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.

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.