The last few weeks have left me still puzzled by both the leader of the Government and the leader of the opposition.

Yesterday I watched a large portion of the Prime Minister’s latest meeting with the Parliamentary liaison Committee. It was fascinating not just in the range of subject matters but also because it demonstrated the undeniable grasp Gordon Brown has on all aspects of Government. His performance was assured, informed and in parts both deferential and humorous.  He seemed more at ease then I’ve seen him for some time. It was a reassuring performance.  I wonder does he sense the tide turning with latest polls suggesting a rather meagre 7% gap between the parties?

He seems, if anything, to hve been emboldened by the abortive, potentially divisive and certainly irresponsible (speaking as a Labour voter) ‘leadership challenge’ of Hoon and Hewitt.

And yet still, so often, in Public he fails to project the same reassuring persona/political force as he did in front of fellow parliamentarians yesterday. And the Clare Short testimony has raised more questions about who Gordon Brown really is – the sulking, whispering, marginalised coffee drinker or a conscientious war objector whose Political loyalties took precedence over his personal instincts? The general sense coming out of the Chicott enquiry will be tat he left the Dept Defense vulnerable as a result of major cost cuttin in the months aftr the Iraq war. But is should be made clear that all those testifying – including John Reid – agreed that the actual needs of war in Iraq were met, the overall impact on the Armed Services was significant.  This is a subtle but to his opponents unimportant difference and at today’s PMQ David Cameron was back on top as he dished out a good od fashioned battering of the PM on this basis.

Meanwhile across the house, apart from todays PMQs,  it has not been a great few weeks for Mr Cameron or the Conservatives. Flip flopping first on recognising/rewarding marriage within the tax system (something I vehemently disagree with on a number of grounds – not just scientifically) and then on the extent of cuts in the first year of any Conservative Parliament…”not swingeing”?! And yest the Shadow Chancellor continues to sound slightly more bullish on the extent of savings that must be made immediately. I wonder how they felt in Davos when almost every other country in attendance was in the Brown/Darling camp of “its too early to stop spending and risk falling back into recession”.  Of course – the rest of the world – including the US could be wrong and Cameron and Osborne could be right…. I wonder.  The pressure continues to come for his party to reveal more specific details of their economic plan and the word “inconsistency” seems to be appearing more and more in headlines associated with the Conservatives. If the Labour Party is smart there is ground to be made up with that line if it is played well.

And then, with my Northern Irish hat on, his Political naivity in the role he played in the infamous “Hatfield House” Unionist Unity talks. Did he take a moment to think how these might appear to the Nationalist community in Northern Ireland? How on earth can he expect to play the role of independent peacekeeper and arbiter for NI politics in the ext Parliament is he was now to be elected?

The embarassment of the Lord Stern announcement and subsequent retraction might seem like small beans but it was embarassing and is just another suggestion of the naivity of a party who want the General Public to elect them to manage one of the most challenging periods of social and economic upheaval many of us have known.

Some of his sheen and confidence has clearly been knocked. The Prime Minister has been in the main resurgent at recent PMQs (today excepted) and it feels like, if not seismic, there has been a slight shift in the fortunes of these two leaders.

As Sir Alex Ferguson likes to say, this is now the business end of the football and Political seasons, what he likes to call “squeaky bum” time.  An interesting battle of style, personality and political nous is playing out between these two men who would be king.  I wonder who’s bum is squeaking most right now?

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Very pleased to see Conall McDevitt take his place as SDLP MLA in Stormont just recently.

I don’t know Conall but I follow his blog avidly and have great reports on him from various friends in and around the SDLP and NI Public Relations.

Like Cllr Ian Parsley (whom I have mentioned here a number of times), Conall aspires to a more a secular, considered and constructive Politics for the people of NI.  This should be our simple right. Instead we continue to squander the promises of devolved government on petty scrabbling for scraps from the sectarian table…forgetting that we surely hoped for and certainly deserve something more. 

These are important times for NI and its Politicians. 2010 promises to be a challenging year for all in the UK and NI in particular. Perhaps when our elected officials get beyond settling their self-interested scores on Policing and Justice they might have enough time to consider some more minor issues for the coming year. Oh like:

• The post primary education shambles
• The certainty of Public Sector reform whether at the hands of a Conservative or Labour Government….how much longer can we expect to sustain a position when more than 60% of our economy based on the Public Sector? And if efficiencies are required – and let’s agree they will be – what will the effect be on NI’s already struggling economy when we have to cut loose public sector workers on a disproportionately small Private Sector?
• Improving our Health Care provision in the face of proposals for £100m+ “targeted” cost savings in the 2010 – 2011 year
• Taking action on the 2009 IREP report…what is the “Northern Irish advantage” to be and who – if anyone – is going to make it happen for the short, medium or longer term?
• Water Charges….we know no one wants to talk about it but this Ostrich has to come up for air soon surely?
• The growing crisis of a generation of young men and woman in some of NI most socially deprived areas leaving school with no qualifications, plan for training or hope for employment

Is it just me or do those Parades suddenly seem like a walk in the park? Yet 7 days and counting…..and there they still are while Rome burns.

