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Devolution is being held up at the behest of unelected 'stakeholders'

 Stakeholders - deciding the future of NI

The dictionary definition of stakeholders is: people, groups, organizations or businesses that have interest or concern in the community. The community in question in this instance is the state of Northern Ireland and its diverse people.

The stakeholders as we know are the Loyalist Community Council, the Orange Order and Unionism in general. For too long the former two have had undue influence into the inner workings of the state. Nothing it appears can proceed without a nod and a wink from these unelected groupings, who seem to have a menacing hold over the DUP and the democratic process, 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement.

Loyalist Community Council

I blame Jonathan Powell, but that's for another post.
At the time of writing Northern Ireland has been without a devolved government for over 18 months. February 2022 to be exact. This cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely. While the DUP squirrel back and forth between the UK Government, the LCC and the Orange Order, trying to knock a square peg into a round hole, society is failing.

The DUP meet regularly with the LCC and continue to do so. Meetings that legitimise (1) the groupings the LCC represent, namely the UVF, UDA and Red Hand Commando, still active and recruiting. Why?

In early 2021 Former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Brandon Lewis met with membership of the LCC (2) to address concerns the grouping had with the original protocol. Why?

In January 2022 then UK Government Prime Minister Liz Truzz, flanked by her Secretary of State Brandon Lewis, met with Orange Order secretary Mervyn Gibson, snubbing a meeting with elected representatives. (3) Why?

Buoyed by such endorsements the LCC felt comfortable in addressing then UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson advising that the group were withdrawing support for the Good Friday Agreement (4) Why?


Lets cut to the chase. The present DUP policy (if they ever had a coherent one) and the subsequent fall of devolution is at the behest of the these groupings. Other unionist politicians are reluctant to draw attention to this. It has taken the current NI Minister Steve Baker this week to address the elephant in the room (5) without naming the elephant. 

"The DUP are being pressured by hard-line unionists" was his response to the BBC. No Steve, they are being pressured by the UVF, UDA and Red Hand Commando and every other 'stakeholder' in the failed experiment that is NI.

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