Life is frequently cruel. Michael Jackson’s adoring fans have had the opportunity to see their idol perform one last time at the O2 snatched from them at the last minute. The Lions had victory snatched from them with the last kick of the ball in Pretoria and Ultravox was denied a No.1 spot in 1981 with ‘Vienna’ because they had the misfortune of going head-to-head with Joe Dolce’s freak of nature, ‘Shaddup Ya Face’.
After a fairly tedious term at Stormont, the public should have been looking forward a breather until September 14th. Unfortunately, because Government hasn’t got round to the small matter of finishing the June Monitoring Round which reallocates money from Department to Department, the Assembly may be recalled for one day next week.
Typical. The Assembly spends the vast majority of its time filling space with take note motions which count not a jot in the grand scheme of things only to run out of time for a debate which they really should have. Now that’s cruel.
Even at the Belfast Telegraph, which received a well publicized ticking off for failing to cast the Assembly in a sufficiently pleasing light, has struggled to curry favour with a Top 10 list of its achievements this term. Some of the ‘notable’ successes included partial progess on Policing & Justice, appointing four new Directors to the Assembly and a review of Snr Civil Service Pay, which has barely started. Talk about being damned by faint praise. If the FM wants his new team to spend the summer extolling the virtues of devolution as part of a strategy to blunt the electoral threat of the TUV, they’re going to have to come up with a rather more compelling list than the Tele.
Mr. Robinson may also be wishing that officials at DARD inundate the new Committee Chair, Ian Paisley Jnr (DUP, North Antrim), with plenty of papers to amuse him all summer. This outspoken ‘son of a preacher man’ managed to upset the Speaker by inaccurately divulging a private conversation and then forced the FM to back his choice for NI’s Attorney General after Mr. Paisley publicly fell out with the QC. Next term Mr. Robinson will be hoping Mr. Paisley can redirect his undoubted talent for causing awkwardness towards Sinn Fein’s DARD Minister rather than his own party colleagues.
