Editorial: Sinn Fein erupt over Bryant's harmless quip about UK Government funding

​You know Sinn Féin are rattled when they start harking back to the 19th Century rather than deal with the argument at hand.

That’s what the party did this week when the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland reminded the local economy minister that the UK government is funding an energy scheme this winter.

Sinn Féin had claimed that “Caoimhe Archibald is cutting £63 off every home’s electric bill this October” – to which Sir Chris Bryant responded “I’m really glad that the UK government is funding this”.

Just a bit of ordinary political knockabout, you might think. Not for republicans, who fired out one of their most over-the-top press releases in quite some time.

An angry statement in the name of South Down MP Chris Hazzard screamed: “beneath this British proconsul’s veneer lurks the same old colonial contempt”. Not satisfied with invoking images of colonial rulers, he claimed that Sir Chris had a “mindset straight out of a 19th-century Punch cartoon”.

“Our ministers will not be harangued or belittled in our own country by a British politician with zero democratic mandate here”, the Sinn Fein MP fumed.

It was undoubtedly embarrassing for the party to be called out so skilfully by a Northern Ireland secretary. Previous occupants of that post have tiptoed around Sinn Fein like they might go off at any minute. Judging by this outburst, maybe they were right.

But the Welsh Labour MP is no stranger to dealing with nationalists for whom grievance politics is their bread and butter, having dealt with Plaid Cymru throughout his career.

It was refreshing to see him defend the important role the UK Government plays here in improving people’s lives, and hopefully he will keep it up.