Time to call Sinn Fein’s bluff over welfare
John Simpson, an economist who deserves to be trusted, dismissed the Great Welfare Crisis as essentially bogus months ago – yet his analysis seems to have failed to pass into political debate and comment from the Business pages. It might help if critics of Sinn Fein’s grandstanding spoke on the basis of an agreed analysis. OFFICIAL Treasury figures show that spending on welfare-related topics in Northern Ireland is still increasing and, significantly, will continue to increase in the immediate years ahead. That …