Eric Waugh mulls over the growing cynicism of local people with regard to politics, asserting that it’s the low level of official political discourse that has brought it into disrepute. Greater accountability is the answer:
“If the Executive is to fill the role of government it must behave in public with the spirit of a Cabinet, not like a committee of tomcats. If the Assembly is to fill the role of a parliament it must have an Opposition. If Ministers fall down on the job they must be answerable, ie capable of being dismissed.”
In other words, the Agreement must be re-negotiated. It is hard not to speculate that in Waugh’s thinking, we are glimpsing the, as yet unveiled, agenda of Robinson’s DUP.
The directness of this analysis is appealing. But it seems to ignore some of the basic reasons why NI has a democratic system that can be grasped only by “…the few proficient in higher mathematics”. Sean Swan puts the Worker’s Party case for a bill of rights.
A general account used for the daily threads and other things.
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