We will need to rethink Northern Ireland policies due to Ukraine war

The leader of the DUP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has warned about food supply as a result of the war in Ukraine, and in light of Russia’s key role in such supplies.

The Lagan Valley MP is further concerned that this is no time for Stormont to be adding to pressures on agriculture by setting a zero emissions climate target.

Some critics of Sir Jeffrey will accuse him of using the current crisis to make opportunistic political points.

They might even say that he is trivialising an international disaster to worry about local matters of secondary importance.

But this would be an unfair response to the DUP leader’s comments.

The disaster of the Putin invasion of a sovereign nation is going to need the western democracies to rethink a range of crucial domestic policies, and Northern Ireland is not exempt from that.

Defence investment will need to be reconsidered, obviously.

But so too will energy policy. As a tweet below (in the print edition) implies, Germany’s decision to abandon a successful system of nuclear plants now looks foolish.

And in Northern Ireland the threat to food supply will of course mean that all imminent decisions in matters such as farming and agrifood will need to be reassessed in light of events.

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