Peter Robinson further argued: “Our present system encourages stalemate and party political point scoring over good government.” And he added:

“I believe that it is time to set party politics to the side and to concentrate on what is the best mechanism to take decisions which are in the best interest of the people of Northern Ireland. It is time to remove the obstacles to the Executive’s effective performance.”

Mr Robinson recommends that the Assembly’s Executive Review Committee should look at this issue:

“Our proposals include the abolition of community designation and its replacement by a sixty five per cent weighted majority voting. This would ensure but would not allow any single party to have a veto on progress. It would encourage co-operation and compromise and end the potential of blackmail by stalemate.

“Any decision would require the support of either the DUP and Sinn Fein or any three of the parties in the Executive for any matters to pass.” concluded Mr Robinson.

An unusual news story hit the headlines on Tuesday, one that is unverifiable by any means: public sector employees were selfishly destroying the economy.

Tuesday November 24 was a ‘national day of action’ for members of public sector unions. Understandably this issue was the news story of the day, dominating the airwaves as commentators and the public lined-up to debate whether or not strikes were appropriate during a recession. This in itself is a fairly empty dialogue but things took a turn for the surreal when the media started spreading the notion that the striking workers were in fact all in Newry shopping rather than manning the picket lines.

The story started with claims of six kilometre traffic tailbacks south of Newry. This in itself may have been true: Newry has always been a popular destination for Southern shoppers and roads leading to Newry from the South are always congested anyway, due to the ongoing construction of the motorway. Alas, common sense did not prevail. Immediately the story spread that the tailback was the result of striking public servants skipping the protests and heading off to gorge themselves using their inflated wages. A simpler explanation might be that entire families had travelled to Newry, and having been forced to take the day off work to mind their kids, decided to make practical use of the time by shopping for Christmas.
Worse was to come, however. Moral opprobrium was quickly loaded on the striking shoppers for taking their money out of the ‘country’. The partitionist mentality on display in this claim is bad enough, but it also indicates a staggering level of economic illiteracy. The hollowness of Ireland’s politics is laid bare by the fact that this nonsense passes for debate.

An economy driven by consumption, such as Irish politicians would have us create, is not an economy that can be relied upon. Consumption has its role to play in economic affairs – products have to be bought, of course – but the real, structural questions in any economy surround the area of production. The consumer economy that developed after the collapse of industry (or, in Ireland’s case, the non-emergence of industry in the first place) was always non-productive and cultural critiques of it amount to little more than a kind of warmed-over liberal Puritanism, the logical consequence of which would be an assault on people’s living standards.

Ireland’s elite was been discovered to have been wearing the emperor’s new clothes at least two years ago but the acknowledgement of this fact has not transformed into any alternative, even in a notional or intellectual sense. The policies of the immediate future will not mark a break from those of the past but instead amount to putting industry, both native and international, on life support.

Happily for the government, desperation dovetails with a consumption-driven view of economics promoted by industry that has been in retreat from capital investment for over twenty years and an invigorated environmental movement which views consumption as a secular sin. Both the pro- and anti-consumption narratives on display today are misplaced attempts to politicise the unpolitical and they contribute to the masking of the government’s political bankruptcy.

It is a sad inditement of the Irish opposition that it has completely failed to develop an alternative strategy. The reemergence of tired old Keynesian economics has been hailed as and end to ‘casino capitalism’, thus not only misidentifying the nature of Irish political economy (which is far closer to coroporatism than free-market capitalism) but also reducing the likelihood of investment in productive new technologies as the nation’s hopes remain pinned on the failed ‘stagflatory’ policies of the past. In calling for personal restraint and local consumption politicians may be throwing out the bathwater – but they’re definitely throwing the baby out too.

Notes: I don’t know what Slugger’s policy on cross-posting is, but this article originated on forth. I called Mick to seek permission but couldn’t get through. If I have broken a key Slugger rule, mea culpa.

Around 730 officials now work in the North/South Ministerial Council Joint Secretariat and the seven North/South bodies and companies it oversees. These are people who are usually invisible, and sometimes maligned (mainly by unionists). But they have achieved an enormous amount of unglamorous and painstaking relationship and trust building over the past decade. I know because I have worked with many of them during that time.

On the eve of their big anniversary I am going to mention and thank some of these officials for their work for mutual understanding across the Irish border. I will start with the Joint Secretaries of the North/South Ministerial Council Secretariat in Armagh, Mary Bunting and Tom Hanney, whose quiet, diligent diplomatic work to bring official Ireland on both sides of the border together is truly remarkable. The Centre for Cross Border Studies owes them a particular debt of gratitude for their support, friendship and generosity to us in recent years. Their predecessors - Tim O’Connor (the man who started it all back in 1999), Dick Mackenzie, Joe Hayes and Peter Smyth - were equally hardworking and sensitive to the requirements of this mould-breaking new world of practical North-South cooperation. Their staff also deserve our gratitude.

