THE WEEK THAT WAS….
At one stage he bestrode his peers like a colossus, feted by a faithful and ever admiring throng; king of the hill, top the list, head of the heap, ‘A’ number one. Today, he’s been brought down low; reduced to playing gigs in Ballymena and apparently guilty of assault. It’s quite a journey for poor old Shakin’ Stevens, once a best-selling British male artist.
As you may have noticed, another leader of the pack is desperately trying to salvage not only his career, but that of his political party as well. The allegations surrounding the First Minister (FM) and his wife have been eye popping to say the least, and it would be a cold heart that didn’t empathise with the exposed personal train wreck. That said, there are questions to be answered and ramifications which could reshape local politics.
The DUP was already facing turbulent times given the rise of the TUV, internal strains over Policing & Justice, a re-energised UUP sprinkled with some David Cameron magic dust and the real prospect of Sinn Fein topping the poll at the next Assembly election. Add in the recent allegations and, voila, perfect storm.
While the allegations haven’t yet delivered a killer blow to the DUP, they must be concerned that the media feeding frenzy may raise further embarrassments, create a drip, drip, drip of bad news or prompt a few libel writs – none of which will be helpful.
Where this merry-go-round will stop, nobody knows. Best case scenario for the DUP is that the FM exonerates his name, loses his previously cold public persona and puts the last few weeks down to a media witch hunt driven by underlying bias. There are obviously quite few caveats in that scenario. At the other end of the spectrum the DUP ceases to exist as a credible political force for the immediate future; it’s anybody’s guess.
As for the Assembly, its future was already in question over P&J and the relationship between the two main parties. Will it survive? Could well depend upon whether or not Sinn Fein chooses to adopt the Shaky Approach:
“Ain’t gonna need this House no longer, Ain’t gonna need this House no more, Ain’t got time to fix the shingles, Ain’t got time to fix the floor…..”
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Oral Questions
Question Time had the rare opportunity to take the limelight this week with an Urgent Oral Question concerning ‘those allegations’ which the new Acting First Minister competently handled; none of the parties used the opportunity to crank up the political temperature.
Elsewhere, Health noted that fracture injuries are up 31% on the same period last year and ambulance calls are up 16%. In a not unrelated query, DRD confirmed that neither Roads Service nor local councils have a statutory obligation to grit footpaths. The DSD Minister discussed Fuel Poverty and the uptake of Pension Credits among other things.
Written Answers
OFMDFM confirmed that eight civil servants’ salaries in the Dept. are in excess of £82K, two fall into that category at DEL, but over at DFP there are 14 in the top band.
DETI noted that RoI visitor numbers to NI were up over 30% for the first half of 2009, DoE is planning to introduce six Bills before the summer recess (including High Hedges and Planning Reform) and revealed that last year there were only five successful court prosecutions last year for dog fouling throughout the Province. DSD disclosed that the Housing Executive has sold over 30,000 homes in the past ten years.
COMMITTEES
The League Against Cruel Sports briefed DARD on the evils of snares (unfortunately for MLAs, ‘politician baiting’ is not considered cruel), DFP considered strategic financial pressures, Standards & Privileges had an unusually busy agenda courtesy of recent ‘shenanigans’ concerning leaders of both the main parties and Education dipped back into STEM subjects.
DoE was getting to ‘grits’ with Roads Service’s winter programme, DCAL is gearing up to consult about participation in sport while DETI was briefed on the outcome of the public consultation for its Strategic Energy Framework.
AND FINALLY….
Strange that during the week the UK was introduced to only its second female ever in a top political job, the Assembly was debating the motion to bring back Matron. I doubt it’s a role which neither Arlene Foster nor the grey suits on the Assembly’s backbenches would have predicted.
Interestingly, the Assembly was also debating a Wildlife Bill to increase the number of protected species. Politicians are, of course, afforded no such protection; not even the luxury of being humanely culled, when you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go.
This week has reaffirmed politics as the nation’s favourite blood sport and the bigger the political beast, the louder the baying. Politicians of every hue should tread carefully out there. It’s a jungle.
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