The Assembly will return to policing and justice matters next week when Members discuss the Assembly and Executive Review Committee's latest report. The final piece of the devolution jigsaw is ready to be put in place, but as politicians pontificate, so the public disillusionment about whether those on the hill will deliver grows.
The DUP won't move before the European elections in June, fearful of playing into the hands of Jim Allister. Mark Devenport alludes to unnamed sources who are saying the date could now be November, but who is to say it won't be 2010 or longer before the final compromise can be achieved.
Unionist politicians point to an absence of public confidence. Yet doesn't delivery breed confidence, not just in policing and justice matters, but in all policy areas? Could it be the public is lacking confidence, not in whether 'conditions are right', but in the ability of our politicians to lead us towards an improved quality of life?
The biggest danger to devolution no longer lies from within, from the threat that a party could bring about suspension with an effective "if it doesn't work our way it doesnt work at all" type veto. Now the greater danger to devolution is from the outside, indeed it is from us - a declining public confidence in our politicians, regardless of their creed or colour.
A few months ago we were told how the Executive not meeting meant political paralysis, yet now it is back, what really has changed? Still we wait, still we wonder... on academic selection; on the Maze; on the Irish language etc etc etc
In a recent conversation with a backbench DUP MLA I was told his party knew they would be judged on "what they could deliver." The MLA felt the Ulster Unionists failed, because they couldn't deliver tangible benefits in partnership government. This should not just be a concern for the DUP; but for all at the Executive table.
If devolved government doesn't deliver enough, all of our politicians are effected. For when the connection with the public they are elected to serve is lost, then the true meaning behind why we have democracy and a devolved Assembly is lost.
Showing posts with label democracy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label democracy. Show all posts
Sunday, 18 January 2009
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
Open Democracy?
I have heard a lot about how the Northern Irish Assembly wants to be more transparent and open to the public. It is after all a fundamental principle of a well-functioning democracy that those who we elect can be held to account. I regularly make trips up to Stormont as a member of the public and arrived today to listen in to one of the Stormont Committees.
The occasionally over officious security guard at the front gate, as per usual asked me where I was going and for what reason, despite turning a blind eye to the jogger and the dog-walker merrily coming in alongside me - still i suppose they have a job to do. It is not the security guards that are my bug bear.
Before arriving I had of course to carefully navigate my way through the at times incomprehensible Northern Ireland Assembly website to find an item of interest in a Stormont Committee. Then I made the journey from the centre of Belfast and after successfuly negotiating the guard at the gate, and a few of his colleagues later on, I am left sitting in the hugely impressive Great Hall of Parliament Buildings waiting for the call to go up and view the Committee's public session. I notice a few others are also waiting just as patiently, some of whom I fear may have come from farther afield than the centre of town.
A security guard says the Committee is ready, I can go up to the room. But "hold on", he says, as the others also rise from their benches, "there are only three spaces available". A public session of a Stormont Committee and only three members of the public can attend?? He mutters something about it being small room! I stare back at him blankly
When I, as one of the lucky early arrivals, get into the room I find myself surrounded by civil servants and officials taking up the vital seats in the public gallery. Civil servants and officials who have only had to come down a couple of flights of stairs from their Stormont offices, whilst Jo Public, who could have made the trip from Enniskillen for all they know, misses out. Half of them don't even appear to be taking much notice of what is going on, and they certainly aren't taking feverish notes, as one of my fellow 'visitor' attendees is.
Three more seats are lying empty, with a yellow sheet left on them with the words 'reserved for press' clearly stated! Not one member of the press enters for the whole session.
And to top it all, the item of business that interested me, that was identified on the Northern Ireland Assembly's website as one of only three items on the agenda, turned out to be just a 'take note' item! The Clerk could have saved me a trip, by stating this very fact on the agenda, but no. So having sat through two hours Members swept over it in a matter of seconds.
Come on NI Assembly! Think of who is paying your wages
The occasionally over officious security guard at the front gate, as per usual asked me where I was going and for what reason, despite turning a blind eye to the jogger and the dog-walker merrily coming in alongside me - still i suppose they have a job to do. It is not the security guards that are my bug bear.
Before arriving I had of course to carefully navigate my way through the at times incomprehensible Northern Ireland Assembly website to find an item of interest in a Stormont Committee. Then I made the journey from the centre of Belfast and after successfuly negotiating the guard at the gate, and a few of his colleagues later on, I am left sitting in the hugely impressive Great Hall of Parliament Buildings waiting for the call to go up and view the Committee's public session. I notice a few others are also waiting just as patiently, some of whom I fear may have come from farther afield than the centre of town.
A security guard says the Committee is ready, I can go up to the room. But "hold on", he says, as the others also rise from their benches, "there are only three spaces available". A public session of a Stormont Committee and only three members of the public can attend?? He mutters something about it being small room! I stare back at him blankly
When I, as one of the lucky early arrivals, get into the room I find myself surrounded by civil servants and officials taking up the vital seats in the public gallery. Civil servants and officials who have only had to come down a couple of flights of stairs from their Stormont offices, whilst Jo Public, who could have made the trip from Enniskillen for all they know, misses out. Half of them don't even appear to be taking much notice of what is going on, and they certainly aren't taking feverish notes, as one of my fellow 'visitor' attendees is.
Three more seats are lying empty, with a yellow sheet left on them with the words 'reserved for press' clearly stated! Not one member of the press enters for the whole session.
And to top it all, the item of business that interested me, that was identified on the Northern Ireland Assembly's website as one of only three items on the agenda, turned out to be just a 'take note' item! The Clerk could have saved me a trip, by stating this very fact on the agenda, but no. So having sat through two hours Members swept over it in a matter of seconds.
Come on NI Assembly! Think of who is paying your wages
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