Northern Ireland's Edwin Poots: the perfect minister for the land time forgot
Edwin Poots, Northern Ireland's health minister, is almost comically unsuited for his position. He's a "young-Earth creationist" who believes the Earth began just 4,000 years ago. In a 2007 radio debate with Times columnist Matthew Parris, he rejected the big bang theory, saying: "You're telling me that cosmic balls of dust gathered and there was an explosion. We've had lots of explosions in Northern Ireland and I've never seen anything come out of that that was good." Needless to say, he also doesn't believe in evolution. Though he is willing to admit that dinosaurs may have existed before they were all drowned in the flood. Not exactly a promising start for someone in a ministerial position which, perhaps more than most, should depend on rationally assessing evidence.
More immediately troubling for many people in Northern Ireland are Poots's views on homosexuality. In short, he's against it. Poots is currently the subject of severe pressure for his dogged pursuit of homophobic policies. Poots is against gay couples adopting, and is attempting to maintain a ban on gay men giving blood. In addition, Poots has recently suggested stopping all paediatric heart surgery in Northern Ireland after a review suggested it would be more efficient to send children with heart disease to be treated in the Republic of Ireland or Great Britain. Many have signed a petition calling for Poots to resign because of his intransigence on gay rights, and assembly members from the Ulster Unionist party and Sinn Féin have criticised his stance. Poots is standing his ground. Last week, he accused courts attempting to bring about equal rights for gay people of "attacking Christian views and ethics".
Northern Ireland can sometimes seem like a place where time has stood still. Perhaps those of us outside of the six counties willed it to stop in 2007, when the Democratic Unionist party and Sinn Féin took power together. Ian Paisley became first minister and Martin McGuinness his deputy, and we were introduced to the Chuckle Brothers, who took over from the fundamentalist demagogue and the IRA commander who had once used those names. The peace process had worked, everything was fine, and we could now consign 40 years of fighting to history.
The problem with this was that it ignored the fact that people now have to live under a power-sharing government with no official opposition. The peace process was about pulling the extremes into the mainstream, and now the extremes are the mainstream. On the Unionist side, that means the traditional power of the Ulster Unionist party has been utterly usurped by the religious reformist zeal of the Democratic Unionist party.
The presence of religious zealots such as Poots in government is a direct consequence of the peace process. Exhaustion with conflict and a desire for peace meant that social issues such as women's and gay rights became secondary in an atmosphere where equality is discussed solely in terms of religious and cultural background. Once we officially sanction identity as the prime force in politics, then the people professing to be the truest manifestation of any identity gain credibility. Hence Poots, a man born and raised in the Ulster Free Presbyterian church, a man who believes Ulster should be British, deserves credence.
There are perhaps signs of change. The fact that Poots can face criticism for his views from both unionists and nationalists may be progress in itself. But equally, it could be argued that power-sharing has only led to an increase in whataboutery, Northern Irish politics' great gift to the world. Every grant, every concession to "them uns'" is seen as a blow to the "our" side, particularly among working-class communities who see themselves competing for resources allocated along religious and cultural lines.
It is not only the unionist side that is to blame here: Sinn Féin presents itself in the south (and to the rest of the world) as a progressive, left populist party, but they are ambiguous to say the least about their position on abortion ( there's a reason that in the early days of the Troubles, more Marxist-minded Republicans referred to the Provisional IRA, the armed wing of the current Sinn Féin, as the "Rosary Beads Brigade"; physical force republicanism has for a long time walked a thin line between Marx and the virgin Mary).
But Poots is still special: there's almost something admirable about his open stance on his views in a time when even his spiritual leader Ian Paisley was willing to put a lid on it for the sake of power. He is walking, talking proof that, not only did dinosaurs exist, they still do, in a land that time forgot.
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