Then there are the six North/South bodies and Tourism Ireland. The Centre has had a lot to do with two of these in particular, the Special EU Programmes Body and the cross-border trade and business development body, InterTradeIreland.

The SEUPB has made a huge and largely unsung contribution to cross-border cooperation and peacebuilding on this island. For a body which has distributed more taxpayers’ largesse - in this case European taxpayers’ largesse - to Northern Ireland than any other agency outside the British Government, it sometimes attracts unfair criticism and cynicism. This begrudging little society needs to understand what an extraordinary exercise in solidarity the SEUPB’s work represents. It has given out an astonishing amount of money to a vast range of groups and initiatives in Northern Ireland and the Southern Border counties since the mid-1990s: over €2.5 billion (£2.26 billion) to around 23,000 projects under the PEACE and INTERREG programmes.

These include the Centre for Cross Border Studies, which quite simply would never have come into existence or been able maintain its heavy workload of research, information and training activities without this EU support. We have learnt that if you put in a carefully prepared, well-costed funding application, do the work that you promise to do, and account for the money spent in a full and convincing way, the SEUPB will back an idealistic small organization like ours to the hilt. During the past decade and a half, I can find no evidence that a single penny or cent was lost to the region as a result of projects not being approved or money not being spent - that’s not a bad record for an arm of the often maligned EU bureaucracy. Chief Executive Pat Colgan, in particular, deserves considerable credit for having brought stability and a strategic vision to an organization that experienced significant teething troubles in its early years.

InterTradeIreland is another body that quietly gets on with its work of promoting cross-border trade and bringing business together. Under Chief Executive Liam Nellis and Director of Strategy Aidan Gough, it has demonstrated that business cooperation is not merely good in theory, but makes economic sense to the tune of around €3 billion in trade every year.

It is fashionable for unionists, in particular, to bash the North/South bodies. Yet even an outspoken critic of “North/Southery nonsense” like DUP Finance Minister Sammy Wilson admits that “sensible north-south cooperation can be beneficial to Northern Ireland”. You don’t hear a practical man like Sammy criticizing the EU for giving Northern Ireland over two billion pounds or attacking the Irish Government for giving Northern Ireland £400 million for its roads. These are the kind of ‘pinch me in case I’m not hearing right’ statements from unionist leaders that we can largely thank the quiet work of public servants for. So the next time you feel like voicing a facile criticism of a civil servant or an EU funder, remember that they too have played a very significant if unheralded role in our continuing peace process.

Andy Pollak

I said, “I worked with Jim”.

He said, “Every so often I drive past his house, beep the horn and give him a wee wave - just to scare the shite out of him”.

Tells you everything, doesn’t it?

They had enjoyed their war.

Tabloid journalists get the least recognition, attract the most notoriety and take by far the biggest risks…  Get well soon Mr McDowell…

On Wednesday Dubai World, the Gulf owned conglomerate, announced a six month debt standstill on loans of €22 billion. This signalled that they were not currently able to pay back the capital or interest on their loan book.

In response to this, the cost of insuring against a default of Dubai government debt rose from €360,000 on €10,000,000 of loans to €460,000 in a single day. The increase is even more dramatic when you recognise that this difficulty is experienced by the region which was an iconic symbol of global economic exuberance.

The sheiks of the Gulf and Fianna Fail share more than a penchant for horse racing, tents and spending vast amounts of government money. They also share a common challenge.

The cost of fiscal stimulus packages combined with the financial costs of saving banking systems has caught governments in an economic perfect storm. They need to spend more to deal with the costs of a recession while dealing with the rising costs of current and future borrowing.

The International Monetary Fund estimates that public sector gross debt in developed economies is due to rise from 78% of national income in 2007 to 118% in 2014. This is at the same time that economies have to deal with the cost of retirement for healthy workers and higher unemployment levels.

So, back to the flooded plains of Ireland. Why only €10 million? Lack of concern does play a big part but larger economic factors are at work.

This is because the current financial crisis is not a speed bump along the road back to another Celtic Tiger. We are on a completely new road. Ireland profoundly integrated our national economy into globalisation at a time of abnormally high growth. Tax levels and living standards were predicated on the ‘irrational exuberance’ of world economic growth rates that might not ever return.

We must be honest about this. Government, employer or union leaders talking of ‘temporary adjustments’ are guilty of the same economic dishonesty that ruined our country.

Social partners should not be delivering a short term plan but a plan that straddles at least the next 3 budgets. The exodus of shoppers to the North points again to the need to conduct a war against the mad cost of living in the Republic. This is vital to maintain decent living standards to cope with the higher tax levels and lower wages that will follow if our economic security is to be maintained.

