Keeping with the theme of the Devolution of Justice, it’s appropiate at this stage to highlight the internal scrambling of SF on the issue. Where to start……

In the Assembly, SF is content to attack the SDLP to attempt to cover their many contradictions and weaknesses; claiming that we are attempting to serve our own interests in the issue of the allocation of the ministry.

You couldn’t make it up. SF; the party responsible for effectively collapsing the government for five months because they didn’t get their own way accuse the SDLP of being self serving!

We have made our position very clear. The method that the DUP conned SF into adopting for the allocation of the post is a major digression from the Good Friday Agreement. An agreement supported by the majority of the Irish people in a referendum. The SDLP is right and proper to oppose that method. Power Sharing and proportionality are fundamental pillars of the GFA and SF is blindly assisting the DUP in picking apart the agreement.

Alban Maginness said it well when he said ‘If we depart from d’Hondt, we effectively undermine and weaken partnership in this institution…It is also the fairest way to bring about proper representation and a level of input from every significant political opinion. If we abandon that, we abandon fairness…The SDLP is committed to d’Hondt and would like, in the first instance, d’Hondt to be completely rerun. If that is required, let us do that. If that cannot be achieved, let us top up d’Hondt ‘

It couldn’t be made any clearer that it’s not about the SDLP, but about the hard fought protections under the GFA that SF are giving away.

So John O’Dowd then outlined that SF are not selling out power sharing and that an SDLP member could apply for the post. But they needed a CV. And they needed to take that CV to Peter Robinson.

Wait. What? What did John O’Dowd say? Did he just say that in order for a nationalist to become Justice Minister; they have to prepare a CV, take their CV to Peter Robinson, a Unionist, and await an answer?

That’s outlined in the GFA where exactly?  What do you think his answer would be? 

SF are in a spin (pun) over this. They held their special Ard Fheis in 2007 and passed a motion to sign up to policing with the provision that Justice would be devolved by May 2008. It’s now the end of 2009. We’ll soon be in 2010.

It seems their “chief negotiator” is doing well then (on this, and everything/anything else).

SDLP Youth invited Social Development Minister, Margaret Ritchie to Queen’s University yesterday evening (Monday 30 November 2009) to speak to students about the work her department is doing in delivering a shared future.

There was a healthy mix of students and young people at the event.

Highlighting that 1 in 8 people in the north want to live in a shared neighbourhood, the Minister announced that she is looking at mechanisms that will integrate this public desire into the common selection scheme of the Housing Executive to facilitate this.

Minister Ritchie’s priority on assisting the most vulnerable, in terms of housing and social security, in developing the community’s capacity and in delivering a shared future resonated with a lot of people she was speaking with.

Margaret Ritchie outlined the real need for a dedicated Shared Future Strategy from our government. She rightly highlighted the embarrassment visited upon the north when the DUP and SF both produced their own version of a Shared Future Strategy.

The Minister caught the mood of the room when she said that the public are leaps ahead of the politicians on the need for a shared future. She is right, the public are ahead of our politicians on this, and if the DUP and SF fail to realise that there is a feeling among the public for a shared future, almost organic and innate in nature, then they will suffer the consequences of consistently putting their own party political desires ahead of everything else.

My generation are living a shared future more than any generation in the previous 40 to 50 years; we work, socialise and in many cases study together. So while it is important that government delivers from top down, in terms of shared spaces, legal protections and the like, the people will be building from bottom up on this issue – and our politicians will need to catch up even more.

As Margaret Ritchie said, it’s such a shame that the two dominant parties can’t look past their own selfish interests and put the needs of the people first, particularly on this fundamentally important issue.

Gregory Campbell has said that it will be a number of years yet before we successfully devolve justice powers to Northern Ireland.

Martin McGuinness has said that there will be severe political consequences if there isn’t a date for devolution before Christmas (which is funny, considering earlier this month they voted down an SDLP motion calling for just that – but we’ll park that).

I suppose this is the definition of a stalemate really. Just like everything else in the DUP/SF dominated Executive at the minute.

It’s quite obvious that Peter Robinson is having internal difficulties with his own party, the Dodds and Campbells and the like. While he needed, and was quite content I should add, to use them to get what he wanted (the top job), he is now faced with an internal power struggle against those very people he needed to oust Paisley. Hence Campbell putting down a maker.

Add that to the fact that Robinson knows that the best method of challenging the TUV is to go to the electorate with a record of delivery, delivery that is noticeable and that makes a difference to the general public. Something he is failing to do.

So he has turned to blaming the institutions for those failures. He claims that they are not designed to deliver fast or work properly. What he fails to mention though is that the ‘mutual veto’ (the mechanism holding everything up) is the mechanism that he negotiated at St. Andrew’s and that his party and Sinn Fein were happy with. Attacking the institutions is so transparent and pretty weak from the leader of the largest party.

On the one hand, the TUV are breathing down his neck and on the other SF are holding up progress (equal to the DUP, on different issues). To blame the system and not address the issues in his own party he will soon find to be a flawed strategy.

