Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

So that's the Robinsons'  rehabilitation completed  then.  More than a year after it was begun.  Policing and Justice devolved, Peter Robbo and his mates preserved.  All is well in Northern Ireland.  Sleep well.

With the Republic’s general election done and dusted (not withstanding the small matter of forming a government), campaigning is about to get underway in earnest in Northern Ireland.  This morning the DUP announces its candidates for the Assembly, with polling for both Stormont and local councils set for 5th May. Alan in Belfast appears to have scooped this morning’s newspapers and the BBC.  You can read the complete DUP line-up and his analysis over at Slugger .  There are some signs of the party‘s much vaunted change of direction on the list, but it also contains its fair share of grizzled veterans. At Open Unionism O’Neill congratulates the DUP for its partially successful action on double mandates.  He notes that the party’s participation at Westminster has increased exponentially during this term and he chalks that up as one of the few positive legacies of UCUNF. It’s fair enough comment, but it should be said, the DUP has tackled double jobbing - except...

BBC 1 Northern Ireland screened Below the Radar’s Peter Robinson biopic last night.  Like the company’s programme about Gerry Adams , this was more hagiography than documentary.   Robinson and Adams , two hugely controversial figures, portrayed as visionary statesmen. Beyond the moral and factual arguments, this style of broadcasting raises a fundamental issue around the role of an independent media.  Surely its purpose is not to show political figures exactly as they wish to be shown?  That’s a job for PR consultants or party press offices. I wonder whether the sagas around Robinson and Adams, over the past year, tell us as much about journalism in Northern Ireland than they do about the men themselves. Twelve months ago the BBC in particular had sunk its teeth deep into Irisgate and the First Minister‘s financial affairs.  It looked like Peter Robinson’s political career was at an end. Those events were eclipsed by a vastly overblown policing and j...

Wee Ulstermen meet the Brits. While one part of the First Minister tandem spent his weekend assuring followers that the Union is secure ’for as far as one can see into the future’, his other half was addressing Sinn Féin supporters in London, telling them that ’the North’ is a political hybrid, rather than a full part of the United Kingdom. It’s fascinating, and rather pathetic, to hear the Deputy First Minister attempt to explain away Northern Ireland’s UK status.  McGuinness’s current beef is that the Conservatives are not to be deflected from direct involvement in Northern Ireland politics.   With characteristic disregard for democracy and the principle of consent, he regards that as unwarranted ’party political interference’.  It’s absolutely vital for Sinn Féin to present the various Agreements and the whole ‘peace process’ as something other than it is. McGuinness can tell as many lies as he likes about the government’s ’obligations’.  It doesn’t make ...

Peter Robinson made his contribution to Union 2021, the News Letter's series of essays, toward the end of September.  He urged unionists not to be complacent: the future of unionism is bright, but there are two significant hazards on the road ahead. The first is complacency. It derives from the belief that the constitutional question has been settled for evermore. This is claimed by some unionists but it is certainly not the view that republicans take. In Saturday's much vaunted pitch for the middle-ground, the DUP leader made a statement which sounds a lot like his own definition of complacency. The issue of the constitutional position of Northern Ireland has been settled for as far as one can see into the future. "That battle has been fought and won. Against that settled backdrop, let us focus on the people's real everyday agenda."  Adding: Too often unionists are negative or defensive about Northern Ireland's status Being pedantic, I suppose it's p...

Prioritising paid work has meant slow blogging over the past couple of days.  A more lengthy assessment of the CSR's effects on Northern Ireland is in the offing. But in the mean time it's interesting to note that the Finance Minister formerly known as 'Red Sammy' Wilson  has throughout the run-up to cuts struck a more realistic figure than his DUP colleagues, whom Belfast Telegraph Political editor, David Gordon, notes are becoming increasingly Keynesian (and it takes one to know one). Meanwhile the party's former leader, the Reverend Lord Doctor Ian Bannside Paisley, has taken what appears to be a dig at his successor's new found love of integrated education.  In a thoroughly baffling News Letter column he includes this gnomic offering: The lively debate concerning education which this week has exercised many is a debate that we cannot luxuriate in or afford commissions on, while there presently is not the funding for classroom assistants, for library b...

A new (cunningly named) blog is up and running - Progressive Unionist Voice .  There are a variety of interesting posts up already, including MLA John McCallister's interpretation of 'Progressive Unionism' . I've contributed a guest post too, arguing against unionists who have formed a coalition 'together against the national interest'  with separatists across the UK.  And I highlight an argument from Peter Robinson that is so profoundly anti-unionist that it staggers the mind someone who calls himself a unionist would use it.

