Drumcree in light of Stormont's Kakistocracy

And definitely what we have here, not only could it be called a dysfunctional government, almost like intentionally dysfunctional government, to add that kind of chaotic uncertainty, I suppose, but it's also what's also known as a cacistocracy, which is basically just described as a government run by the worst, least qualified or most unprincipled citizens, which leads to systemic incompetence.

Now, as a society, we sort of know this.

I've absorbed it, as it were.

But what, again, I think John Cree has highlighted is not only the vulnerabilities, as I talked about previously, within unionism slash loyalism, but also those vulnerabilities within republicanism and even nationalism.

Now, they may differ slightly, as I said before, with loyalist unionists.

You have those vulnerabilities in respect of populist politicians and even the demagogues sort of constantly agitating, constantly pushing grievances and constantly maintaining the divisions, as it were, for their own solipsistic benefit.

And also, as I said before, the relationship.

Now, we knew about it even in the Royal Ulster Constabulary back in the probably early, mid-90s, even before that, the relationship between Loyalism, Combat 18 and neo-Nazi factions.

And as I said before, I don't want to repeat myself too much, it's sort of embedded in the colonialism and the British imperialist system.

um you know ironically as it were you know the british defeated the nazis but um white skinheads um you know adopted uh the neo-nazi factions the iconography uh the kind of social darwinism uh of it as well in order to empower themselves and i suppose in a way they're quite like the incels uh that developed and arose in america So anyway, I guess those factions were sort of imported into Northern Ireland in the loyalist enclaves and loyalist mindset and ideologies.

Because especially at the time, and if you listen to my podcast about the experience of Roman Catholics within the Royal Ulster Constabulary, you can see that there was an equation or an equating, sorry, within Loyalism and even some aspects of Unionism that Catholics were no better than blacks, as it were.

And of course, as I spoke about before, within the Royal Ulster Constabulary and even latterly the Police Service of Northern Ireland, we had colossal problems with racism, sectarianism and misogyny.

And that was within the organisation itself, let alone wider society.

But in saying that as well, in respect of loyalism, republicanism also has issues, I guess, with racism and has had issues with racism and misogyny.

And, you know, with republicans, you can see it, especially in southern Ireland at the minute, even republicans, you know, the sort of rise of nationalism, nativism.

And that sort of aspect, it seems to set as a corollary of the same... against racism that exists within loyalism up in the north here uh but i don't want to get too um distracted uh as i said before the vulnerabilities uh which i guess you could see exposed or highlighted or further eliminated um during drum cree is just how quickly now we talk as a society or we have talked as a society especially post pre peace process post good friday agreement where you had our politicians, I guess, attempting to act like grown-ups, especially within Stormont, those times when it was filmed.

But you got the usual flinging of platitudes from one side to the other.

And there was also elements of, I think, even cognitive empathy.

But, as I say, what Drum Cree, this recent debacle, you know, as I say, it's really hard to get your head around.

When you look at the history of Drum Cree itself, But what this does definitely seems to expose is how quickly we as a society, as a sectarian divided society, seemingly still, as how we choose to identify ourselves, you know, ethnically, is how quickly each side, orange, green, dashes behind its respective parapets and then starts slinging mud and excrement at one another.

It seems to be our locations of comfort, as it were, socially speaking.

Rather than sort of get involved in trying to understand, as I talked about before, counter narratives, challenging narratives, lived experiences that maybe are in opposition to our own lived experiences or we feel they are in opposition to our own lived experiences rather than trying to come to some kind of mutual understanding of those or even a mutual agreement of those we do look for um opportunities to bolt behind the power pits to you know run behind our power pits um and start you know that's smirking and and sort of making sectarian asides um towards one another uh it is it does seem to be our comfort zone um politically and socially speaking but what i feel anyway i'm definitely what i've seen from all my years in the Royal Ulster Constabulary and in the Police Service of Northern Ireland, especially maybe chairing community meetings or being present at community meetings where you have Protestant Catholic representation.

It really depends on the subject matter.

If the subject matter is not confrontational to a degree or controversial, as it were, in the context of Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland politics troubles, politics, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

It kind of flows well.