€10 million heralds arrival of austerity economics. Whether we like it or not austerity politics will soon follow. Maybe this arrival will be a bit easier if we recognise this and are more honest about the consequences.

Meanwhile, stateside, respected bank analyst Meredith Whitney preditcts a double dip recession and urges investors ‘to get out’, if there is a consolition she feels in a double-dip recession the second leg down on the W will be less severe than the first.

The executive never seemed comfortable with tough decisions. From the start it ducked anything that had to do with the implementing of taxation. After being beaten into government by Peter Hain’s threat to implement water charges, the administration went into the mode of the ‘tick man’ with everything not being charged going on the wacky economics of the ‘never-never’.

All parties stated quite clearly there would not be water charges. Not on separate bills and not on one bill because they said we already paid for water. Deep down they and we knew that, while that was technically true, we clearly weren’t paying enough but the theatrics of united opposition was worthy of pantomime. Jack and the Beanstalk really – only without the benefit of the magic beans.

Soon to follow was the freeze on domestic rates and the exemption for manufacturing business. Then of course, free prescriptions. Not forgetting the people who got a £1,000 cheque for not having home insurance when their homes flooded. Well truth be told, they could have had insurance as they got the £1,000 anyway.

Lack of indigenous policy making and an unwillingness to test the opinion of their bases doesn’t help either:

Sinn Fein has problems too. Water charges are needed before the entire system collapses but Conor Murphy is ploughing a lonely political field when he calls for their implementation.

Yet the real problems lie with the education minister. Her department is totally dysfunctional mainly due to her and that’s not a media myth. The minister is full of saccharine and short on substance. She is completely unable to convince anyone but her most loyal of colleagues of her policies.

Surely someone in Sinn Fein knows that she is damaging not only her party but her department and the education system in Northern Ireland. She is driven by a mistaken and misguided commitment to a flawed policy.

Education is a case in point. None of the provisions the Minister wants implemented came through the Sinn Fein party machine. In fact there is no evidence that the party has invested any time considering education policy from the ground up. In fact Ruane’s proposals are a grab from the Costello report (ie from the work done under a English direct rule minister).

Kelly argues that this weakness on the part of their opponents is the SDLP’s big opportunity, but only if they tie their policy making instincts to the interests of their base and to the ends of target their political opponents in Sinn Fein. In the meantime, keep an eye out for the old collapse and escape responsibility routine…

The low politics of the move is that it’s a spoiler against the SNP minority government’s own White Paper outlining an independence strategy on Monday, St Andrew’s Day. There’s a catch here too. The SNP paper will not contain the wording of an independence referendum question – or questions.  Finally, the unionist parties in Holyrood refuse to back SNP plans to set a low limit on the price of drink for all sorts of reasons, most of them involving a game of political poker. The SNP insist they have to so it this way because they don’t set the duties on alcohol. Westminster does, and will continue to do so. Who ever said devolution was easy, even without a Troubles legacy?

From the Herald report
Under the plan, the UK income tax rate would be cut by 10p in Scotland with a corresponding cut in the annual block grant from the Treasury. To maintain
the current budget of £30 billion, Holyrood would have to impose a new Scottish income tax at 10p. This would give it about £4.5bn in spending power. If it wanted more money it could raise this level; a cut would reduce its income.
As well as pledging to transfer other taxes like stamp duty, the Government also backed giving Edinburgh capital borrowing powers – but with serious strings attached.
The Treasury would set the limits while taking into account local council borrowing. Moreover, any borrowing would be financed by “increasing taxation in Scotland above the level of the rest of the UK”, ie, through the new Scottish income tax. “There is no borrowing free lunch,” one Whitehall source noted.

In probably the best example of too little, too late
The commissioner of the Irish police, Fachtna Murphy, said it made for “difficult and disturbing reading, detailing as it does many instances of sexual abuse and failure on the part of both Church and State authorities to protect victims”. He added: “The commission has found that in some cases, because of acts or omissions, individuals who sought assistance did not always receive the level of response or protection which any citizen in trouble is entitled to expect from An Garda Síochána (the Irish police).

He said he was “deeply sorry” for the failures.

