Education débacle rolls on

MINISTER for Education, Caitriona Ruane is rocking and rolling her way through several months’ worth of effort to really, really, really annoy a lot of people.

The 11+/post-primary transfer/Transfer 2010/unregulated transfer debate was enough to polarise opinion.

Then came the proposed ending of funding for preparatory schools…

And now she has told teachers not to privately tutor pupils for the unregulated tests.

Does she not realise that this is a significant factor in maintaining Northern Ireland’s economic resilience in these financially dodgy times? All those teachers coining in the cash (no cheques or credit card payments please) are investing in savings schemes, hitting the retail parks and generally having a whale of a time with their fees from private tuition.

One could even view it as the ultimate re-distribution of wealth from the monied classes to the less well off. The upper middle classes pay middle class teachers money. The teachers spend that money in retail environments, meaning that the lowest paid jobs are maintained in shops and supermarkets.

As a socialist, Minister Ruane should be supporting this covert class warfare agenda that bleeds the rich and pours the transfusion to the working classes.

Or will the economy be boosted when HMRC investigates every teacher receiving undeclared earnings from being a tutor?

Doing the double

THERE are regular stories carried in the media about benefit cheats – that is scoundrels who work while claiming benefits for not being able to work.

Government ministers throughout the land have tut-tutted about this, and regularly the Executive’s Information Service issue press releases outing those convicted of ‘doing the double’.

And now, double jobbing amongst the political classes looks set to end.

PUP leader Dawn Purvis’s Private Member’s Bill has progressed to its next stage at the Assembly and the House of Commons has laid down a marker about getting two pay packets.

But, for a moment, it is worthwhile considering what exactly is double jobbing?

It means that an elected representative holds more than one elected post. Leaving aside councils that means that several of our elected representatives are both a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) and a Member of Parliament (MP).

MLAs attend (or should attend) plenary sessions of the Assembly and, if they are a member of an Assembly committee, attend committee meetings. MPs attend (or should attend) sittings of the House of Commons and, if they are a member of a Parliamentary committee, attend committee meetings.

They should also be available to hold constituency surgeries and attend to constituency business as necessary. In addition, they also need to attend to the commitments associated with being a member of a political party.

That amounts to a lot of work! It is a tribute to those that are ‘double jobbing’ that they are able to do so much work, retain so much information and concentrate during multiple debates, meetings, and clock up a carbon footprint equivalent to a developing country with flights back and forth to London.

Anyone audacious enough to suggest that our politicians couldn’t possibly do all this, under-estimates the intellectual capacity of such titans, deserves to be ridiculed. After all, our elected representatives can maintain a stance consistently inconsistent to what they said last month, table questions in two different legislatures, sign Early Day Motions, back debates and generally be there when needed.

Or are they… not intellectual titans! That much is… errrr… obvious. It’s just whether they can really jet back and forth, maintain focus and concentration and be there when a constituent needs help.

Either the flight to London and back is longer than we remember and they get a lot of reading done between airports, or they are not at all the meetings they should be at.

And, until the media started kicking up a fuss, no-one would have raised such scurrilous questions over whether the double jobbing politicians could cope with such strenuous lifestyles.

Shown the door

ONE has to admire the courage, tenacity and downright heroic acts of the Ulster Unionist Party.

Faced with a vote on policing and justice, the Ulster Unionist Party decided to argue on making the Executive work well, and education.

No matter the pleas of their Tory bedfellows; faced with pressure from the US administration; faced with criticism from the Secretary of State; faced with every other party and almost every other MLA voting in favour of devolution of policing and justice, the UUP resolutely stood their ground.

Except when deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness allegedly told them to ‘get out’ of his office…

Their courage must have faltered otherwise there should have been a sit-down protest, an unauthorised parade round Martin’s office and a poster campaign reminding the deputy First Minister of their Britishness.

Finally, to rub salt into their wounds the UUP were told by the last local politician that held the powers of policing and justice that they were wrong. He was, of course, the Ulster Unionist peer Lord Kilclooney.

Gospel according to elections: Chapter 72: verse 8

ELECTIONS are by their nature media circuses.

This time around the Westminster poll is set to have media stars of various shades setting forth to gain a coveted seat in the House of Commons.

Latest media star to enter the fray is Fearghal McKinney, latterly political correspondent of UTV and frontman for Fermanagh TV. Fearghal is hoping to snatch the Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency.

He joins former UTV colleague Mike Nesbitt, who is entering the fray in Strangford.

Word has recently emerged that the actors union Equity may be set to challenge these nominations. Their argument is that as fully paid up actors, MPs should not be forced to work with rank amateur actors who can’t act and only work off auto-cues. They say that generations of parliamentarians have been acting as rational human beings for centuries, the last thing they need is someone who professionally questioned their rationality.

Then we have a Freddie Mercury tribute singer (‘Flash’ Harry Hamilton) and his rival for the Upper Bann seat, gospel singer David Simpson. Rather than voting, maybe there should be a sing-off between the two with Mike and Fearghal as judges, and a text vote from the public as the decider.

Simon Cowell has expressed an interest in this option. As this is a first past the post poll, it really will matter where you put your ‘X’. Bring on Northern Ireland’s first X-Factor election.

