UUP and DUP support smaller OFMDFM (unless they’re in it)…
ULSTER Unionist deputy leader Danny Kennedy has been complaining that staffing levels at the Office of the First and Deputy First Ministers are too high – at 415. However, he forgot to mention that when the UUP was in charge of the office, it employed between 417 and 424. Meanwhile, Junior Minister Paisley Junior has (rather feebly) defended the sleekit appointment of two special advisers to him and his Sinn Fein counterpart, Gerry Kelly, by saying it was the Secretary of State that asked the Privy Council for them. Oh, please. This is the same Paisley Jr who attacked such waste in the past. And are we seriously being asked to believe that the SoS woke up one morning and decided there weren’t enough spin doctors in Stormont? That kind of weak political cover went out with the ark, and both UUP and DUP are on shaky ground given the criticisms they made in the last administration. Let’s face it, the parties in charge of the Stormont gravy train will always make sure there’s enough jobs for the boys.
or girls
“UUP and DUP are on shaky ground given the criticisms they made in the last administration.”
Mind you – one lot had 4 years to do something about it, the other have had 3 months (minus the summer). Hardly an equal comparison. Surely you should judge it over a full Assembly term? Even if the DUP were intent on slashing the staff to zero they couldnt have implemented by now.
Alliance opportunism perhaps?
I think the two politicians mentioned above are the ones being opportunistic, for blatantly obvious reasons.
Gonzo
Fair enough re the individuals. Headline doesn’t quite give that impression though.
I doubt if a deputy leader in one party and a junior minister in the other are going out on much of a limb here.
Gonzo
Isn’t “sleekit” such a wonderful word. It’s one of the few that needs no definition. Its very sound just paints a picture of the type of person it’s meant to describe. Love it!
We don’t make nearly enough use of the vernacular in our writing here. Well done.
Penguin
For words that paint a picture, ‘glar’ must rank up there too. A great word. And ‘thran’ contains something in the sound that beautifully conveys pig-ignorant stubbornness. Fantastic word.
Any more?
“OFMDFM” – I had to look at that twice to make sure it didn’t say “KMFDM”
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I don’t even know how to spell it properly, but “shuck” as in the small, overgrown mud-filled semi-stream.
Very close to muck, but with an “s” thrown it at the start as if to give a nod to the fact that the thing has ambitions towards being a stream.
Are most of the words we’re mentioning Scots and/or Irish in origin?
“scunnered” – totally fed up or disgusted with someone. (Scottish I believe)
“futter (or footer) about” – To do this and that small thing aimlessly, usually around the house.
(Irish I believe).
“boggin” – dirty (physically). Irish I believe.
ginkin – like boggin
At the risk of returning the thread to the original post, surely the issue is not the number of staff in OFMDFM, but the number of functions the Department holds.
An initial assumption that OFMDFM would be a modest central co-ordination office was replaced by the practice that everything contentious must go into a Department with both a Unionist and a Nationalist in charge.
Then they fail to agree and nothing happens.
When watching the OFMDFM in (in)action I am always reminded of Yes Prime Minister. They baffle you with jargon, don’t really do anything then decide they need a large raise for all that effort.
The thread owner redirected it.
Skitter – very loose bowel motion, often inappropriately..e.g. he was so scared he skittered hissel. also noun. Scottish?
what is so special about special advisers?
other than their paypackets.
what about the word guttersnipe
Don’t think guttersnipe qualifies – it’s in my North American Collegiate dictionary; no origin given.
“Shuck” is spelled sheugh, I believe.