The Democratic Unionist Party’s boycott is exposing structural faults in the way power-sharing is set up. It is time to back down
of the Good Friday agreement is being celebrated this week with high-profile visits to Northern Ireland by the American president and the British and Irish prime ministers. On almost any measure, the agreement has been a huge success. By bringing peace to Northern Ireland after the three decades of Semtex and kneecapping known as the Troubles, it has saved many lives and brought.
Yet in one respect the agreement has worked less well: in the power-sharing executive at Stormont. Because of boycotts by one or other of the two biggest parties, the Democratic Unionist Party and the nationalist Sinn Féin, the executive has been suspended for more than a third of the time since 1998—and for nearly 60% of the past five years.
recently secured by Rishi Sunak, the current prime minister, which minimises the checks and paperwork needed at the Irish Sea border.is right to argue that it was let down by Mr Johnson, who had repeatedly promised not to place a border in the Irish Sea. Yet it is still wrong to continue boycotting Stormont. Doing so is not going to secure any meaningful changes to the Windsor framework, which has now been ratified by both theand the European Union.
The repeated failure to make power-sharing work is also not good for the union between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Although thedoes not admit this, one motive for its boycott is a visceral dislike of the fact that a reconstituted Stormont would for the first time be headed by a leader from Sinn Féin, which now has the most seats in the assembly. Yet if only for demographic reasons Sinn Féin is often likely to be the largest party in future elections.
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