Slash and burn baby!

THE Minister for Finance and Personnel, Sammy Wilson MP MLA, has warned that MLAs need to get real about the need for cuts.

He has criticised members for calling for extra expenditure at a time when the message of doom and gloom is being pedalled.

One senses that there was a certain sense of frustration from the former chief ‘A’ level economics examiner.

And for once, we tend to agree: like it or not there is a period of austerity ahead. That the private sector must bear a large portion of the blame is now irrelevant. That we, as taxpayers, bailed out banks and other businesses is now irrelevant.

So let’s all gather together and pick some front line services – say health and close them down. And if closing them down is too politically unpalatable then reduce spending so that they become practically unworkable.

Or we could pick school re-developments. After all the children get the education, who says they need to have classrooms that are barely habitable.

Road works – a bloody luxury! Just weave round the potholes.

And every community and voluntary group will no longer get the funding they need to plug the service gap that Government does not fill.

Alternatively MLAs and Executive Ministers could sit down and look at the services that are not really needed to keep NI plc going for the next couple of years. You know like the Sports Stadium. Oh, they didn’t agree on that one after spending a fortune on it.

Instead we listen in shock as a summer scheme for children with special educational needs is to have services greatly reduced.

Cheers for that MLAs! Now stop passing the buck around the bureaucracy and protect the front line and trim the fat.