Anyone who doubted the value of devolution should examine closely the recommendations of the December Monitoring Round. The fact that a locally accountable minister was in post at Stormont making these decisions means that they can be responsive to the needs of the community in a way that some fly-by-night direct ruler, with their own English, Scottish or Welsh constituency never could.
Whilst it’s obviously true in both Scotland and Wales there are Unionists who believe in the principle of devolution, I do not believe there is one who would use such disparaging language to describe those elected representatives of our nation’s parliament who just happen to come from another part of the United Kingdom; that "fly by night direct ruler" jibe and the implicit separation of Northern Ireland from England, Scotland and Wales could have come right out of the SNP Handbook of Provocative, Separatist Phrases.
"You're surely spaking my language thare Big Man"...
"Glad to hear it Ian, glad to hear it."
What's really disturbing the DUP is that if and when the Conservative/UUP link-up succeeds, then Northern Ireland politics will inevitably be pulled towards the secular, non-communal variety practiced on the mainland; people in Northern Irish constituencies will be voting on the same issues which concern our fellow citizens in English, Scottish and Welsh constituencies. In other words, what is really disturbing them is the risk that politics here may be on the verge of becoming more....British and less Ulster.
4 comments:
I think maybe the DUP is trying to ape the CSU - the Bavarian Conservatives who pretty much have ruled the place since World War Two.
The CSU of course are allied to the federal CDU which does not contest elections in Bavaria.
However the CSU has acted - although federalist - as guarantors of Bavaria's "otherness" from Germany.
They were behind symbolically rejecting the federal constitution of the then West Germany on the grounds it was too centralised (the only German state to do so), saying they would obey the constitution grudgingly and to be contrary declared the state uniquely (till Saxony did the same upon reunification) as the Free State of Bavaria.
Another example of contriariness by CSU politicians is airport security. As border control is under the jurisdiction of the federal border police, all German states apart from Bavaria have left all security functions in the airports (both international and domestic) to the federal police rather than pay their own police to do it.
The Bavarians insist that the federal police only do what they are there to do - check passports - and all other security functions in airports are dealt with by the Bavarian police as a symbolic "screw you" to the federal authorities.
Strangely whilst it is federalist, it is the sybling of the minor sepratist Bavaria Party. Both parties claim descent from the regionalist Bavarian People's Party of the Weimar period. This in turn claimed descent from the hard-line Patriot Party that was opposed to the German union of 1871.
And who would be the DUP's CDU? There isn't one basically they are completely radio-active, the main parties will do sordid deals with them over 42 Days, Abortion etc but a link up as is the case in Bavaria? No way.
Actually, early on that was the kind of future foreseen with the COnservatives/UUP link-up, but I think things have moved onto a higher level seen.
And I remember well, the CSU took a thumping at the state polls recently?
he fact that a locally accountable minister was in post at Stormont making these decisions...
I'm not sure how any minister in Stormont could be considered 'accountable'.
The CSU did take a thumping - but still in power as they have been for 60 years.
Not even the UK Tories have achieved that - and the CSU have had to always compete in a PR system.
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