As I sit down and write this piece for Northern Slant, it dawns on me just how much has changed since I last put my thoughts down on (metaphorical) paper. “The new normal,” a phrase which has been ingrained in all of us for the last eight months or so, is already with us, but it also continues to evolve. 

In truth, no one really knows how our economy or our society will look – and how much it will have changed – until we finally emerge from the pandemic. But while it seems as if the axis of our world has gone off kilter, we have experienced at least one constant in Northern Ireland: a lack of good governance.

The uneasy marriage between Sinn Féin and the DUP has always been one which had been plagued with more bad memories than good. After the relationship had been frozen for three years, a thaw began in January when the devolved institutions were restored. 

Not long after this restoration, the global pandemic hit. The power-sharing government was faced with a new crisis – the worst public health emergency ever seen – before having the chance to consolidate. The odds seemed stacked against it.  

Initial optimism

To everyone’s surprise, including myself, the response from Stormont at the start of the pandemic was coherent and collective. Everyone was on board. In fact, given the worst-case forecasts of thousands of deaths, we managed to come through the first wave of the virus a lot better than initially feared. 

The weekly press conferences headed up by Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill kept the public informed and up-to-date on where we were in the fight against the virus. It was refreshing to see this accountability in an Executive more usually known for its lack of accountability. 

The level of interest in the Executive briefings led by the First and Deputy First ministers was truly remarkable. As well as gaining coverage on the BBC website, local radio stations also carried the briefings. The reach of these press conferences was truly staggering. I found myself listening to a stream which had over 15,000 people watching it with me.  

Up until July the Executive was bringing the wider public along with it on this journey and there can be no doubt that the health message was being received. However, the eye of the storm was fast approaching and would put severe strain on the good will and collective working that the Executive had built up.

Events over the summer had a huge impact on this message, and in fact the fragile working relationship between the DUP and Sinn Féin. The funeral of Bobby Storey undoubtedly damaged the public health message. However, there was already a general relaxation across society which had become weary of the restrictions that had been placed on our lives. 

Faced with this crossroads, we badly needed the resolve and encouragement from our politicians which had shone through in the months previous. Yet in the aftermath of the funeral, the press briefings had stopped, and any good will between the parties had slipped away. The real losers of this political squabble would be the general public.

Rebuilding trust

We have recently seen the return of press conferences fronted by the two main leaders, but their renewed public display of leadership was not enough to prevent a second wave. A string of new ‘circuit-breaker’ restrictions were brought into effect by the Executive, closing most of the hospitality industry, followed by the latest set of tighter restrictions, which sees the closure of non-essential retail and a return to the original ‘stay at home’ message.

However, it was evident to see that all was not well on the hill. It was only after painstakingly slow negotiations that a decision was reached. Prior to this the DUP had deployed the cross community veto to torpedo the plans of UUP Health Minister Robin Swann. This veto was ingrained into the mechanisms of Stormont to prevent a party going on a so-called solo run, its creators could not have foreseen the circumstances when it was used in a health pandemic. Although I have my own suspicions that a lot of the manoeuvres made by the DUP reflect internal division and perhaps questioning of Arlene Foster’s leadership, I will leave that matter for another day.  

After the shambolic events of the week before, the Executive realised that the wider public’s patience was growing increasingly thin. Outcry came from all corners of society, and this was heavy on the mind of our politicians. It was fastly becoming clear even to those within the DUP that the numbers were going in the wrong direction. They had tried to stave off further intervention with the veto but the time for action had arrived. It was clear from a string of interviews carried out on the airwaves by senior DUP figures that the party had changed its position. At around 7pm on Thursday 19th November the ‘circuit breaker’ was announced.

Although measures were undoubtedly required, they still come at a wider economic cost. For an Executive which has stressed the need for public unity surrounding messaging and after seeing the success of the very public press conferences, to not have one in the aftermath of the Executive meeting which agreed these restrictions is very strange. With public attention weaning, a display of public unity enforcing the need that these restrictions would hopefully pave the way for some freedoms at christmas, would have been impactful. Instead we got a bland statement issued by the Executive office, not the tonic that was required.

Another baffling part of this sorry episode was the lack of financial clarity provided to the businesses affected; you would have thought that going hand in hand with these restrictions would have been a meaningful financial relief package. Although at the time of writing this package has since been agreed, the delay caused uncertainty and worry at a time when clarity was urgently needed.

As we face into one of the most challenging and difficult winters ever seen, this sense of community and togetherness is more important than ever. We need to emulate the spirit and cohesion that we saw in the early months of the pandemic. There is a real worry that if we take the foot off the gas too much, we will end up back at square one in January. The Executive parties need to put their differences aside for the greater good and reassure a weary and tired public that we can get through this together.

However, in the words of Boris Johnson, “the cavalry is on the horizon” with the scientific advances regarding a Vaccine. It could be as soon as next month that the most vulnerable in our society get immunised. The roll-out of such a large vaccination problem will be a logistical nightmare, and will require calm collective efforts by the executive to oversee it.

There is still time for the Executive to come out of this pandemic with some credibility, however, that is very much dependent on the next few months. In the meantime it is important that we all stick to what we have been doing thus far. There is light at the end of the tunnel.