The first unresolved issue has been how to bring paramilitarism and criminality to an end. For years, Tony Blair's government has been busy appeasing paramilitaries of all hues to the extent that Islamic terrorists came to believe that New Labour Britain was a soft target.

With mainstream republicans now inside the lobster pot there has remained the question of how the activities of dissident republicans and more importantly loyalist paramilitaries could be brought to an end.


New Labour Secretaries of State and their Direct Rule ministers have pushed a strategy of trying to buy off the loyalist paramilitaries with sweeteners, which in reality were bribes, taxpayers' money in the hope, forlorn as it turned out, that the money would be taken and paramilitarism would cease.

Since coming into office the majority of Executive ministers have simply ignored the problem of continuing loyalist paramilitary activity, but there has been one notable and noble exception- Margaret Ritchie, the only SDLP Minister in the Executive.


The amount she has proposed withholding from the Conflict Transformation Initiative is £400,000 for each of the next three years and is small beer compared to the vast sums that paramilitaries raise through their criminal activities. However, it is a statement of a willingness to see paramilitary activities brought to an end without further appeasement and I believe that she has widespread public support for her principled stand.

For a number of months, Margaret Ritchie has been preparing the groundwork by setting a deadline for UDA decommissioning. In that period, I have not heard a single voice from within the DUP or Sinn Fein support her.

The opposite is the case and the Big Brother parties have been doing their best to thwart her and undermine her. Sinn Fein has been particularly nasty in the too obvious hope that they could destabilise her prospects in South Down at the next Westminster election.

Their own candidate for the seat, Catriona Ruane, has been catapulted from defender of the Columbia Three to Minister of Education. Alas, Ms Ruane is clearly out of her depth as Education Minister as has been shown by her inept comments and guidelines on the thorny issue of 'grannying.'

Margaret Ritchie is, a lady who is not for turning and has been robust in defending her position. I seem to recall that when the UDA orchestrated violence this summer in Carrickfergus and Bangor, Hugh Orde, the Chief Constable of the PSNI said he 'wouldn't give the UDA 50p' and that the link between government cash and decommissioning was 'false.'

The huffing and puffing of Peter Robinson and Martin Mc Guinness about Margaret Ritchie's ministerial decision and their attempts to undermine her come at an interesting time. Just last week, two men with UDA links were sentenced to 27 years in jail for the attempted murder of policemen in the course of UDA orchestrated rioting in 2005.

The general public, the vast majority of whom is made up of decent people, is quite entitled to conclude that firstly the Big Brother parties of the DUP and Sinn Fein have no real interest in bringing loyalist paramilitary activity to an end and that secondly the main preoccupation of the DUP and Sinn Fein is to quench any dissent to their views in the Executive.


I see that Reg Empey, the Ulster Unionist leader has come out in support of Margaret Ritchie's version of the Executive minutes and one may discern the first tentative step in the coming together of the centre ground parties opposed to the DUP/Sinn Fein carve up of power. A coalition of the centre is more important to the SDLP than flirting with Fianna Fail.


As I see it, the present structure of four parties in the executive is unsustainable and events of the last week tend to support such a viewpoint. The position is further compounded by the lack of any cabinet collective responsibility.

Last week, we saw not only ministers going for each other's throats on the floor of the Assembly over Margaret Ritchie's modest proposals but also a slanging match between fellow ministers over the question of an Irish language act.

The Executive structure is not only imprecise but it contains the seeds of its own destruction. It was drawn up in a pressure cooker situation and little thought was given to creating a sound structure of power-sharing on agreed polices. Instead all the main parties were pitched into office together, given plenty of perks and left to fight it out over the annual block grant from Westminster.

What keep them together are the trappings of office and the perks, not agreement on issues. Decisions on difficult and thorny questions such as water charges have been kicked into touch. The UDA funding question has lit a slow burning fuse and I wonder if the Executive ministers are even aware of the potential fallout. We live in interesting times.