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WELL, THERE YOU have it; politics in the North of this island has descended into a complete and utter farce. We bring in a diplomat who has a great deal of experience with Northern Ireland, fly him back and forth for three months from the United States, keep him working during the Christmas period and then send him packing with no agreement. Yes, this is how modern politics seems to operate in Stormont.
While not giving the general public much confidence in the political process, the failure of the Haass talks have been useful in identifying two problems that exist in Northern Ireland – namely, the unwillingness of some political parties to compromise, and also the lack of engagement from the British and Irish governments.
Let’s start with the unwillingness to compromise. Dealing with issues such as flags, the past, and parades are without a doubt controversial issues that will take time to deal with, but we should be realistic enough to realise that these issues will not be dealt with any time soon as we face three sets of elections over the next several years. As voter turnout declines in Northern Ireland, we are seeing the two main parties becoming more reliant on what I call ‘governing for the base’ rather than the wider community.
Politically it is more beneficial for the DUP to say that it halted more concessions to Irish nationalism than it is to get a resolution to these controversial problems, because moderate voters have opted out of the process. That is why instead of pouring millions into our struggling health and education services, politicians this morning, effectively decided that the money would be better spent on policing parades and more flag protests.
Outside the financial absurdity of the failure to get an agreement is an even more worrying development: the lack of trust. After nearly seven years in government together these parties still do not have the confidence or the sense of trust in one another to actually agree a deal on these issues.
The paralysis within the Executive is completely derived from the fact that, in Northern Ireland, our politicians really divide power instead of share it. We have ministers running their own policies from their own departments which bare little relation to what their colleagues are doing in other departments.
This silo mentality that each of the five parties in the Executive operate under is exactly the reason why Haass came up against a brick wall when he tried to forge some common ground; there was no trust or sense of purpose amongst the participants.
But we also have to deal with another reality, and that is the lack of engagement from the British and Irish governments in the process. I realise that at a time of recession there are much bigger issues for both Enda Kenny and David Cameron than Northern Ireland, but there has been growing fear that over the last year in particular there has been tendency for both governments to simply put the peace process into a box and declare it mission accomplished.
The danger of taking this approach is that you simply allow the peace process to drift and effectively collapse. I feel that Haass’ hand in the talks could have been strengthened if the two governments had insisted on an opportunity to play a full role. We have to remember that in our history effective involvement by the two governments have actually salvaged agreements in the past as the role that Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern played in 1998 helped George Mitchell get the Good Friday Agreement negotiations back on track.
In contrast, Kenny and Cameron appeared to be spectators throughout this entire process and actually had very little in terms of measures, solutions and ideas to make Richard Haass’ job any easier. If the failure of this agreement serves any purpose then it has to be as a warning to the two governments to take a much more involved role in these matters and not simply allow it to be staffed out to others. A functioning Northern Ireland Executive can only exist with strong partners in Dublin and London helping it work out complex problems.
The failure of these talks is a real missed opportunity for the people of this island. Often we are lauded around the world for the success of our peace process yet here we had a real failure of the local parties and the two governments. As we approach 2014, there needs to be some serious thought put into how we proceed together; otherwise we are simply sleepwalking into more sectarian clashes and more violence in the future.
Dr. David McCann is a researcher at the University of Ulster.
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Last time I saw that happen was here with a BOI Insurance sponsored story. It came up late at night and in minutes all the comments lashed out at the bank. In an hour the article went away quitely in the night.
Bankers really do not know how much they are hated.
Sure what did they expect being financial terrorists and all
Financial terrorists, good one!
Freedom fighters
JP Morgan have destroyed a lot of countries in the world, greedy sons of b****es that will stop at nothing for more wealth. They are one of the 14 banks in the us that own the FEDThey own companies all over the world. There the biggest shareholders in BP, and a number of key mining and oil companies. They don’t just do banking. They are corrupt and trade inside illegially. They cause more misery in the world than some of the worst governments.
Well said ned, its been pushed by some countries and companies that the dollar should end as a world reserve currency. This would put a major obstacle in the way of JPM and the corrupt federal reserve. The dollar has been washed away to the extent its not even worth paper and the only way to keep it as a world reserve is corrupt low tactics.
They also funded the Nazis. Their major shareholders are the puppet masters.
if you’ve seen the movie “wall street” made in 1987. At the very start the first lines of the movie are “The biggest mistake we ever made was letting Nixon get off the gold standard”. This refers to 1972 when the dollar was backed by gold,
To explain after WW2, the dollar was the world currency and if you had a dollar bill the US Federal Reserve would of given you gold instead of your dollar bill if you wanted to cash it in. The Nixon shock was when france wanted to cash in the dollars they had for gold and the US FED didn’t have enough gold to give them.
The Nixon shock was when he convinced the middle east countries to trade oil for dollars only. saving the dollar and creating the petrodollar. Since then the only value dollars have are the paper there printed. the dollar is going to crashing down. like MrKnow said its only worth paper…
Russia have introduced a bill to ban dollars from use in the country. Many more countries are following suit. The dollar is dying………… But you won’t find that news on the Journal or any other irish or UK media sources.
@Dairmuid very well said, a lot of people don’t understand how the petrodollar works, when we hear about the fall of saddam and gadaffi we hear the bull that the western media feed us! But their is a way bigger story to why these leaders and their countries fell and thats why the petrodollar needs to end.
Russia and china are being slammed because of their calls for the US dollar to end as a world reserve and their (especially russia) plans to ban dollars and the depending if it to trade. They know the dollar will eventually end its domance and if economy’s around the world don’t prepare they will crash with the dollars eventual end.
China is thought to have the biggest stock of gold, they also own the biggest percentage of American dept. By all right the yen should be a world currency because they can backup their dept, don’t see why the world should suffer economic disaster because the US wants the dollar as a world reserve.
No doubt we will see more sabotage and sanctions put on countries that threaten the dollars role in the world, I suspect Russia, china and the US will enter a eco war to change things. I also think the free trade with Europe is too little too late and will impact Europe in a negative way when the dollar falls from glory.
People have different theories on this and rightfully so, thats just mine.
I love them and have shares :) they make me money and at the end of the day that’s all that matters.
JP Morgan, only outdone for cheating, manipulating and stealing, by Goldman Sachs.
A book well worth reading : Money and power : How Goldman Sachs came to rule the world.
“From the outside, Goldman Sachs is a perfect company. The Goldman PR machine loudly declares it to be smarter, more ethical, and more profitable than all of its competitors. Behind closed doors, however, ! etc, etc”
Author , William Cohen worked on Wall Street for 17 years.
JPM
S C U M of the earth
Just check out the total in fines over just the last few years, for FRAUD and market manipulation.
What did they expect ??
A group hug ?
#fail
A rake?
What’s the conversion rate for the rake? How many rakes to the pile?
Shouldnt bother interacting with the nobody keyboard warriors. Don’t interact with those beneath you they are simply inferior and worthless
Well done Kenneth posted like a real “keyboard warrior”
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