The needs and rights of the child seem to have had no importance whatsoever to the Church that saw self-protection as the key area of concern:

The report stated: “The Dublin archdiocese’s pre-occupations in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid 1990s, were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets. It also said that the archdiocese “did its best to avoid any application of the law of the state”. It found that four archbishops - John Charles McQuaid who died in 1973, Dermot Ryan who died in 1984, Kevin McNamara who died in 1987, and retired Cardinal Desmond Connell - did not hand over information on abusers. The report said that authorities in the Dublin archdiocese who were dealing with complaints of child sexual abuse “were all very well educated people. It added that, considering many of them had qualifications in canon law, and in some cases civil law, their claims of ignorance were “very difficult to accept

So you take a seat. Well you don’t. All those tables and chairs are for the sponsors only. The bloggers, the commentators, journalists and some politicians are relegated to standing along the walls while the corporate world gets the prime spots. And the awards, presented by the sponsors, in front of the sponsors, branded by the sponsors begin only to be interrupted by a good luck message from Sir Bob Geldoff, well a targeted pitch - we’d been lobbied.

Then off to a post awards bash – many won’t have been invited (Mick only ‘remembered’ to invite me a few hours in advance) - a room full of sponsors tables with the odd politico and blogger slotted in around their shindig.

As 4ip leaked news of their future major involvement in Slugger, which Mick has now expanded on, I looked around a room of paying interest groups, lobbyists, the odd politician, a limited sprinkling of bloggers and very, very few commentators/readers and almost despaired.

If this event represents where Slugger and ‘serious’ blogging could end up it looks like it might be a very corporate future.

I don’t begrudge Mick seeking some financial return after all the years of hard work and dedication but I can’t help but wonder if the cost of finance will be the loss of a conversational and slightly anarchic space where all forms of politics and none feel uncomfortable and comfortable in equal measure at different times.

The Awards for me demonstrated that with external money comes having to meet the funder’s needs or expectations either consciously or subconciously.

‘Right-thinking’ people tend to view the DUP and Sinn Féin as equal and opposite. Supporters, of course, say this untrue - the DUP didn’t have an armed wing and Sinn Féin is significantly more socially liberal. Whatever. That’s not my point. What I am interested in is two things:

- The presentation of the DUP and Sinn Féin as ‘extremists’ is demonstrably untrue and covers the parties massive moves
- It seeks invalidate the votes of an awful lot of people and does nothing to try and change these voters minds

Traditional Unionist Voice, meanwhile, is regularly denounced as neanderthal, but is it not just, well, traditionally unionist? On the republican side, I recently watched some éirígí videos on Youtube and was surprised at how old-fashioned they were. Not in terms of production values, but in how they presented their case.

Amid all the talk of sectarianism, real though it is, appears to be a snobbish distaste for people and not much in the way of attempts to change their minds through genuine political argument.

The agreement with 4IP sees us enter a relationship. You’ll see the first products of that in the new year when we’ll be launching a brand new platform that in the first instance will enable to disaggregate our content into new regional front pages that enable us to give concentrated attention to the political game in other political hot spots in Scotland, the Republic, Wales, Westminster and Europe.

That will entail a huge resource and network building exercise and it very much remains to be seen whether we can achieve that in the terms we currently envisage. The sums of money are modest and will be focused on small and tightly defined projects.

Lastly the money from 4IP will enable us to tidy up Slugger and bring closer it to the front edge of digital content sharing. The sums of money are modest and focused on small and VERY tightly defined projects. That way we can take risks, manage costs and retain our motivation innovate.

For the more suspicious amongst you, it won’t be paying anyone’s wages. That, if it comes, will likely derive from working with other partners eager to experiment with new forms of digital content production or who want to engage in robust (ie honest) conversations with their stakeholders.

The first seven years of Slugger O’Toole has been both surprising and lot of fun along the way. I hope the next seven years will be just as fun and just as surprising (in the same good way)...

I had the sad duty some years ago to visit the home of a police officer shot dead by the IRA. A local protestant clergyman who came through the door greeted me with the salutation ” Hello Seamus.” I corrected him and pointed out that my name was not “Seamus” but “Eamonn.”  Quick as a flash he replied “Same thing.”

To me this was contempt for my very existence. “What is your name Sir”  I asked. “Robert” he responded. “Why would I call you William ?” I queried. He didn’t answer. The careless disregard of the clergyman for my true identity offended me. Consciously or subconsciously this man was ‘lumping’ me in with ’ the other side.’

At no point was I ever going to physically retaliate but I was determined to settle a score. In this very minor but limited exchange between the protestant clergyman and myself that ‘sediment of sectarianism’ momentarily surfaced. That sediment of sectarianism reared it’s head.

The French poet Baudelaire engaged in a philosophical debate around the theory of ‘Spleen and Ideal’ in Fleurs du Mal. That battle between ‘good’ and ‘evil’ is at the heart of our very existence. That is where the great fight starts. We have all a part to play in making sure ‘L’ideal’ wins over the ‘spleen.’ That means standing up against any and every manifestation of sectarianism.

Where is the campaign at Parliament Buildings to tackle this cancer in our society ? We all know. - It does not exist.