People are beyond the point of accepting the argument that “it’s the system, not us” and just want value for money and delivery from their government. The fact is, this is the system these parties wanted and they are both culpable for the failure to deliver. The institutions work, it’s the dominant parties running them that don’t.

We all know that. Change of tactic for Mr Robinson I would presume.

The Equality Commission told Lisburn Council that they are in breach of equality law and their own equality scheme after the DUP and UUP colluded and excluded the SDLP.

The DUP, with Minister Poots and MP Jeffery Donaldson in the chamber, argued this week that the necessary legislation would be through in January resolving the issue, and there was therefore no need to follow the equality commissions ruling.

This argument was proved to be false, as the legislation dealing with transition committees is held up with everything else in the Executive, which isn’t really dealing with very much to be honest.

So the DUP, not content to abide by the Equality Commissions ruling proposed that Lisburn Council use an informal system to nominate members to the committee. The UUP, bar one member, supported this. This is a system that can well be used with a Unionist majority to exclude any party.

The Minister has serious questions to answer around this; how can minorities be assured that they will be protected in the new councils if the Minister is over seeing a carve up in Lisburn? What confidence will minorities on other councils have? Why are the DUP not content to share power proportionally? And why is the Minister not abiding by his own Departments guidelines on this set by his predecessor?

I strongly suspect that the Equality Commission will be back to Lisburn when the Unionist parties attempt once again to exclude minorities, and they wonder why others think it’s important to have built in protections!

As Chair of SDLP Youth (SDLPY) I was part of an SDLP delegation that met with Irish Environment Minister, John Gormley TD to discuss North South arrangements, Climate Change and the SDLPY campaign “The Countdown is on” regarding international climate talks in Copenhagen.

When it comes to the North South bodies, it remains the fact that the DUP are blocking Climate Change being discussed at these meetings. So on the most important issue facing a generation, the DUP are blocking discussion and action.

They really are out of touch.

There is no denying that it still remains encoded in the DUP’s DNA the need to exclude and squeeze nationalists and Catholics, you can see that in how they behave in government, central and local, particularly over how they continually put down pre conditions on policing and justice negotiations.

These pre conditions are usually attacking what the SDLP fought for in the Good Friday Agreement; such as the Parades Commission, Equality Commission, Bill of Rights or North South Arrangements.

Sinn Fein are slow to the game but my party’s been saying that for a long time.

But this is the environment we are talking about, what rational reason can there be for excluding discussion and action on the most crucial issue facing us?

We pushed the Minister to get tough on the DUP on this and get this on the agenda. Time will tell if that will be the case.

SDLP Delegation meet Irish Environment Minister

On Wednesday 9 September the SDLP launched proposals for a radical overhaul of how our youth justice system should work here in the north.

The conference was addressed by a diverse section of people; some within the youth justice system and others outside, including those who felt failed by aspects of the wider justice system.

The PSNI, Youth Justice Agency, Include Youth, Children’s Law Centre, NIACRO and Sarah Holland all took part and gave invaluable contributions and testimonies and for that I thank them.

We all know that there are some serious issues surrounding the whole process of the devolution of justice, including the unnecessary and damaging delay. The SDLP has been consistent in highlighting those issues and challenging those most responsible for delivery. The conference heard in the strongest terms condemnation of those responsible, namely Sinn Fein and the DUP. While they may think it’s fine to play politics and position themselves using this issue, the SDLP believes these issues are much too important to play politics with.

When you hear the failures of the system from the Holland family and how they where let down, and realise that the only plausible way for reform is devolution, it’s time the two parties, if they really are serious about community safety, get their acts together.

Another message really needs to sink in to these parties – while devolution of justice is important, what is equally important is having the right policies in place to reform the system when we do get those powers. Because as it stands the system is simply not delivering to its full potential. The SDLP has outlined our youth justice policy, and we will be rolling out a program of work around it, as well as other key aspects of the justice system over the coming months; we suggest other parties listen up and follow suit. 

A journalist very recently labeled the SDLP the “Social Democratic and Lock ‘Em Up Party” when it comes to tackling justice and crime; claiming we have no consistant policies when it comes to justice. That journalist was invited on Wednesday, but unfortunately was unable to attend. I’d be happy to sit down with him anytime to go over my Party’s consistant positions on criminal justice, and let him have the opportunity to acknowledge his mistake.

Back in Febuary of this year I blogged about the SDLP proposals which are here.

There have been many predictions about what these results mean for parties, some accurate and some not so accurate. In any case I will add mine into that mix.

This election was not a good election. Not for my party, not for SF, not for UCUNF and especially not the DUP. It was just a bad election for NI in general and right across the European Union. Turn out was low, very low.

SF stagnated, albeit with more first preferences than the other parties. But they stagnated. They would have gained no more Assembly seats had this been an Assembly election. People in the North and South know what they offer. There’s no doubt that they found it hard to get their vote out.

In the South, they took a nosedive. Lost their European seat and had a poor performance in the locals. If they can’t gain when the government is getting a kicking, when can they? So it’s probably safe to say that unless something drastic changes for SF in the South, they’re in trouble.

