WILL DEAL COLLAPSE OVER DUP BLOCK ON LANGUAGES ACT?
The DUP getting angry at the idea of the British government legislating is not new - but Sinn Fein asking a Tory government to use the Commons to pass an Irish Languages Act, as agreed under the 2020 deal to revive the Assembly ... that's pretty weird! See June 2021 Guardian report.
MAY 2021 REVIEW - 500 DAYS LATER...
See BTele.
So, having broken records for non-governance, the DUP and SF finally brokered a deal to relaunch the Assembly in December 2019, signed and finalised in Jan 2020. SF had been insisting on DUP resignations in the light of the Cash For Ash scandal, and made an Irish Language Act their absolute red-line.
The DUP had been set to agree to a language act years before ... only to get a strong message from loyalists that this would be unacceptable and they would lose much of their support base.
The smart solution - SF quietly dropped the resignation insistence and the DUP agreed to a bill that would give Irish ... AND Ulster-Scots legal parity!
While the Assembly remained shuttered (it requires the support of a portion of both unionist and nationalist blocs to function: it is a power-sharing executive!) the UK gov passed acts to legalise gay marriage and abortion in NI - to the fury of the DUP, who attempted to reopen Stormont early to block this. The more left-wing Sinn Fein blocked that attempt.
Here are some articles to read more:
BBC summary Jan 4th; and a later more detailed look (Jan 10th).
How the Daily Mail covered it.
A critical opinion piece (Suzanne Breen) in the Belfast Telegraph + an analysis piece.
The Wiki!!!
Guardian editorial (opinion piece); background on how the deal was made; analysis of priorities for the restored Assembly.
Here's a video from the Assembly itself:
Here's a BBC Newsnight video
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