Monday 1 February 2010

Today is the Day!

Today is the Day. A week ago the blog was a bit depressing and a great lack of hope. Today that is turned around as many in politics and the media are preparing for an announcement that will allow policing and justice to be devolved to the NI Assembly.

Whilst the details of any deal will have to be examined and must include the settlement of issues from all political persuasions. It should be noted that only 62.3% of people in Northern Ireland turned out to vote at the last Assembly elections in 2007. This leaves 37.7% of people who are not represented by any parties.

If politics is seen to work today then perhaps some of those who did not vote in 2007 might become interested in politics as a medium for solving peoples prblems. Failure today will have the opposite affect.

Failure is also not an option for our economy. US Economic Envoy Declan Kelly spoke last week of the once in a lifetime economic opportunity for Northern Ireland that could be missed if parties dont agree. Since then 310 jobs have been lost.

Politicians are arguing over community confidence yes the confidence is important but not doing the deal now will mean that ordinary people will loose faith in our politicians ability to serve and deliver for people. If that happens so what if we have direct rule - if it works better than the present lot then...why not?!

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