18 July 2022: Counsel Presentation on Northern Ireland and Wales - A

Ten souls made it through the anticipated inferno that was the City of London and into the welcome respite of the air-conditioned Inquiry Hearing Room. Only one non-Inquiry lawyer (it is assumed) was seen in the room, and no members of the press.

Counsel began by giving a whistle-stop tour through the evidence previously given to the Inquiry by a variety of clinicians, officials, and former Ministers. Each of these had different levels of responsibility for blood matters in the North of Ireland. The key take-away was the dearth of information, involvement, or influence from NI related to blood and blood product in the UK context. As recorded, witnesses had mainly agreed with each other about the dependency of the “Territories” on England for setting the agenda, the direction, and the allocation of resources. The only one of the three nation-states to have shown any sense of independent thinking and action was Scotland (… no surprise there). If there were to have been a rough ranking it might be; England was the big cheese, Scotland was the after-dinner platter, Wales was the Dairylea triangle, and NI was half a Wotsit. Westminster enjoyed (and wielded) the automatically-granted control which derived through the subverted aphorism that “while small is beautiful, big has the grandeur of size”. Richmond House had the money, the people with specialisms, the access to Westminster, and for much of the time pretty much all the power; since for a large part of the time “devolution” was just another word in the dictionary; as were subsidiarity, localism, democratic and deficit.

A short series of documents was displayed which illustrated the lack of participation by anyone from NI at meetings and groups where information was exchanged, and itineraries decided. It was interesting to note how at one such meeting the Welsh Government/Office was represented by one Professor Bloom. There were the occasional bleats from the top of the Emerald Isle, such as about the likely negative impact on it of the proposals for apportionments. There were also the particularly relevant factors (no pun intended) when it came to the issues around blood safety for a community which retained laws against homosexual acts for considerably longer that the other parts of the UK. So, for example, having a leaflet which gave safety guidance for men who had sex with other men, was uniquely challenging. Then there came the fractious frustrations around governance, including the sledge-hammer of direct rule (regardless of which side of the arguments a person stood).

And that was pretty much it for Northern Ireland. Apart from minimal references to links with Scottish activity, more often than not ‘not’, there was ‘not’ even basic data of how close to self-sufficiency, or ‘not’ (… sorry), the folks of NI were. So, after an early break, the focus would shift to Wales.

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