No fond farewell for failed Assembly
23 March 2011
“Today’s end of the 2007-11 Assembly will produce no tears from democrats. An Assembly which prohibits an Official Opposition, has no control over its Ministers – witness Ruane’s unhindered rampage through education and Murphy’s mismanagement of the winter water crisis – and which prevents the electorate from voting out its failed and dysfunctional government, is a legislature of failure.
“Only when the essential building blocks of democracy – the right to an Opposition and the right to change your government – are restored will Stormont ever command respect. Meanwhile, its incumbents’ proudest boast is that they managed to exist for four years and on that puerile basis they demand re-election for four more years. Four more years of what? More deadlock, more destruction of education, more unaccountability, more waste, more of the same!
