The Shenanigans at Castlereagh Borough Council this week will not have come as a surprise to nationalists living in South Belfast.
On this occasion, nationalists and unionists had cause to differ not only on the record of the Royal Irish Regiment but also on how the vote on a motion before Council was recorded.
In brief, the SDLP's Brian Hanvey charged the Council with failing to even record his party's opposition to a decision to condemn the disbandment of the Home Regiments.
That opposition, whether due to the fact that Cllr Hanvey and his colleague failed to follow proceedings or because a vote against wasn't called, was not recorded in the official record of the meeting. Instead, the SDLP's opposition morphed into abstention on this vital issue. It serves no purpose for Castlereagh Council to pretend that all its members are of one mind on contentious political issues such as the winding up of the RIR. Yet by failing to ensure that the SDLP opposition to the motion by Cllr Jimmy Spratt and Alderman Peter Robinson was noted, the Council reinforces its image as a Council which disregards the interests of nationalists and Catholics.
All of this would be of little interest were it not for the fact that the DUP may shortly find itself as the senior partner in a new Executive in Northern Ireland.
Many nationalists, and thinking unionists, identify the DUP style of government with Castlereagh Council. For them, that means a one-party rule with little thought for the sensitivities of others — Catholics, Alliance Party, UUP, the SDLP and ethnic minorities all getting short shrift by the controlling DUP group.
That sort of image may have suited the DUP in 1985 but it can't surely be the type of CV they wish to introduce to devolved government here. Castlereagh Council needs to show a more enlightened approach to dissent and minorities before if the DUP is to be taken seriously as the senior government partner in waiting.