The DUP are also in trouble. Rumour has it that there will soon be a few high profile defections to the TUV and a few back to the UUP, now UCUNF. Only time will tell. The DUP are looking over their shoulder at the TUV so politics in the North is going to be even more difficult to move on. Some are already saying that it could collapse. I wouldn’t think so, but things like the devolution of justice will now be virtually impossible for SF to deliver. As will the Irish Language Act etc etc so more eye wiping to follow, which is just bad news foe NI.

The SDLP vote did hold and we gained a little extra. We would have gained an additional two seats had this been an assembly election.  while this is OK, it’s not great, nothing to be happy about and certainly nothing to boast about. Although, Alban did run a very energetic, positive, strong campaign and should be commended. 

We do need to do better though. We need to offer the 58% of the electorate that chose to stay at home that we have something to offer them. So while SF are defined and will find it hard to shift any more ground without losing support, we have an opportunity to redefine ourselves and relate to those that feel no affiliation.

There is a new breed of politics in the SDLP, something that SF has failed to do. There is no desire for sectarian politics and only the desire to move NI forward. The SDLP will continue to redefine itself and purpose, will continue to make room and offer those 58% of the people who have no voice with a voice. We have that opportunity, others don’t.

The launch of the Lisburn LGBT group took place last night in the Cherry Room in Lisburn City Council. Considering the previous unnecessary controversy around the use of council property for civil partnerships, last nights meeting represented a massive step for the advancement of equal rights and treatment for the gay community.

The DUP and Alliance failed to attend, as did the single TUV representative.  

When something such as this event happens, there is no doubt that it represents a major victory for the LGBT community, and every other marganilised group, who in the past has been excluded or faced discrimination. There is no doubt that the legislation that made an event like this possible, has proven to work. And credit must be given to those who fought for and obtained these legislative protections, not least the SDLP.

So when you hear the DUP or others attacking the integrity of such legislation, when you hear them say that the institutions such as the Equality or Human Rights Commissions are worthless, or when you hear some say that a Bill of Rights for NI is pointless, recognise that it is just these things that enable it possible for an event like last nights to happen.

An event that shouldn’t have needed to rely on legislation but unfortunately had to, as some people aren’t willing to recognise that members of the gay community are also our doctors and teachers, our bin men and street cleaners, they are our colleagues and friends, our family and community. They are human beings entitled to human rights – bar none.

Credit must be given to the Lisburn LGBT group and it’s members for organising the event, there was no doubting the feeling in the room last night, history was being made. March On.

As I mentioned in a previous post, all over the world governments are reprioritising their budgets and spending priorities. Not here, oh no, that would be just too normal. We only need to look at the Environment Minister and we soon realise how serious some parties are at actually governing the north. Or indeed our Education Minister for that matter.

But now significant pressure is being brought to bear on DUP/SF and I think it’s only a matter of time before they have to acknowledge the reality. Well you would think wouldn’t you? Every day they delay the inevitable is a day that we all have to suffer.

I was at a debate recently and a DUP politician told the audience that I had to defend the SDLP’s policy on fixing the economy. Yes, you read that right. He failed to acknowledge that his party holds the finance ministry, the enterprise and trade ministry and the post of First Minister, he failed to acknowledge that they are the majority party in government and the assembly, that there is going to be a £1 billion black hole in the budget, that people are losing their jobs, that businesses are going under, that we are in a bad financial state at all. But I had to defend my party’s position!

Bear in mind, this was before we launched our economic discussion document this week (available below). This was simply when we where calling for a reprioritising of our spending in these worsening financial times. So apparently we needed to defend the fact that we are facing up to what everyone is facing up to-we are in a crisis, time for solutions, time for some action.

The DUP Finance Minister’s stance on the economic situation is very much like the DUP Environment Minister’s stance on our contribution to global warming. They deny it is happening. This is what we are up against (with not a word from SF). But, let the debate at least start, and lets get on with it.

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It’s the economy, stupid, or so it goes.

We’ve seen over the last number of weeks a great and welcome sense of unity shown by our politicians over the ‘dissident’ murders – the message went out loud and clear, ‘peace is here to stay.’

One of the clearest signals our Assembly and political parties collectively and independently can take is to show everyone that it’s business as usual.

The issue facing everyone at the moment is undoubtedly the financial situation we are in and how we are to deal with it. I have met many, many constituents who are finding themselves suddenly out of work. There is no doubt that our government needs to step in, in fact it is long over due. That is what they are saying. That is what we are saying.

Yes this is a global crisis. Yes this did start somewhere else. Yes this is a problem bigger than our little government.

But no, this is not something our government can’t give ordinary people assistance with. No we should not be sitting on our hands (as the DUP/SF are doing by standing by their failed budget) and no we should not be settling for a budget that was written when economic times where good and not bad.

The SDLP say it’s time to budge on the budget. We need a new budget for new times. Our economists are saying so and the DUP’s answer is that the economists are sitting in ivory towers.

How arrogant can a party get? I don’t care how precious they think their budget is, the fact is, it’s failing us, it needs changed and the government needs to do more. The reality is that people are seeing no tangible benefits to devolution that they can talk about and that needs to change.

The DUP and their SF friends need to stop burying their heads in the sand………..