Back To Business As Usual

Hurrah, and praise be, the Northern Assembly is going to meet again after a four year hiatus. Yes, the august body that was brought down by the Stormont spy ring affair is back in business.

Funny about the spy ring, though, when it turned out that the man who was arrested as a spy was none other than the late Dennis Donaldson, a man in the employ of the Special Branch. Just when they were getting up and going in 2002, the police staged a raid and claimed that Sinn Fein was spying, and that took care of any power sharing for awhile. Looking back, it appears to have been a cod, a ruse concocted to put an end to home rule and have London run things, like they have for the past two hundred years. Now the Assembly is due to reconvene, so what do the lovers of the status quo have up their sleeves for this session?

How can they wreck the agreements and put a stop to home rule this time? Maybe a bit of late breaking news about that bank robbery. You remember, surely, it was nearly two years ago and everyone insisted it was Sinn Fein's doing. Well, no, they haven't actually demonstrated a link, although they did arrest a couple of criminals who aren't exactly frothing at the mouth republicans, but we're talking about the Northern Assembly now.

Ian Paisley is giving it his all, latching on to one excuse after another, only to be shot down by the wily Gerry Adams. Now the man who loves to hate is refusing to share power unless the Shinners recognize the police force in the north. That would be the same police force that staged the raid that nabbed their own spy in Stormont. Yes, yes, and that colluded with the loyalist gangs and protected thugs who murdered Catholics for sport.

So, the assembly will meet, they will get nothing done, and then the loyalists will trundle off to a lovely wee garden party with Chuck and Camilla. All in all, a delightful day for the gerrymandered majority, and the political pundits will at last have something new to pundit about. All that matters to some is that nothing ever changes.