Let’s Have Devolution That Works
NI Politics

Let’s Have Devolution That Works

During yesterday’s debate on reducing the number of MLAs Jim Allister repeated his call to democratise Stormont.

In the course of his remarks Mr Allister said:

“The Bill is a fig leaf to enable its primary proponents to say, “We have done the right thing; we have reduced the number of MLAs” in the context where they know that the public appreciation of this place is at a very low level indeed. Therefore, there is an anxiety to be seen to do the right thing. That comes off the back of having very much been seen as doing the wrong thing. We had my proposal before Christmas to reduce the number of special advisers so that it was in line with other parts of the United Kingdom. Of course, the DUP and Sinn Féin joined together to protect their own interests and retain the ludicrous situation where we have the same number of special advisers in OFMDFM as services the entire Welsh Government. Embarrassed and caught out on issues like that, with the squander that it represents, there is anxiety to be seen to be embracing this Bill as a token of doing something that can divert and distract attention from the obvious squander that is sustained in respect of the institutions.

“It is also a distraction from the fact that when we discuss the institutions — we have tinkered with the number of Departments and are now tinkering with the number of MLAs — we have run away, with no intention of ever addressing it, from the huge issue of the democratic deficit that centres on the subject of mandatory coalition. On 5 May — just over 100 days’ time — people in devolved regions across the United Kingdom will go forward to elect their next Assembly. As is the case anywhere else in the democratic world, the people of Scotland and Wales will be allowed to change their Government. Whether they choose to do so is a matter for them, but they have the option, perish the thought in a place like this, of voting a party out of government. In Northern Ireland, because of the iniquity of mandatory coalition, you just have to hold on to a handful of MLAs and you are guaranteed, as of right, a place in perpetuity in government. We are wholly denied the right to change our Government and vote a party out of government. The Bill is, in part, an attempted distraction from the failure to face up to and address that huge, glaring democratic deficit in the operation of these institutions.

“It is abundantly clear that there are vested interests for parties that guarantee that, despite having the trivial distraction of having to fight an election, no matter what the election throws up, they will stay, as of right, in government. The attraction of that has overcome parties in the House, particularly the two big parties, which have taken that to themselves as a cushion against democracy. In spite of what the people might do if they were afforded the opportunity, as they are everywhere else, you simply deny them the opportunity, safe in the knowledge that that keeps you safely ensconced in government, as of right and for ever. That is the glaring democratic deficit of these institutions. That is the thing that marks these institutions out as unique across the world: the open defiance of basic democratic norms. You can have an election, but you cannot change your Government. They have a view like that in North Korea, but, sadly, that is the view in Northern Ireland under these institutions. The Member said that I said they would never get these changes. I doubt if I said very much about these trivial changes, about changing the number of MLAs; my focus has always been on the main issue. He said that I spoke of a Sinn Féin veto: the Sinn Féin veto is the reason why it is not happening in May. It is the Sinn Féin veto that has pushed this to 2021.

“We are not one inch closer to voluntary coalition than we were in 2007, when the DUP signed up to mandatory coalition with the promise to the party’s rank and file that they would only have to stomach it for eight years and then there would be voluntary coalition — a false promise, they knew from the start. “How would you achieve it? It is simple: by the DUP having courage and integrity — fading recollections, no doubt. It would be achieved by saying, after the next election, “We’ve tried mandatory coalition. We’ve tried it for two long mandates. It has failed and failed miserably. It has been an experience of lurching from crisis to crisis, because government that is based on not having to agree anything in order to be in government inevitably results in no agreement when you are in government”. The DUP should have the courage to say at that point that, having tried mandatory coalition for more than long enough and seen it not working, it still wants devolution but devolution that works and that, if it is to be there, it will be on the basis of voluntary coalition. I invite them to take that stance. If they did, they would soon discover that, if the alternative was losing all the niceties and the baubles of the House, the chauffeur-driven cars, the Chair of this, the Chair of that and the Minister of this, the people would recognise that, if they wanted devolution that was going to last and work, they would have to pay the price that people pay anywhere across the democratic world of voluntary coalition.

“That is how you get it — by forcing the issues. So long as you sit back in the comfort of your ministerial limo, recognising that it is mandatory coalition that puts you there, it will never change. It is a question of not having the will to change it. That is the Member’s party’s problem; it does not have the will to change it. They are too comfortable with it, too happy with it. Yes, they can go on with the hyperbole: “Oh yes, we would love to change it. Oh yes, we will change it”, but they are very content and are never prepared to take the stand that would force the change by drawing a line and saying, “We’re not going back to mandatory coalition. We want to keep devolution, but it’s going to be on a voluntary basis”. Let devolution come about then. It would come about in those circumstances.”

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