Phillip Brett: Sinn Fein should stop blaming everyone else for its own failures and instead take responsibility
Over recent weeks Sinn Fein representatives have increasingly talked about political instability, institutions being under threat and the “wheels coming off” Stormont.
Gavin Robinson has said we are not walking away from Stormont. We are there to make Northern Ireland work and to deliver for the people who elected us.
The question therefore is why Sinn Fein appears so determined to talk up instability.
The answer increasingly seems to be that instability and victimhood provide convenient cover when Sinn Fein’s own promises and policies run into reality.
When the wheels come off a Sinn Fein policy, their instinct is invariably to find somebody else to blame.
Blame the Brits. Blame unionists. Blame the DUP. Blame the institutions.
It is time Sinn Fein took responsibility for Sinn Fein decisions.
They championed net-zero legislation without properly confronting the consequences for delivering major infrastructure.
When those consequences subsequently emerged, responsibility was again directed everywhere except towards those who wrote and championed the legislation.
In the last 12 months, John O’Dowd had to abandon his ill-thought-out pubs and restaurant rates reform. Meanwhile the Magee University expansion is under threat with 1,700 student spaces at risk with a Sinn Fein minister in charge.
The Sinn Fein transport minister then blocked an inflationary fare increase despite Translink warning about budget challenges.
For years Sinn Fein made grand promises about Casement Park while warnings over costs and deliverability mounted. Those warnings were ignored.
The project was politicised and promises were made that could not be delivered. Yet when reality finally caught up with the rhetoric, somebody else had to be blamed.
Now we are seeing the same approach to culture.
Declan Kearney has accused the DUP of ‘deep hostility’ towards Irish language and culture. That accusation could scarcely have been more badly timed.
The experience of Belfast over the last week demonstrated precisely the opposite.
Unionists did not boycott or retreat from the Fleadh. They embraced the opportunity. DUP representatives and others worked to maximise its shared character. Unionists stepped outside traditional comfort zones and participated positively in a celebration overwhelmingly rooted in Irish traditional culture.
That is what genuine cultural confidence looks like.
Contrast that with what was happening elsewhere in Belfast during the same week.
At the West Belfast Festival we saw republican politics intertwined with cultural expression.
IRA prisoners were lauded for their contribution to the Irish language, bilingual signage was presented as an act of ‘decolonisation’ and ‘resistance’, and anti-British chanting provided the backdrop.
That is not the Irish culture which unionists experienced at the Fleadh. It is republican politics being wrapped around Irish culture. Irish culture is far richer than Sinn Fein and deserves better than being weaponised for a political project.
The contrast between the two experiences of Belfast could hardly have been clearer.
One demonstrated that people confident in their own identity can open the door to others and enjoy each other’s traditions without surrendering their own.
The other continued to define identity through grievance and conflicts of the past.
There is a wider pattern here.
Sinn Fein needs the politics of grievance because grievance requires somebody else to blame.
The DUP is interested in a different kind of politics.
We have helped deliver childcare support for working families, sign language legislation, a new school curriculum, defective premises legislation, action to drive down school uniform costs and capital support which recognises the contribution of marching bands and church halls.
None of that requires anyone to surrender their identity. It is simply the practical business of making Northern Ireland better.
Sinn Fein talks about the wheels coming off Stormont.
Perhaps they would be better examining the increasingly wobbly wheels on their own political vehicle.
Instability and victimhood might provide the fuel for Sinn Fein politics, but they cannot provide good government.
The DUP will not assist Sinn Fein in manufacturing another narrative of crisis simply because it provides a convenient distraction from their own record.
Northern Ireland needs political leaders who take responsibility for their decisions, learn when things go wrong and get on with the job.
Sinn Fein should try it.
l Phillip Brett is DUP MLA for North Belfast. He has been a Member of the Legislative Assembly since 2022