Well, the Irish News yesterday went fairly big on the possible abandonment of the ESA (Education and Skills Authority) that was supposed to streamline the running of schools in Northern Ireland by amalgamating a whole bunch of organisations, not least the many of the executive of the Department and the five Education and Library Boards.
Brian Feeney is pretty sharp in his attack on the lack of any political nous amongst the political parties at Stormont.
One minute they are telling us the likely reforms would save £13 Million in 2010-11 and £20 million in 2011-2012, next minute it is cut because of what Feeney calls “spurious concerns” by the DUP “about controlled, by which they mean Protestant, schools and the role of the Protestant clergy on the ESA”.
The problem, according to Feeney, is that:
the MLAs aren’t politicians. Politicians always disagree but real politicians do deals. People are entitled to expect politician to cut a deal. That’s what they are for.
Last week, after a lot of shouting in the House of Commons David Cameron and Ed Milliband cut a deal on an inquiry into the Libor fixing scandal. Labour doesn’t like it they got enough concessions to satisfy them.
The guys at Stomont don’t do this sort of thing. They prefere 100 per cent of nothing to 50% of nothing.
Harsh, but probably fair…
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
Discover more from Slugger O'Toole
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
