IS Stormont back yet? As I write this, the reaction to – or should I say fallout from – the announcement that the DUP had agreed to restore power sharing after talks with the Westminster Government was just getting underway.
What was striking on Tuesday morning on Nicky Campbell’s show on 5 Live, however, was how relatively little interest there was in discussing any internal tensions there might be within the DUP, or what this new deal might even mean for the UK’s Brexit arrangements.
No, the main conversational point was whether Northern Ireland would even exist in 10 years. Most of the callers seemed to think not, which won’t be thrilling news to Jeffrey Donaldson, the leader of the DUP.
Doesn’t mean they’re right, of course.
There was a very different conversation going on the same morning on Stephen Nolan’s show on Radio Ulster, where constitutional issues dominated.
That was partly because the programme had booked “unionist commentator” (his preferred description) Jamie Bryson, a name perhaps largely unknown outwith Northern Ireland but one of the loudest voices across the North Channel.
Back on Campbell’s show, however, there was more discussion of the need for MLAs to get back to work, anger that they were being paid while Stormont wasn’t sitting, the crippling cost of childcare in Northern Ireland and points of order that Fermanagh is under-serviced when it came to dual carriageways.
READ MORE: Paolozzi, Andy Warhol & David and Robert Mach on show
In short, bread-and-butter issues trumped constitutional questions. You could argue that dynamic is currently at work across the United Kingdom. Are we at a moment when structural politics has to take second place to the cost of living crisis?
That’s a question for Sunak, Starmer, Hamza Yousaf, Mark Drakeford (until March at least) and now, presumably, Michelle O’Neill.
Well, maybe. In Northern Ireland the identity politics of the orange and the green remain. It might take a generation before voters in Northern Ireland start voting on bread and butter issues, political commentator Brendan Mulgrew suggested on Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday. “We’ve only had one unbroken Assembly term since the Good Friday Agreement was signed,” he also pointed out.
That said, Mulgrew and his fellow commentators tempered their realism with a hint of optimism.
“Northern Ireland is changing. It’s becoming a very different country,” suggested Sarah Creighton. Time will tell.
Some things don’t change, of course. Politicians, for a start. As was evident straight after Today on Wednesday in the latest episode of Radio 4’s More or Less. The series in which Tim Harford takes a closer look at statistics in the news this week examined a recent tweet put out by the Home Secretary James Cleverly.
In it he boasted that crime figures had fallen significantly since 2010, the year the Tories came to power in Westminster. “Our plan is working,” Cleverly added.
READ MORE: Janey Godley documentary: Cancer, being cancelled and why we need pals
He wasn’t lying, as such. It turns out that the number of violent crimes, neighbourhood crimes and theft have indeed all fallen. It’s just that those reductions didn’t start in 2010. They trace all the way back to 1995.
“Never trust a Tory,” I found myself muttering. My own identity politics at play there.
From politics to proper showbiz. On Tuesday afternoon, 5 Live’s Nihal Arthanayake spoke to director Matthew Vaughn, whose new film Argylle has just opened in cinemas.
The director of Kick-Ass and the Kingsman films discussed the ecology of Hollywood filmmaking in the 21st century. “Movie stars are a dying breed,” Vaughn suggested. The franchise, he said, has taken over. What a miserable thought.
Is Jamie Dornan a movie star? He can say he comes from Holywood (the Northern Irish one, if you think that’s a spelling mistake).
And he must be enough of one to be a guest on Desert Island Discs.
In conversation with Lauren Laverne, the star of The Tourist and Fifty Shades of Gray spoke movingly about the deaths of both of his parents. “It’s been very emotional,” he admitted at the end of the interview.
But in passing he also gave us a glimpse of the Northern Ireland he grew up in.
“Now I look back at what we took for granted as normal behaviour,” he said. “It felt like every other Saturday there would be a bomb scare.”
That was then.
Whatever the truth of the current deal, now is better.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel