O’Conall Street

Today O’Conall St launches ‘Lame Duck Executive Watch’.

It has been 148 days since the last meeting of the DUP - Sinn Fein led Executive. There is no doubt this is a Lame Duck Executive, in office, but out of power and increasingly misunderstood by the ordinary man and woman on the Street.

We will track proposed legislation and Programme for Government commitments to highlight the cost of this crisis in societal terms.

Our 14 Ministers have a basic annual salary bill is £1,118,228. This does not take into account the cost of Private Offices, Specials Advisers or the other resources which are required to ensure the proper running of an Executive.  Since June 19th when the Executive last met the Ministers have cost the tax payer £453,418  in salaries alone. Each working day that passes our Lame Duck ministerial team costs Northern Ireland £4,300.  

On Sunday we will reach 150 days of stalemate.

The siege of Derry did not last as long as the Executive stand off which today reaches 147 days.

Fair play to the Belfast Telegraph for providing us all with the daily reminder that the DUP and SInn Fein are failing the people of Northern Ireland.

This morning BBC Radio Ulster thought they would tackle the issue. Nobody from the DUP or SF was available to debate, another sign of the communications crisis both parties now find themselves in.  So in stepped Brian Feeney and Roy Garland, two verterans of conflict politics.

Maybe it is just me or maybe it is a generational thing but I don’t meet anyone - unionist, nationalist, working class, middle class (don’t know too many ‘upper class’ people), young or old for that matter - who thinks this stand off is justified or legitimate politics. Everyone I know thinks it is a joke that stinks of petty power games and selfish party interest. 

The DUP and SF will need to face the people at some point in the future. Brian Feeney thinks the people will put them right back in. I would never be so presumptious to second guess the electorate but I do wonder what SF and the DUP’s message to the people of Northern Ireland will be? 

If the texts into Good Morning Ulster are anything to go by, the electorate may well have something to say back to them …..

Never underestimate the ordinary person’s ability to bite back.  

It’s not every morning a Minister comes around for breakfast but today, Margaret Ritchie MLA, the Minister for Social Development took time out to speak at a Weber Shandwick sponsored briefing on Urban Regeneration.

Speaking to O’Conall St the Minister said Urban Regeneration is one of many important paths in the routes towards a shared culture and a shared future. 

“When regeneration is done right, it transforms not just buildings and architecture, but the way the way people feel about public space and how we use it. If I can sum up my message to you, it is that, in today’s environment where the economy is the key political driver, social and environmentally responsible urban regeneration must also be linked to improving the local economy”

We are slowly weaning ourselves of Obamanomics and Obama politics here on O’Conall Street and turning our attention to the analysis of his campaign in communications terms.

He has rewritten the political campaigning manual and built a vibrant net-roots organisation bursting with millions of advocates - ordinary people who spontaneously took a stand on his behalf.

More about all that in the weeks ahead but here is a great video about what happens to the advocate after the event. The man himself is untouchable but who says we cant laugh at each other

  
Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

90 years on and RTE are making an effort to remember. I posted my personal views on the need for Ireland to do more in this regard on Sunday.

Last night’s Time Team on Channel4 was a lovely tribute the miners who went to war to tunnel.

Back at ground level, our MLAs are deeply concerned at the potential cut backs in UTV. So concerned are they that they have summoned the TV bosses in to explain their actions. Oh to be a fly on the wall there.

MLA - This is a disgrace you are ignoring our institutions of government. You are failing the people. Good people will loose their jobs…. bla, bla, bla….

UTV boss - We are heartened you are so interested. We so appreciate all you are doing as as Assembly and an Executive to tackle the economic crisis. The people of Northern Ireland owe you a great debt. In fact we are going to go back to the bosses in London and make the case to reverse these cutbacks because there is so much going on here in politics which we should be covering……

Signing off on a sad note this cold November morning. Mama Africa (Miriam Makeba) is dead. May she rest in peace.

The Education Minister Caitriona Ruane stalled on specifics and appeared to back deregulation of education here if she fails to get her way on what replaces the 11plus. Her comments came during a rare TV interview on today’s Stormont live. I asked a respected political commentator how she would sum up Ms Ruane’s interview. “A race to the bottom” was her reply.

I’ll let you  be the judge of that, but one thing for sure, I am none the wiser for having watched ten minutes of her on TV. Just hope she can be a little more specific when she is trying to convince fellow polticians of her plans, what ever they are.

Just one thing though. My dad was a life long socialist and I am very happy to be described as a social democrat. I was always told centre left politics was about levelling up, not levelling out.

Thanks to Pete Baker over on Slugger for the Youtube video.

No one with a titter of wit would spend a cent in the Republic this Christmas when they can make at least 20% savings on many goods by coming North.

The Euro / Sterling rate is hovering at record lows since the common currency was launched in 1999. In real terms this means that with every Euro you now get 82p to spend in NI. This used to be around 63p.

There are also savings to be made because of the possibility of escaping the big mark ups many UK retailers have been adding to goods on their shelves in the South. Even before Sterling’s fall in value the Irish Examiner was reporting in June that:

TESCO and Dunnes Stores are charging shoppers almost 30% more in the Republic than in the North for the same items.

With some items 100% more expensive in the Republic, the European Commission said it is launching an investigation into the matter.

A survey conducted by the National Consumer Agency (NCA) found there was a 31% difference between a basket of 42 branded goods in Dunnes Stores north and south and a 28% difference between Tesco stores.

Own-branded goods showed less of a difference but such items were still 17% more in Tesco, 11% more in Dunnes and 16% more in Lidl stores after prices were adjusted for VAT and excise duties.

