UNDER the 2015 Fresh Start agreement, the DUP and Sinn Féin set up a commission on flags, identity, culture and tradition. This delivered its final report to the Executive in 2021.

Among its recommendations was to create a new “civic flag” for Northern Ireland.

The report has been been left on the shelf, but it is the context in which the Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games Council has been seeking guidance from the Executive on which flag it should use.

After years of being ignored, it forced the issue last week by saying it might use its own logo.

Newton Emerson: Stormont again showing talent for dodging difficult decisions

Brian Feeney: Who controls the airwaves in a united Ireland?

TUV leader Jim Allister replied that it had no authority to do so and DUP communities minister Gordon Lyons told it to continue using the Ulster Banner - guidance the council has accepted.

Although Lyons is responsible for sport, this should have been a question for Sinn Féin and the DUP to answer jointly through the office of the first ministers, which owns the flag report. But they cannot agree, hence the silence.

Nor does Sinn Féin want to overrule Lyons, because that would put it under pressure to agree a new flag for Northern Ireland – something it does not want to do, or want anyone else to do.

A new flag remains the best way through this morass but both main parties are profoundly averse to the compromise it represents.

**

The case for restoring 50:50 PSNI recruitment is increasingly heard, with the proportion of Catholic officers falling to 31%.

Is there a case for similar measures to address the gender imbalance in teaching?

Policing and teaching have both previously been given special........

© The Irish News