The Economist - USA (2022-02-12)

48 Britain TheEconomistFebruary12th 2022

Time for reinforcements

Britain, share of Londoners agreeing , %

Source:MPSPublicAttitudeSurvey

90

80

70

60

50

40

212019181716152014

The police do a good job in the local area

The police treat everybody fairly

rard (see chart). But that is only one aspect

of a growing confidence problem. Over the

past five years Londoners have become less

convinced that the police do a good job lo­

cally.  The  share  of  crime  victims  who  are

satisfied with their treatment has slid, too.

A combination of austerity and chang­

ing strategy is probably to blame, says An­

dy  Higgins  of  the  Police  Foundation,  a

think­tank.  Police  in  London  (and  else­

where) have focused more on investigating

domestic violence, child abuse and cyber­

crime, and less on solving neighbourhood

problems. They are less visible. The num­

ber of Police Community Support Officers,

who walk the streets but cannot use force,

has fallen by half since 2012. To save mon­

ey, in 2018 the Met reorganised itself, going

from 32 boroughcommandunitstojust 12

“basic  command units”. That seems to

have  distanced  officersfromthepublic:

the  larger  bcus  covermoreciviliansthan

some  county  police forces. The recent

scandals  are  allthemore damaging be­

cause  Londonershavefewergoodexperi­

ences of policingtosetthemagainst.

The  Met’s  political adventures have

rubbished  its  reputation further. After

weeks of refusingtoinvestigatereportsof

parties in and aroundDowningStreetdur­

ing covid­19 lockdowns,inJanuaryitsud­

denly  announcedreversedcourse.Italso

insisted that a fullreportintothepartiesby

Sue Gray, a civilservant,notbepublished

until  its  inquiries wereover. mps com­

plained  of  a  “stitch­up”andsaidtheMet

was “usurping [Parliament’s]position”.But

its  inquiry  has  alsoshieldedtheforceit­

self. The governmentcannotmeddlewith

the coppers whoareinvestigatingit.

It  is  not  certainwhocanpushtheMet

around.  Dame  Cressidaanswersto both

the mayor of Londonandthehomesecre­

tary. “It’s not clearwhothedominantboss

is,” says Tim Newburn,a police­watcherat

the London SchoolofEconomics.Bothpol­

iticians—one  Labour,theotherConserva­

tive—have let it beknownthattheydespair

of the force. Neitherseemsable,orwilling,

to do much to fixit.n

NorthernIrishpolitics

Dashedpromises

B ELFAST

Candevolutionintheprovincesurvive

thelatestcollapse?

N

orthern ireland’smost famous ex­

ports  include  Rory  McIlroy,  George

Best,  Van  Morrison—and  peace.  Since  the

Good Friday Agreement of 1998, it has been

marketed  around  the  world  as  a  template

for  ending  seemingly  intractable  political

violence. And if peace is defined as the ab­

sence  of  violence,  it  has  been  remarkably

successful.  An  average  of  124  deaths  from

political  violence  every  year  during  the

three  decades  of  “the  troubles”  fell  to  just

eight  a  year  in  the  two  decades  since.  But

sectarian  divisions  remain  bitter  and  the

centrepiece  of  the  deal,  a  power­sharing

government involving almost every shade

of political opinion, has failed. 

Since the devolved administration was

set up in 1999, it has been absent for 37% of

the time. Now it is absent again. On Febru­

ary  3rd  Sir  Jeffrey  Donaldson  (pictured)

pulled his party’s first minister out of gov­

ernment,  collapsing  the  administration.

Sir Jeffrey, leader of the Democratic Union­

ist Party (dup), the main party supporting

Northern Ireland’s status within the Unit­

ed Kingdom, said the move was in protest

at  the  Northern  Ireland  protocol,  the  part

of  the  Brexit  deal  that  prevents  an  Irish

land  border  by  creating  a  customs  border

between the province and Great Britain.

The dup had initially, albeit reluctantly,

accepted the protocol. Its voters, however,

are  less  keen.  An  election  to  the  devolved

government  looms  in  May,  and  a  recent

poll  put  support  among  unionists  for  the

protocol in its current form at just 2%. The

day  before  the  dup walked  out,  one  of  its

ministers  ordered  civil  servants  to  stop

some  of  the  border  checks.  They  refused,

fearing  that  the  order  was  illegal.  A  court

injunction then suspended the order until

a full hearing next month.

In  the  early  years  of  the  devolved  ad­

ministration,  whenever  it  collapsed  the

British government would appoint its own

ministers to run government departments.

But in 2017, when a scandal relating to bun­

gled  green  incentives  brought  the  admin­

istration  down,  local  civil  servants  were

given  the  job  instead.  The  results  were

messy. They kept most government servic­

es  functioning  day  to  day.  But  untaken

strategic decisions piled up.

Eventually,  public  anger  over  a  nurses’

strike  together  with  poor  election  results

for  both  Sinn  Fein,  the  biggest  of  the  par­

ties  that  seeks  a  united  Ireland,  and  the

dupforced  the  two  parties  to  govern  to­

gether  again  from  January  2020.  But  then

the pandemic exposed their ability to find

rancour  in  the  unlikeliest  areas.  The  Sinn

Fein  deputy  first  minister  went  on  televi­

sion to denounce the unionist health min­

ister’s  plans.  Senior  dup figures  blocked

pandemic  restrictions  by  using  a  veto

meant  to  protect  Protestants  or  Catholics

from discrimination.

Many within Stormont, home of the de­

volved administration, believe that the lat­

est  collapse  is  terminal.  That  is  probably

exaggerated. For the dup and Sinn Fein the

alternatives—direct  rule  from  London  or

no  government  at  all—are  less  palatable

than having some power themselves. 

But  there  may  well  be  another  pro­

longed period without a devolved govern­

ment.  Sinn  Fein  is  expected  to  emerge

from the elections in May as Northern Ire­

land’s  largest  party  for  the  first  time,  and

many in the dup say they will refuse to en­

ter  the  executive  as  junior  partner  with

Sinn Fein, which was formed as the politi­

cal wing of the ira. Moreover, the dup has

said its veto on devolution will end only if

the  Irish  Sea  border  is  removed.  But  talks

with the eu will at most reduce the border’s

impact, and even if the British government

were  to  override  the  protocol  unilaterally,

as Boris Johnson again hinted on February

9th,  Sinn  Fein  would  then  probably  wield

its veto instead.

And  all  the  while  paramilitary  groups

continue  to  act  in  the  shadows.  Indeed,

their  clout  seems  to  be  growing.  Six  days

before Sir Jeffrey brought down Stormont,

he  met  loyalist  paramilitary  representa­

tives,  and  was  reportedly  told  to  collapse

devolution. In 1983, when republican gun­

men  burst  into  a  Protestant  church  and

murdered  three  elders,  or  in  1994,  when

loyalist gunmen murdered six pubgoers as

they  watched  a  football  match,  the  pros­

pect  of  paramilitaries  restricting  them­

selves  to  political  lobbying  would have

seemed  heavenly.  But  in  1998,  Northern

Ireland was promised so much more.n