HOWZAT

He may listen to local politicians, and joke with them, and introduce them to his parents, but there is also a touch of steel and no mistaking his authority in cabinet. Under previous secretaries of state Sinn Fein were able to hold private meetings with the prime minister in No 10, now Hain is invariably present.

He has a will to act, and Northern Ireland leaders have found that huffing or refusing to move has not been an effective veto on Hain.

“The politics of procrastination is rife in Northern Ireland,” the minister complains. “There is a kind of blame culture; blame the secretary of state, blame London, blame the other parties. It is time people started escaping this and taking responsibility for governing themselves. I think this is going to happen.

“You can’t wait around for ever for oppositionalist politicians to keep playing their games. That period is over. My predecessors took the view that you shouldn’t take the tough decisions because that might get in the way of the politics. Perhaps they were right. I have taken the view that, actually, the politics had better catch up.”

Hain was, however, forced into a U-turn last week when he dropped legislation that would have granted on-the-run (OTR) terrorists immunity from imprisonment. The plan w,as drawn up by his predecessors in 2003 when it was published in draft form by the British and Irish governments with a guarantee that it would be legislated for once the IRA disarmed. Even though he intended to amend the legislation after all party opposition had been taken on board, the crunch came when Sinn Fein condemned the legislation on the grounds that security forces found guilty of Troubles-related offenses would also benefit from it.

Hain said last week that when Sinn Fein came to him in December and said it no longer supported the bill, his reaction was “to tell them to get lost.” His subsequent decision to drop the bill was taken to avoid the trouble and expense of setting up special tribunals that nobody would use. The commitment to legislate remains, but he is in no hurry to fulfil it. “I don’t think this can be addressed until there is a different climate, ” he says.

He adds: “As of now the lancing of the boil of the OTRs has created a positive atmosphere in which it might be possible to make progress. In the autumn I will see if anyone has any ideas to put to me.”

Ideas are required in other areas too. Under Mo Mowlam, John Reid and Paul Murphy, a series of difficult economic choices were postponed. The continuous gush of public spending — 63% of the province’s gross domestic product, or £60 (€88) a week in subsidies for every person — was unquestioned. With money tight at the British Treasury, Hain has ended the procrastination.

He has laid plans for water charges; he is jacking up rates by 19%; he is cutting the number of local authorities to seven; and in a forthcoming review of public spending he aims to slash the number of civil service departments. Cherished institutions such as the home service battalions of the Royal Irish Regiment are being scrapped in the name of rationalisation, despite unionist howls of protest.

Politicians are not exempt either. Last week in the House of Commons he warned that he will cut off the £85,000-a-year that is, on average, paid in salaries and allowances to members of the suspended Northern Ireland assembly. If the salaries stop, politicians’ advice centres will close and the whole political apparatus will run down. Moderate parties such as the Ulster Unionist party and SDLP will be worst affected.

But Hain makes no apologies. “There is no prospect of the status quo prevailing — millions of pounds being paid out for people not to do their jobs,” he says. It is strong medicine from a man who once campaigned for mass nationalisation and was ousted from the board of Tribune, the left-wing Labour weekly, by Gordon Brown for his neo-Keynesian views.

Now he sings from a different economic hymn sheet. “I don’t think people have woken up to the fact that the economy is not sustainable in its present form in the long term,” he says of Northern Ireland. “We have got to become much more competitive, less dependent on a bloated public sector with huge state subsidies and such a small private sector. It is just not sustainable.”