Hello, and welcome back to blog 17 of the Weekly Digest. This is my weekly roundup of what’s been grabbing my attention in the world of politics in NI, UK and USA. I’ve gone for a very hyperbolic, tabloid-esque headline this week. I don’t want to over egg the pudding, but the political drama just keeps unfolding, both locally and further afield. Covid has returned to the top of the agenda with a vengeance this week, with news of the emergence of a more virulent new strain of coronavirus in the SE of England, leading to rapid reassessments of restrictions and tiers! Will it all end it tears for the devolved and central governments, who have been accused of mishandling their respective responses to the pandemic throughout? Are we having another NI Executive meltdown? Plus, Joe Biden has moved a significant step closer to the White House. Let’s take a look at all of that and some other news, beginning as always, right here in N. Ireland.
In a dramatic but not entirely unexpected development, the NI Executive announced a strict 6-week lockdown, to commence from Dec 26th. (Boxing Day!) This will be akin to the more stringent lockdown we experienced back in March, except schools will inexplicably remain fully open this time. Unlike previously, the Executive appears to have taken firm and decisive action on this occasion, due to the seriousness of the situation affecting our NHS. In a very worrying development, several hospitals were already reporting being beyond their capacity last week. As usual, however, it didn’t take long for the mask of collective responsibility and decisive decision making to slip, revealing the Punch and Judy recriminations and political point scoring that have come to characterise devolved governance in NI.
Deputy First Minister, Michelle O’Neill, got the first punch in when she gave an interview to RTE radio. Ms O’Neill told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme the DUP had worked against public health experts and their executive colleagues. “The DUP have worked against the entire public health team, they have worked against the entire executive,” she said. She also insisted she has never deviated from the official advice. First Minister Arlene Foster jabbed back by saying Sinn Féin had decided “they were above the laws”. In clear reference to the controversy around the funeral of veteran Republican, Bobby Storey, Mrs Foster went on to say – “At the end of June, one party, Sinn Féin, had decided whilst they made the laws, they were also above the laws”.
Meanwhile on Thursday, police completed their investigation into alleged Covid restriction breaches at the Storey funeral and referred their findings to the CPS for a decision on potential prosecutions. Ms O’Neill’s attendance at the funeral, along with many other senior SF figures was viewed as undermining public confidence in and compliance with the Covid restrictions.
Mrs Foster said the new lockdown measures due to begin in Northern Ireland on 26 December are the result of a failure of society. She appealed to the people of Northern Ireland to set their own standards. Mrs Foster said prior to June compliance with Covid-19 regulations had been “very good”, with Northern Ireland being “the envy of our colleagues in the UK”.
Well, that’s a relief! I’m so glad it’s all our fault, rather than the bickering, dithering, divided and inept decision making and governance of the NI Executive. The truth is, however, our political representatives, and the DUP and SF in particular, have let us all down. Whichever way you look at it, the response to the pandemic has been grossly mismanaged here due to the gaping divisions that remain at the heart of devolved government.
Blood donation rules have been altered here to finally allow gay and bisexual men who have had the same partner for the previous three months to become donors. In 2011 the ban on donations from gay men, put in place during the 1980s AIDS crisis, was lifted in England, Scotland and Wales following recommendations by the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (SaBTO). Edwin Poots, the then NI Health Minister, maintained the ban in Northern Ireland in 2011, on the basis of ensuring public safety. Senior judges were told former Health Minister Edwin Poots’ acted irrationally in maintaining the ban because the threat was “infinitesimal”. (that means very small!) Lawyers also claimed Mr Poots’ decision was a “knee-jerk reaction” which went against the advice of his officials and experts – a so-called ministerial solo run! Mr Poots was also held to have breached the ministerial code by failing to take the issue before the Stormont Executive, and was evidently influenced by his Christian beliefs in preserving the blanket ban.
Health Minsiter Robin Swann said he is pleased to be able to announce the decision which he stressed is based on expert advice from the advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (SaBTO) and was “guided purely by science”.
In other news, Economy minister Diane Dodds, a former DUP MEP, has now told MLAs that her department faces a substantial £124 million budget shortfall next year. Without the merest hint of irony, she noted that this includes, “the removal of EU funding of which £70m is required next year”. The DUP, if you remember, had adamantly predicted that Northern Ireland would be financially much better off because of Brexit. The previous EU funding is being replaced by a so-called Shared Prosperity Fund administered from London. Mrs Dodds was unable to say how much it will contribute, though “informal indications suggest £11m”. So, my maths isn’t great, admittedly, but by my calculations that’s quite a bit of a shortfall!
This episode arguably emphasises the folly of the DUP’s support for the whole Brexit project; just when the NI economy requires support to recover from Covid-19 and to meet the challenges of a customs border in the Irish Sea and all that comes with a hard Brexit, it is being significantly weakened and undermined.
