What does the storm in Stormont mean for Northern Irish voters?
Crisis is a term thats never far away in Northern Ireland, but the current storm in Stormont is building up more quickly and more ominously than usual. The Democratic Unionists are defying their new leader, Edwin Poots, and refusing to back his nominee, Paul Givan, as the new First Minister. That means the executive cannot function and is in danger of collapse (though such a state of jeopardy is not so unusual). Poots, freshly elected as the party leader, could even face a vote of no confidence; bad enough, but even worse given that any successor would find themselves in exactly the same impossible position. If things carry on deteriorating at the present rate, Northern Ireland could find itself with the unwelcome distinction of being the most undemocratic state In Europe, or at least this side of Belarus. If the power-sharing executive collapses (again) then the province will, in effect, be governed by civil servants and ministers in the Northern Ireland Office. With much of its trading rules and relations run by Brussels, and the arguments about Brexit and the Northern Ireland protocol being conducted between Brussels, Dublin and Westminster, and above the heads of the people of Northern Ireland, the average voter there has next to no say on what happens to them.