If You Ask Me
by David Vance

George Orwell once described how a wasp was sucking jam on his plate. He cut it in two. The wasp paid no attention and greedily went on with its meal. In fact, Orwell said that the jam poured from its severed stomach. Only when it tried to fly away did it realise the dreadful thing that had happened to it, and of course by then it was far too late. So it is with democratic politics in Northern Ireland.

The sweetness of the good life offered to the political elite at Stormont ensures that they guzzle down millions of taxpayer funds, either too stupid or too conceited to recognise that which is happening to them. The essence of the dreadful thing that they are asked to swallow is the moral obscenity of a devolved Assembly containing the IRA’s political proxies, sanitised or otherwise.

Perverse thinking is also apparent in the accepted political wisdom that those who are openly committed to the destruction of Northern Ireland as a political entity could somehow make ideal Ministers and provide good governance in this country.

Haven’t we seen the folly of this as our grammar schools face the axe because erstwhile IRA / Sinn Fein Minister Martin McGuinness set in motion a process that is leading to the abolition of these jewels in our academic crown? The grotesquely undemocratic nature of this is apparent in the most recent poll showing 90% of parents favouring the retention of academic selection but that means less than zero to the radical egalitarians in New Labour and the class warriors in the teaching trade unions.

Not that the malignant decisions are restricted to insurrectionist republicans. This past week has seen the UDA attempt to murder a taxi driver as well as issuing death threats against others it deems “designated targets.”

Just like all the other paramilitaries the UDA offers decent people nothing and yet, bizarrely, the husband of Irish President Mary McAleese engages in regular contact with senior UDA representatives. Surely holding such meetings with the UDA is about as unwelcome as an IRA victim’s parade in O’Connell Street?

Genuine political progress is deep frozen unless it meets with the approval of Sinn Fein/IRA and the SDLP flea on its back. And so it is that Blair and Ahern are forced to scamper to London to issue more face saving statements promising a moment of truth – a restoration of the Assembly no less - but just not yet.

The acceptance of the Belfast Agreement as the blueprint for political progress here severed the body politic in two.

Swallowing the lie that you can obtain peace by buying off the terrorists has resulted in the residue of democracy haemorrhaging out of Northern Ireland. Like Orwell’s wasp, the sting is in the dying tale.

If You Ask Me Archive