Workers Party: It is Sinn Fein who are the shams, the fraudsters and fakes

The main and seemingly only obstacle to the return of devolution is now Sinn Fein.

When SF collapsed the executive in 2017 it claimed the DUP’s handling of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) meant that it could no longer work with them. They also objected to Arlene Foster as first minister.

The RHI inquiry was, in the words of SF at the time to be “...an independent, no-hiding place public inquiry into the RHI....

That is what SF demanded, and it is what they got: and rightly so. That inquiry has investigated and will present its findings in a few months’ time.

The objection to Arlene Foster as first minister was quietly dropped and quickly forgotten. It was replaced with demands for an Irish language act, although they have yet to spell out exactly what that would entail, but nonetheless a legitimate piece of legislation.

They later added a call for same sex marriage — again, a very legitimate piece of legislation. However, as the parties inched towards an agreement last year that too was dropped from Sinn Fein’s red line list.

Now they have now introduced the unnecessary, divisive and deliberately sectarian demand for a border poll to their shopping list.

It is nothing more than a device to heighten sectarian tensions: and they know it.

SF has no intention of returning to the executive, until after a general election in the Republic of Ireland and after the final withdrawal of the UK from the EU.

While every other party is prepared to re-establish the executive and the assembly SF refuses to do so on tactical grounds designed solely to enhance SF’s electoral support.

Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald described the latest attempt to restart talks as ‘a sham’.

It is hard to understate the appalling arrogance of that position.

Perhaps Mary Lou thinks it’s ‘a sham’ that people are waiting on hospital trollies, that cancer patients have no access to modern treatments and that victims of domestic abuse have less protection and rights than elsewhere.

Strangely, SF did not present those issues as red lines in negotiations.

It is Sinn Fein and its fellow travellers who are the shams, the fraudsters and the fakes.

It is time, not just for the electorate as voters, but for people of all ages as citizens to face up to the ransom demands — and those who make them — which are robbing us all of a present as well as a future.

Gemma Weir, Workers Party, North Belfast