In today's Belfast Telegraph I acknowledge that the budget cut penny seems to have dropped with Finance Minister, Sammy Wilson, but I ask whether Peter Robinson shares his realism? For some time our politicians have realised that separate water charges are unavoidable. With the budget tightening, it would be folly to defer them any longer. To Wilson's credit, he has argued the case for an immediate introduction. It is the type of unpopular decision which must be made in the interests of good government. When the Finance Minister authored a paper, working on the assumption that charges would be introduced for the 2011-12 financial year, however, he was rebuffed by his colleague in the First Minister's office Robinson rejected the document, describing it as "unwise", and rubbished the notion that the Executive is to implement a 'tap tax'. It is not the first time that the two DUP men have clashed over economic policy. Previously, Wilson declared his scept...

It’s not often that I would profess to agree with Sammy Wilson, or to have sympathy with him.  However I think that he’s got it right on water charges. Northern Ireland relies on a huge subvention from Westminster, we cannot be exempted from a UK wide public spending squeeze and it is no longer tenable to avoid charges for water which are applied across the rest of the country. Wilson, in charge of the finance brief, has attempted to impress that fact upon his Executive colleagues, and, for his troubles, he has been slapped down by his party leader, Peter Robinson.  Clearly the course is already set for populism and irresponsibility. We need to budget for water charges introduction and press ahead with them.  We should also look at the possible savings from reinstating prescription charges. It is no good perpetually ducking the difficult decisions in the belief that our 'peace process' forms a sufficient reason to keep throwing money at us.  

It might be premature to talk about 'the fall of the house of Robinson', but David Gordon has updated his excellent book on the Paisleys to account for recent events. As the Political Editor for the Belfast Telegraph it's impressive that he managed to find the time! The original review if here . Details of the new chapter from the publisher: The Iris Robinson sex-and-money scandal forms part of the crumbling of the Paisleyite movement in Northern Ireland politics’, a new version of an acclaimed book argues. First published in autumn 2009, The Fall of the House of Paisley, by Belfast journalist David Gordon, charted how Ian Paisley's time as Northern Ireland's First Minister came to an abrupt end in 2008. The new version, published this week, has been updated to examine the impact of the scandal surrounding Iris Robinson which broke early in the new year. Gordon's book received highly positive reviews and repeatedly made the non-fiction best-seller lists du...

Greed, money, sex and sleaze. The Iris Robinson affair stank of each. First Minister, Peter Robinson was clearly implicated, but there was no smoking gun. The absence of any specific proof of wrong-doing seems to be enough for the DUP. It has limped along with its discredited leader and even managed something of a revival as the Labour government sought to bolster its position. Now, however, the BBC has produced further seedy revelations . Remember the Robinson's property developer friend, Fred Fraser? He was one of the men from whom Iris procured £50,000 for her teenage paramour, Kirk McCambley. It transpires that he also sold the Robinsons a valuable piece of land, worth at least £75,000, for the grand total of £5. A generous chap, I'm sure you'll agree! During the height of the property boom its value sky-rocketed, before the pair sold it, again for the princely sum of £5, despite its market value now topping £220,000. The lucky recipient was another property d...

O’Neill has already highlighted the possibility of a ‘Celtic Bloc’ designed to extract nationalist concessions at Westminster, should the general election result in a hung parliament. Several newspapers have reported discussions between the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the SDLP and, yes, the DUP. At the SNP’s Spring Conferenc e the party set out its strategy, which is heavily weighted towards the possibility that a hung parliament might occur. Peter Robinson has also set out his stall , in similar fashion, highlighting the opportunity to realise ‘key strategic gains’ in the event of an inconclusive election. With polls steadying for Conservatives over the weekend a decisive victory is still very much achievable. However, almost all commentators agree, a hung parliament would be the worst possible general election result for the United Kingdom. Three parties committed to the dismantlement of the UK might be expected to aspire to that outcome, but the DUP is purportedly a unionist party! Th...

Is anyone else profoundly, stultifyingly, mind-numbingly bored by the saga unfolding at Hillsborough? From its outset I’ve been cynical about the process. Talks conducted between the DUP and Sinn Féin, Siamese twins bound together by common dependence on dysfunctional carve-up at Stormont, were never likely to deliver a genuine fresh start for power-sharing. But over the course of the past week cynicism had been replaced by tedium. We have had news of countless ’breakthroughs’, several impending and significant arrivals by prime ministers and even a US foreign secretary, a welter of leaking and spinning which has amounted to nothing. Meanwhile, at Stormont, Assembly business has effectively ground to a halt. The UUP and SDLP have participated, waiting to be included in the process at Hillsborough, but the DUP and Sinn Féin have been working with skeleton teams. Indeed Jeffrey Donaldson, Nigel Dodds and other figures have been consigned to the business of every day politics, seemin...