So Conall – good luck to you. I’ll be following with interest. Its a big job but do not waver from your instincts – they are the right ones and they are shared by far more of us than many of your colleagues at Hillsborough appear to understand or care.

In an article about Community Restorative Justice Schemes, the piece cites this BBC Radio report:

“Harry Maguire is an ex-IRA prisoner who was convicted of murder. He now works for Community Restorative Justice, an organisation who try to stop punishment shootings. “A number of the shootings that have taken place over the last year have been done in a very haphazard manner,” he said. “They’re unprofessional with what they’re doing. There’s been a number of these punishment shootings where the intention has been to shoot someone in the knees. On one occasion a person was shot in the shoulder.”

Yes, let me repeat that:

“There’s been a number of these punishment shootings where the intention has been to shoot someone in the knees. On one occasion a person was shot in the shoulder”

I’ve only fired a gun a few times – and almost always legally of course and even I fancy my chances of hitting a knee in the course of close up act of “community policing”.  At worst I’d settle for back of the thigh and put it down to nerves. But the shoulder…..the shoulder?!?! Who are these people?!

I shouldn’t laugh but really….all together now….”head, shoulders knees or toes (knees or toes?!)”?

One of my favorite books is the wonderful ”A Confederacy of Dunces” by John Kennedy Toole.  It’s a shame he cornered the market on that wonderful turn of phrase for it could oft be used to describe goings on at Stormont – no more so in the last few weeks.

How dispiriting to see the same old games of tribal/religious (don’t ever mistake what we have in Northern Ireland for genuine politics) brinkmanship played out to the familiar backdrop of Stormont and Hillsborough Castle on the, to be frank, relatively minor issue (in the context of poposed healthare budget cuts, economic fragility and the post primary education shambles) of Policing and Justice devolution.

I was ready to vent my spleen on this topic today, having climbed back on the Blogging saddle as it were but then in catching up on six weeks of Google Reader reading (?!) I came across yet another excellent post from Jeff Peel.
I couldn’t have said it better in any way, so I won’t try. You can just visit here instead and enjoy.

I’ll leave you instead with some wise words offered by JTK via his unique creation Ignatius J. Reilly - a sentiment shared perhaps by all of us watching with interest those on ‘the hill’:

“Then you must begin a reading program immediately so that you may understand the crises of our age,” Ignatius said solemnly. “Begin with the late Romans, including Boethius, of course. Then you should dip rather extensively into early Medieval. You may skip the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. That is mostly dangerous propaganda. Now that I think of it, you had better skip the Romantics and the Victorians. For the contemporary period, you should study some selected comic books.”

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“Out of Ireland have we come.
Great hatred, little room,
Maimed us at the start.”  

WB Yeats (1865 – 1939)

Thanks to Conall McDevitt for bringing to my attention the unfortunate and unsavoury actions of a few mindless NI Facebookers.

This sort of story makes me so ashamed of my otherwise proud Northern Irish (and Irish) heritage. But it isn’t a surprise – I sadly am convinced that too many of our population still bear many of the insular and xenophobic attributes of a people inhabiting a small island on the western fringes of Europe that has for many years been a cauldron for national, racial, religious and community suspicion/conflict.

The events of the summer involving the South Belfast Romany community echoes throughout this latest news piece. But it does not end there. Sadly I have seen, first hand, how racist some members of our society can be as a consequence of tree or four separate instances directed at either my Eritrean born Canadian wife or myself as her partner.  You’ll forgive me if I spare you the details and expletives.  Instances that mean she will never now acquiesce to my long held dream to move back home and raise a family. And I can’t really blame her.

As always of course – and I do recognise this - much of this is the work and views of a (albeit a potentially significant) minority – most of my fellow countrymen and women recognise that we know as much as any nation about the challenges of settling in foreign lands or the hospitality afforded to our people by foreign governments as a consequence of our own diaspora throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries. We are, in the main, a warm and hospitable people who recognise the obligation on us to provide refuge to those who cannot find it elsewhere but also the merits of managed and facilitated immigration.

However at a time when, as a small island economy trying to get off our knees, we need all the friends (tourists, investors, advocates) we can make, we should never underestimate – particularly in the age of social media – how stories like this play out across the globe and influence perception of us as a people and a place.

I’m tempted to take this on a tangent related to the reform of the education system in NI and in particular the importance of the Primary School system in preparing our children not just for further education but to be well rounded, informed and considered members of civic society – true ambassadors for our corner of the world, but it’s late. But those who brought shame on NI with their Facebook vitriol are evidence that something – however isolated the powers that be may claim – isn’t working in how we prepare our young people to prosper in a multi-cultural society and that needs to be addressed (at home, at school and in local communities).  That is  definitely one of my aspirations for our work at the Washington Ireland Program for Service and Leadership.

There is plenty to joke about in this sad day and age without spouting “ironic” vitriol at the expense of some of our society’s most vulnerable members.  Let’s close on this one from Dave Barry – I couldn’t think of a ‘joke’ more apt right now:

“Ireland is a medium-sized rural island that is slowly but steadily being consumed by sheep”.

 Related Links

• BBC
• Open Democracy