UUP right to stall on justice devolution
THE thing about public opinion surveys is that they can be made to show whatever you want them to say.
An animal rights campaign group may ask teenage girls in Islington if it is right that bunnies should suffer in the name of vanity, while a drugs company can ask rural parents if tests on rodents is acceptable to save children's lives.
One will produce a result that will generate headlines in the Guardian declaring that the population stridently disapproves of animal experimentation, the other will be sagely pontificated over in The Telegraph as proof that that the public accepts the need for vivisection.
If you want to know the result of a public survey in advance, simply look at who is doing the asking.
The BBC, currently under pressure to trim the 110 million or so it spends on its website (it had planned to spend up to 145 million), has suddenly produced a survey suggesting that nearly 80 per cent of people believe that internet access is a human right.
You can see how the conversation will go: "No Minister; we cannot cut the licence fee, we need to spend more on the website. It's a human rights issue."
The Northern Ireland Office has also been busy conducting polls, and with remarkable timing revealed that a massive 75% of the population here support the devolution of policing and justice.
You have to wonder at just how skewed the question was and how carefully selected the audience in order to get such an overwhelming result.
The NIO has revealed that the question contained the line "get on with the job of improving life for everyone in Northern Ireland", so you can be pretty sure that the question was not couched in terms such as whether or not is it wise to give policing powers to a bunch who cannot even sort out the 11 plus.
The NIO survey cannot credibly be called an objective exercise in accessing public opinion, however it could be considered political propaganda.
The UUP received special mention in the accompanying press release, because that party has had the audacity not to meekly do what it was told.
Secretary of State Shaun Woodward then provided the topspin; he told MLAs that they should vote for the devolution of policing powers and threw in all the usual platitudes about communities and the peace process.
(Remind me again, why do we have a "peace process" and not just plain old peace?)
He demanded a unanimous vote. It seems dissent or protest will not be tolerated.
And then there was the promise of 800 million for a locally-based Ministry of Justice. The NIO says that this is to be new money released from treasury (assuming that there is anyone left willing to lend to the UK in the first place), but when I asked why we should need such an extraordinary additional sum of money to do something locally that is already being done from Westminster, the NIO spokesperson said: "I have no idea."
Which is hardly confidence building.
It is not just Mr Woodward who is meddling. The US Secretary of State has been on the phone lecturing the UUP, presumably in that annoying and patronising manner in which she does things.
In October last year Hillary indicated that she would not interfere in the policing debate: "…when it comes to the important issue of the devolution of policing and justice, that is a decision for this assembly to take."
That's what she said at Stormont during a whirlwind stopover.
If she had forgotten what she said just five months ago (and let's face it, Hillary is renowned for mis-remembering), then the UUP's David McNarry was not backwards in coming forward to say that she should "butt out and stop meddling in our affairs".
Maybe she will, but unfortunately five US congressmen, in something called the Friends of Ireland in the United States House of Representatives, and the Ad Hoc Committee on Irish Affairs have also stuck their noses in and expressed "deep disappointment" at the Ulster Unionist stance.
This looks like the revival of the old school Irish-American mob that used to give succour and funds for those who murdered and maimed Unionists.
I doubt if any of them have even heard of Edgar Graham.
Perhaps in return we should offer to send David McNarry stateside to negotiate the return of Texas, New Mexico and Southern California to the sovereignty of the Republic of Mexico. Perhaps the UUP executive should express its deep regret that the Obama Administration is not making sufficient progress in re-uniting Alaska and Canada.
The UUP was right to drag its heels. The whole policing and justice debate has been conducted in terms of the political process at a time when the largest unionist party was on the ropes because of the sexual and financial shenanigans of its leader's wife.
There has been little meaningful analysis of the reality.
I have yet to hear anyone explain concisely as to why it would be wise to devolve policing and justice to an Assembly that has made such an unholy mess of education and been so mind-numbingly complacent on the economy.
Also, if we need 800 million to run the Ministry of Justice, what guarantee do we have that that there will be sufficient funds in the future?
Or are we not simply signing up for yet another unnecessary and expensive bureaucratic burden?
We have yet to see consistent long-term evidence of republicans unreservedly supporting law and order and committing to equality for the loyal orders and victims of IRA terrorism.
David Ford may get to swan around in an armour-plated mid-range saloon for a couple of years, but what reassurance do we have that a Maze jail breaker will not be appointed Justice Minister following the next Assembly election?
While Sinn Fein MLAs condemn the police for applying the law to "sound republicans", others are looking all too pleased with themselves for securing the devolution of policing and justice. Gerry Adams called it a "hugely important... staging post".
Martin McGuinness, in a party political broadcast last week, said forcibly: "Powers on policing and justice are being transferred because Sinn Fein made it happen."
And Alex Maskey at last weekend's Ard Fheis said: "Comrades, we are delivering on our mandate while striving for an all-Ireland justice system."
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Tuesday 14 February 2012
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