The Standard View: Joe Biden’s visit to Northern Ireland shows the need to end the Stormont stalemate

Air Force One touched down in Belfast last night for the start of US President Joe Biden’s four-day visit to the island of Ireland. The trip marks the 25-year anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, and is in many ways a homecoming for a man proud of his Irish heritage.

The visit is also about politics. Biden is spending only hours in Northern Ireland, before flying to the Republic. This is partly because of dysfunction in NI. It is a matter of great regret that Stormont, the power-sharing institution made possible by the Agreement, is not sitting — meaning there is no functioning government. Biden is therefore making no address to Assembly Members.

He has been warned by Sir Tony Blair, an architect of the 1998 peace deal, to be careful about intervening in Northern Ireland’s politics. The former PM, who worked closely with the Americans to secure the historic agreement, has made clear that they ought only to come in “at the right moment and in the right place.” The atmosphere certainly remains delicate. Biden’s visit comes as police recovered four suspected pipe bombs from a cemetery in Londonderry where a republican commemoration was staged on Easter Monday. And the terror threat has been raised to ‘severe’, meaning that an attack is highly likely.

A return to devolved government remains critical, both to maintaining peace and to securing all the economic benefits within reach, thanks to Northern Ireland’s unique status which means it stays inside the EU’s single market for goods. But progress depends on an end to the Stormont stalemate, something Biden’s visit does not change.

The Confederation of British Industry prides itself on being the voice of UK business. That voice has been drowned out in recent days by the scandal facing its now former chief executive. Tony Danker has been dismissed with immediate effect following the first phase of an independent investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.

Mr Danker said allegations against him were “distorted” but that he recognised he “unintentionally made a number of colleagues feel uncomfortable”. Allegations have been made against other CBI employees, including one of rape at a boat party in 2019, as well as a separate claim of attempted sexual assault. The CBI touts its ability to embrace change. It must clean up its act or risk its reputation and wider position.

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