A tale of two MLAs
Martin McGuinness, Sir Reg Empey and Nigel Dodds were all on their feet this afternoon answering questions. But the focus was on two politicians with Ulster Unionist and Antrim connections, although for very different reasons.
First we heard about the death of the former junior minister James Leslie, who was killed in a diving accident whilst on holiday in Costa Rica. Just 50, Mr Leslie was a courteous man, well liked around Stormont, and politicians from across the spectrum expressed their sympathies to his family.
Mr Leslie left the Ulster Unionists for the Conservatives and was involved in the two parties' recent courtship. Away from politics, he had started growing willow trees on his land for use as renewable energy.
Later it emerged that the South Antrim MLA David Burnside has decided to step down from the Assembly. A sceptical unionist and a thorn in the side of David Trimble, Mr Burnside stuck with his party rather than following Jeffrey Donaldson's example and moving to the DUP. He lost his Westminster seat to William McCrea, but hung on in the Assembly.
Mr Burnside frequently asked acerbic questions of the First and Deputy First Minister. Just this afternoon he wanted to know whether Martin McGuinness thought there was any chance to the parties moving towards a voluntary coalition in the future (the answer was no). However he found the demands of attending committees difficult to balance with his other business committments. Last month the DUP attacked his attendance record.
So who will the new MLA be? Well that's up to the UUP leader Sir Reg Empey but ywo names in the frame are local councillors Adrian Watson and Danny Kinahan.
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Mark,
For once it appears the economy is being discussed by our MLA's. At the Department Employment and Learning question time the issue of redundancies in Upper Bann was raised. This is a good time for us to note what the Executive is doing to help. Minutes later in a response to a question regarding Jobs and Benefits Offices where people who either have lost their job or the long term unemployed go to seek Government help it is revealed the Department for Social Development under a "strategic business review" is looking to move remove some staff to other district offices. To make matters worse instead of Reg Empey being concerned about the knock on effect in getting people back to work he is more concerned whether his department might have to pay the bills for the Social Security Agency. Reg did say "that under these proposals staff may have to move from Kilkeel to Newtonards. Where is the sense in that?
Then a short time later at Finance question time Lord Morrow asked Nigel Dodds what progress is being made by Departments in achieving their efficiency targets. Nigel said in his answer that in the efficiency savings programme it will release £1·6 billion in resources over the Budget period to be recycled back into departmental budgets.
Lord Morrow pushed Nigel Dodds further by asking for his assessment of how the Chancellor plans of for further cuts in 2010-11 of approximately £5 billion will impact on Northern Ireland. Nobody has told Nigel about the amount of money the chancellor put into the banks. We all knew that at some point soon the Chancellor would use money from efficiency savings to start to repay debt, not give it back out for different regions to use. Nigel said "The Assembly and the Executive were given a settlement under the comprehensive spending review of 2007, and it is completely wrong and unjust that that level of funding should be reduced at this time."
Would Nigel and the DUP accept that at some point soon there really will be a black hole in the budget? Is the executive and the assembly up for the job? If not why not stop their wages? It would do the whole country a favour.
Stormontspy
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Danny Kinahan the minor aristocrat and Christies rep beats out the Super Prod with a proclivity towards drum beating and attention seeking behaviour. (see history on travellers and ethnic visitors)
Watson is hardly a vision of modern conservativism.
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Mark
BURNSIDE OUTSIDE HAS NO DOWNSIDE FOR UUP
A dilettante, an opportunist, a chancer - in summary, the political legacy of Burnside. Oh, I forgot, he was also heavily involved in "dirty tricks".
Here is an opportunity for Sir Reg to promote the distaff side of the Unionist family. Let's have a full-blooded, street-fighting woman to fight the Unionist cause [Dolores Kelly, Carmel Hanna & Naomi Long are exemplars of women who cut the mustard for their Parties].
Ok, Reggie baby, show us what you're made of.
Susie
Carryduff
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Nice idea there Susie. Ok then, following in that vein, are you aware of anyone who would fit that role?
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Patrick
ALWAYS ANSWER THE HARD QUESTIONS FIRST
You may as well well have asked me: Who made the world?
If I were given the opportunity to brainstorm with Sir Reg (some thought, eh?) about setting criteria for a candidate I would use words such as:
Female;
Ethnic;
Lesbian/Bi;
Catholic (steady, Susie, steady); AND
Someone the opposite of Jim Nicholson.
I suspect I'll be getting a call from Reggie shortly.
Susie
Carryduff
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