Community Consultation. It only takes three minutes

We launched our South Belfast Community Consultation this week. Over the next month we will knock on about 3000 doors across the constituency to ask people their views on local and regional issues.

There is also an online survey open to anyone whether you live in South Belfast or not. It only takes three minutes to complete and I would really appreciate your views. 

Please do pass on to friends or neighbours who you think might be interested.

http://tinyurl.com/conallmcd

To be tough on riots we need to get tough on the causes of rioting

There is a direct link between those who are the cannon fodder for dissident republicans out to drag this city past and deprivation.
The vast majority of teenagers rioting in recent days are the product of failed homes. Many will not have known positive role models and have grown up around the myth that hard men and true republicans are those who fight the cops and riot on the streets. They are aping what the previous generation of republicans did and think this is how to prove yourself a big man.

It is time to acknowledge that SF and the DUP’s approach to parading and community relations will do nothing to break this cycle.

A separate but equal vision of a new Northern Ireland won’t address the underlying prejudice evident on our streets. Nor will seeking to repoliticise the parading issue prevent those who seek to destroy our future from seeking conflict from individual parades. Instead of tackling inequality, poverty and prejudice we seem more intent on perpetuating it.

It is time to accept that a serious a deep community relations and reconciliation policy is needed. Not the flawed CSI but a policy which will challenge us all from the highest office to the community groups to change the way we relate to each other.

Children should also be put at the heart of everything we do. As a region we treat children very poorly. We don’t invest in early years or primary schools and only last month Caoitriona Ruane withdrew important funding for community relations work with young people. Then we wonder why children from vulnerable households come out to riot.

Finally it is time to acknowledge that playing politics with the parading issue is dangerous and irresponsible. The DUP and SF should withdraw their flawed public assemblies and parades bill and get around the table with all the parties to design a policy which seeks to keep politics out of parades.

There is a report out today from the Ulster Bank saying the Northern economy is going nowhere yet the First Minister berated me in the Assembly last month when I suggested that was so.

Its time for the big two parties to stop ignoring the elephant in the room in their own parties and start tackling the real inequalities and the need for true reconciliation across our region.

We will be meeting the Chief Constable later. There is much to discuss but the ultimate solution to all this does not lie with him.

Community relations workers, parents and young people protest against sectarian cuts

I’m just heading down to address several hundred community relations activists, young people, teachers and parents who have come to Stormont today to protest against a savage and unwarranted cut.

The Education Department has announced a 70% cut in funding for schools cross-community projects, on top of cuts in inter-community youth work. These are just about the most short-sighted cuts we have heard of to date anywhere.

Cross-community work pays multiple dividends in hard cash saved as we gradually reduce the impact of division and sectarian violence. Any money actually saved in cuts will end up being paid out many times over on the policing and justice budget. But education and the youth service are not just doing damage limitation at the interface. They are uniquely placed to provide hands-on leadership in the work of achieving a shared society.

The Community Relations Council has already highlighted the danger and eventual cost of abandoning this work, but we fear an even bigger danger. The DUP and Sinn Fein have spent three years dodging their responsibility under the Good Friday Agreement to seek a shared future. Facing this election they finally, grudgingly produced a Cohesion, Sharing and Integration Strategy which provides no practical leadership at all. All it really did was to push responsibility back on government departments for producing ideas for a shared future.

We now know what Caitriona Ruane’s contribution will be – 70% cuts, from £3.5 million to £1.5 million. These two parties clearly have no intention of taking their responsibility seriously. The SDLP will be backing this motion.

What is success? Here’s a Wooden answer

I had the great pleasure of spending some time with teachers this past week.

 Whether it was Gerri and Iain, leading the team at the Loughshore Education Centre in North Belfast, or Andy McMorran who has turned around Ashfield Boys School in East Belfast they challenge us think about what success really is. 

Then I came across this TED talk by ‘Coach’ John Wooden.  Well worth a watch.

We need a revolution in education. Innovate fundamentally says Ken Robinson

Abraham Lincoln said;

The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.

And on these words Ken Robinson builds a compelling talk about the need for fundamental change in education.

If you are at all interested in education watch it.

If you think libraries are expensive, try ignorance

A day after his head on attack on the Ulster Museum the Minister for Arts, Culture and Leisure, Nelson McCausland is to allow the closure of half of Belfast’s libraries.

This is a further assault on learning and enlightenment. It will deprive some of our most deprived communities in this city from the opportunity to access knowledge.

It says everything that is rotten about the DUP – Sinn Fein approach to government. To describe education policy, this step, the move to deny the need for a proper shared future strategy as a race to the bottom is no exaggeration.

Ignorance fuels prejudice but knowledge sets us free.

Pity the big two don’t see it that way.

Join campaign to oppose Russell Group proposals to increase student loan rates

The proposal by the Russell Group of leading universities that graduates be asked to start repaying their student loans earlier and at a higher interest rate is a short sighted will act as a disincentive for many young graduates to start work.

Student loans are meant to allow graduates to get the foot on the career ladder and be earning a reasonable sum £15,000 before they start paying back. Even then the point is to allow the young professional to repay at a modest interest rate rather thus, in theory, allowing them to make career and life plans without the burden of a large debt hanging over them.

As it is the interest rate charged by the Student Loan Company is volatile and can fluctuate by two or three hundred percent making some graduates wonder whether it is wise to accept a reasonably low paid job as doing. These proposals will make that situation much worse.

I have set up a Facebook Group to oppose this proposal. I will bring a petition to the Northern Ireland Assembly with all the names in the group so please join and pass the word on.

Vote for the dinosaurs and make history this May

Local politicians are not the only ones facing a big vote in May. The Ulster Museum needs your support to become the first local institution to lift the prestigious Art Fund Prize.

This is the most prestigious award in these islands. It has never been won by a NI museum/gallery and this, the experts believe is the best chance we’ll have for many years to win it.

The aim at the moment is to get on the shortlist of four which will be announced in mid May. The online poll closes on 7 May.

Whether you are green, orange, red or blue surely you can manage a quick click for Takabute, the big dinosaur and the Spanish Gold in the Botanic Gardens.

Vote here.

Do pass the word around.

We need actors not just ‘teeth and tits” says Patsy Rodenburg on TED.

The world needs actors says Patsy Rodenburg.

If you value theatre or think actors are more then just “teeth and tits” then watch this and pass it around.

Prep schools and ministerial solo runs. SF put party before powersharing yet again.

The Minister for Education will probably loose a vote in the Assembly today over her decision to unilaterally withdraw funding for prep schools.

Not because of lack of agreement about whether the state should not reviews its relationship with this fee paying sector but because of how she has taken a unilateral decision without any consultation or attempt to seek consensus.

It all smacks of electioneering from SF. 

It’s another case of Ms Ruane using children as pawns to pursue her own partisan interest. The pledge of office requires Ministers to put the regional interest above party one. Ms Ruane gets an A for always ignoring that bit.

I have put my name to an amendment to the motion before the Assembly calling for dialogue between the department and the prep schools before any decision is taken. We believe our SDLP amendment will be acceptable to the DUP.

You can follow the debate here live from around 5.00pm.