On the brighter side

A SUBSTANTIAL amount of guns have left the streets of Northern Ireland. The UDA decommissioning of weapons has happened and witnessed verified.

The efforts of all concerned are to be welcomed.

While the UDA leadership will be ruing the timing of their announcement in the middle of the Robinsongate media scrum, it does raise the question of the Protestant working class vote.

The PUP’s Dawn Purvis has shown that the mature politics of David Ervine were not just a one-off. The DUP reliance on urban votes to buttress the support from its rural strongholds is no longer a certainty.

Will the anti-power sharing TUV be able to capitalise? Can the party's leader Jim Allister project his presence beyond north Antrim? And, if so, will he for once break a smile!

Smile, things can only get worse

EDUCATION, education, education was what Mr Blair promised voters in 1997. Such promises ring hollow here in Northern Ireland where the post-primary crisis has faded away from the headlines, if not from the hearts and minds of pupils and parents.

The latest phase of the education joke, or system as those involved endearingly call it, is the Education Skills Authority.

Due to open for business at the dawn of 2010, the ESA exists in a state of limbo as the necessary legislation is not place. Agreement within the Executive to let the Education Bill proceed on its merry way through the Assembly has not been forthcoming. Sound familiar?

A new run of the TV series, The Blame Game, will so be soon be aired, featuring Sinn Féin and the DUP finding new and interesting ways to blame each other. Policing and justice, education, the colour of the sky, whether Einstein’s equations will be proven by the Large Hadron Collider, are all in the melting pot.

Meanwhile in other news…

THE leadership contest in the SDLP has disappeared off whatever low-level political radar it was on for all but party members and political anoraks.

The early surge for Margaret Ritchie seemed to have her well placed, but Alasdair McDonnell has fought back. Despite a lukewarm reception for his manifesto in some quarters, the announcement that Alban Maginness has thrown his support behind Alasdair will make the SDLP party conference in February at least interesting!

Unfortunately the reality will be that whoever emerges victorious will have to deal with the question: “So what do you think about this week’s controversy?”

Controversy dogging politics

THEY’RE not going away you know! No, not the Provos – rather controversies. Liam Adams is already an albatross like presence for brother Sinn Féin supremo Gerry.

Whether Liam ever faces extradition or prosecution is still very much up in the air.

That his alleged offences occurred at a time when child protection regulations were in the process of being strengthened is a moot point. In the wake of the McElhill and O’Neill tragedies, the already increasingly robust vetting and checking system is set to get even stronger.

The Assembly’s Health Committee (yes there has been some real work going on up there!) has agreed that an investigation into the systems and agencies around the McElhill case should take place.

That means the review of vetting by the NI Children’s Commissioner, the Toner review of the McElhill case, increased scrutiny of the Roman Catholic Church, and several pieces of legislation will be further complemented and Northern Ireland will have some of the most comprehensive child protection legislation and policies in Europe.

Which is more than can be said of Sinn Féin record keeping on where and when Liam Adams was actually involved in the party?

Parade issue unresolved…

THE future of the Parades Commission has been secured for another year with the Secretary of State announcing he is to re-appoint the Commissioners.

With parading proving to be one of the DUP sticking points over the devolution of policing and justice, there’s unlikely to be any immediate joy on that front.

And with the post-primary education debacle still not set for resolution and establishment of the new Education and Skills Authority stalled, there is a collective sense of ennui over some of the moribund political issues of the day.

In other words, 2009 is ending with little big picture progress, lots of small achievements and 2010 begins with a backlog of issues for MLAs.

And with a general election looming, there is a fear that posturing will become the default position rather than seeking progress on the outstanding issues.

But until then have a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous, Happy New Year!

Fair Faa ya Ulster-Scots

FAIR well Ulster-Scots with almost £2m spent promoting the dialect…sorry language of Ulster-Scots.

Value for money?

With the translations into Irish over at the Department of Education (including staff costs of translators) under scrutiny too, one wonders who will blink first in the game of ‘my culture needs money too’.

It is of course a worthy goal to preserve culture, traditions and the tongues ancestors used, but in cash strapped times (see Sammy Wilson for an explanation…) maybe, just maybe we don’t need to spend quite as much.

After all, if both are burgeoning languages then perhaps a year or two without dipping into the public purse wouldn’t do that much damage.

And if it does, then we’ll know they really do need support.

DUP cash payback secret

THE DUP has decided not to say how much their MPs had to pay back in Parliamentary expenses.

The SDLP, Sinn Féin and the Ulster Unionist MPs on the other hand have all divulged how much they’ve coughed up in re-payment of expenses.

Seven of the nine DUP Parliamentarians were asked to re-pay money in the wake of the Legge Review, but just how much each have re-paid has not been revealed.

One wonders why not? Conspiracy theorists feel free to fill any blanks…or call the Nolan Show.

No consensus on Troubles?

In a shock, nay a stunning moment, the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee said that there was no common ground here as to how to move on from the Troubles.

To quote Homer Simpson: “D’Oh!”

Cash crises

IF the cost of preventing climate change seems high, the cost to NI plc of not devolving policing and justice could soon prove very high indeed in these cash-strapped times.

Gordon Brown has warned that if we don’t get it sorted soon the ‘generous financial settlement’ may be off the table.

Trying to save the world is comparable to the trials and tribulations of our so-called political elite.

Gordon must be pondering whether that the £1 billion bonanza promised for policing and justice could be used to save a South Seas island from devastating floods rather than thrown down the political black hole that passes for democracy here in ‘Norn Iron’.

A wee tiff and a matter of perspective

SO the year draws to a close and at this time the thorny matter of devolution of policing and justice still manages to cause a prickly atmosphere between the First and deputy First Ministers.

Viewers were treated to a double act of awkwardness when Robbo and Marty faced the cameras after the North South Ministerial Council meeting in Limavady this week.

And then…ahhhhh it’s all too boring to rehash the episode again; you all know the arguments and the name calling and the so-called issues.

But it seems that we all need a sense of perspective now and again.

The issue has become so perplexing that Gordon Brown and Brian Cowen took time out of the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen to discuss the matter.

Yep, the future of planet Earth’s eco-system and the plight of nations across the globe up for discussion; the challenges of agreeing sustainable development and the two premiers had to speak on the devolution of policing and justice for a region with a population of just short of 1.8m.

When the ice caps melt, when Strangford Lough rises to consume Newtownards, when the entire county of Fermanagh becomes a water theme park and Newry canal becomes a route for cruise liners, our grandchildren will not be asking what our generation did to combat global warming. No they’ll be asking whether policing and justice will ever be devolved.