A number of commentators have detected softening recently of the hard line adopted by the Irish Government towards Sinn Fein in the wake of the Northern bank robbery and the Robert McCartney murder.
The Taoiseach seemed to confirm that today when he announced a resumption of meetings with the party.
Nuzhound today carries an article from Brian Feeney’s Irish news column which may indicate the thinking behind the shift.
What Bertie is anxious to avoid and what the SDLP is equally concerned about in the weeks before a British election is the concerted attempt to cast republicans into the exterior darkness they inhabited in the 1980s. Why? It doesn’t work, that’s why, and they only have to be brought back in again. The sheer mind-numbing tedium of any further extension to the eternal peace process fills politicians and officials in both governments with dread.
Barry White in the Belfast Telegraph also outlines some of the practical reasons why a deal is necessary.
Direct Rule means that manufacturing jobs are being lost, because derating is ending, a tap tax is coming, along with increased rates, libraries are closing, grammar schools are going comprehensive, parade organisers will be responsible for their hangers-on and a new asbestos facility is opening – all without our Assembly members having any say.
Nationalists would probably disagree with at least two items on that list, but it does give an indication of the problems where ministers are not accountable to the electorate.
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