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In
the absence of anything approaching a solid political
system it would appear that the battle for the support
of the voting population has been reduced to a
media circus that is actually surpassing the antics
of the pre-election period last
November.
The
BBC’s new political satire show, ”The Folks
on the Hill”, therefore is just as good
a starting point to examine the unfolding episodes
that are being offered as
sincere political activism in the awkward vacuum pervading
the political arena
in the week before the beginning of the review of
the Good Friday Agreement.
Last
Friday’s programme showed a computer generated
Martin Mc Guinness and Bairbre
De Brun proposing a pre-structured public relations
stunt to a slightly worried
Gerry Adams. This involved staging a fake leadership
battle in order to ape
both the UUP and the upcoming struggle for primacy
within the DUP, which cannot
be that far away now. Mc Guinness’ character
contended that this would put
the focus back on to Sinn Fein and distract the press
from their current and correct
concentration on the various schisms eating at the
wider Unionist family.
Eventually
a less than convinced Adams left the room to allow
Mc Guinness and De
Brun to begin their “pretend” plot, and
wry grins spread across their faces as the
hirsute President departed.
The
point of satire is of course is that it’s intention
is to poke fun in a light-hearted
way at real events, whilst simultaneously keeping
one eye on the true
meaning of these actions without the smoke screen
of spin applied to them by
political party’s. Of course, in the six-counties
script writers have a much more pleasurable
job than most others in different political arenas.
Last
week we were witness to one of the last few times
when the Rev. Ian Paisley was to be let loose on the
media properly. In pushing the leader forward last
week the
DUP spin doctors illustrated the fear which they obviously
now have of Ian senior
being seen as their primary representative. Whilst
nothing of true substance was
happening last week Paisley was afforded the luxury
of hitting our screens to rant,
while in the background the true leadership of the
DUP could go about the business
of the real preparation for the upcoming meeting with
Bertie Ahern in London
ahead of the serious talks beginning very soon. Safe
in the knowledge that by
the time real talks begin Paisley’s ragess would
already be wrapping fish and chips
or consigned to celluloid oblivion deep in the vaults
of various TV studios.
Damage
limitation therefore has become the first consideration
of loosing the Leviathan on the public en masse.
To
quantify this Paisley’s appearance on last weeks
edition of “Hearts and Minds” was
not only an embarrassment to the DUP but to the old
man himself. Those reading
this could rightly contend that this is hardly a new
development as far as he
is concerned, yet one aspect of his traits has not
diminished at all in his recent prolonged
absence from our screens.
Paisley’s
penchant to tell completely bare-faced lies is still
as strong as ever.
Watching
him last Thursday night I was reminded that many years
ago my Grandmother pointed out to me that Paisley’s
habit of closing his eyes at certain points when he
spoke was an indication that he was about to try and
badly mask the complete lack of truth in what he was
about to say. I had no reason to ever doubt this,
but I always believed that this habit was to give
emphasis to his speech or
owed more to his complete belief in what he was saying
despite the level of fever
pitched insanity that greeted everyone else’s
ears. I know now that my Grandmother
was 100% correct. As the shows host Noel Thompson
and myself as
well no doubt, the rest of the viewers sat in slack-jawed
disbelief when Paisley contended
that Tony Blair himself had personally assured him
that the whole of
the GFA was to be totally re-negotiated, his eyes
were shut so tightly that it appeared
as if he was being led through a NASA wind tunnel
in preparation for his
new role as an astronaut after he finally retires.
This was matched again later in
the programme when he tried to deny to Thompson that
he was even there at
the Ulster Hall back in the mid-1980’s at the
meeting where he constituted Ulster Resistance.
This still went on even after Thompson pointed out
that he was in attendance
as a young reporter outside the hall and that the
BBC archives still had audio
recordings of the Rev promising to smash republicanism
by whatever means necessary.
Later
that evening it was the turn of the DUP’s newest
young obergrupenfuhrer Jeffrey
Donaldson to try and produce a more convincing performance
than that of
his new boss on the “Let’s Talk” programme.
I
have always believed that the BBC employee who thought
up this programmes title
had a fantastic sense of humour and if it has not
already happened then they should
be sent to work in the comedy department as there
are a few shows there which
I wish would give everyone’s head some peace,
if you understand me.
