Paisley Jnr should resign
DURING the St Andrews negotiations, when the DUP team was supposedly negotiating a "fairer deal" and "getting it right" for Northern Ireland, Ian Paisley Jnr was on a solo run for North Antrim. We know it was a solo run because the DUP, very quickly as it happens, issued a statement saying that the issues were "not raised by or with the party, nor were they included on any shopping list considered and approved by the party officers".
That statement itself raises the
question of what was on their shopping list
and whether or not the Government delivered
the goods!
Side-deal
Now, everybody knows that political parties
take the opportunity to conclude a side-deal
or two at these sorts of events. It's hard not to
when you have a couple of Prime Ministers
close to hand, both of whom want something
positive to show for their attendance and
personal input. But in the past it has always
been about matters which go a little further
than the backdoor of one person; and, in my
limited experience of these things, side-deal
possibilities are usually agreed in advance by
the team and then negotiated on their behalf.
(Occasionally, too, it's about ensuring that
key figures in the process are properly
recognised and rewarded for their efforts.)
And that's the key difference this time: for
Jnr decided that a negotiation process
involving two sovereign governments and
Northern Ireland's main political parties, was
a suitable moment to raise issues that applied
only to his own constituency. Two had
connections with Seymour Sweeney; another
one was about planning approval for a spa
and two hundred houses; one was about
dropping a judicial review; and one was about
funding for a motorcycle event!
Odd
The odd thing about that list is that it doesn't
include health, or education, or the housing
and drug problems in Ballymena. It isn't so
much about promoting the needs of his
constituency as about promoting needs which
are close to him. Had there been a huge
constituency issue – particularly an issue
which was of concern to all of the parties in
North Antrim and the electorate in general –
then no-one would have blamed him for
having a quick word with the Prime Minister.
We might even have praised him!
He now insists that the only thing he was
guilty of was "eagerness in resolving my
constituency cases" and that none of this is a
"political issue or a matter which causes me
any embarrassment". Let's be clear here,
Prime Ministers do not normally concern
themselves with this sort of parochial stuff,
particularly when it isn't even a constituency
represented by a member of their own party.
By raising these issues, at that time and in
those circumstances, it is very hard to avoid
the conclusion that Jnr was creating a direct
link between a successful outcome at St
Andrews and a written willingness from the
Prime Minister to "respond positively" to his
requests. In that sense it was very obviously
political.
The embarrassment lies in the fact that he is
beginning to look very accident prone. At the
end of last May he stood over his comments
that he was "pretty repulsed" by gays and
lesbianism. He got away with it because he
wasn't a junior minister at the time he made
the comments.
In September came the "I know of him" saga.
If it looked bad then, it looks very much
worse now; for we have hard evidence that he
lobbied the Prime Minister in October 2006
on matters that involved a private developer
who was also a member of the DUP. Did the
Prime Minister know of that connection?
Again, would it not have been appropriate to
have informed Arlene Foster, as soon as she
became a minister, of the link between
himself and Seymour Sweeney and between
Sweeney and the DUP? Or even to have
informed his Party Officers – when the
Sweeney story first broke – about his
lobbying of the Prime Minister? Secrecy
always fuels suspicion.
Indeed, it now looks so bad that both the
Assembly's Environment and Enterprise
Committees are asking for papers and
background information. DETI took the very
unusual step of agreeing to submit a series of
Freedom of Information requests to Downing
Street and the NIO, to find out what
exchanges took place between Jnr and Blair
and what action, if any, followed as a
consequence. Arlene Foster has to face the
fact that any decision she now makes on the
Causeway has to have any hint of unfair or
secret lobbying removed from it.
Untenable
It strikes me that his position as a junior
minister is now utterly untenable. He used
his presence at St Andrews to lobby the
Prime Minister on issues which were mostly
of personal concern or interest to him. He did
so without the knowledge or authority of his
party. Interestingly, no senior member of the
DUP has supported him and Jeffrey
Donaldson distanced himself on Thursday's
Hearts and Minds. I think that the real
weakness of his position lies in the fact that
he is now openly talking about a successor to
his father and publicly backing Peter
Robinson. He sounded desperate; and with
good reason.
Whether there was an intended link between
his father being prepared to agree a deal and
Jnr getting satisfaction on his own agenda, is
something that only Jnr can know. But the
very fact that no one but him can answer a
question that should never have had to be
raised in the first place, is probably the
strongest possible reason for his resignation
He has never been a popular figure outside
the DUP. That was okay so long as he served
the interests of his party and served them
well. But he is now bereft of credibility and
tarnished by the suspicion that he has an
uncomfortably close relationship with
congenital misjudgment. He is now a liability
to the DUP. Had he been any other MLA, and
the son of anyone else, I suspect that he
would have been shuffled sideways. If it
looks like his survival is now entirely
dependent upon his father's posts as party
leader and First Minister then both men look
weak.
Errors
All politicians make "errors of judgment" and
have to apologise for them. But when the
errors start piling up then we have a right to
raise questions about the competence of the
individual. Resignation does not spell the end
of a political career. It can indicate a sense of
honour and dignity and in many cases the
door is left open for a return to office.
Hanging on by your bootstraps because your
job is in the gift of your father serves only to
highlight the absurdity of your position. If
Jnr can't see that he needs to stand down,
and his father hasn't the heart to push him,
then the DUP's Assembly Group should
make the decision for them. Let's face it, if
this was any other minister in any other
party, it would be the advice that Jnr himself
would be hollering from the rooftops!
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