Power to the people!

IT seems that to some where you get your ‘leccy (to those not born in working class Belfast that translates as “one’s electrical supply”) from is a major piece of political theatre in the making.

While it is early days in the complex network that is the European supply grid, the story so far is that the Republic of Ireland’s ESB wants to buy a major league chunk of NIE.

After a few weeks digesting this, unionist politicians have been saying that this is a step too far and represents a strategic risk.

Which, of course, would be a risk if we were still in some sort of Cold War scenario with bombers and submarines off the Bangor coast.

But with a fair proportion of Northern Ireland’s private sector companies having interests across the globe, across the North Channel and across the border, unionists pitching a hissy fit smacks of playing to the proverbial gallery.

It is with a sense of an impending election that one views the debate over our ‘leccy. On the one hand, the nationalist politicians will grasp at anything with the slightest suggestion of an all-Ireland agenda. On the other hand unionists will happily open a factory without considering who the owner is, but will mutter darkly about RoI having a strategic say in utilities.

As for the average consumer of ‘leccy, there is only one question: “Can we have lower bills please?” After all in many parts of the world, where there is a semblance of a free market, there is competition in the energy supply sector. Here in Norn Iron until recently it was practically like a Marxist state: here’s what you’re getting and this is what you are paying. Maybe Times They Our a-Changin' with the arrival of Airtricity in the domestic 'leccy supply market...

Larkin’ about with costs

WELL done to John Larkin QC, who this week presaged a possible reform of legal costs and fees in a speech last week.

He remarked that those who are of ‘modest means’ shouldn’t have to bear the costs when faced with a legal decision that could end up with them having to cough up the cash against wealthy types...you know like senior legal type counsel.

Rather outrageously Mr Larkin dared to suggest that the legal eagles of Northern Ireland might do some ‘pro bono’ work as they have been trousering loadsamoney for years.

Mmmm, Mr Larkin that might be asking a little too much from senior barristers...after all they have to be able pay for Rupert’s school fees, that little des res in north Down and the holiday villa somewhere other than Northern Ireland.

Thou shalt not show the pictures

THE PSNI received a rap over their collective knuckles after they used pictures of kiddiwinkles who might have been involved in ‘public disorder’ in the Maiden City.

Some might have said it was just a picture of an average night in Stroke City, but the PSNI went as far as sending the local pictures to the papers and printed a leaflet of the snaps and shoving them through doors far and wide.

Now the Policing Board’s human rights people have told the PSNI that this was very naughty (no not rioting, printing the pictures!).

This, of course, touches upon a fundamental schism in our society. The knee jerk reaction of many a talk show caller is to say that the wee so and sos should be locked up. The liberal left worries that the young un’s getting their picture plastered across the streets could infringe on some sort or right, or lead them to be on the receiving end of a paramilitary beating.

For once, both sides are right. Where a crime is committed those that do the dastardly deed, must expect to face the rigour of the law, but at the same time the principle of being innocent until proven guilty must apply.

If the PSNI require a well distributed picture gallery to nobble a few young people throwing bricks and other missiles then the level of intelligence on the ground (and high resolution cameras) must be truly woeful.

And if parents are content that their offspring are involved in civil disobedience (i.e. bucking bricks at peelers) then dysfunctional families are more common than anyone expected.

Election business planning

OUR bloated system of local government needs a cost savings overhaul, according to the man who helmed the organisation that represents the collective weight of councillors.

John Matthews, the president of the Northern Ireland Local Government Association who is shortly stepping down, said that a business plan for cutting costs across the councils will be ready for Christmas.

So a total of 26 councils are to try and think very, very hard about savings some costs.

Let’s see, what about reducing 26 human resources departments to a workable number like 11. Or how about reducing the number of council headquarters to a workable number like 11...perhaps a radical approach to reducing the number of leisure departments to a workable number like 11...

