Unemployment – Time to Cut the Spin and Face Up to the Problem
15 August 2012
Commenting on today’s unemployment figures TUV leader Jim Allister said:
“Today’s unemployment figures make depressing reading. Probably as depressing are the attempts of Arlene Foster’s Orwellian Ministry of Truth to suggest that the figures are not actually that bad when compared to the rest of the UK, the EU and the Republic.
“The reality is that Northern Ireland’s unemployment figure is the second highest among UK regions and while unemployment is falling in Great Britain it is rising here.
“Stormont needs to cut the spin and actually face up to the problem. Our young people particularly are finding it well-nigh impossible to find a job. Comparing ourselves with the bankrupt Republic of Ireland or indeed the economic basket case which is the entire Eurozone will do nothing to address the problems faced by what is fast becoming a lost generation.
“One has to wonder what Stormont’s plan to get us out of this mess is. Ordinarily you would expect a Department called Employment and Learning to be playing a key role in getting people back to work but in reality the entire department was to be abolished before the Joint First Ministers decided to long finger the issue.
“It is about time that the political establishment put the interests of ordinary people above their own political concerns and got serious about addressing the unemployment crisis.”
