In the Assembly yesterday TUV leader Jim Allister spelt out the alternatives to a failed system of government:
“It is no surprise to me that mandatory coalition has imploded. It was bound to happen because it is a system incapable of long-term survival. It has imploded because, at its heart, was a party that never really cared whether good government was brought to Northern Ireland or not. Indeed, one of the searching questions that all democrats, and particularly unionists, have to ask themselves now is whether Sinn Féin ever did intend or ever does intend to help make Northern Ireland work or whether Stormont was only ever a phase in its struggle to, in fact, destroy Northern Ireland, to extract what it could and when it could extract no more, to move on in its militaristic terms to the next phase of the struggle. That certainly is my belief. I believe that it is that point that we have reached.
“After 10 years of bleeding what it could out of mandatory coalition and having decided that there is nothing more for it unless someone wants to come and load it up with more concessions, it has decided, strategically, that Stormont is over. The only thing that will bring it back here is if the continuance of Stormont so serves its ends because the DUP decides after the election, for the sake of office, to fill Sinn Féin’s boots with more concessions. You can have a Stormont under mandatory coalition if you are willing to pay that impossible price. Sinn Féin is testing you to see just how desperate you are to hang on to power, and if you pay the price again, you will pay it again and again and again.
Mr Wells: Will the Member give way?
Mr Allister: Yes, I will give way.
Mr Wells: Will the Member indicate what concessions the present First Minister has made to Sinn Féin in the last 12 months?
Mr Allister: The DUP made the most colossal concession that we would abandon the fundamental principle of democracy that who is in government lies in the discretion of the people, and that we would bestow that discretion on the parties. That is the essence of mandatory coalition. In any other democracy, the people have the discretion to decide who is in and who is out. They can decide to vote a party out of government; that is in their discretion. However, because of the iniquity of mandatory coalition, that discretion is removed from the voters and is bestowed upon the parties. “Once you create a system that says that you are entitled, as of right, provided that you have a handful of MLAs, to be in government, you transfer the discretion, which is the heart of democracy, as to who should be in government, from people to parties. That is the fundamental flaw of mandatory coalition. When, in the doing of that, you bestow that discretion on a party that does not even want the country of which they are governing to exist or to succeed, it is quite clear, I would have thought, that it is a system bound to implode when it has served its purpose for those prepared to use it and exhaust its credit. That is the point that we have reached, and unless we get to a system of voluntary coalition — government by the willing — we will never have durable, lasting devolution. That reality needs to be faced. If the parties in the House are not mature enough to come to the point of voluntary coalition, we are headed for direct rule.
“What needs to happen then is that British Ministers need to take over the Executive, but, this time, direct rule can be made accountable by keeping this House as the lawmaking body so that Westminster’s Ministers have to put their laws through this House on devolved issues and are held to account through scrutiny by this House.
“The Assembly has three functions. Two of them have worked reasonably well. One is lawmaking and one is scrutiny. They have worked reasonably well. The one that has been catastrophic is the Executive powers. If the Executive powers are the failure and you cannot agree on voluntary coalition, take them out. Put in British Ministers and make direct rule accountable to the people by retaining the Assembly for the legislative and scrutiny functions. That is the only way that, I believe, we can make progress. It is quite clear that if we give a veto to Sinn Féin, a party that wants to destroy Northern Ireland, through mandatory coalition, it will do exactly that.”