Oh, hold on a moment! That’s been tried before. A few months ago the Environment Minister, Edwin Poots tried that and he and the council representatives couldn’t agree to agree on anything.

Now, it appears that there has been a belated realisation that the whole thing costs way too much.

It is an indictment of the councils and the Executive that something so blindingly obvious could not have been agreed.

In the face of forthcoming cuts the Finance Minister, Sammy Wilson, warned of the need for a ‘reality check’. It seems reality has been too far from too many minds.

Whether this ‘business plan’ represents a step forward remains to be seen. Whether it will produce another piece of paper to sit on a shelf while the haggling continues appears much more likely. After all, what councillor will step forward for election on a ‘we’re cutting jobs, and maybe even local services’ election campaign?

Elections – will there be any progress after January?

IT is sort of inevitable that when 2011 dawns on an unsuspecting country that our politicians will contrive to argue about everything.

In a sudden realisation that we pay their wages to actually do some legislative work there is a mad rush to consult us on everything, scrutinise a shed-load of Bills and generally get some real political work done.

There are more than 20 Executive Bills rummaging around Assembly committees, and a further six non-executive Bills. Of these how many will be completed by Christmas? Add in to this the potential for the ongoing process of several major pieces of work at consultation stage. The reality is that many key issues will fall by the wayside.

Ahh, but you can be reassured that after Christmas we will be back to the traditional Northern Ireland pursuit of blaming the ‘other side’ for work not getting done.

Just how many quangos does NI need?

SUCH was the question posed by the man charged with overseeing the Assembly and ruling on maladministration, Mr Tom Frawley.

Mr Frawley has been the Assembly Ombudsman and the Northern Ireland Ombudsman for several years now, and undoubtedly presided well on our over-administered system.

At the same time he has seen a proliferation of commissioners and commissions, a number set up under direct rule, some created by the Good Friday Agreement, and some set-up by the Assembly.

While Mr Frawley’s question is a pertinent one at a time when cuts are being cited by all and sundry, perhaps it requires a few more interrogatory questions.

For example, has employment in Northern Ireland seen the ending of discriminatory practice? Have human rights improved? Are children’s services been getting ever better? Are victims voices being heard? So long as the questions are still being posed there may be a role for the ‘quagocrats’.

The answers to these questions are also very complex and one suspects than any changes will not be solved by headlines in a daily paper. Indeed, the cost savings to be made by abolishing or joining the organisations mooted in the newspaper pages will be negligible in the grand scheme of cuts needed.

One might even argue that at a time when services will inevitably be slashed we need these commissions and commissioners to keep a watchful eye over the machinations of the political classes.

Sadly there is a real question mark over the services. On 20 October, the full story will be told. Until then the arguments may well continue - although one suspects that symbolism will be more important than the reasoned arguments of Mr Frawley or any other Ombudsman.

So its plus ça change etc in Northern Ireland!

Bon Jour or not to Benedict?

THE men at the head of Northern Ireland’s Executive – First Minister Peter Robinson and deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness - were notably absent from the official ceremony in Scotland to greet Pope Benedict XVI to the UK.

Instead they were at the opening of the New York stock exchanges shiny new Belfast offices.

No doubt both had very, very, political reasons for neither gentleman taking up the invitation, but isn’t there some comment that could be made over preferring ‘mammon’ to faith? No? Just a thought!

Some double talk even makes sense half the time

THERE is a curious sort of malaise creeping into Northern Ireland politics: it is doubletalk that kind of makes sense. It’s the sort of speeches that confound the listener and the reader so much that they are forced to think deeply about what is being said.

The prime example comes this week from the Minister for flooded farms...sorry Minister for Agriculture, Michelle Gildernew.

Announcing almost £5m for a scheme to take pictures of farmland from the air, Ms Gildernew pointed the finger firmly and unerringly at the bureaucrats in Brussels. These faceless types had been so audacious to fine Northern Ireland (actually it’s a disallowance, but semantics were never the strong suit of our politicians) for EU subsidy overpayments to farmers.

