Newton lays down the law
Red Lines
BBC
4.4 • 78 Ratings
🗓️ 21 October 2019
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After a memorable - but brief - return to Stormont we discuss the day's events and other big moments on the hill.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to episode 8 of Red Lines. We are in the Stormont today television studio in the bowels of parliament buildings to talk about proceedings upstairs, which we're still trying to digest, pick our way through and fully understand. |
| 0:17.7 | Mark Devonport's here. Enda McLaughordy is here and we've been joined by Frey McLements. |
| 0:23.8 | Late of the BBC, now the Irish Times Northern correspondent. Welcome to you. Very nice to |
| 0:29.2 | have you with us. Look, Andy, let's just dive in because you've been covering this. You've been on |
| 0:32.7 | air throughout the day talking people through this quickly. We didn't really know what was going to |
| 0:38.3 | happen precisely and I suppose in that regard we weren't disappointed. |
| 0:43.3 | Well we've had bizarre days here before Mark but I don't think we've had anything quite like |
| 0:48.3 | what we've witnessed today in the chamber because it really caught a lot of people by surprise. |
| 0:53.3 | The speaker Robin Newton seems to been blindsided by this late attempt by the DUP to put something on the table by way of some sort of blocking mechanism, which would try and stop the legislation coming to Northern Ireland tonight. Of course, we know that's the legislation coming through Westminster. We know the SDLP, for instance, they seem to be blindsided by this as well |
| 1:11.3 | because they had agreed to take their seats within the chamber, although they weren't going to go |
| 1:14.9 | ahead and vote for the speaker. So there did seem to be some choreography behind the scenes |
| 1:19.8 | involving the DUP, and of course they brought on their legal advisors as well. So they did |
| 1:23.7 | seem to be not happening on one side of the house but on the other side including the Speaker's Chair they were very much in the dark |
| 1:28.9 | and in the end it came down you got the sense |
| 1:31.3 | to have a battle between legal advisers |
| 1:33.2 | who's going to win out in the end the DUPs |
| 1:35.7 | or the speakers and in the end |
| 1:37.3 | Robin Newton took the decision that his advice |
| 1:39.4 | was better and we were all gathered |
| 1:41.2 | in the Great Hall as we often have been |
| 1:43.5 | on days like this, Mark, |
| 1:45.0 | with a sense of anticipation, television cameras were there. |
... |
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