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Dublin Report Trimble hostage to party, Patten report to Mandelson

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

By John Kelly

So they are back together again, reading mail left behind in their various offices after the suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly on Feb. 11. Now they are planning various trips to Brussels to secure European Structural funds. But are they happy bunnies?

Not on your life.

They can sign all of the agreements they wish, shake hands or refuse to shake hands. Signing agreements and shaking hands will not change mindsets or bring people together. It’s a start, a step down the road, but that’s all it is. The divided people of Northern Ireland have miles to go before they can sleep happily in the same burrow. In an island where phrases make history, First Minister David Trimble’s recent remark that Sinn Fein has not been "house-trained" went down like the proverbial lead balloon.

Dogs are house trained. So are children. But how do you house train a political party?

What exactly did Trimble mean? If his intention was to compare Sinn Fein to an untrained domestic dog, then it reveals a lot of alarming insights into the first minister’s basic psyche.

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It certainly reveals that he, and other members of his party, differ very little from his more bellicose counterparts within the Democratic Unionist Party like Ian Paisley.

Bigotry is much the same no matter where it exists. Not alone has Trimble miles to go before he can change his mindset, but the resumed Assembly is going to be in continuous peril, unless the Unionist Party changes its internal policies.

There is as little likelihood of that happening as there is the slightest hope that the Irish tricolor should share pride of place on the Stormont government building.

Whenever it seems politically opportune, Jeffrey Donaldson or any of the other unionist dissidents can call for an urgent meeting of the party’s council to prevent the passage of legislation they may not like.

Trimble is not so much the leader of his party as the prisoner. While it is repeatedly argued that it establishes the superior democracy of the party, it bodes ill for the future. Democracy is useless unless it can be used for the greater good of all of the people. There is nothing democratic about a government that cannot work because of dissidence from one section of the population.

No sooner did the Assembly open in a very low fashion than we witnessed the first serious dispute between nationalist and unionist representatives.

Once again, the minister for education, Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness insisted that the Union Jack should be taken down from his office building. To add insult to injury, he did so on Coronation Day, when a steadily declining section of the British people celebrates the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

The Sinn Fein leader claims that he has nothing against Northerners who regard themselves as British and wish to fly the Union Jack. But he insists that he represents another section of the people, the nationalists, and he argues that they should have parity of esteem. Their tradition should be recognized as well, he says.

He is, of course, absolutely correct, especially now that the putative nationalist population within Northern Ireland is fast approaching the 50 percent mark.

McGuinness also warned that if he were instructed to fly the Union Jack, known to nationalists as the "Butcher’s Apron," by Northern Secretary Peter Mandelson, it would be an even bigger mistake on his part than the suspension of the assembly.

In the meantime, the DUP has come up with its own uniquely childish plan to wreck the Assembly. The party will regularly oppose the membership of Sinn Fein. And it will rotate its two party seats between its members as

suspensions occur.

Trimble has pledged that he will oppose the DUP plan with every means at his disposal.

"We are not going to allow roulette to be played with this administration," he warned.

Whatever about his chances of fighting off the Paisleyites, it seems that there is little prospect of his ability to solve the flags emblems with the deputy first minister, Seamus Mallon.

His view is that it would be better if he could resolve the issue with the first minister personally. Otherwise, it would have to be settled by the Northern secretary. And Mandelson, like Homer, tends to nod in the unionist direction.

Just how he will nod on the Patten Commission recommendations for the future policing of Northern Ireland is going to be an extremely critical question in the immediate future.

Only when nationalists are prepared to enter the police force can it be truly claimed that Northern Ireland is stable. Until then, policing will continue to be a major problem. The growing minority of the population will simply not accept them. So-called punishment beatings will continue. Killing may return.

No government can govern; no assembly can succeed unless its writ runs throughout the territory. It cannot be a case of "one law for them and the other for us." That is anarchy, not democracy.

At the first resumed Assembly meeting it quickly became apparent that nothing has been settled on this especially contentious issue.

Sinn Fein, supported by the Irish government, made it clear that it wants to see the Patten Commission report implemented in full. Otherwise, said Gerry Kelly of Sinn Fein, there will be no hope of recruiting members from

all sections of the community.

He also accused the Northern secretary of emasculating the recommendations to the extent that it had become the "Mandelson Report" rather than the Patten Commission report. He claimed that his party has no fewer than 40 serious objections to the policing bill for Northern Ireland. And he warned that it had the potential of overthrowing the Good Friday agreement.

When you consider all of the possible problems you will readily appreciate that there is little reason for any huge degree of optimism.

The fact is that nothing will be settled in the North until everything is settled.

And nothing much has yet been settled.

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