{"id":4263,"date":"2018-10-08T13:38:03","date_gmt":"2018-10-08T12:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/?p=4263"},"modified":"2018-10-08T13:38:03","modified_gmt":"2018-10-08T12:38:03","slug":"beyond-broken-by-brian-rowan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/?p=4263","title":{"rendered":"BEYOND BROKEN- By Brian Rowan"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Crisis. Leadership issues. Spending issues. Confidence issues. Talk of last chance and of rearranging the furniture.<\/p>\n

I was watching the teatime football on television on Saturday \u2013 that first-half debacle as Newcastle United took the lead, added to it and pushed Mourinho and Manchester United ever closer to some decision on those issues outlined above; watching the football and thinking of our politics within which those same issues apply.<\/p>\n

Somehow Mourinho and United found a way out of the mess; some second-half impetus and momentum that changed things \u2013 saved things.<\/p>\n

There is no such impetus in the politics of Stormont. The abnormal has become normal. Six-hundred-plus days without government could easily become 1,600 days.<\/p>\n

This is what Secretary of State Karen Bradley needs to think about in the latest round of talks \u2013 think outside the box of the Tory-DUP deal and about how to end the sleep walk in the corridors of politics and government; a period when self-interest and survival have been elevated above all else.<\/p>\n

In the blindness of this moment, Stormont could be relegated to an even lower division in terms of\u00a0 priority.<\/p>\n

There is no easy road back.<\/p>\n

Who wants a government based on RHI standards?<\/p>\n

I hear no one shouting for that; and there won\u2019t be a government unless the issues of language and rights, including marriage equality are settled with certainty. Policing is back on the agenda as a problem issue.<\/p>\n

The February draft agreement won\u2019t work this time.<\/p>\n

Brexit and the battle over legacy are pushing further away the day of any new Executive.<\/p>\n

Stormont is close to being beyond its sell-by date.<\/p>\n

Already, you hear that being expressed by some, and if that word and mood spreads then the rebuilding of politics will become all the more difficult.<\/p>\n

That first half debacle on Saturday was Mourinho\u2019s and United\u2019s wake-up call, but, here, the political sleepwalk continues.<\/p>\n

If that Tory-DUP arrangement collapses on a Brexit decision, then the price for a new Executive will be much higher than it was in February. The DUP will need it more than Sinn Fein.<\/p>\n

Ground is shifting, the mood is hardening; and the idea that another round of the same talks with the same people will change things, is political madness.<\/p>\n

Too much damage has been done and is being done in those games of self interest and survival.<\/p>\n

Is it too late for Stormont?<\/p>\n

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