By TUV Councillor Stephen Cooper
Never in my lifetime have the electorate been so utterly disillusioned with politics in Northern Ireland.
As each deadline passes, the desperation of the Secretary of State is becoming an embarrassment; both to the government and indeed, himself.The undignified attempts at trying to resuscitate the dysfunctional structures at Stormont have failed, leaving the players on the pitch wandering around aimlessly with no ball to kick, and now, with the sinking realisation time is up, to forlornly traipse off home after years of bickering and arguing.
Unionism has arguably and quite remarkably came out of this slightly better than Republicans.The middle ground has, (as I predicted as a consequence of the Belfast Agreement in 1998), been abandoned, with the sectarian carve up and polarisation of our community exacerbated and profoundly entrenched by what was clearly an immoral transitory arrangement to keep bombs out of the mainland in general, and the City of London in particular.
Prostituting democracy by successive governments has belittled our great nation, and elevated a criminal, terrorist organisation onto the world stage, grotesquely presented as so called peacemakers.To reward those for not continuing a campaign of genocide is a gross insult to victims, and in the general sense, to every law abiding citizen of the free world who values the moral tenets of a functional society.
The Republican movement, having eventually ran out of tangible and reasonable requests after pocketing a vast array of concessions, now sits in a dead end street, scratching their heads with no clue where to go next.This is not because of some clever strategy from Unionism; rather the opposite.
Since the BA, concessions have been pocketed, Unionism has acceded at every manufactured crisis and the precious process has limped on with veiled threats and tainted mantras of ‘not going back to the bad old days.’The elephant in the room is as ever being ignored, but the fact is, the cupboard is now empty, and the DUP are reluctant to risk a split in their party and an expected electoral backlash if they cave in on anILA.
Republican hypocrisy and deceit has eventually emerged through the putrid lies of sound bites about, (amongst others), wanting to protect ‘the most vulnerable in society.’Waiting lists are increasing, the NHS is crumbling under heavy demand, and those in the latter demographic group, from all backgrounds, colours, and creeds, are ignored and shunned; because in the land of Adams and co, the party always comes first, and all attempts at disrupting this part of the UK must be adhered to.
The anxiety on the faces of the crestfallen IRASF delegation tells the story of the general position of republicanism across the British Isles.In the Republic, Sinn Fein are increasingly isolated and ratings have fallen and show no signs of any recovery.In NI, the refusal to represent their constituents in Westminster whilst lamenting a Tory led coalition is bewildering many in the nationalist community, who have difficulty understanding how sitting in Stormont, but not in another British jurisdiction for the betterment of their own voting populace can be justified.
Worse still, the spectacle of senior representatives in the European Parliament with industrial language and cringe worthy ranting to an almost empty chamber, has helped to unveil the true ugly face of their fascist ideology and double standards.Recent comments urging no prosecutions for IRA murderers from Adams, along with the refusal to condemn the disgraceful treatment of an injured PSNI officer by the sectarian GAA only confirms to not just Unionism, but to all right thinking people, that IRASF are not conducive to building a truly shared and inclusive society.
It is abundantly clear, that for all the people of Northern Ireland and for the sake of the next generation, the political representatives of the barbaric and cowardly IRA should never be anywhere near executive government ever again.After over two Billion pounds worth of debt and countless scandals, it’s time to close Stormont and revert to our mother parliament for direct rule.
It is time to put an end to unworkable and unsustainable mandatory structures and put this sordid appeasement process out of its misery.We deserve better.