In today's Belfast Telegraph I comment on Peter Robinson's six week leave of absence. When Peter Robinson announced his intention to step aside from the First Minister's role for six weeks yesterday he chose to prolong a crisis of political leadership at Stormont. Mr Robinson hopes to use the respite to answer allegations raised by a sensational Spotlight investigation into financial arrangements which his wife Iris struck with a 19-year-old businessman. But his absence will leave the Assembly in limbo at a crucial period. Peter Robinson's increasingly desperate attempts to safeguard his own career could compromise Northern Ireland's political future and damage the electoral prospects of his party. It has been a traumatic couple of weeks for the DUP leader in the aftermath of Iris's withdrawal from public life. Seamy revelations about her relationship with a teenage entrepreneur have been accompanied by wider concerns over the Robinsons' financial affairs....

Peter Robinson is due to make a statement to the Stormont Assembly at 3.30pm this afternoon. This might be the moment that the First Minister chooses to step down. The immediate aftermath of last week’s Spotlight documentary witnessed a rather muted response from the DUP. The party’s officers met on Friday and this morning there were signs of support for its embattled leader. On Slugger, Mick Fealty speculates that , far from comprising a public display of unity, pro-Robinson noises are intended to facilitate a dignified exit. Eamonn Mallie hints that the First Minister might jump before he is pushed or choose to cite personal problems and withdraw from public life entirely. Certainly a clean break would mitigate possible electoral damage for the DUP. After years of silence, the media have got their teeth well and truly into the Robinsons. If Peter attempts to stay in place the major damage which has already been done will be compounded by a drip drip of low level allegations. ...

Well the text jokes are coming in thick and fast, but most of them are unrepeatable. Although the notion that Kirk McCambley's favourite song is 'sure it is old but it is beautiful' is rather a good one. The best spoof so far, though, is this version of Mrs Robinson which has found its way unto Youtube with indecent speed! Enjoy.

They say that truth is stranger than fiction. Certainly, in the film, the young lover Mrs Robinson chose to seduce was at least old enough to have left university. And Anne Bancroft, we must remember, was only in her mid-thirties when ’The Graduate’ was made. Northern Ireland’s real life Mrs Robinson turned sixty last September. Her paramour was a nineteen year old butcher’s son from Belfast, for whom she abused her position in order to secure £50,000 of business start-up capital! Last night’s Spotlight programme unfolded a torrid tale , which, had it not involved Northern Ireland’s most high profile political couple, would have been perfectly at home on the Jeremy Kyle Show. For the tabloids, the headlines write themselves. A First Minister made cuckold by a boy! An aging seductress called Mrs Robinson! But beyond prurient interest in the seamier details, the political connotations are grave. On the basis of Spotlight’s allegations, Iris Robinson is clearly guilty of serial im...

If I’m honest, there was a moment when I wondered whether an article I'd written for yesterday’s Belfast Telegraph, criticising Peter Robinson’s conduct after Cardinal Daly’s death, might not have been rather badly timed. Watching the television broadcast, during which the First Minister issued a statement about his wife’s affair and subsequent suicide attempt, was a disconcerting experience. It felt like an intrusion on personal trauma. It was difficult not to react, instinctively, with sympathy and pity. For the time being, the public mood, and media reaction, has swung, predictably enough, in the Robinsons’ favour. But the truth is that the about turn hasn’t been as dramatic as one might expect and neither has it been universal. There remains a degree of cynicism about the timing of these revelations and the sequence of events which led to the First Minister’s statement. The curious formulations which Robinson used to respond to financial allegations did little to dispel ...

My latest contribution to the Belfast Telegraph comment pages argues that Peter Robinson's failure to respond quickly to Cardinal Daly's passing was an error of judgement indicative of a larger problem. The two First Ministers are failing to provide the leadership which Northern Ireland needs. Cardinal Daly's passing should have marked a period of loss and reflection across the community. It's a pity that the First Minister Peter Robinson, rather than setting the appropriate tone, took two-and-a-half days to respond to the churchman's death. When Mr Robinson finally released a statement it struck a petulant note, hitting out at the media before touching fleetingly upon the life and works of the cardinal. Doubtless Mr Robinson had had a stressful week. His party remains engaged in an endless wrangle with Sinn Féin over the devolution of policing and justice powers, the Executive is still on shaky ground and his wife Iris was forced to retire from politics after a ...

I don't usually do a 'Quote of the Day' but this calls for an exception. George Fleming, I assume the same George Fleming who signed a letter attacking UCUNF, has called for a pact with the DUP, citing precedent . Where would the UK be today had Sir Winston Churchill not signed a pact with Stalin's communist Russia during World War II? In politics and in a time of need you sometimes need to do a pact with your enemy's enemies if you want to defeat the true enemy - Nazism in 1945 and Irish nationalism/republicanism in 2009. Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/letters/some-times-call-for-a-pact-with-enemies-14595412.html#ixzz0ZTI2QlR5 Peter Robinson as Stalin I see. Alistair McDonnell poised to wipe out six million Jews? Perhaps George is overegging the pudding on that one? Startlingly inappropriate is the phrase which springs to mind.