“These proposals are going nowhere fast..”

It wasn’t until near the end of the Politics Show discussion with Jim Fitzpatrick and member of the Victims Commission, Patricia McBride, that the Northern Ireland junior Minister, the DUP’s Jeffrey Donaldson, unveiled an argument [5mins 45 sec in] he had clearly been determined to produce in the debate on the leaked proposal from the Consultative Group on the Past, of a ‘bad bank’ to deal with the “toxic debt” of those poisonous foundations.

“These proposals are going nowhere fast. Because we will have a veto and, thankfully, we are no longer in the era of direct rule. The Assembly, the First Minister, will have to look at these and agree these proposals, and we’re simply not going to do that on the basis that we have read in this report.”

[Now can we bring on the 4 horsemen Victims Commissioners? – Ed]

It’s a point that was hinted at previously by Denis Bradley.

Mr Bradley said the consultative group on the past was a transitory body that should be wound up next year after it makes its recommendations – if it could agree on its recommendations – and the substantive task of dealing with the past in large measure rested with the Northern Assembly and Executive.

And the semi-accountable, and semi-detached, polit-bureau.. lycanthropes included.

Pete Baker