Put in simple terms: the vast majority of Northern Ireland’s farmers are decent hard-working sorts. There are others who are hard-working chancers.

As a result a highly detailed map of farmland is to be created from the aerial photographs – Uncle Hugo Duncan’s sat-nav system having been deemed not to be sufficiently accurate.

Ms Gildernew has said that it is all rather unfair for the EU not to pay up in such hard economic times.

But let us drill through that argument for a moment. Would it be okay for the EU to penalise us if economically we were a stable and growing economy? Is it unfair for agriculture to take a hit for what appears to be a blatant attempt to con money out of Europe?

The Minister’s stance appears to be that we would not have had to spend £4.8m mapping farms if it wasn’t for some of these European types being downright nasty to us.

One wonders if it ever occurs to her that if the Department of Agriculture had been better at tracking the chancers then the situation would never have occurred...

We’re doomed...we fight against doom...we’re still doomed

SINN Féin and the DUP have not always seen eye-to-eye. That is as basic a truism as they come in Northern Ireland politics.

At a time when the Con-Lib coalition of terror is warning that if it can be cut they have the knife ready to slice away, one would have thought that our esteemed ministers in the Northern Ireland Executive would sit down and agree what way to play this.

Not a bit of it. Behind closed doors they may sit down, share anguished glances across the room and sip thoughtfully at a snifter of orange juice or green chartreuse, but when it comes to statements for public consumption...then they kick into another gear altogether.

First Minster Peter Robinson has been telling us all that we are doomed: an economy stuck in recession almost in perpetuity, with cuts piling upon cuts to the value of £2bn on top of existing efficiency savings.

Meanwhile Sinn Féin’s Mitchel McLaughlin has said we must fight the British Government’s cuts, and the Executive shouldn’t just roll over at the behest of their Treasury paymasters.

One detects the subtle influence of forthcoming elections.

Every half sensible person knows that the cuts are coming. The unions may be right that the banks helped cause the mess, and that they should pay. However, the massive budget deficit was as much to do with the Brown administration’s profligacy, as it was it was to do with the banking crisis.

All manner of cuts to services are being contemplated, both nationally and locally.

Is Peter Robinson positioning himself as the man who will take the tough decisions? And is Sinn Féin positioning themselves as the party that will ‘resist’ the Brits and their sneaky slicing away of Irish life?

Whatever, this week has also seen the emergence of that wonderful euphemism: “efficiency savings”. An efficiency saving is usually when someone sees a better, more efficient way of doing something.

In the public sector parlance it usually means you are getting less money this year; so make do!

Which, in most languages, translates to a ‘cut’!

First in the firing line is the Department of Culture Arts and Leisure. After a warning last week from a senior official, this week the DCAL committee heard that sports as we know it, and the arts will be no longer able to deliver all the services that previously delivered.

Damn!

We were so looking forward to that interpretive modern dance routine that encapsulates the ‘north’s’ passion for Gaelic sport with a musical parody of the English football team’s World Cup flop, with a penalty taking master class from David Healy!

However much we want to make jokes at the expense of the language of Ulster-Scots or artists’ tendency to spend too much time navel gazing, or sports innate ability to shoot itself in the foot, the point is a serious one.

DCAL’s cuts are the thin end of the wedge. After this, the Executive will need to speak with a common tongue to explain just what the hell is going to happen come October 20th.

Before the May elections that is, unfortunately not likely to happen.

Who would be a UUP MLA?

WHO would be a UUP MLA these days? No, it’s not a rhetorical question: who would be a UUP MLA?

You face potential de-selection, and then, if selected and fortunate to be elected you could have a party leader you neither agree with nor do you like.

Such is the background to the current turmoil in the UUP camp.

So much for modernisation! Perhaps it is time for a rethink all round, but there will have to be some serious sorting out over the winter lest the UUP be cast adrift by its already indifferent electorate.