London daddy says no more money. Sort yourselves out…

Grand Poobah Hilary Benn has hurt the feelings of some of our local politicians by pointing out that it’s up to them to make some, what do you call them? I think decisions??

From the BBC:

In a speech in Belfast, marking one year since power-sharing was restored, Hilary Benn said it had been a “great start”, but that difficult decisions were now unavoidable.

He said that over many years, decisions necessary to improve the health service and other public services had simply not been taken.

The Stormont Executive has repeatedly argued that greater funding from Westminster is needed.

Benn said that at times, the lack of decision making was “down to there being no executive in place”.

However at other times, he said there had “simply been a lack of agreement among executive ministers on the steps that need to be taken, or on the revenue that needs to be raised, or on the allocation of resources”.

He told an audience at Ulster University that a lack of funding from the government was not the impediment to public service transformation.

He said there had been “many missed opportunities to take decisions or to apply learning from other parts of the UK”.

“It is only right that the executive makes decisions about its own spending and revenue-raising priorities, however it must take responsibility for balancing its budget and living within its means – just as all governments must,” he added.

Meanwhile in today’s Irish News, professional Jonah Brian Feeney again reminds us that he thinks that Stormont will never work:

The NIO says there’s enough money to provide a world-class health system here but the minister and the DHSC operate a system that’s not fit for purpose: it wastes millions. There are huge gaps in public transport, roads infrastructure and energy. Little items could be dealt with from the existing budget, but ministers don’t get round to it. Not only is there no money, the north can’t raise any because it’s a colonial administration, a glorified county council, not a government. Its mechanisms are bizarre. There’s no-one in charge. As Jayne Brady, titular head of the civil service, told the assembly’s Public Accounts Committee last week, she does not have direct accountability for the permanent secretaries in each Stormont department, so she can’t direct actions in regard to the delivery of the executive’s capital projects. What?

Is Brian Feeney right? or will our leaders deliver us all to the promised land of milk and honey? The Irish News is also reporting Record numbers using private healthcare as Northern Ireland waiting lists soar, so I guess the public is not optimistic that our problems will be fixed anytime soon.

I mean, seriously, how does the UK government expect us to run a place with 1.9 million people with only a measly budget of £18.2 billion? I mean, that’s only £9,578 per person. (a wee bit of sarcasm there).

I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.