59 PMsms: she has succeeded in getting rid of the 11+ no matter what compromise takes its place.
No she didn’t. Martin McGuinness got rid of the 11+. Catriona Ruane’s job has been to try to find agreement on a replacement. There has been exactly 0% progress on that!
Posted by on Dec 28, 2007 @ 06:23 PMShe rid out the NIPSA row and showed plenty of steel on the issue.
On the contrary, she was putty in the hands of the bureaucrats.
Posted by on Dec 28, 2007 @ 06:38 PMShe certainly hasn’t made any efforts to stop some schools from operating their own version of the 11+ in the future meaning it’ll continue without any oversight. So instead of ending it she has just failed to stop it being privatised.
Posted by on Dec 28, 2007 @ 06:44 PMmark, runciter and reader
so you all think that the 11+, in its present form, will continue beyond next yearPosted by on Dec 28, 2007 @ 06:58 PMsms,
Some schools have said they fully intend to use their own version. As yet Ruane has done nothing to prevent them being funded if they continue with a process against policy or to prevent Primary Schools from assisting with the process.
Posted by on Dec 28, 2007 @ 07:04 PMI think for SF to move further to the right over the EU would be a grave mistake, OK the may end up on the winning side in the referendum but it will not stop the move towards an intergrated EU. What SF should be doing is demanding the democratization of Europe, for that is a battle worth fighting.
I would be interested to hear more about those British Eurosceptic’s Mick alleges that SF had been leaning on. Frank is absolutely correct in that Adams has decided to move the party to the right as many of us predicted he would. All his talk about consulting the membership was simply more control freakery.
Perhaps it is time to ask what is the point of SF?
Posted by on Dec 28, 2007 @ 07:07 PMPerhaps it is time to ask what is the point of SF?
The voters will be asking that as well. Sinn Fein and the DUP are protest parties. They approach voters on the basis that a vote for them is a signal to the powers that be that they’re against something. Neither of them have any coherent strategies about how to build, extend or improve anything. The 11+ farce is pretty representative of this.
Posted by on Dec 28, 2007 @ 07:15 PMmark
what you are saying is that the 11+ will be gone
but that some other kind of selection, as yet
unspecified, may be introduced by the grammar schools. I suppose that is a possibility and could well be akin to the “banding” system used by many secondary schools already. But my main point is that the 11+ will no longer exist and that is all that was ever promised.Posted by on Dec 28, 2007 @ 07:17 PMMick Hall - you have email
Posted by on Dec 28, 2007 @ 07:19 PMMick,
Good post.
The failure of Adams to move on is clearly a sign of his arrogance and something that seems to permeate Sinn Fein as a party, even McGuinness smacks of it. Over on Balrog many comments have been left to him about Adams hanging on in when others have been hung out to dry due to the democratic wishes of the electorate. The main excuse for Adams as leader is that he is party ‘president’ and didn’t actually stand despite spearheading the campaign, a strategy which I suppose protects him from immediate failure yet leaves people like Frank and us thinking that Adams’ campaign strategy was poor and becuase of this he should go.
The performances of SF in the Assembly have been poor, as you have mentioned on occasions, but it is clear that abstaining from parliamentary bodies has stunted the ability of the party to speak on its feet on the floor of the Northern Ireland assembly.
Anyway, in terms of Ruane, yes she has difficulties but the question should be asked of the wanting DUP as to why it left so vital, so key, a department for others to bring in fundamental changes.
Education is the best form of social welfare, the springboard if you like and Unionists have wandered off too many times using familiar tactics of blasting opponents from the outside while they are in trying to make changes for the best.
In relation to change and educational change the question has to be asked is change such a bad thing. Change is necessary and is something we all must embrace and if it is embrace meaningfully with relevant educationalists involved then the determination should be deliver change for the *better*.
Posted by on Dec 28, 2007 @ 08:27 PMMick Hall: “I think for SF to move further to the right over the EU would be a grave mistake, OK the may end up on the winning side in the referendum but it will not stop the move towards an intergrated EU. What SF should be doing is demanding the democratization of Europe, for that is a battle worth fighting. “
A pity the powers that be don’t like that notion, Mick—too much of a chance that the little people might vote down the negotiated capitulation their political masters seek to foist off on them, such as the EU Constitution. The Dutch and French votes on that particular dead letter has like as not all but driven a stae in the heart of honest democracy, for fear the sheeple might actually say “no.”
