With things political on the verge of a breakthrough, it’s probably churlish to be gloomy but I am. That’s because in my interview on BBC Radio Ulster’s ‘Sunday Sequence’, I stressed the importance of respect between partners. It applies to any partnership, be it man and wife or a business partnership. If you have one party in the partnership continually grabbing opportunities to tell his /her friends about the latest occasion when they got one over on the other half, or how they hoodwinked other half into believing something which the fine print contradicted, hahahahaaaa, then you don’t have the foundations essential for a successful partnership. And if, after being subjected to this thinly-veiled contempt, the put-upon partner walks out, it’d be perverse to declare that the partnership failed because the put-upon one walked out.
Anyway, a few hours after my radio interview, I watched ‘The Politics Show’ on television. Featured were Sammy Wilson of the DUP alongside John O’Dowd of Sinn Fein. With a deal nearing completion between the two parties, what’s Sammy busy doing throughout the interview, down to his final words? He’s busy goading O’Dowd and Sinn Fein, annoucing that it’s good they’ve learnt not to try pushing the DUP around, that they now see threats don’t work, etc., etc. This, mark you, at a point when things have been resolved between the two. With that kind of attitude deeply imbedded in Sammy’s party, it’s hard to believe that the final rupture between the DUP and Sinn Fein has simply been postponed. When that unhappy day comes, I hope no bone-headed commentator comes on to apportion blame equally and to tell us ‘the two parties just couldn't agree’. Poppycock and horse's feathers. There's one party that has failed the agreement test and the respect test consistently, and looks set fair to go on failing: the DUP.
Thanks, Sammy. That's really cheered up my Monday morning.
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