Northern Ireland in Limbo

This is a follow-up to my post dated May 08. And the Stormont assembly is in limbo.

That’s because the Democratic Unionist Party are duly refusing to let the new executive take office and the absence of a new executive in Belfast leaves open the prospect of direct rule from London. 

After all, the DUP have blocked the election of a speaker, a move that will keep the assembly from functioning amid a fight about Brexit and its affect on the province. 

Politics are already in flux after Sinn Féin, which prefer closer ties to Ireland, were the big winners in recent elections. 

But Brexit continues to reverberate through the region’s politics, due to lingering anger about a deal hammered out between London and Brussels that has kept Northern Ireland in the EU’s trading sphere, complicating and slowing trade to the UK.

The situation is almost intolerable to the DUP, which prize their role as part of the United Kingdom and distrust closer ties to Ireland.

The deal – known as the Northern Ireland Protocol – was drawn up to prevent a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, out of fear that setting up border and trade controls there would undo more than two decades of work towards peace by enraging Northern Ireland residents who want to keep close ties to Ireland. 

But that has left the traditionally Protestant DUP feeling left out in the cold. 

London has also latched on to the issue and threatened to tear up the protocol, even though it was agreed to by the sitting government and even though such an act might be illegal. It also risks worsening already unsteady ties between the UK and the EU.

All that played into the DUP’s move to block the speaker’s election, keeping empty a position that must be filled if fundamental parts of the legislature’s work is to be done. 

In the meantime, Northern Ireland suffers.