Posted by on Dec 28, 2007 @ 08:31 PMThe traditional case for unionism has collapsed so we are now being subjected to a barrage of anti-Sinn Fein sophistry.
Sinn Fein are to far left/insufficiently left. They refuse to take the blame when hard men (including demobbed republicans) fight amongst each other so they don’t care about their fellow citizens/are identified with those same hard men. And on it goes.
You still don’t get it. Powersharing is the only game in town and unionists missed their chance to play a leading part in it.
Loyalists aren’t going to flock back to the lodges - they know co-operation is the only way forward for both sides.
If unionism wants to make a comeback it has to redefine itself. This sort of nonsense just shows that they have no constructive way forward.
Posted by on Dec 28, 2007 @ 09:10 PM“so we are now being subjected to a barrage of anti-Sinn Fein sophistry.”
Are you saying the people of Ireland, the electorate, tricked Sinn Fein out of votes here or something or what.
Adams was shite on TV, he put across outdated arguments of too heavy a northern substance especially by wanting to Pattenise, perhaps he meant patronise, the Gardai, this was a statement by him that stood out as being contradictory in terms of wanting to, seemingly, Tory-ise the Irish Police service. At least if I were Irish I would think that’s what he wanted to do.
Patten = Tory = Hong Kong Governor = Discriminatory Police Service, etc.
And that’s only picking up on one example. TV is everything nowadays you gotta do it there, he didn’t do it, he’s still there, why - is he special - devine perhaps?
Posted by on Dec 28, 2007 @ 09:26 PMI’m not sure being on the winning side of a No referendum vote will build a profile as the party of true opposition. It didn’t deliver anything sustainable after Nice 1 and 2 for either SF or the Greens. To be the voice of opposition you wouldn’t be showing a willingness to get into bed with FF at almost any cost in both cases.
To be a credible opposition you need to be consistently credible as an alternative.
Posted by on Dec 28, 2007 @ 09:51 PMStrategy is a little strange. If I were in Sinn Fein I’d completely focus on the North - where they know what is going on. And try to reach out to urban Protestants.
Posted by on Dec 28, 2007 @ 10:55 PMAll the small parties did badly in the South and as the Greens are demonstrating so well the price of influence is a willingness to compromise.
Sinn Fein lost one seat and you guys are writing them off. It won’t happen that easily and the proof of that is their willingness to go along with whatever it takes to start building a new society here.
People have rejected the old ‘Not an inch’ type politics, not Sinn Fein. It is the old intransigents in the UUP who have lost all credibility not the two largest parties at Stormont.
Posted by on Dec 29, 2007 @ 05:28 AMMost of the above may be irrelevant considering the Paul Quinn murder. They had their chance and they blew it.
Posted by on Dec 29, 2007 @ 07:02 AMNew Yorker,
You may be right but my information, anecdotal it’s true, is that the locals in South Armagh are more than a little shocked by some of the people Bradley etc. are getting close to.
We all know that Sinn Fein and earlier the RA had some very dodgy connections as all revolutionary groups do. They are seen locally in NI as having gone to huge lengths over the last twenty years in their bid to clean up their act.
South Armagh is a special case, just like the Markets. Outsiders butting in, especially SDLP outsiders will get nowhere.
The republican tradition there predates the IRA or the setting up of the border,never mind one six-county party. They aren’t going to split over one killing however awful. As anyone with local connections is well aware much worse went on during the armed campaign when local volunteers went on the beer.
Posted by on Dec 29, 2007 @ 08:17 AMlib,
I buy some of the logic of that, but there are two questions arising: one the burtal corporate response to both killings; and the new ‘deadline’ of May 8th. One surely has a baring on the other?
Is a party that pleads political exceptionalism over the proper investigation of serious crime (Mr Adams declared Quinn a criminal within 48 hours of the murder) in a position to suggest they can properly handle oversight (albeit somewhat limited) of policing and justice with due probity?
