Hi everyone, and welcome back to McGuckin’s Weekly Digest, Blog 4! Plenty to get our teeth into this week, so what’s on the menu, I hear you ask? As usual, we’ll sample the starters in good ole Norn Iron, before meandering our way across the Irish Sea for our main course, then finally winding up in the US of A for our mouth watering dessert!
Money to burn? Figures obtained by the always excellent Sam McBride in the News Letter, show that Sir Patrick Coghlin was paid more than £1,000 a day to chair the RHI Inquiry – that’s a whopping £648k in total! However, even his earnings were surpassed by those of one of the inquiry’s junior barristers. Given what was for many a fudged Inquiry outcome, does this represent value for money? And does it simply compound the monumental waste of money that already occurred via RHI itself? All I know is, I’m clearly in the wrong profession!
Speaking of money! Never look a gift horse in the mouth, seems to be the order of the day for many in our political class in NI. DUP MP Ian Paisley is certainly no exception, as evidenced by the fact that he has been fined £1300 by the Electoral Commission following an investigation into two councils each paying £1,500 to attend a DUP dinner in Ballymena in 2017 featuring Michael Gove. The probe found the councils were impermissible donors. This is not Mr Paisley’s first brush with regulatory authority in matters of finances/expenses, it is fair to say!
When is a u-turn not a u-turn? Under the EU Withdrawal Agreement, there will be a requirement for some border infrastructure at NI sea ports – “Approved points of entry are a legal requirement for the purposes of protecting public health, securing safe food supply and protecting animal and plant health.”
This week the News Letter reported that a source had said that Mr Poots’, the NI Minister responsible, made a decision to halt work on border infrastructure following a DUP meeting at which senior party figures urged him to do so. However, Mr Poots later claimed that this was “erroneous and untrue!”, before instructing his department officials to resume with the seaport preparations! Hmm! Is there something fishy going on?
Talk of an Irish Sea border provides me with a convenient segway (or kayak) to GB! Boris Johnston and Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, both refused to rule out a second national lockdown this week, saying it would be the “last line of defence” against Covid-19. It comes amid claims Government scientists have called for a two-week national lockdown in October to slow the spread of the disease.
Or, as Johnston referred to it – a “circuit break”, featuring tightened rules across the country, but with schools and most workplaces remaining open.
Mr Hancock said: “The last line of defence is full national action and I don’t want to see that but we will do whatever is necessary to keep people safe in a very difficult pandemic.”
It was another poor week at the Dispatch Box for Boris, too, with ex-Labour leader, Ed Miliband, standing in for Keir Starmer, giving him a right roasting. Angela Rayner, fancying her chances, also tore another couple of strips off him, too! I think it’s fair to say that Boris would need to considerably up his game on the floor of the Commons, before the Tory backbench rumblings of discontent become too raucous! The folded arms, incredulous face routine is wearing very thin and is no substitute for sharp ripostes and well briefed, detailed and prepared answers!
Meanwhile, the international repercussions for the UK government over the proposed Internal Market Bill, just keep rumbling on! Amal Clooney, the high-profile human rights lawyer, has resigned from her position as the UK’s special envoy on media freedom, also in protest at the UK government’s intention to breach international law through the Internal Market Bill. In a stinging denunciation of Boris Johnson’s threat to override Britain’s international treaty obligations in the EU withdrawal agreement, the barrister described the government’s actions as “lamentable”. Ms Clooney, of course, is married to famous American actor, George Clooney, which is of no consequence, other than it conveniently provides me with a very tenuous link to US politics! Very tenuous is all I need!
A much less tenuous link would be Joe Biden, the Democratic Presidential candidate, who weighed into this particular row, too, when he declared that there would be no chance of a US-UK trade deal under his administration, if the UK went ahead with their illegal amendment to the EU Withdrawal Agreement, as it would have potentially adverse implications for the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. Joe is fiercely proud of his Irish roots, with his ancestors hailing from near Carlingford, right on the Irish border, no less! He is also fiercely conscious of the powerful Irish-American lobby in the US and the votes that come with it! He’s not so Sleepy Joe, after all, perhaps?
In other US political news, Donald Trump has come in for criticism for his climate change denying response to the twin natural disasters striking the east and west coast of the US right now. With wild fires raging out of control in Oregon and California in the West and successive hurricanes battering the east coast in Florida, Donald blamed the fires on poor forest management and said the warming climate would get colder again very soon! Oh dear! I’ll leave Dr Fauci to respond appropriately for all of us!
Roger Stone, the flamboyant former associate of Donald Trump, who was recently pardoned by the President, after being convicted of lying under oath to the Mueller Inquiry and numerous other offences, is refusing to retire into relative obscurity. This week, as Trump’s former election campaign strategist, he decided he would give Donald some timely advice! He suggested that if Trump were to lose the forthcoming Presidential election in November, that he should not accept the result and simply declare martial law to remain in power! Okaaay! Prison can do really strange things to some people, obviously! Let’s hope Trump dismisses his advice as just crazy talk! It is just crazy talk, right? Right?! Gulp!
And finally, we cannot depart this week without mentioning the sad passing of US Supreme Court Judge, Ruth Bader Ginsberg! Appointed during the Clinton era, she has been a stalwart liberal voice on the court for a number of decades. She was also well regarded as something of a feminist icon, having spoken out on women’s issues consistently over her long and illustrious legal career, as well as breaking through the infamous glass ceiling in what was a very male dominated profession.
What is also highly significant about her passing, however, is the fact that the sitting President gets to nominate her successor. Trump will be very keen for this to happen with indecent haste, ie before the November election. It was Bader Ginsberg’s dying wish, however, that her replacement would not be nominated until after the election. Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate Majority leader had previously argued against Obama making a Supreme Court nomination in similar circumstances, so he will maintain this principled stance now, right? Wrong! He has already called for Trump to proceed with the nomination process as quickly as possible! This promises to be a hotly contested affair in the weeks ahead, adding to an already bitterly partisan Congress in the grip of election fever! Another Trump Supreme Court appointment has the potential to drastically alter the make up and character of the court in a very rightward direction!
That’s all for now, folks! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading! Stay tuned for next week’s instalment of the Weekly Digest! I’ll leave you with a typical image of the feisty wee woman herself. RIP, Ruth Bader Ginsberg!
The Weekly Politics Digest! 