“THE mood in Downing Street is one of grief and sorrow tonight”.
That comment in a month’s worth of hyperbole tried to bring us to a place of empathy for the humanity of it all. The trouble is that Keir Starmer has never displayed those emotions himself, so asking us to relate to him was a stretch few would be willing to take.
At the time of the General Election which delivered Starmer’s thumping majority most of us here were waking to the reality that our local electoral results were reaffirming the fundamental political change on our island. Unionism is crippled and the unionist majority is gone. Our eyes turned to Dublin and Brussels to ask how they were going to plan for the inevitable democratic choice these electoral results demand. Westminster has long abandoned us, and its relevance is only ever to estimate the harm it causes us and the mitigations we need to survive. So the Starmer premiership just never felt as impactful as other more relevant matters, like why the pedestrian lights at the Felons seem to take forever to turn green.
Of course we saw immediately that he cared less than we cared about him. Not addressing the generational budget inequality, the disproportionate impact of Brexit on our community, and condemning us to another generation of fiscal austerity told its own story. A story which began to write in Dublin’s Shared Island Unit making up for Starmer’s government’s failures towards us. On Legacy his commitment to Repeal and Replace has been turned into a mess of protecting the jobs of the incompetent and incapable egos occupying the ICRIR, while disgusting sums of money are squandered, all while bereaved families and the most seriously injured are tortured by the denial of justice and accountability.
His treatment of those defenders of Palestinian rights has been incomprehensible but speaks to the same comprehensibility that saw him speak out against Kneecap.
It was instructive that the almost immediate statements by Sinn Féin had no words of comfort for him, or a polite goodbye, but instead focused on the chaos of Britain’s successive governments. In a week where Fine Gael become decisive united Irelanders (I think), it reflected the growing confidence that Ireland’s self determination is not only in our interest, it is essential for our survival.
Of course Fianna Fáil needs to step up to the plate. Shared Island funding passed £1billion this week. That is hugely significant and sorely needed. But it needs to be accompanied by constitutional planning. It is not good enough for Simon Harris to enter the debate purely as leader of Fine Gael. He is Tánaiste for goodness sake. The ever-impressive Helen McEntee as Minister for Foreign Affairs is consistently engaged in the debate of our time. Why are they not raising this at the cabinet table and insisting on planning? God knows they have the leverage and surely if they are truly committed he and Helen could flex inside Merrion Square?
Keir Starmer might look back at the past few years and wonder could he have done more? Could he have been remembered for generational change? The occupants of Government Buildings, not least Micheál Martin, could learn this lesson, grasping our generation’s opportunity, seizing history’s moment and determine, with all willing partners, north and south, to forge our united, peaceful and prosperous national future.
