Dear Editor,
Re: Assembly failing to govern.
How many crisis talks is it going to take before everyone in Northern Ireland learns that the Belfast Agreement devolution system is unfixable and unworkable? Once again Northern Irelands failed politicians are trying to apply sticking plaster to a system of devolution that will never work.
What the people of Northern Ireland are crying out for is a government that works for everyone regardless of which community you belong to, regardless of your religion and regardless of your sexual orientation. They want a health Service that works, they want childcare and school places for their children, they want adequate policing on our streets and they would like the possibility of Jobs and investments within their local areas. They are fed up of the arguing and bickering between parties in Stormont. All they ask for is a system of government that works.
This could be done by the practice of normal politics and negotiation after every election. The parties which can agree and command requisite majority (which could even be a qualified majority of 60% so as to guarantee cross-community government) form the government. Those who cannot, form the Opposition, challenging and affording voters an alternative at the next election. This is Voluntary Coalition and it works.
Surely we the people of Northern Ireland deserve a better form of Government, a form of government that will work for everyone not just for the bank balances of the politicians. We need Voluntary Coalition, and we know voluntary coalition works as it already works within every other democratic country in the western world.
Yours,
John Brennan.
(Strangford South TUV).
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