From the Belfast Telegraph:
On the face of it, the latest financial package from the Westminster government to Northern Ireland is encouraging.
Many cupboards have been raided and while pinning down exactly how much this is all worth is difficult, the package overall does give Northern Ireland new opportunities.
The problem with an Editors Viewpoint as opposed to actual investigative journalism is there’s no pressure to justify the words, no need to find facts.
The Economic Pact so much lauded by our First and Deputy First Ministers was more of an ultimatum. They’ve been given more powers to get us further in debt but is there any real money in this? Have any cupboards been raided or has it been, as I suspect, an exercise in telling our government that if it doesn’t get it’s act together on a shared future, with real deadlines, then the Block Grant is going.
The government of Northern Ireland has coasted comfortably on billions of pounds that it didn’t earn. Our infrastructure is gorged with cash from lucrative government contracts with (unsurprisingly) mediocre delivery. And the public oversight on projects, so commonly lauded as a success before they have begun, has been so shockingly lax that it beggars belief (for example, few dare to question BT on their BT Infinity coverage numbers and those who tend to be punished.)
15 years after the Good Friday Agreement we have been given a pathway to a shared future with the removal of the Peace Walls in 10 years. Of course this could have happened before this but it was never in the interest of the elected representatives. Now, finally, gripped by the final threat of austerity and still gorged with free money from the UK government, we see our ministers actually try and put some band-aids on the wounds they have inflicted upon us.
We’re held to ransom now by people who held us to ransom during the dark days. At what point will we get past this? At what point will Northern Ireland be normalised?
As I type, President Obama has just touched down in Airforce One and is heading into the centre of Belfast. He comes from a country gripped by separation and hatred. He’s arrived in a country gripped by separation and hatred. We won’t get any answers from President Obama and he’ll tell us what great progress we have made. I won’t know what he means. I wasn’t killing anyone before the Good Friday Agreement and I still haven’t killed anyone. What progress have you made?