One final note on NI before I move on. As stated above, there will be a 6-week lockdown imposed from Dec 26th here, but this will not include schools. Peter Weir, the DUP Minister for Education has been very resistant to any such suggestions, citing the effects of lockdown on pupils’ health and well-being. Whether you agree with him or not, his decision to inform school principals by email at 8pm on Friday, 18th Dec, was calculatingly evasive, to put it mildly. By sending his message out just after the term has ended and schools have closed for Christmas, he gave school management no opportunity to reply or challenge the highly controversial decision. This was pretty spineless, in my opinion and will do nothing to instil any confidence in him within an already deeply sceptical teaching profession, not to mention parents and pupils.
How things can change in the space of a few days. During PMQ’s on Wednesday, the PM was seeking to reassure people that their traditional family Christmas was not at risk and accused Sir Keir Starmer of acting like a Xmas Grinch! However, by the weekend things were looking very different, leaving a much chastened Boris to break it to much of the nation that a bubbled, extended family Christmas was as good as cancelled.
After a four-nations meeting on Wednesday morning, the UK government agreed not to change Christmas bubble laws that would allow three households to gather under one roof. However, the Prime Minister effectively began undermining many family plans anyway – by suggesting his advice was for the elderly to be left home alone. Mr Johnson told Prime Minister’s Questions: “We don’t want to criminalise people’s long made plans…..But we do think it’s absolutely vital that people should, at this very very tricky time, exercise a high degree of personal responsibility, especially when they come into contact with elderly people.
Calling on people to exercise personal responsibility, the PM added: “That is how, by being sensible and being cautious, not by imposing endless lockdowns or cancelling Christmas as [Keir Starmer] would appear to want to do… that is the way we will continue to work together to keep this virus under control, defeat it and take the country forward.” Johnson reaffirmed that Ministers would not change laws agreed last month, in which people in any tiers could travel and gather in a one-off, three-household ‘Christmas bubble’ from December 23-27.
However, over at the other dispatch box, Sir Keir Starmer indicated that he now wanted to cancel the Christmas bubble system. He quoted a joint call by two medical journals to cancel Christmas bubbles and said “the Prime Minister should listen to that advice – not just ignore it as usual.”
Mr Johnson replied: “I wish he had the guts to say what he really wants to do which is to cancel the plans people have made and cancel Christmas. ….I can tell him that as of today and just this morning there is actually unanimous agreement across all the UK government across all the devolved administrations including members of all parties… that we should proceed in principle with the existing regulations.”
Well, those confident promises didn’t last long, did they? Within a couple of days, more evidence had emerged about the new strain of Coronavirus that had been discovered in Kent and was now rampant throughout London and the Southeast. The new strain is up to 70% more infectious, which is a huge cause for concern. There are no indications that it is any more deadly, or resistant to existing vaccines, however. Nevertheless, this was a very unwelcome game changer for the hapless Boris, who has now put the whole of the southeast region into Tier 4, the highest category of lockdown. The 3 family bubble Christmas has been well and truly burst. Who’s the Grinch now, then?
In what has been a terrible week for the Prime Minister, it also emerged that UNICEF is planning an operation to feed hungry children in London over the Xmas period. Yes, UNICEF! Yes, in London, the capital of the 5th/6th richest country in the world!
In a damning indictment of the Tory government, 1,800 deprived families struggling in the pandemic will receive breakfast boxes over the Christmas holidays thanks to Unicef UK. Unicef is the United Nations agency responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to kids around the world. It is better known for boosting disaster relief or working in war zones – but has intervened to provide aid in Britain for the first time in its 70-year history.
The leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees Mogg, then sparked outrage on Thursday when he launched an extraordinary attack on UNICEF UK. The senior Tory told the Commons the charity should be “ashamed of itself” for providing food parcels to children in deprived areas of London. He claimed it was a “scandal” that Unicef was “playing politics” by granting £25,000 to fund breakfasts for vulnerable youngsters in the Southwark borough. The Labour MP for the area, Neil Coyle, has written to Mr Rees-Mogg accusing him of a “lack of shame”. He really is determined to confirm the general public’s view of him as an upper class Dickensian villain!
Further negative headlines were generated this week when it was revealed that the recently departed and highly controversial Special Adviser, Dominic Cummings, is to receive a substantial pay rise! He is currently serving out his notice period, working from home. The additional salary will probably be back dated! The salary raise to up to £144,999 form around £95-99,000, provoked anger for rewarding an individual whose trip to Barnard Castle during the first lockdown has been cited as undermining public confidence in the Government. Boris Johnson’s press secretary defended Dominic Cummings’ £45,000 pay rise – claiming it took him to the “correct level of salary” for his role as a “most important” Special Adviser. Clearly, we should emphasise the word ‘special’! Labour said the “bumper bonus” was an insult to public sector workers receiving a pay freeze. Well, quite!
