As the Northern Ireland Year of Food and Drink 2016 was launched this week we still find ourselves in a bit of political trifle here in Belfast. In fact, it’s more of blancmange which has fallen and splattered everywhere and we have to scoop it back together again with chopsticks.
Things did get a little sickly sweet at the start of the week as the parties thawed out a little and decided that sitting down around the table to break bread and talk it out was actually a good thing to do. The pressure cooker environment that had been created in the last few weeks threatened the collapse of Stormont, but instead it seemed to tenderise the gristle and extend its shelf life for just a little longer.
The Secretary of State Theresa Villiers served up an independent monitoring group to assess the current levels of paramilitary activity which helped fill the Unionist’s cup to the half way mark for the time being. All the parties are now seated around the table with the Irish and British Governments and are about to tuck in. Let’s hope no one chokes.
While this was going on, the DUP re-nominated the Ministers that resigned the previous week only to resign them again an hour later. The DUP also pulled a move which allowed them to place a Minister (now resigned of course) at the helm of the Department of Regional Development which was vacated by the Ulster Unionist Party Minister, Danny Kennedy, two weeks ago. Got that? Good.
The cherry on top of the cake in the last few days was the ‘evidence’ given to the Finance and Personnel committee at Stormont by ‘loyalist blogger’, Jamie Bryson on the sale of the NAMA loan book in Northern Ireland. He claimed that the First Minister Peter Robinson was to receive a kickback on the deal, however, he has been unable to provide actual evidence that this was the case.
The Assembly and Executive Reform (Assembly Opposition) Bill passed its first reading on Wednesday at the Northern Ireland Assembly. The non-executive Bill developed by independent MLA John McCallister set out to enable the formation of an Opposition in the Assembly and to confer rights on the Opposition once it has been formed. However the two big parties, the DUP and Sinn Fein, may find the proposals in the Bill hard to swallow, so that goose might be cooked sooner rather than later.
It’s all a bit of a pig’s ear (sorry Dave) at the minute and although it’s never perfect here, the recipe for good government is certainly missing a few essential ingredients. Let’s hope that the broth isn’t spoiled with all these cooks.