Friday 13 November 2009

“It’s the end of the world as we know it…and I feel fine”

IT’S the end of days, it’s the start of days. Are we entering into another period of uncertainty on the future of the Assembly? Are we looking forward to the white heat of political debate before settling down to mature politics? Are we just getting totally fed up with politics?

Instalment 455 of the ongoing saga of the devolution of policing and justice was played out on the airwaves this week and in the Assembly chamber at Parliament Buildings.

One has to wonder whether the main actors really are attempting to prove they are caricatures of themselves.

Sinn Féin say get on with it or there will be ‘trouble’. DUP find more ‘conditions’ to restore “community confidence” and get tangled up on whether retention of the full-time reserve was part of building said confidence.

Rather than inviting the politicians on to their shows again, broadcasters should just replay the interviews from the week before. No-one would know the difference.

But, surely it’s time for the ‘major players’ to, in Belfast parlance, wind their necks in and get on with it.

Rather than running to Uncle Gordy once a week and playing ‘I can be more indignant than you’ on The Nolan Show, here’s an idea: lock four MLAs from each ‘side’ in a room, with no access to expenses forms, and release them when they come up with a way forward.

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