It’s gonna be a huge ass investigation
So, another election must now be called within 12 weeks. This problem isn’t going away.
That is some Game of Thrones shit right there.
Who?
Hu’s on first
Not anymore.
Odds are a couple of teams are busy right now erasing him from, well, everything.
Can you explain it like I’m five? Sadly, my knowledge of Irish politics consists of the Liam Neeson movie “Michael Collins”
My quick take: Irish parliament is being deadlocked by one party who have enough seats to block appointment of an executive branch, forcing another election. I don’t know who it is, why they’re doing it, or what the goal is, however.
OK, as briefly as possible:
This is the Stormont Parliament in Northern Ireland (the bit that’s still part of the UK).
The situation is, that under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement (the peace agreement that stopped The Troubles ), the government that has to be formed in that parliament has to be a coalition of both major sides in that conflict - Unionists and Nationalists- with the largest party appointing the First Minister, the second largest party appointing the deputy first minister, and the entire executive split up according to how many seats each party got.
After the last election, The Democratic Unionist party were the largest unionist party, and Sinn Fein were the largest Nationalist party. A government didn’t form because the DUP failed to nominate a Deputy First Minister, and now the time limit to form a government has been reached, so the whole thing collapses and there needs to be a new election.
As to why they didn’t nominate anyone- there are a couple of reasons behind that. The main reason everyone is talking about is the Northern Ireland Protocol- a part of the Brexit agreement between the UK and the EU, that states that in order for ther not to be border controls between Northern Ireland, and Ireland, (and hence the UK and the EU), there will instead be checks on goods going from Mainland UK to Northern Ireland. The DUP are very not happy with this, saying that it undermines the idea of Northern Ireland as part of the UK, and that they’ll refuse to cooperate until it is scrapped. Since the protocol is part of an international treaty between the UK and the EU- this is a tall order to get rid of it, to say the least.
The second reason the DUP have collapsed the government is related to the results of the last election. Remember the largest party gets to choose the First Minister, and the second largest party gets to choose the Deputy FM- well, for the first time ever, at the last election Sinn Fein, a Nationalist party became the largest party and had the right to appoint the FM. In law, the FM and the DFM are equals, but lots of DUP supporters are also VERY not pleased about Northern Ireland being headed up by someone who is not from the Unionist camp.
That’s as quick an into to this whole situation I can give- Attempting a full explainer for anything in Northern Ireland politics really needs a reply of:
Takes out flip chart. Chapter 1 of 37- In 1169, English Nobles began an invasion of Ireland…
Thanks! So the DUP are pissed at the “Get Brexit Done” deal because it screws with their ties to the rest of the UK, and they’re also pissed that they lost an election, so they’d rather just lock down government and have another election instead of actually doing government, is my takeaway. Sounds like another political party I’m more familiar with across the pond…
Yeah, another reason why the politicians have an incentive to pull these stunts is that even though the executive never formed and the government never met, all the people elected are still allowed to claim their pay. Removing this little loophole has been suggested as an encouragement to get things moving again.
Why political parties have become more interested in grandstanding like an 8 year old who doesn’t get their way, instead of trying to better their constituents and country still confuses me, but I’m probably remembering politics from when I was younger and more ignorant.