Prepping for the end

Preparatory schools will now only
be allowed to exist in Narnia

EDUCATION Minister Caitriona Ruane’s decision to end any funding of preparatory schools has received much coverage.


With the Equality Impact Assessment consultation about to end, DENI officials will be poring over letters, representations and maybe even some reasoned arguments from both sides.


Whether right or wrong, Caitriona seems now to be aiming to be the first minister in history to either end an unequal system, or drive the most wealthy of parents to create a real two-tier system of education.


Only the really, really wealthy will send their offspring to prep schools, cutting off the middle classes from their aspirations for their little darlings. The primary schools will then be overwhelmed with Tarquins and Trixibelles, leading to more and more barristers on the average PTA committee, leading to more and more headaches for the Minister when each of the PTA committees and boards of governors try and find a way to get more cash, perhaps even with a Judicial Review or six thrown in.


Congratulations to Minister Ruane for making sure that the administration of education is never boring!

Voting for Confidence

The four Tenors sing

'El Agreemento del HIllsborough'

THERE is an air of confidence pervading over the forthcoming vote on policing and justice. Both First and deputy First Ministers seem content that they can achieve sufficient cross-community and cross-party support to win the day.


The DUP has done the maths about whether they really need the UUP as a signifier of community confidence. And with the Tory hierarchy leaning towards the devolution of policing and justice, it seems that pressure may be brought to bear for an abstention at least.


Factor in that the SDLP are on the proverbial horns of a dilemma. They want devolution of policing and justice in principle, but can’t be seen as too close to Sinn Féin. There may again be an abstention – or a huff over not getting the job!


In other words, if it comes to a vote the DUP and Sinn Féin are pretty confident!


Party grandees may not, however, be quite as confident about the Westminster election if either side is seen as not being able to deliver!

Smooth move

CULTURE Minister Nelson McCausland has long been a sort of Aunt Sally for Sinn Féin to throw their cultural dispersions at.


After all, the sabbatarian champion of all things Ulster-Scots has been a vocal opponent of all things Gaelic.


With a deft flick of the funding wrist Nelson wrong-footed his nay-sayers by approving half a million pounds for An Cultúrlann.


No matter that his pen may have hesitated before signing on the dotted line, the approval was given for the funding package.


But in Norn Iron nothing is simple.


So far, together with Nelson, the queue to claim credit for the funding includes Martin McGuinness and Margaret Ritchie. Is that the whiff of an election in the air?

Just weeks to wait

THE Saville Inquiry’s much awaited conclusion will soon be upon us. Secretary of State, Shaun Woodward said this week that when he receives the inquiry report on 22 March, he’ll publish it within two weeks.

So, after beginning in 1998 – yes last century – the long and arduous journey will be over.

Will relatives of those dead and injured on Bloody Sunday receive closure? Who knows?

Will there finally be a definitive account of that tragic day? Who knows?

What can be said with certainty is that solicitors and barristers will be shedding a silent tear for the end of the cash cow that so many suckled upon.

And, given the timescales, the inquiry report may yet end up on the shelf. If Shaun Woodward takes two weeks to look at the report, and one factors in the Easter Break, it will be close to the time that Prime Minister Gordon Brown asks the Queen to dissolve Parliament.

That means the inquiry report will languish until new MPs take their seats. And at best, in this scenario it could be a new Government that will be faced with handling the inquiry report launch.

Should it be a hung Parliament, the wait could be even longer – one can only hope that it will see the light of day eventually!

Opening mouth to change feet

NEW Justice Minister – awaiting confirmation of course – David Ford seems to have all the qualifications necessary to sit on the Northern Ireland Executive; that is the ability to annoy people.


His ‘pointless’ reference to the Saville Inquiry managed to irritate almost all of the nationalist community.


But still it must rank as some sort of record, annoying so many people in so short a time with one word!

Big man’s penultimate bow

The Big Man and Bertie

EVERYONE has to end their time in the sun, whether voluntarily or reluctantly. The decision by the Rev Dr Ian Paisley – a.k.a. The Big Man – not to stand for Westminster attracted global headlines. Seriously – news outlets from Bangor to Bangkok decided it was worthy of attention.


Of course there still remains the matter of whether The Big Man will quit his North Antrim Assembly seat in 2011, but like, loathe, love or abhor him, politics will be much duller for his absence.


In a world dominated by the grey, Ian Paisley was a splash of rhetorical colour. Some of what he said was offensive to some, a salve to others; some of what he said made sense, some seemed akin to the ravings of the unhinged.


And, it was this mixture of reactions that many struggled to encapsulate this week.


As attention turned to the so-called ‘battle royale’ between TUV leader Jim Allister and, at this stage unconfirmed candidate, Ian Jnr, commentators and the public struggled for the best way to describe the legacy of The Big Man.


Did his sermons and evangelistic unionism keep the Troubles going on longer than they should? Would Sunningdale have worked? Were the Anglo-Irish Agreement protests the catalyst in Dublin and London that would pave the way to the eventual Good Friday Agreement? And what were the jokes he shared with Marty?


But all seem to be agreed that the answer to whether he will be forgotten is “NEVER! NEVER! NEVER!”