This is Groundhog Day, and if you’ve seen the movie you’ll be tempted to draw parallels between Bill Murray’s repetition of the day until he got it perfect and the repetitions up at Stormont. Well, turn your back on temptation because the comparisons are false. The repetitions in the film had a valuable purpose – so the character played by Murray could see that a life which used others to aggrandize oneself was a life of no value. The repetitions up at Stormont are going in the opposite direction.
Gradually, from the murk and gloom of conflicting interpretations, a clear picture has emerged. Everyone- Sinn Fein, SDLP, Alliance, the two governments – all want Policing and Justice to be devolved NOW. The DUP, however, are still looking for ways to provide themselves with a parachute in case Jim Allister opens the aircraft door and tries to throw them out. Everything is being held up, repeated to the point where we all want to scream, not by a desire to get things right a la Bill Murray, but by a desire to get things rigged so the DUP can come out looking as though they’ve once more wiped Sinn Fein’s eye.
It’s a grim conclusion but one we’ll have to get used to, as we sit and drum our fingers: the DUP are incapable of respecting republicans/nationalists
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