W2E-008 Taxes - John Major-1.txt
TRIBUNE EDITORIAL

Is Mr. Major gone into the nudge-and-wink politics

WHEN is a deal not a deal? Could it be when its only 'an understanding.' People involved in politics full-time like the Taoiseach and Mr. John Major will be more than aware of what can be done by a piece of fancy sophistry. John Major says that nothing was sought, nothing was offered and nothing was given..... which could still mean that what happened last week between himself and the Unionists (if anything happened!) might be the result of a growing awareness of the plight of each other between Mr. Major and the Unionists, and then a gradual process of policy-making.

Being from the Fianna Fail Party, with its ability to work the 'wink-and-nudge' system to the point where it has become a political art, the Taoiseach may have been highly suspicious when he spoke on television this week and said that he believed Mr. Major when Mr. Major said that no deal had been struck. True to the form of the wink-and-nudge tradition, there can hardly have been a person in this country who did not know that he too will be highly suspicious of what might have gone on last week, but has to accept (ostensibly) what is said on the record.

If this all sounds a little like something from Alice in Wonderland (through the glass darkly?..... or curiouser and curiouser?) the fault lies with the fact that the Unionists got in on the nudge-and-wink game last week, albeit without the finely-tuned antennae of Fianna Fail who would have let their followers know exactly what happened but would have had to say precisely nothing. Any doubts would have been taken care of by the equally-sophisticated Fianna Fail semaphore which can signal anything from the downfall of a Taoiseach to the latest stance on The North without an overt mention of either.

Really, does anyone believe that some form of 'meeting of minds' has not occurred between John Major and the Unionists. We go back to the era of Charlie Haughey in power as Taoiseach when one of his aides is reputed to have said (when Fianna Fail needed the Dail vote of Independent Dail Deputy Mr. Tom Foxe)..... "if Tom Foxe wants a general hospital on the Aran Islands, they give it to him." At the time Mr. Foxe was campaigning on the basis of keeping the general hospital in Roscommon. How many "general hospitals" would John Major give to ensure that he stayed Prime Minister of Britain? Compared with the price of a hospital for Taoiseach, a Select Committee for Northern Ireland would be a mere bagatelle.

Of course there was a deal done, an understanding reached, a meeting of minds, a development of policy, a modus operandi reached. Call it by whatever delicate name you like.... Other than a 'deal done' for that does sound shabby. It will probably emerge over a period of time; the Unionists are learning the semaphore, the nudge-and-wink. Albert Reynolds and Dick Spring may get a bit hot under their collars, but this is politics on a grand scale and the prize is Britain! Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Spring may have to become accustomed to the idea of a Select Committee and other courting of the Unionists.