The IDA has fired a broadside against the Irish Government for promoting a scheme  which could see jobs go to Northern Ireland rather then the Republic. The Irish Times today has the story of the Cross Border Financial Services Initiative, a scheme which allows Irish banks to set up back office operations in the North in order to ensure access to well qualified staff on this island.

This is a short sighted and very regrettable stance by the IDA. It illustrates the entrenched mindsets about all island cooperation which still exist in certain quarters in the Republic.

One can only hope that this will not become a political football in the South and that the government and opposition will continue to support the development of an all island economy despite the short sightedness of some public servants.

I have been scanning the internet for a good sum up of the week from a thoughtful journlaist. I read my way across the United States and there were a few pieces of note including David Brook’s New York Times article.

Sometimes the quality is right on your doorstep and like the faithful milkman of old, Jim Fitzpartick of the BBC NI’s Politics Show, dropped a great read through his weekly e-zine yesterday afternoon. If you have not already seen it read it below:

 On the eve of his assassination in April 1968, Dr Martin Luther King Jnr spoke to striking sanitation workers in Memphis about their particular cause and the wider struggle for civil rights in America:

“Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place.

“But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

The following evening as Dr King stood on the balcony of room 306 at the Lorraine Motel, he was shot dead.

Personal scars

At the time Robert Kennedy was campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination. He still bore the personal scars of his own brother’s assassination.  It fell to him now to break this terrible news to supporters on an airport runway in Indianapolis.  His impromptu speech is credited with going some way to constraining the inevitable violence that ensued across the country.

“My favorite poem, my — my favorite poet was Aeschylus and he once wrote:

“Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.

“What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.

“So I ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King — yeah, it’s true — but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love — a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.

“We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times. We’ve had difficult times in the past, but we — and we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; and it’s not the end of disorder.

Justice for all

“But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings that abide in our land.
“And let’s dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.”

Two months later, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, Robert Kennedy – whose life had been transformed by the assassination of his President brother - was himself killed by an assassin’s bullet.
On Tuesday night, an hour after receiving a call from his opponent conceding defeat, and forty years on from the tumultuous events of 1968, Barack Obama stood in front of an estimated 200,000 people in Grant Park, Chicago:

“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

“It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.

“It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled, Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.

“We are, and always will be, the United States of America.

“It’s the answer that led those who’ve been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

“It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment, change has come to America….

“The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.

“I promise you, we as a people will get there.”

It’s no surprise then, but remains the most moving image of the day, to see the Rev Jesse Jackson, who was on the balcony with Martin Luther King when he was shot, stand in Grand Park weeping as the President Elect addressed the crowd.

In May 2007, in front of an invited audience in Parliament Buildings, Ian Paisley delivered the defining speech of his career as he prepared to enter government with his hitherto sworn political enemies.

A wonderful healing

“I believe that Northern Ireland has come to a time of peace, a time when hate will no longer rule.  How good it will be to be part of a wonderful healing in our province.  Today we have begun to plant and we await the harvest.”

Barack Obama is undoubtedly the best political orator in a generation. Of course, man does not live by words alone – even if our politicians do a good job of eating them at times. The current stalemate in our own Executive demonstrates how hope can fade and words are rendered hollow. But that shouldn’t take away from the sheer joy of hearing language put to use with such style.  And should the harvest ever come, the intervening famine will be forgotten.

The months ahead will test Barack Obama and his promises like no other President before.  But in an era of “dumbing down”, he has reminded us that political rhetoric can still be sophisticated, beautiful, powerful and compelling.  And for me, that makes all the difference.

Today 15,000 children will sit down to begin, for the last time, the most discredited selection exam in Europe. There is not a single credible political or academic voice in these islands which believes the eleven plus to be a viable solution to the selection dilemma, yet there is a real crisis about what will replace it.

The Programme for Governmentmentions “children” 45 times in 59 pages and explicitly commits the Executive to “Encourage all our children to realise their potential by improving access to formal and non formal education and provision tailored to the needs of disadvantaged children and young people.” Its does not however mention “primary education”, “selection” or the “eleven plus” once. In fact the whole document ignores the crisis that already existed at the time of its writing about what to do with our children’s future despite another lofty  commitment to: “Educate and develop our young people to the highest possible standards to deliver improved outcomes for all young people, including measurable reductions in the gap in educational outcomes between highest and lowest attainers.”

On Monday the four main churches united to call for a meaningful debate about empowering students and their parents to choose at fourteen. That they felt it necessary to intervene in this was is a total indictment of northern politics.

In their statement the clerics said primary school children were picking up on their parents confusion about what would happen when the 11-plus ends.

“It is clear that there are strong yet unreconciled convictions about the best system of education for the future. Each viewpoint seems to cancel out the other and, in the absence of consensus, we risk heading to an abyss of unregulated arrangements.”

Calling on politicians to do the job they are being paid to do, the statement continued:

“We ask our politicians, and others, to stand back from established positions and to create the space necessary so that, through dialogue between those with different outlooks, the best way forward may be found for all children.”

That we find ourselves in this place is a tragedy of unspeakable terms. In Tim McGarry’s words at the end of last night’s BBC Hearts and Minds; “Sarah Palin is the only person in the world who makes Caitriona Ruane look like a competent politician.”

My son is one of 30,000 P5 and P6 students now in educational limbo. They deserve better from their Minister and from the Executive. These millennium kids were born into great optimism and hope, the promise of new North with a shared future.

They are being failed by grown ups.