“We ain’t missing you at all”

Churchill said that” “democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried.”  Northern Ireland though a democracy, is probably the worst governed place in the western world. Stormont has been suspended for months and quite frankly you would be hard-pressed to distinguish between the quality of the output before suspension and today.

There are 90 MLAs costing some £10M per year and eleven councils with the 462 local councillors costing £9m per year and not let us forget the scam known as SPAD, s otherwise known as special advisors, whose function and role remain a mystery, cost £1m per annum. It would not be unfair to describe our structure of government as a political welfare system.

We all enthusiastically endorsed the idea of a mandatory coalition in 1998, largely because it ended 30 years of conflict. A system of government that was designed to deliver peace has done so and we are all grateful for that, but achievements outside this could be described as modest.

 However, we the electorate did not realise that the idea of a mandatory coalition, is an oxymoron. A coalition is formed based on a set of common goals, principles, a public policy agenda and yes you have got it, an element of trust. The main reason we have been burdened with this system of government is the history of this place. It was the failure of governments in the distant past to govern in the interest of all citizens. This has come to be known as majoritarianism so, any move away from the current system of stalemate would evoke fear of a return to the bad old days. These fears I believe are without justification. What cannot be argued, is that majoritarianism has been buried only to be replaced by a mandatory coalition that has been embedded with sectarianism. This is witnessed by the fact that MLAs must participate in a political ritual that brands them as either unionist, nationalist or other, whatever the hell “other” means. Some in Northern Ireland will call this progress but not in the traditional definition of the word.

In the current assembly according to the Guardian, of the 871 motions and amendments debated from 2000, only 51% had cross-community support. The anachronism known as the Petition of Concern has been table 160 times, this highlights the tribalism built into the system. It was used by the DUP to scupper equal marriage proposals in 2015 and used to stop the sanctioning of MLAs for misconduct by the Commissioner for Standard. It is things like this that give the electorate little confidence about the integrity and intellectual capital on the hill. Though the petition has not been used recently, it remains an anachronism and should be scrapped.

We have had the RHI scandal where nobody was held to account, highlighting the complete failure of effective scrutiny and the bunker mentality of ministerial departments. The issue of scrutiny and accountability remain unaddressed

The political cabal can act in unison when it comes to doing something easy like dishing out the dosh. This can be seen in the immoral largesse shown by Gordon Lyons, with the full support of the executive under to dish out £150 million on the High Street Voucher Scheme. It is this type of thoughtless, back of the fag packet policy development that goes to the heart of the ineptitude of our political representatives. It was the very same politicians from across the political spectrum that had us all clapping every Thursday to show our appreciation for the sacrifices made by health and social care staff during covid. The choice they then made was to give BT9 er’s £100 each, rather than give a bonus or improve the wages of those social care staff earning less than £10.00 per hour, people that they defined as key workers.

 Let us not forget the divisions over, LGBTQ rights, abortion rights, or as I would prefer to call it, a women’s right to choose and the absurdity of gay conversion therapy.

There has been a complete failure to deal with the challenges and crises in providing and delivering health and social care. The response to this political ineptitude, for which there are no electoral consequences, is to blame the “BRITS” for being tight. On a narrow political level, this is easier rather than addressing issues around free prescriptions, water rates, the closing of hospitals, reform of the civil service and dealing with the many shortcomings of local government

Several issues need to be recognised, one of which is known as executive domination. This has allowed the two largest parties, the DUP and Sein Fein to have a stranglehold on the political discourse and the development of public policy or lack thereof. They are now the new political elite who have power without any real mechanism for accountability or scrutiny.

 This infers that statutory committee members lack the competence, intellectual capital and expertise to hold ministers to account. Competent accountability is a central tenant of any political system.

What is the solution for a form of government that was designed to deliver peace and was also deliberately or otherwise, designed to deliver inertia.

How do we get out of this hole? The answer is we can’t but discussions about the introduction of a voluntary coalition like in Germany and other European countries, is in the air. The upside of this is that we would have an agenda no longer focused on conflict resolution but on effective governance and the development of public policy focused on dealing with issues affecting the entire electorate. Then I woke up and had my cornflakes. We are not going to get a voluntary coalition for two reasons. The first is the improved electoral performance of the Alliance Party. In effect, the Alliance Party (based on the last election results) could technically, based on a purest voluntary coalition, exclude either nationalists or unionist parties from the government. The second is that the turkeys, that is the DUP and Sinn Fein, don’t vote for Christmas. The solution, if I could respectfully suggest, make it mandatory that there must be one unionist or nationalist party in a hybrid voluntary coalition government.

Finally, the institutional inertia and the lack of transparency embedded in the system are no longer acceptable. If the devolved institutions are to remain relevant to our collective futures, they must be focused on the challenges of today like the health service, reform of the civil service, the quantum and quality of governance and on the challenges of the future, such as climate change, the rise of Ai, the future of work and an education system that meets the challenges of the 21^st century. Politics is about improving the human condition not banging on about the protocol or a border poll. If our current political system fails to evolve this will be a tragedy for future generations. If anyone comes back and says, what about the New Decade New Approach Programme, my response will be, New Decade New Approach, unfortunately, same failing system, same half-wits and an indifferent electorate.

Let me know what you think in the comments below 👇

Suneil Sharma

12^th September 2022