Robert Buckland Weblog

Today’s non-handshake encounter between two men who have some to symbolise the deep and seemingly unbridgeable divide in the politics of Northern Ireland is undoubtedly “historic”, to use that rather awful word. As they make the necessary compromises in order to share power, both Sinn Fein and the DUP will be looking nervously at the fate of the SDLP and, even more dramatically, the UUP. Time, however, may be on their side. Mr. Trimble’s undue haste proved to be his downfall. Yet although the politics of Ulster have moved exceeding slow in the fourteen years since the Downing Street Declaration, move they have, which is more than can be said for the preceeding years.

As someone who has been a committed Unionist, based upon the fact that the majority of the people of British Ulster want to remain a part of the UK, it does seem a case of “all passion spent” in Northern Irish politics. The visceral hatreds stirred up by years of unlawful violence and the close association between Sinn Fein and the Provisional IRA were natural and proper barriers to negotiation. The slow but steady retreat from terrorism by Sinn Fein and its representatives have made today’s events possible. It is my belief that the nationalist extremists have had to move further and more profoundly than the DUP, which was always in the political mainstream, albeit on the radical edge for much of its existence. The importance of the DUP’s involvement, however, is that the prospect of the sort of strikes we saw in 1974 and of direct action by the loyalist community on the streets seems very far away indeed. The DUP can rightly claim to speak for the mainstream of unionist opinion. If the Assembly and Executive get up and running with the DUP as an integral part of things, then their position in the UK Parliament becomes more mainstream, which could make things very interesting if no party achieves an overall majority at the next election.
It is tempting to suggest that politics in the Province is growing up. That would be a rather patronising way of looking at things, frankly, especially at a time when we have seen a Chancellor of the Exchequer who has painstakingly created a reputation for sober, serious and boring economics decide as his swan-song to play to the gallery. My hunch is that he will pay dearly for a moment’s wrong-footing of David Cameron and a day of reasonably good newspaper headlines. Last week’s Budget con trick may well prove to be a seminal event in the politics of the mainland. Gordon Brown, the man who took the politics out of the setting of interest rates, has put politics (and his political future) firmly back into the Budget. A mistake, I think.