Taxing times
IT'S all Alex Salmond's fault - him and
those crazy Cypriot bankers! If it wasn't for them Norn Iron would have control
over its own Corporation Tax rates with
the prospect of multi-national businesses throwing their cash into 'our wee country'.
Instead, Peter Robinson and Martin
McGuinness trooped disconsolately away from Downing Street, heads bowed, saying
they were disappointed that Davey Boy Cameron had thrown in the towel and said,
"away ye go lads!".
There is a
rational reason for not giving the folks on the Hill the power to strike our own
corporation tax rate; the
small matter of Scotland voting on whether to reduce the United Kingdom to three component parts (what the UK will then be called is
another matter altogether!).
In the run up to next September’s vote,
the PM won’t want Norn Iron demands for devolving corporation tax to muddy the
waters. Giving the Scots the same powers as us would prove a lot more costly to
the bean counters in Whitehall.
Winter's deathly
grip
ONE would be a hard-hearted not to have
total sympathy for those stranded by the recent snow storms leaving so many
individuals cut off and hundreds of sheep and livestock dead or dying.
Northern Ireland's fast response MLAs have
covered themselves in nothing short of ignominy. Thursday night of last week
the snow started and by Friday evening it was clear that this was more than the
usual spring flurries so often encountered here.
As it was then the weekend and ministers and MLAs alike were ready for their Easter
recess, our
politicians were not at hand, other
than to build snowmen and chuckle at all the cute kids sledding down the hill
at Stormont.
Where was the emergency Executive meeting?
Where was the urgent response to this agri-crisis? Equivocation began on
Tuesday, to be quickly replaced by waffle, photo-opportunities and general hand
washing. Decisions were in short supply, as talk of compensation was batted
back and forth across the air waves.
By Tuesday night/Wednesday morning it was
agreed that the RAF Chinooks were needed and by Thursday Irish Air Corp helicopters them.
When did the emergency meeting of the
Committee for Agriculture take place? Thursday. Mind you, this was a meeting of
MLAs that could not compel action, but could only scrutinise such action and
generate a lot of hot air.
To summarise - a week after the snow began
MLAs at last sat down to talk.
Surely in this 21st Century communications
era those charged with ministerial responsibility could have connected through
those amazing devices called telephones and had some sort of Executive meeting,
even if their laneways had more than a dusting of snow flakes.
Surely by Saturday, when the plight of
farmers and stranded communities became clear someone would have displayed
leadership and acted with some sense of urgency.
There was none
forthcoming, with one prominent member of our
Assembly blaming "the weather".
We live in a temperate part of the world,
where hurricanes and virtually unknown, ice-storms never take place and
temperatures are generally like Goldilocks porridge - not too warm and not too
cold. We experience no volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are so mild none but
the most sensitive detectors even note they happen at all.
But as all forecasters outside the loony
fringe of climate-change deniers acknowledge, the weather cycles are more and more likely to be
subject to change and alteration, requiring better response from all agencies
to floods etc.
And it is no use blaming the Met Office.
Weather is a dynamic, chaotic system that requires an understanding of
probability for anything beyond a few days reliable predictions. But should our elected representative try to blame the Met Office, they could do well to remember that last week's snow
was well forecast.
Was it beyond the bounds of likelihood for
one member of the Executive or an
official to pick up the phone and ask whether they
should make some contingency for the weather? Obviously it was.
Happy Easter/Ishtar
AS we mark Easter, or for those who
worship ancient Babylonian Gods, Ishtar, we would like to wish all our readers
and clients the greetings of the season and with the clock's about to change
hope that spring will see re-birth for the political process.
While we may despair at the ongoing
violence of minute terror gangs on both sides of the divide, or the horrors of
the ongoing strife in Syria, we would ask you to remember the work of
evolutionary psychologist Stephen Pinker, who notes that there is no safer time
in recorded history to be alive.
Enjoy your eggs and see you next
week!