08th Jul 2008
Not the traditional July crisis
June and July used to be dominated by parading, civil unrest and ’street politics’ which forced many to flee on early holidays, damaged business and did this island’s reputation abroad no good what so ever.
This year the first parading headline came with a very minor spat between the Orange Order and Larne Council over bunting - yes bunting!.
Instead of Drumcree, Ormeau, Ardoyne and Dunloy today’s headlines are dominated by banks, builders, liquidity and the now properly listed in the Oxford Dictionary - credit crunch.
The papers make unpleasant reading. The Daily Telegraph reports that Bank of Ireland in GB has frozen commercial lending and is closing its doors to new business for three months. The same paper also carries an interesting story about Royal Bank of Scotland (NatWest) paring off senior managers with experience of previous recessions with small business customers who are carrying significant debts. There is concern in business circles that many of the new generation of bankers are too young to have experience full blown recession and are having to learn quickly about trading in a very different context.
The Irish business correspondents are reporting on the need for the banks to introduce liquidity (release cash) into the residential property market. This has received the backing of Construction Industry Federation.
Back to the Twelfth.
Things are moving along a pace and in the right direction, but can I make a very personal point. I live off a major arterial route in South Belfast. I am not going to take the position that Orange feet have no right to be on that road but I do believe that with rights come responsibilities. Ours is a little cul-de-sac which means we are ‘locked in’ during the parade.
Last year we were at home for the day. The morning procession passed off without too much ado but on the return walk back into the city things were pretty bad. I counted 56 people (some girls) using our little street as a toilet and the litter was simply unacceptable. All in all the parade took two hours to pass. After about an hour I gave up on the toilet count and retreated to the back garden to get away from the bands but had to confront reality when a group of young girls from a band came knocking on the door begging to use the loo. I would love to have spoken to the adult responsible for these young ladies. They should have been given access to proper facilities by the people who were leading them.
Surely the time has arrived when the Orange Order should be required to provide portaloos, litter points and properly marshall their flagship parade. Most of our neighbours have the economic means to leave on the Twelfth. This is a major reason why this part of Belfast has to date been happy to live and let live. That is no excuse for bringing tens of thousands onto the streets and making no arrangements for them.
We will be heading off again this year as I suspect will the vast majority of our neighbours and by the time we return the council will have tidied everything up again - at our expense.
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