I’ve a piece in today’s print version of the News Letter, I’ll not be putting it out on Slugger, but I have shared the full text with our LinkedIn Politics and Public Affairs in Northern Ireland (open to all with a LinkedIn account) group. In it I argue that the DUP has de facto been made more open by the crisis, when politicians who might otherwise have queued politely for their turn to gain access through the press office now have a much wider and richer access to the party in all or at least may of its parts. The culture of secrecy will never entirely lift from politics, but political parties will be forced to become more porous even if they choose not to embrace it in ‘peacetime’, so to speak. It’s a timely subject, not simply because of the news of the last few weeks, but also because we’ll be running a series of open workshops on some of the issues arising in Belfast throughout March… And its not an issue just for political parties but for all ‘closed’ organisations…
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty