Irish Author and Journalist - Danny Morrison

Resign! Resign! Resign!

For now, David Trimble has been just about put in his place. Tony Blair refused to surrender to him the fate of the peace and political processes, refused to change the criteria for expelling a party from the executive.

For very good reasons, which are now all too clear, what was negotiated in the Belfast Agreement was that no side (for this, read unionist, the traditional abusers) could use a simple majority to exclude another party from the power-sharing executive for an established breach of the Mitchell Principles. Exclusion could only be triggered by broad cross-party support which meant, in effect, that unless the SDLP joined up with the unionists, Sinn Fein could not be put out of the executive.

In the early days, when for over a year David Trimble held up the nomination of ministers, Sergeant Seamus Mallon gave the unionists such an undertaking - that is, if the IRA breached its ceasefire he personally would turf Sinn Fein out of government. The unionists didn’t believe him - and the Sergeant, privately, was much relieved.

However, Trimble was subsequently dragged screaming into government with Sinn Fein after the IRA engaged with the International Decommissioning Body (and twice, since then, the IRA has verifiably put some arms ‘beyond use’). Given the electoral shift in favour of Sinn Fein within the nationalist community, the SDLP no longer has the option of excluding Sinn Fein; though it is unlikely they would ever have used it, especially at the bidding of the headless chicken we call the First Minister.

For this reason the unionists wanted the rules changed so that Sinn Fein could be excluded from the executive by unionist votes alone, or on a directive from the British government. In that, they have failed, and wasn’t the reaction interesting, with David Trimble predicting that “in all probability August will be bloody and September could see a political disaster.”

Tony Blair stated that any future breach of the ceasefires would be met with a ‘rigorous’ response. He refused unionist demands that the power of decision be removed from the Secretary of State and invested in an ‘independent’ arbiter (that is, someone sympathetic to unionists). If last Wednesday’s announcement from Blair has been perceived by unionists as a defeat for them and a victory for Sinn Fein, then the only possible interpretation of Trimble’s observation about August being a bloody month is that the violence would be coming from loyalists.

Last Sunday Trimble told Peter Sissons on BBC television that, “senior police officers in Belfast have pointed the finger unambiguously at mainstream Republicans, that's the, as you say the Provisional IRA, that's the paramilitaries linked with Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness, as having been responsible for orchestrating violence in Belfast and the serious rioting that we've had.”

This defies logic. What could the IRA possibly gain from orchestrating such a scenario, given the way it has been exploited by unionists of all shades and loyalist paramilitaries? Nationalists in the areas under attack know that the IRA did not start the violence. The PSNI knows it and the fact that it chooses to say differently is one of the reasons why it is not trusted or accepted. David Trimble, who is still waging the war against republicanism, chooses to believe this version because it gives him the excuse to vie with the DUP and attack Sinn Fein.

September is when the Ulster Unionists are to meet to assess their position. Mr Trimble for the thousandth time is again threatening to resign as First Minister and bring about a collapse of the institutions. I say, Roll on his resignation as First Minister - and a bonus would be his resignation as leader of his party. Let them have a new leader. He or she will still be facing the same problem of whether they can accept the principle of equality and share power. I don’t even care if the DUP emerges as the largest party on the unionist side after next May’s Assembly elections; that is, if we have elections.

They will all face the same dilemma: do we despise nationalists more than we love ‘Ulster’. Let them take their pick. But one thing should be clear. Their salaries and expenses should be stopped and their offices cleared the second they bring down the Assembly. If workers go on strike and the factory closes they don’t continue to get their pay. Sinn Fein’s MPs receive no salaries because they boycott Westminster and what’s sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander. That should add a touch of reality to the situation.

Resigning from the executive and boycotting the Assembly, why that’ll have the Volunteers trembling in their boots. That’ll see the cancellation of Easter Sunday. That’ll put manners on Sinn Fein. There’ll be no more singing about your Roddy McCorleys or your Foggy Dews. The Army Council will surely meet with one item and one item only on the agenda: that is, how quickly can the IRA disband so that Peter and Nigel can get their executive limos back, and David resume insulting the Sinn Fein ministers!

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