Member News
By Sam Macrory - 29th January 2010
As the television cameras remained glued to Tony Blair's appearance before the Chilcot inquiry on Friday, little attention was being paid to the slow progress being made at Stormont.
Negotiations between Republican and Unionist politicians over the issue of devolving policing powers to Northern Ireland has been limping on for the best part of 18 months and on Friday showed little sign of being resolved.
Even if they are, be it in Stormont or via edict from Westminster, any deal looks set to be made from straw on foundations of clay.
The backdrop to the negotiations could hardly be less reassuring.
Northern Irish politics has been unsettled by one development, and could yet be radically altered by another.
Firstly, we have witnessed the return of party politics to Northern Ireland.
Just how big a role is Owen Paterson, the shadow NI secretary playing – and what might its effect be?
Paterson has found himself at the centre of the drama after it was revealed that he held high level talks with DUP and UUP representatives last weekend.
The government was able to cry 'Unionist stitch up'.
Political points were scored, but the very fact that Northern Ireland is once again a place where such points are up for grabs has thrown the province's future into greater uncertainty.
Whatever Paterson's modus operandi, he makes for an interesting figure in the shadow cabinet.
He served as PPS to Iain Duncan Smith during the latter's spell as Conservative leader, his politics remain very much on the party's right and he is the most senior-ranking shadow cabinet minister in the increasingly influential Cornerstone Group of Conservative MPs.
Initially he found himself in credit for brokering the potentially beneficial partnership with the UUP, but last week's secretive country house talks have caused serious concerns on all sides of the House and across the political spectrum in Northern Ireland.
Paterson's invitations to Hatfield House, the country home of Lord Salisbury, were sent out before the current impasse at Stormont and Cameron has backed his Northern Ireland secretary.
Today a story emerged that the DUP and UUP have since held talks on their own; if this is true, then the entire UUP/Tory deal could be thrown into jeopardy.
The second, as yet unknown development, inevitably involves the incredible personal dramas surrounding the central players in the talks at Stormont.
We're all very aware that the bedroom activities of God-fearing Iris Robinson, leader of first minister Peter Robinson, hardly chime with biblical instruction, but Mrs Robinson is already removed from the political picture and that drama will fade.
Of perhaps even more interest, according to a senior figure in Northern Irish politics, is the scandal surrounding Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.
The abuse claims surrounding Adams' father seem far from resolved and could potentially have significant consequences.
Sinn Fein, then, could be in just as shaky position as the DUP, and yet the DUP, clinging to its demand to abolish the Parades Commission before policing can be devolved, is hardly holds the power cards to hold anyone to ransom.
And yet the two power-sharing parties find themselves debating the province's future.
A week ago the UUP, with their powerful Tory allies, looked to be the beneficiaries, but the country house fall-out has left the party's position exposed and its intentions uncertain.
The Robinson saga made for some jaw-dropping headlines; but questions more fundamental to the future of the province, how it is governed, and how governs it, may follow.
Sam Macrory writes for The House Magazine.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd