[Sherlock Holmes] How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?
Let’s play a game of What If? for a minute …
What if David Ford meets with the Alliance Party’s ruling council and they decide to show their giant bluff card and walk away from the Department of Justice? Since a Sinn Fein Justice Minister seems to still be beyond the tolerance of the other parties, and SF are thus unlikely to support a DUP minister, who else could do it?
Assuming Alliance are out of the picture, could either a UUP or SDLP candidate gain cross-party support? More likely than before, but not for certain.
Who’s left?
Jim Allister … ahem, no.
David McClarty … unlikely.
Steven Agnew … he’s already confirmed that the answer would be no!
What’s left?
Perhaps the Speaker could step down, drop his tribal designation, resign from the DUP and serve as an independent Justice Minister?
A UUP or SDLP candidate suddenly seems more likely. Unless both parties decided to follow Alliance into Opposition (unlikely).
Whatever would happen, it would create a whole new paradigm up at the Assembly/Executive. Peril is what the peace process has thrived on so far. Maybe it’s what they need …
Alan Meban. Tweets as @alaninbelfast. Blogs about cinema and theatre over at Alan in Belfast. A freelancer who writes about, reports from, live-tweets and live-streams civic, academic and political events and conferences. He delivers social media training/coaching; produces podcasts and radio programmes; is a FactCheckNI director; a member of Ofcom’s Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland; and a member of the Corrymeela Community.
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