Telling it like it is… with authority

I really like this piece from Alan McBride from yesterday’s Sunday Life

There are so many people, myself included, who feel they have a right to pontificate on the whys and wherefores of Northern Ireland. Alan McBride is in a completely different category. Having lost his wife and father in law in the Shankill bombing, he has set out changing the world he lives in. Although he would be happy enough with ‘one small step’, he has the courage to speak out and ask for the politicians to take good big leaps.

He writes:
In my opinion this argument from the DUP is wearing a wee bit thin. If the Agreement has not delivered the kind of society envisaged, that is not necessarily the fault of the UUP. Of course they made mistakes, but when apportioning blame the DUP should look a little closer to home. Is it not the case that the DUP (as always) took the cowardly way out? Rather than get around the table and negotiate the strongest possible deal for unionism, they ran away, preferring to stand outside the process and undermine it at every turn.
They have become masters at this kind of political manoeuvring and it seems to be paying dividends for them electorally.
But what have they delivered? In spite of an election manifesto promising a stronger type of unionism and an end of concessions to Sinn Fein/IRA, the DUP have delivered nothing.
Rather than providing the unionist people with progressive, forward-thinking leadership, they have yet to demonstrate that they have anything relevant to offer.
It’s easy to sound tough and principled when you don’t actually have responsibility for governing a divided country.

He makes the same point that is now starting to sound like the Northern Ireland themesong. Indeed who needs a national anthem when we can all sing “We elected you now come and lead us”

Miss Fitz