Alliance’s Sorcha Eastwood had it half right on Tuesday when she said the debate the DUP concocted over adopting a new EU law was “about internal DUP wranglings”. She added: “I don’t want to be spending the next two and a half to three years relitigating Brexit.”
It is about internal DUP wranglings and the bad news is that will continue, but it’s not about Brexit any more. It’s the pathetically weak, directionless Donaldson negotiating with his own party. That’s what it’s been about ever since he became leader on June 30 2021.
The first thing Donaldson did after getting his party to waste everyone’s day at Stormont was to issue a statement, but it wasn’t about the ‘Geographical Indications’ the law relates to. It was to lambast his critics – ‘unelected detractors’, as he calls them. This saga will go on and on.
DUP leader Sir Jeffery Donaldson with his party’s MLAs (Oliver McVeigh/PA)
His party remains split on returning to Stormont, with the MPs mainly against and former deputy leader Dodds the eminence grise in the Lords. Donaldson’s enemies in the party, most vociferous of whom has been Sammy Wilson, resemble those Alexander Pope described in his Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot: “Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, and without sneering teach the rest to sneer; willing to wound, yet afraid to strike.”
Dear Michelle and Emma. You’ve done the PR. Now when are you going to tackle public services? – Patrick Murphy
Lay me down, in the hallowed ground, where my father waits...
Donaldson attacks these internal enemies by the language he uses against his external ‘unelected detractors’. Of course his major external foe is Jim Allister, who is willing to wound and definitely not afraid to strike.
TUV leader Jim Allister (Liam McBurney/PA)
The whole performance is reminiscent of the ancient BBC comedy series Up Pompeii which, unfortunately for Sorcha Eastwood’s hopes, ran for 30 episodes.
Set in Pompeii (before the eruption), each episode began with Frankie Howerd beginning to explain recent events only to be interrupted by the cry of Senna the Soothsayer: “Woe, woe, and thrice, woe.” For the Soothsayer read Jim Allister, formerly Stormont’s Jeremiah. All is lost, principles forsaken, Ulster betrayed etc, etc. Needless to say the Soothsayer’s warnings never materialise in reality but that never stops the cries of woe.
Why Donaldson bothers to try to convince his enemies inside the party and outside is a mystery. He bested his internal enemies in February. None of them had the guts to resign from the party. The overwhelming majority of unionists think returning to Stormont was the right decision. So get on with it.
But no, he has to prove he achieved something in the two years of boycotting the Good Friday Agreement’s institutions, a forlorn endeavour for everyone knows he didn’t.
Why does he devote so much effort to convincing Allister, who repeatedly demonstrates categorically that Donaldson’s precious ‘Safeguarding the Union’ command paper is a fraudulent prospectus in a red, white and blue wrapper? Why does he bother when Allister remains a one-man band? Donaldson has seen him off in Assembly and council elections. The TUV wallows at 6%. He will never convince Allister but, more importantly, TUV voters will never vote DUP, so what’s the point?
Secretary of Chris Heaton-Harris holds the Safeguarding the Union document at Hillsborough Castle (Niall Carson/Niall Carson/PA Wire)
Nevertheless, this intra-unionist war will continue to play out at Stormont when serious matters like health and education and infrastructure should be to the forefront. Sinn Féin were quite correct not to take Tuesday’s contrived debate seriously, with most of the party’s MLAs staying away.
The whole performance is reminiscent of the ancient BBC comedy series Up Pompeii which, unfortunately for Sorcha Eastwood’s hopes, ran for 30 episodes
Arguing the merits of Geographical Indications just played into the DUP’s hands because that’s not what was going on. The whole performance was a charade, with the audience Donaldson’s critics in the party. It was another desperate attempt to prove the DUP can do something about EU laws being adopted in the north, which they can’t.
- Lack of cross-community consent in assembly thwarts automatic adoption of EU lawsOpens in new window
- Analysis: Pointless outcome raises questions about the value of Stormont’s democratic consentOpens in new window
- Brian Feeney: Jim Allister’s act of madness could ensure no unionist seats in BelfastOpens in new window
The UK and EU have the final say, but ultimately it’s the EU. The British do not want to provoke the EU into ‘remedial action’, and here’s the thing: with what looks like the inevitable arrival of a Labour government, Britain will be aligning with the EU in every conceivable way. You could end up in the bizarre position of the DUP trying to refuse to accept new EU law while the British government aligns, not with the law, but with implementing the new procedures and rules the law promulgates.
So would the DUP want the north to be the only place in these islands going it alone? Yep: sounds right.
Contrived Stormont debate is just DUP arguing with itself
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23.03.2024
Alliance’s Sorcha Eastwood had it half right on Tuesday when she said the debate the DUP concocted over adopting a new EU law was “about internal DUP wranglings”. She added: “I don’t want to be spending the next two and a half to three years relitigating Brexit.”
It is about internal DUP wranglings and the bad news is that will continue, but it’s not about Brexit any more. It’s the pathetically weak, directionless Donaldson negotiating with his own party. That’s what it’s been about ever since he became leader on June 30 2021.
The first thing Donaldson did after getting his party to waste everyone’s day at Stormont was to issue a statement, but it wasn’t about the ‘Geographical Indications’ the law relates to. It was to lambast his critics – ‘unelected detractors’, as he calls them. This saga will go on and on.
DUP leader Sir Jeffery Donaldson with his party’s MLAs (Oliver McVeigh/PA) His party remains split on returning to Stormont, with the MPs mainly against and former deputy leader Dodds the eminence grise in the Lords. Donaldson’s enemies in the party, most vociferous of whom has been Sammy Wilson, resemble those Alexander Pope described in his Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot: “Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, and without sneering teach the rest to sneer; willing to wound,........
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