Northern Ireland: political stalemate while cuts bite
Amid a scandal over a botched renewable heating scheme, the Stormont-based power-sharing institutions collapsed on 16 January, sparking new elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. The immediate trigger for the latest crisis was the resignation on 9 January of the Deputy First Minister, Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness. In resigning, McGuinness automatically deposed the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) First Minister Arlene Foster and paved the way for a new round of elections to the devolved Assembly. In his resignation statement, McGuinness cited DUP “arrogance” as a motivation for ending the...