THE new British Secretary of State, Hilary Benn, says “probably” the most important thing on his desk as he takes up his role is Casement Park. The “probably” is entirely consistent with the maddeningly ambiguous and confusing messages that he and the Labour Party have been sending out from the opposition benches.
Mr Benn said the stadium will be built at some stage, which in words that an Englishman like him might understand better than any we can offer, was stating the bleedin’ obvious.
But the question of whether the stadium will be built in time for the 2028 Euros remains unanswered, which is just the way a Prime Minister as bland, non-committal and unconcerned about making promises or breaking them as Keir Starmer would like it.
Mr Benn has been similarly non-committal about where last Thursday’s election results leave us in terms of a border poll. Not only do we not know when and if this new administration will make a decision on the constitutional future of this chronically dysfunctional little corner of the island (which Mr Starmer comically referred to as one of “four nations”), we have no information on what criteria the new man will be relying on when and if he makes his decision to make a decision.
We will find out for ourselves in a fairly short space of time what this government’s attitude is towards the continued partition of Ireland. That knowledge will not come not in statements from Downing Street or Stormont Castle, but rather more organically, from the nuances, the unscripted words and the body language of Messrs Benn and Starmer and their respective teams. Certainly, Mr Starmer decided on his visit to Stormont – or was advised – to maintain a Sphinx-like inscrutability as he met the parties, refusing to crack a smile while around him local party illuminaries beamed delightedly. To be fair, a blank expression is the new Prime Minister’s factory setting, so it would be foolish to read too much into his demeanour, but it’s fair to say that he looked considerably more happy in the other constituent parts of his ‘four-nation kingdom’.
With a 4.5 per cent rise in its vote, Sinn Féin enjoyed another strong election. And while that might in the ordinary run of things be expected to put to bed for another generation the suggestion that Sinn Féin is letting down its voters by not taking its seats, the usual voices will no doubt keep ignoring the proof before them and claiming against all evidence to the contrary that Westminster is where it’s at.
The sight of MPs from the North in a packed chamber this week as the new intake met served only to underline the reality that the parties who do turn up are invariably pictured speaking in a chamber that emptied seconds before they stood up.
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood’s first contribution of the new term was to shout ‘Derry!’ at DUP leader Gavin Robinson when he said the word ‘Londonderry’. If that’s the bar then it’s no surprise that some politicians opt not to step over it.
