Two former Cabinet ministers launched a last-ditch attempted putsch against Gordon Brown today.And in light of today's developments, it's probably as good a time as any to post this which has been nesting in my drafts for the last couple of days:
Geoff Hoon, the former Defence Secretary, and Patricia Hewitt, the former Health Secretary, have written to all Labour MPs calling for the leadership issue to be sorted out "once and for all" with a secret ballot among Labour MPs.
A source close to the former ministers, both of whom were allies of Tony Blair, said: "We can’t go on like this."
Peter Robinson, in spite of everything, still found the time to deliver a New Year Speech.
It is mainly a defence of devolution or an attack on those dastardly "direct rulers", with once again that "policies for Northern Ireland made in Northern Ireland" making an appearance.
Right at the end though, there are two other comments which are worth highlighting:
In 2010, unionists will have an opportunity to reclaim both the South Belfast and Fermanagh & South Tyrone Westminster seats. As the largest Party in both seats, this should be a priority for all unionists.Indirectly pushing forward the idea of a "pact" again but what exactly does he mean by that second sentence? Since he reckons the DUP is the "largest party in both seats" (or to be pedantic, the "Unionist party which at the last Westminster election polled most votes in both seats") that means all pro-Union supporters should make the winning of SB and FST for "Unionism" top priority? Whatever the intended meaning (I suspect shoddy proofreading ultimately lies behind the lack of logic and coherence), the top priority for all Pro-Union supporters surely is the continuance of the Union? If, along the way, a pro-Union candidate wins either or both seats, fair and square, then so much the better but the long-term target must remain an overall increase of the pro-Union vote. If a pact is eventually agreed, I’m prepared to offer generous odds that there will not be an increase in the total pro-Union vote in either constituency.
I look forward to 2010 and see it as the year in which devolved government must find its feet and build upon its successes. All of the Parties in the Executive must work to undo the unhealthy skepticism towards devolution.Scepticism (I’ll stick to the British spelling;) of any political system or the politicians contained within is never "unhealthy", it is an essential part of democracy. That it exists in spades in Northern Ireland is not down to the electorate or even the media; it exists because, despite Robinson's assertions to the contrary, nothing of any meaningful value has filtered down from the Circus Tent on the Hill. Fair enough, Robinson does acknowledge it's down to the Executive to dispel that scepticism, but with that "unhealthy" there is the old implicit Brechtian there again- unfortunately, for Robinson it's not possible for him and the Executive to "dissolve the people and elect another".
5 comments:
I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that the only party fit to have any pact with Robinson and the DUP is Fianna Fail, They share so much in common.
Has Robinson been taking advice from some of Ahern's retired spinners?
Today's piece to camera is straight out of the "dig out Dobson" interview, A sort of don't hit me now with my matrimonial difficulty to sort out. Create a diversion to create sympathy before the hard questions are asked.
Like the Adams saga there are three stories simultaneously happening here- the actual "inappropriate relationship itself" which is nobody else's business but the Robinsons, the *whatever* was/is Spotlight is poised to broadcast on and thirdly the media, let's be kind, "management" on Robinson's part, as you imply, to bring story one into the public domain to overide the implications of story one. If that's what he is doing then my natural sympathy re story one disappears very quickly.
It was only a sports massage.
The Robinson's are a diversion from the more serious affair of Gerry Adams and SF cover-up and who knew what and when they knew about the Adams family business.
I listened to Suzanne Breene on RTE this morning making the telling point that this is where the actual attention should be focused.
I cannot believe that the Robinson affair with the attention on the salacious nature of the exposure of the adultery of a politician's wife and the manufacture of the of the crocodile tears of the husband as he condemns the wife should be the entire focus of the whole attention of the people.
Yes she is out because she has been caught on and he husband is rowing away from her as fast as he can but the money is the story here and the abuse of the power to influence events in a financial way.
In the case of Adams his cover up was simultaneous to he allowing his allegedly paedophile brother to advance within SF and hold down positions where he had access to young people on a regular basis.
That was an abuse of power in a far greater way even than the Robinson's and he should have taken steps to put his brother behind bars.
What links both stories though is the threat of the disinfectant of daylight through exposure for Adams on UTV and for Iris and Peter in the Spotlight programme.
Without that exposure being threatened the silence and shroud would still be covering both scandals.
Your last sentence, BG, why do you think that silence over both affairs (and I'd agree that alleged cover-up of paeophilia is much more serious than alleged cover-up of financial corruption)has existed for so long? It appears that mnay within politics and journalism have been aware about both cases for some time.
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