The way I originally conceived this project was as a sort of shared inquiry, where the active audience(s) of Slugger would play as much of a role in uncovering actionable insights from these individual episodes as the interviewees themselves.
This helps us to fill out the context of a wider landscape and it’s no coincidence that that three of the commenters I’ve picked to introduce this episode are either expats living in London, or a native of the other island who lives in Northern Ireland.
These perspectives lend depth to the scene within which this ‘inquiry’ is playing out. Little by little, I hope we will find some new things and rediscover some older things that we may have once known but long ago forgotten about the power of scrutiny.
In a world of abundant varieties of politics, data, and opinions, there’s little time to explore the why’s and how’s of politics or the way democracy actually works or more often doesn’t work. We may only find acorns but they can give rise to mighty oaks.
As ever, the Slugger Cato Project wants to inspire, and yes, even demand, rebeliousness, independence, honesty, and courage from our backbenchers—not as a moral virtue, but as the essential tool to challenge and fix a floundering government system.
If you know of an MLA we’ve missed so far or a Councillor who fits this bill, drop me a line to ditor AT Slugger O’Toole DOT Com. Now, let’s hear from our next witness the Independent MLA for East Londonderry, Claire Sugden …
Remember the commenting rule that you must play the ball (ie, talk about what is said) rather than the man (who is doing the talking). I’m asking the moderator group to be ultra stringent on these threads to encourage the sharing of actionable insights.
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.