And so to those Brexit trade deal negotiations, again! The interminable talks continue, still with no agreement in sight. There are many who suspect that all the posturing, grandstanding and brinkmanship of the last few weeks have simply been an exercise in duping the public over the concessions granted to get a deal over the line. Boris will wave the treaty agreement in front of the public and insist it was only possible because of the UK’s determination to drive the hardest possible bargain. EU leaders will, of course, do the same for their own domestic audiences. Haven’t we been here before?
Almost a year ago the Prime Minister signed a withdrawal agreement which was presented as a stroke of negotiating genius, despite granting concessions which he had previously promised were non-negotiable, as people in N. Ireland are only too aware! Only when we see the small print of any trade deal will we know what Johnson has agreed and discover who he has betrayed for the sake of political expediency and assuaging his own inflated ego. It cannot be the people of NI or Unionism this time, so will it be the fishing industry? Or, will it be the Brexiteers when they realise that, one way or another, we will now be EU rule takers, but outside the club and without a say at the top table?
Let’s head over the big pond and check out what’s going on in the US, shall we?
The main event of the week was when Joe Biden was formally elected as the next president of the United States by members of the electoral college on Monday, all but ending Donald Trump’s unprecedented bid to subvert the will of the American people and overturn the results of the presidential election. This is one more procedural step closer to Biden’s inauguration on 20 January despite Trump’s refusal to accept his defeat and concede the race.
Amid tight security, the President-elect addressed the electoral college vote count in a speech to the nation – “In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed,” “We the people voted. Faith in our institutions held. The integrity of our elections remains intact. And so, now it is time to turn the page. To unite. To heal.” “Nothing, not even a pandemic, or an abuse of power can extinguish that flame” of American democracy, Biden added, highlighting the contributions of election officials in carrying out their duty amid the pandemic, even amid threats and verbal abuse from detractors and Trump supporters. “We owe these public servants a debt of gratitude,” Biden continued. “Our democracy survived because of them.”
It looks like Congress is just as polarised as ever, especially when it comes to spending federal bucks! Congress passed another short-term funding extension on Friday to give lawmakers more time to finish a coronavirus deal and avoid a potential federal shutdown, like the one that similarly occurred when the Obama administration sought to raise the debt ceiling in order to fund a stimulus package after he had inherited the financial crash!
Days of disagreements and drafting hold ups have suddenly threatened the delicate relief bill, with some Republicans opposed to the structure of stimulus checks and looking to rein in the Federal Reserve’s lending power. New restrictions could hamper the incoming Biden administration’s ability to respond to financial challenges and could lead to a further economic downturn.
Leaders from both parties, including Nanci Pelosi, have tried, to no avail, to assure the other side that they’re not trying to pull a fast one. But by late Friday afternoon, it was clear lawmakers wouldn’t be able to deliver legislative text of the compromise in time to avert a government shutdown, prompting Congress to move forward with a two-day continuing resolution. Negotiators had settled on $600 in direct payments, but Democrats have said all along that they’d be happy to include more. $600 wouldn’t go a long way for struggling families in the midst of a pandemic, to be fair!
In other news, Donald Trump’s dalliance with declaring martial law in battleground states and appointing a well known conspiracy theorist as special counsel to help his attempt to overturn defeat by Joe Biden, have caused a bit of stir. Despite Joe Biden winning the Presidential election by 306-232 in the electoral college and leading by more than 7m ballots in the popular vote, Trump is still entertaining increasingly outlandish ruses to remain in office, cheered on by allies like former National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, who Trump pardoned after he lied to the FBI, and longtime confidant, Rudy Giuliani, the president’s increasingly unhinged personal attorney. During a meeting on Friday, according to the NY Times, Trump discussed security clearance for Sidney Powell, the conspiracy-churning attorney who was previously axed from Trump’s campaign legal team.
While Trump still has the support of worrying number of Republican representatives, numerous others, from outgoing Attorney General, William Barr, to governors and state officials, have said repeatedly there is no evidence of the voter fraud Trump alleges. Even former Republican Presidential candidate and party grandee, Mitt Romney has weighed in against him.
“It’s not going to happen,” Romney told CNN. “That’s going nowhere. And I understand the president is casting about trying to find some way to have a different result than the one that was delivered by the American people, but it’s really sad in a lot of respects and embarrassing. You said it, Mitt!
Well, that’s me for this week, folks! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the latest instalment. I realise there may be the odd noteworthy story I may have missed, but I can’t cover everything, I’m afraid! I’ll be taking a well earned break for the next week or so, but I’ll be back early in the new year for a catch up. Until then, have a great Christmas and a healthy, safe and prosperous New Year! Stay tuned in, stay informed and stay safe! Take care out there! Adios!
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