As a boy, his father told John Hume, 'you can't eat a flag'. But, as
demonstrated in marketing leaflets, Sinn Fein believes people will swallow
anything wrapped in national colours.
In 1974, Tricolours waved in opposition to the Sunningdale Agreement and
carried on waving in support of IRA violence, until the 1994 ceasefire when
Sinn Fein camouflaged the defeat of physical force republicanism by waving a
whole forest of flags.
No Tricolours greeted the Good Friday Agreement, which Sinn Fein didn't
sign. Neither did it issue referendum leaflets supporting a 'Yes' vote.
However, during subsequent Stormont elections, out again came the
Tricolours.
Now, after another whole year without a single piece of legislation, Martin
McGuinness uses green, white and orange leaflets to boast that "Sinn
Fein and the DUP are working together delivering effective Government".
Barnum once said "you can't fool all the people all the time". If
there is a funny side to Sinn Fein's attempts to bamboozle us with green,
white and orange razzmatazz, then the joke is not just on those falling for
it, but on all paying dearly for jingoistic flimflam.
The SDLP designed, engineered and delivered the Sunningdale and Good Friday
Agreements, settling the constitutional problem so that all would benefit
from normal bread and butter politics. In a world of increasing food
shortages and rapidly rising prices, the SDLP answer to jingoism? 'Put bread
on tables, not slogans on gables.'
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