Predictably
the shows content boiled quickly down to a confrontation
between Donaldson
and his former UUP comrade Dermott Nesbitt.
It
quickly became evident that Donaldson’s political
role has become so reduced that
it basically now revolves on his need for personal
verbal self-defence. He has
become so practised at this that he has distilled
it to a fine blend of facial serenity
whilst launching blistering attacks on his former
colleagues. He was totally
unflappable when pressurised by Nesbitt the audience
and the shows host
on the point of whether or not he had mislead his
voters by standing on a UUP ticket
before his now infamous defection to the DUP. The
fact that he most certainly did
do just that does not appear to concern Donaldson
in the slightest and his supreme
confidence that his electorate are right behind him
was disconcertingly borne
out by the fact that at no point at all did he once
close his eyes. Also the
fact that thirty members of the Upper Bann UUP constituency
party resigned at
last weeks annual general meeting would supply Donaldson
with all the self-justification
and succour he required with relation to his recent
actions.
The
accurate satire of the “Folks on the Hill”
concerning Martin Mc Guinness’ concern
the lack of press attention on Sinn Fein illustrates
the fact that not only
the press currently obsessed with the variant moves
within unionism but
that Dublin and Westminster are as well. In effect
the current focus on unionism
represents a 100% U-turn with respect to the normal
scheme of things.
The
governments have by no means forgotten about the IRA
and are still eager to apportion a hefty slice of
the blame for the current hiatus within the process
upon republicanism, especially Ahern who is currently
fighting for his political survival on at least three
different fronts. However Fianna Fail and the British
Labour party for all their scowling with relation
to Sinn Fein still know that deep down republicans
will move forward whilst is at times such as these
the natural proclivity of unionism is for dissension
and stagnation. Positive or affirmative action is
not a characteristic that lends itself naturally to
the unionist psyche, therefore
wet-nursing them is the most important facet of the
upcoming talks.
As
ever the unionist concentration on blame placing and
demonization even before
the preliminary talks commence have ignored totally
the fact that Loyalist
paramilitarism has sufficently recovered from it’s
protracted summer blood
bath to remember what it is meant to do, threaten
and kill Catholics.
In
a week when the Ulster Political Research Group stated
that the UDA has informed them that the UFF ceasefire
is coming under increasing pressure not a
single mainstream unionist representative has condemned
their words.
The
nonsense that the UPRG and of course the UDA and UFF
are separate entities and the notion that, even by
the admission of security minister Jane Smith, that
they never have been on ceasefire, are as mythical
as the reasons why they say they are considering going
back to killing. In the north west the UPRG are attempting
to contend that there is an ongoing campaign within
Derry city to totally alienate Protestant people that
is bordering on an “ethnic cleansing” of
the west bank of the Foyle. The notion that this is
an orchestrated campaign is as insulting as it is
untrue. The only orchestration involved within this
comes as it always does from the mouths of Loyalist
paramilitaries and from the purposeful paranoia of
more militant Unionist representatives. The idea that
protestant people are intimidated out of the centre
of Derry, from using it’s social and commercial
facilities is a complete lie and from my own experiences
of travelling through the East bank of the river recently,
the larger lie that
Protestant people are being economically discriminated
against is totally discredited
by the large scale housing and commercial developments
evident there.
This
is in sharp contrast to the ridiculous outcry over
the proposed siting of a Gaelic
football pitch in the Lisnagelvin area of the Waterside.
Whilst
Magheraberry jail, literally still smoulders the man
who set out his stall demanding an end to all paramilitary
violence, David Trimble, pathetically tried regaining
his hard line image by going into the jail, post riot
of course, to lend his support to loyalist prisoners.
The fact that Trimble did this is at once evidence
of his increasing isolation in the post election arena,
but is also evidence of the DUP desire to distance
itself from the people whom they once cajoled and
courted and indeed offered unofficial political support
for back in the 1970’s
and 1980’s.
So
as the review or renegotiation or whatever looms large
and poor Bertie has to steel himself before meeting
the spectre of unionism past in the form of Ian Paisley
a suggestion made by Blair’s “Folks on the
Hill” image that Ahern should change the London
engagement from February 3rd to February 1st may be
worth a great deal of consideration. After all February
1st is a Sunday, the DUP will not be able to
attend!
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