| Water way for North to initiate power-sharing
 By
Joe Giltrap
WHEN I read the full statements from the DUP’s Ian Paisley and
Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams at their truly historic agreement
to share power in the North of Ireland I was surprised at the piece where
they both mentioned water bills.
Is this the first example of real agreement between Sinn Féin and
the DUP?
Have all the years of conflict and mayhem boiled down to a simple case
of common ground in protesting against proposed water charges?
Or is this saying: “Hang on, we’re in charge now and we will
decide really important issues such as these”?
Whatever the reasons it must be said that in the grand scheme of things
the result is undoubtedly a triumph for politics.
Such a power-sharing scenario seemed unthinkable even a short time ago
and all the parties involved must be feeling relieved now that everybody’s
patience has finally appeared to pay off.
Given the disaster that is Iraq this may well turn out to be the only
real significant legacy of Tony Blair’s time in No.10 and —
to be fair — it is not a bad one.
I do not believe for one moment that any other British Prime Minister
would have had either the will, the faith, the guts or the perseverance
to see this through.
It must not be forgotten that the Irish Government also played its part
in keeping things going.
I can’t help but wonder whether Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams had
it in the back or the front of their minds that they must strike while
the British political climate was favourable.
With Gordon Brown poised to take over as Prime Minister the goalposts
might suddenly shift to a little less sympathetic position and so the
obvious course was to get it sorted now.
Was it a case of better the devil you know?
The prospect of Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness sitting around a table
discussing the day-to-day business of running the North of Ireland must
seem like a major sell-out to both hardline Loyalists and Republicans
alike.
However since both Sinn Féin and the DUP increased their mandate
in the elections there can be no legitimate argument about their entitlement
to govern.
The people have spoken.
I must confess that the water thing keeps bugging me though.
And another thought just struck me: I hope it does not turn out to be
a case of: “Martin, go fetch the water.”
“There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Ian, dear Ian.” |
