To hell with the consequences regarding the North, the Backstop, power-sharing and the Good Friday Agreement

To hell with the consequences regarding the North, the Backstop, power-sharing and the Good Friday Agreement

It is deeply frustrating and regrettable that the people of the North of Ireland are still being held to ransom by Dick Turpin highwaymen like politicians and continually waiting now over two years for a power-sharing executive and devolved assembly to be reinstated at Stormont

Then at Hillsborough Castle we have the PM’s appointed Secretary of State & MP Karen Bradley lodging in the Queen’s private quarters and seemingly doing little or nothing to earn her keep except polishing the brass at Parliament Buildings. 

Meanwhile at Westminster no doubt to the dismay of many within the Conservative/Tory party the DUP are milking the British Exchequer for every penny including parliamentary expenses apparently for the good people of Northern Ireland.  Yet for some reason neither the British Government or their coalition partners the DUP seem at all remotely concerned or perturbed at how the optics now look to the public or the people of the North and beyond that we are still without a devolved government.

Irrespective of the UK Government dealing with Brexit issues and the EU what is and seems totally incredulous is that at Westminster and Stormont some of these elected parliamentarians are now seemingly quite happy and well adapted to the lights only being on.  Pity then the civil servants who are valiantly trying to run ministerial departments with the ministerial in trays and inboxes now replete with numerous administrative paperwork and emails needing to be addressed.

Whilst I applaud the current Irish Government and all those concerned parties in trying to seek agreement and a new way ahead to break the impasses currently at Stormont between the DUP and Sinn Fein it is now clear that there is no political good will or incentive for these parties to park their differences for the good of the people.

Whatever your opinion was or still is on former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and former Prime Minister Tony Blair they both put the GFA and the institutions enshrined within the international treaty document as their top priority.  No matter what the political turmoil or crisis issue of the day both these politicians ensured that Northern Ireland & the GFA remained on their radar screen.

Yet nearly 21 years on from the signing of the GFA we currently have a coterie of political leaders who are totally obtuse to their political responsibilities in delivering a power sharing government for the good of the people. 

In 2019 it now seems for some of these same political lame leaders that it will remain party over peace as the greater prize they seek and to hell with the consequences regarding the North, the Backstop, power-sharing and the Good Friday Agreement.