Political OD Podcast 10: Making Stormont better

The coronavirus crisis hit Northern Ireland properly just as Sir Patrick Coghlin published his report into the RHI scandal. This was an unfortunate coincidence, at a time when people were looking for the parties at Stormont to work effectively together and set aside their differences for the common good.

At The Critic, I examined the problems exposed in the report in detail. A malfunctioning civil service, a lack of political expertise, but, most pervasively, a cavalier attitude to public money, so long as it was believed to be coming from Westminster.

The Executive has traditionally used devolved government to extract every last penny from the Treasury, then divvy it up, rather than taking on the difficult work of reforming services. As The Dissenter argues on his blog, ministers were busy finding money for their political hobby horses, while much needed ICU units were left unfinished.

The rapid spread of Covid-19 has brought a new-found seriousness to the work of most members of the Executive. They've been following advice closely and projecting a sense of calm, in a rapidly changing situation. In contrast, Sinn Fein and a cohort of hardcore Irish nationalists used the opportunity to inflame the public by undermining the chief medical officer and his counterparts in London. 

That campaign was the very definition of politicising a deeply emotive public health question. The people who took part promoted the idea that the Northern Ireland executive must accept an ‘all-Ireland strategy’ determined by Dublin and it implied that, if ministers followed advice from their own officials or the British government, then they were being grossly irresponsible.

At the News Letter, I wrote an angry critique of this exploitation of the crisis. I was accused of politicising the issue, as if it was me, rather than Michelle O’Neill, who had accepted the chief medical officer’s advice initially and then attacked it the very next day.

I stand by my analysis that Sinn Fein’s tactics were disgusting, but I suppose I contributed to exactly the kind of reaction they were intending to draw from unionists. Perhaps I should have been more careful to distinguish between the nationalist fanatics, like Sinn Fein, who will use every crisis, no matter how grave, to push for Northern Ireland's absorption by the Republic, and the wider nationalist public, who are understandably scared and worried by this virus.

David and I discussed these issues at the end of last week. I was on the phone to observe the social distancing requirements. You can give it a listen on the widget above, or at Podbean here, Spotify, ITunes - if you're an Apple type or at Pocket Casts.

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