Posted by on Dec 29, 2007 @ 09:08 AM“I’m not sure being on the winning side of a No referendum vote will build a profile as the party of true opposition.”
I’d disagree on that. I think Sinn Féin were able to use their success in the first Nice referendum and their position as a key part of the unsuccessful second campaign to good effect in the 2004 elections. Your point about failing to be a ‘real’ opposition when desperate to get into bed with FF is well-taken, but voters have short memories and SF is still, however validly, generally perceived as an anti-establishment party. The EU Reform Treaty will allow them to buttress that aspect of their support.
There are some interesting polling figures (EU wide, not Ireland specific) I saw a while back saying that while local issues still decide how voters cast their ballots in a European election, that figure is decreasing in comparison to an increasing amount who vote on EU issues.
If Sinn Féin is to achieve the almost impossible in keeping their European seat it will be by appealing to a certain section of the constituency who would not vote SF in Ireland, but believe there is a need for a critical voice in Europe. There’s a section of Fianna Fáil and of the left in particular looking for someone like that on Europe, albeit for different reasons.
Posted by on Dec 29, 2007 @ 02:10 PMSome schools have said they fully intend to use their own version. As yet Ruane has done nothing to prevent them being funded if they continue with a process against policy or to prevent Primary Schools from assisting with the process.
Correct, and that opens the prospect of the worst outcome of all, unless she outlaws academic selection for all schools in receipt of state funding, which I don’t think she can without the agreement of the DUP, which won’t be forthcoming.
In that event, we would have the real prospect of a pre-War situation where schools run what are de facto stand alone scholarship exams, which children in Primary Schools in working class areas are vastly less likely to be entered for in the first place. And less likely to succeed when they do, as the lack of a common curriculum will increase still further the value of private tuition, and plance a new premium on knowing through the golf club where your child’s best chances of securing a place lie.
CCMS may well whip their schools into line, and the handful of Controlled grammars can also be dealt with, but the majority of grammar schools which are Maintained and outside the Catholic sector will be able to do what they like. At which point, an awful lot of my neighbours on the Upper Antrim Road will lose their burning desire for a Catholic education if that means Bearnageeha and Little Flower and enter their own little flowers for entry exams at BRA, Inst, probably even Belfast High.
Therefore we will widen inequalities and risk losing our record of producing the highest proportion of working-class graduates in the British Isles.
It isn’t that there isn’t a need for reform, especially with demographic changes transforming grammar schools into de facto comprehensives for the middle-classes. But Catriona has fucked this one up big time. You know, she didn’t even try and get us and the SDLP onside (which she could have done) before she announced this in the Assembly. No harm to her, but she ain’t no playa.
Posted by on Dec 29, 2007 @ 03:05 PMMick,
There’s so much hypocrisy over this killing that I am trying to be tactful about what I say - it’s not something I am comfortable with as regular posters will know. ;-)
Could I suggest that maybe the President of Sinn Fein has sources of information not available to the PSNI without drawing down a torrent of abuse on my head?
Posted by on Dec 29, 2007 @ 03:18 PMYou can say that. And I might agree. But that is the larger part of the dilemma sketched out above.
Police services will only thirve under conditions of public trust. Effectively what you are describing is a privately owned secret service. Since the publicly owned secret service is currently (and for the foreseeable future) operating under zero scrutiny, you might say that’s a quid pro quo.
Apart from considerations of good governance, I’m not sure that that will suffice: especially when there are allegations against the very organisation to which the people providing the ‘intelligence’ to Mr Adams belong.
Posted by on Dec 29, 2007 @ 04:46 PMlib2016
As I understand it, most of the supporters for justice in the murder of Paul Quinn are primarily involved to see justice carried out in relation to his murder and determined that will be the end such acts against the local community. Also, the supporters are from a broad spectrum of political opinions. They enjoy considerable local support as many think it is time to move on and want murder and such acts consigned to the past. Many see SF as covering-up for this murder and many others to their own benefit and not to the wellbeing of the local community. This is a genuine grassroots movement set to gain further momentum next year. Governments and politicians would be unwise to ignore this movement: It is democratic, non-violent and has high moral principles as its guiding force.
Posted by on Dec 29, 2007 @ 05:07 PM
