Stormont’s shaky house of cards still stands, for now

The Ulster Unionist Party’s ruling council unanimously supported Mike Nesbitt’s recommendation to withdraw from the Northern Ireland Executive on Saturday. The move is long overdue, and can yet be constructive. Now that the party has removed its hand from Stormont’s precarious house of cards, it has a choice between acting as a destructive opposition party, or a constructive one. Removing its cards does not in itself pose a serious threat to the overall structure. If anything, it has removed some unnecessary weight. Now, instead of trying to blow everyone else’s cards down from the sidelines, it can give the other players in the Executive the chance to stabilise the already shaky structure. That is how a responsible party of opposition should act.

Meanwhile, the DUP’s cards are currently intertwined with Sinn Féin’s at the foundation. Without them, the house of cards will inevitably collapse. The DUP must now use its place in government to greatest effect by holding its partners in government to account. It can, and should, ignore the UUP’s move – for now. On that note, however, the next significant move must come from Sinn Féin. It can no longer simply deflect the blame on unionists and its rivals in the South. This week Gerry Adams insisted that the Provisional IRA had indeed “gone away.” As Malachi O’Doherty wrote in the Belfast Telegraph this week, the smoke and mirrors public relations strategy of Sinn Féin may have served the party well in the past, but it doesn’t hold in 2015 – on either side of the border. Ten years after the IRA declared an end to its armed campaign, Sinn Féin must come to terms with the scrutiny that democracy requires.

The UUP has made its move. Now it’s over to Sinn Féin and subsequently the DUP to determine whether or not they have the will to keep Stormont in play. If they don’t, there’s no telling how long it could be before Stormont’s house of cards are resurrected. Once they’re down, they will prove surprisingly – and dangerously –heavy to lift back up again. It’s a house of cards, but it’s no game.

 

The House of Lords gets an extension

You would normally expect planning rules to help prevent ugly monstrosities that blight our landscape. Despite the supposed lessons learned from a number of recent scandals, the integrity of Britain’s political landscape took a hit with some additions that are particularly clumsy. The latest expansion of the House of Lords is just one signal that the chamber could do with more than just minor repairs.

When looking at the House of Lords, I am aware of three things. First, the specialized expertise of many of its members does indeed add a quality to Parliament, particularly in the scrutiny of legislation, that MPs alone cannot provide. Second, elected upper houses are not without their own problems and can simply end up mirroring the lower chamber. Third, for all its faults, the British Constitution (whatever it may be) has stood the test of time in a largely unparalleled way. Being able to adapt has contributed to its survival, but any change should always be carefully scrutinised.

There are about 790 members in the House of Lords. Many of these have made impressive contributions to public service, and many may never have considered entering politics precisely because their efforts have been dedicated to other areas, such as education, business, and the voluntary sector. However, when the latest batch of appointments includes those who were defeated in the last general election, politicians implicated in the 2009 expenses scandal, and former special advisers, it is hard to see how the House of Lords is enhancing the overall quality of Parliament. Instead, this week’s announced appointments provide plenty of ammunition to those who would like to see the entire place given a wholesale regeneration.

 

Labour’s house of horrors

With the opening of Dismaland, a rather sinister parody of Disneyland and other theme parks in the name of art, Banksy has created a dystopian interpretation of typical summer highlights. He took the idea of places filled with magic and happiness, and flipped it on its head.

The Labour Party was set to have a leadership contest that would help to gather its senses in the aftermath of electoral defeat in May. That too has been flipped on its head over the summer. Instead of setting its sights on 10 Downing Street, the party appears to be stuck in something resembling a house of horrors. It’s hard to see how this doesn’t end in some sort of nightmare for the party – and that’s not good for the country as a whole, either. If Jeremy Corbyn maintains his frontrunner status and does actually win the contest, few of his 251 MPs will fall solidly in line behind their new leader. At best, the party will suffer a great deal of internal dissent. At worst, it could split altogether.

Even if any of the other three candidates were to win, the faultlines running through Labour have already been opened. The parliamentary party would be more likely to unite behind its new leader, but the grassroots party has become a highly unpredictable entity. It was announced this week that three thousand newly registered supporters have been deemed ineligible to vote in the leadership contest. However, the total number eligible to vote is still three times the number of fully paid-up members at the time of the last general election.

It is, of course, encouraging that over half a million people are energised enough to engage in politics through the leadership contest, but they look set to make it much harder for the Labour Party to attract the well over ten million votes it needs in order to gain power again. It is the classic dilemma facing any modern party, but on an exaggerated scale: how to meet its own interests and the country’s interests at the same time. If it fails to find a way of reconciling the two, Labour’s house of horrors will slowly gather cobwebs.

As it stands, the party is all over the place in its struggle to find fresh ideas and credible talent that together can appeal to a sufficiently large audience. In other news, the X Factor has returned to our screens.