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LAST UPDATE | 28 Oct 2022
I TWEETED ON Thursday that it was not a big day for Northern Ireland politics. But that it was a day like too many others.
And I asked a couple of questions:
Would it really be progress if the Executive was restored?
And, would voting in another Assembly election change anything?
I came to the conclusion that we were watching the continuation of a Stormont s***show.
This is the news from the North.
The same sorry story of a place that just can’t function.
We are waiting now for details from Northern Ireland Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris – a date for another election, just months after the last one.
After another period in limbo, Thursday was Stormont’s last chance to get an Executive in place.
In a long row over the post-Brexit Irish sea border, the DUP has been refusing to nominate for deputy First Minister.
The election in May ended its long run as top party.
In the way our politics works and doesn’t work, without a deputy First Minister, there can’t be a First Minister.
Stormont has now run out of road.
In the political script, the line from Heaton-Harris has been consistent. If no Executive, there would be an election.
But an election to what? Will it simply send the parties back into the same mess and standoff?
One MLA told me that it would make things worse – “more difficult to recover”.
Another spoke of “madness”.
There has been thinking out and talking out on an enhanced role for Dublin in the decision-making of this place.
And so the script becomes more nervous – more uncertain. More angry.
In this post-Brexit period, old certainties have been shattered.
In all the noise of now, it is worth remembering that in January 2020, then Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith could not have saved Stormont without the help of Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney.
Not joint-authority or joint-rule, but the two governments finding ways to make this place function – joint-working, I suppose.
My very clear view is that agreement should have represented Stormont’s last chance. That if it failed again, then it should fail forever.
But here we are again – repeating the madness.
Why are we here?
Post-Brexit
It is all part of the post-Brexit turmoil in Britain and in the North. An unthinking project. Badly negotiated. And, now, it is everyone else’s fault. Today’s anger is a continuation of the blame game.
For many – indeed for most – there are more pressing issues in the here-and-now; the cost-of-living crisis and all the associated worries about heat, food, mortgages, and with Christmas not far away.
There is a bad mood. Politics is in a bad place. The wrong place.
My questions are the same.
Would it really represent progress if the Executive was restored?
Would voting in another Assembly election change anything?
There has to be a plan. Something different, or a full stop.
Stormont has had too many chances.
If it can’t work, won’t work, then – what next?
What will the governments do?
Brian Rowan is a former BBC correspondent in Belfast and an author on the peace process. His latest book Living with Ghosts was recently published by Merrion Press.
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Looks like a scene from New Delhi.
@OConnelj: Probably a used vehicle export load to an African country – it’s where a lot of our old vehicles end up. Still, these vehicles should be loaded more safely than this while still in Ireland.
Using nylon straps to hold them vehicles down is not only reckless but also illegal
A right Langer load.
@Alan Foy: yes and a big fine
Surely tractors are not legally allowed to do this as I thought their insurance only covered them for moving agricultural equipment from field to field and within a certain milage.
@Ian James Burgess: nope they can drive length and breath of the country with a trailer hauling anything that fits in it at 16 years of age and with no experience.
@Ian James Burgess: it could be under commercial insurance.
@Ian James Burgess: no DOE test, no tacho on tractors and a 16 y/o can drive it.
I grew up on a farm years ago,the farmers with their tractors don’t realise whether it’s on a country lane or on a main road,they travel the same way,even to this day where I live,if your behind someone in a tractor or jeep,u always keep well back,because they do be looking in over the ditches seen what’s on other people’s land,they could stop all of a sudden,or swerve..
I also don’t see a single number plate on any of the trucks or the trailer…
@Bertie: You don’t need them with the red diesel, Boss.
With the trucks on the truck and the truck on the truck and the truck on the trailer and the trailer on the tractor and the tractor in the tunnel………..O – Ro the rattlin’ trucks
@John Costello: quality
Cyclists fault
Definition of muppet
A truck towing truck towing towing trucks
This is not an agricultural load, so the tractor must have commercial diesel, commercial tax, commercial insurance and be certified roadworthy. Same for the trailer including weight limits of 10ton per axel. Height limit is 4.65m as already mentioned and if the Garda is unhappy with the safety of the load, there can be prosecutions. Driver must have a full commercial licence and be over 18. Those are the rules. Most of the comments here are rubbish and disinformation.
@Liam Dunne: care to post a link to where you got that information?
@Liam Dunne: the reason I ask is because it’s none of what you mentioned in the rules of the road. It’s not on the rsa website. Look forward to seeing where you got it from. If you can’t provide it I’ll take it as BS
I grew up in Ennis,my Da was a rep for Guinness, when I was about 8 I remember a day on the road back to Ennis from Kilrush ,my Da slowed down to about 5 mph,there were trucks tractors and cars behind us, I gave em the finger out the back window
Can’t park there mate.
4.6 metres is a very generous height limit.
The tallest double deck buses are 4.4 metres
Max authorised height for HGV’s is 4 metres.
@Nomis Andrews: incorrect. The maximum legal height is 4.65m for trucks. And truck over that height can obtain a permit to travel
@John Webb: Yeah so if your truck is 4.65m (a legal height) then you can’t travel through the tunnel – lack of foresight
Old news ….. Cork Beo had this up this morning…..ye dubs really need to get the finger out
@Joe_X: We were too busy laughing and trying not to make culchie jokes about it. The tractor pulling all this in the City jumps tops the story off.
We were being nice and we get slagged for being nice.
Vehicle smuggling, langer style.
It’s like Inception…..a truck within a truck within a truck!
@Joe Kennedy: STUCK
If its on its gone.
A way to avoid using a tacho.
The vehicular equivalent of a turducken.
Congratulations on a fine headline, that must have been fun to compose!
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