05 Monday Mar 2012
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This splendid piece, by Newton Emerson, was featured on Hearts & Minds (and was kindly uploaded by Mick Fealty of SluggerO’Toole).
Emerson does a great job in outlining how Stormont has become a vast scare-story machine designed to extract as much money as possible from the Exchequer. And the office of the First Minister does precisely nothing to do anything about it. Instead, the 161 press officers just crank out the nonsense ad infinitum.
27 Monday Feb 2012
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By Ralph Ashenhurst – The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency post on the PolicyNI blog struck a chord with me. I recently moved back to Northern Ireland from London and had the pointless inconvenience and expense of changing my driving licence and car registration to the system here. That was then followed by engaging with another part of the DVANI bureaucracy, instead of a private provider, to get an MOT certificate.
The article added to a developing concern that in Northern Ireland we have a bloated government. One not able to achieve the low-cost, efficient Governance we need in a country of less than 2 million people. On the contrary, the Assembly has too many members and we need fewer local councils. The symptoms of profligacy are obvious with, for example, a raft of quangos and frequent ‘nanny state’ adverts on local TV.
Northern Ireland needs to become less dependent on State funding and to shift the generation of household income more to the private sector. With massive annual bailouts from English taxpayers our current situation bears comparison with Greece and is unsustainable in the longer term. But to achieve the twin aims of cost-effective government and a sustainable, prosperous future we also need a new type of politics.
We are a community of people with different cultural affiliations but that is not unique in the UK. We stand out because we give cultural influences such a strong voice in the important job of electing our politicians. People who we need to focus on the future and not the past. To deal effectively with our common concerns we must move away from tribal politics. Elected representatives reflecting a mainstream, national and non-sectarian approach are essential if we are to progress.
I welcome the creation of the independent think tank, PolicyNI. It is an excellent initiative to drive the change we need in Northern Ireland. The group can also provide a valuable non-partisan platform to inform and encourage the many people here who currently feel disengaged from politics. And, importantly, PolicyNI should be an essential source of evidence to press for the small, effective and non-tribal governance we need for success in Northern Ireland.
16 Thursday Feb 2012
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The DVANI should be closed as soon as possible and its services transferred to DVLA in Swansea.
When the vehicle licensing office opened a new office in Belfast a few years ago – at the revitalised Gasworks Business Park – there was a wonderful irony about the choice of location. Presumably the powers that be had some inkling that hordes of motorists would come visiting – to renew their road vehicle licences. Therefore, it stood to reason that one of the least citizen-friendly of our local quangos should make it impossible to park anywhere near their gleaming new offices. Weird logic.
The Minister responsible for this particular rotten spud of local administration gone crazy is none other than the hapless and often indiscipherable Alex Attwood (he of North of Ireland fame).
It turns out that the local Vehicle Licensing Agency has recently discovered that its “customers” may like to use a new-fangled contrivance called The Internet to order and pay for their new tax discs, driving licences and what-have-you. Heaven forbid that such modernistic services could be provided by the DVANI. But here’s the rub – it would be relatively easy to close down the entire shambolic edifice of DVANI and transfer all the operations to the DVLA in Swansea.
Now Alex is all for improving services and introducing efficiencies. But, God forbid that any of the DVANI staff should lose their jobs.
So, while private businesses struggle to make their payroll every month, while retail businesses close up shop across Northern Ireland, while call centres lay-off hundreds of staff in their quest for efficiencies – Alex simply won’t have any DVANI staff lay-offs, not on his watch.
The Attwood, “It’s Logic Jim, but not as we know it” attitude to governance is indicative of the malaise at the heart of Northern Ireland’s puny-minded government. Every effort should be made to get rid of the absurd, inefficient and moribund agencies that long ago lost any fitness for purpose.
DVANI should be closed as soon as is practicable and the “services” it provides transferred to a central facility, servicing the majority of the Kingdom. Economies of scale, Alex. Crazy but true.
16 Thursday Feb 2012
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Government spending (Photo credit: 401K)
We want to hear about blatant, flagrant waste of tax-payers’ money – and we’ll expose it here on PolicyNI.
The Executive argues that it hasn’t enough money. But that’s hardly surprising when we have 12 central government departments and 26 councils – all to run a place with a population less than Greater Manchester. Never mind the myriad quangos, job creation agencies, community groups – all paid for by the public purse.
Waste is endemic in our systems of administration. While the argument is often made that public spending is required for “front line services” a substantial share of public spending in Northern Ireland is on fat cat bosses and bizarre state financed organisations – as well as pensions for former employees. The biggest single line-item of public spend here spend is on pensions. So while private sector workers and small business owners have often failed to make provision for their own pensions – they have made very adequate provision for senior civil servants, retired doctors, policemen, prison officers. Some 30% of Northern Ireland’s entire public expenditure of around £20 Billion goes on pensions. But a similar amount goes on a general category of spend for everything outside of healthcare, pensions, and education. So while welfare claimants get all the media attention as the main source of waste, little attention is paid to the quangos with senior executives and Board members paid hundreds of thousands per annum – and no real accountability for performance. Indeed welfare payments only account for some 11% of public spend here – certainly not the main source of flagrant waste.
The media’s performance at exposing the extent of the public-purse get-rich-quick schemes has improved markedly. But we’re sure that more could be done. If you can point us at examples of flagrant waste, pointless job creation schemes, absurd wage levels for senior executives in quangos, or eye-watering pension packages, please let us know.
15 Wednesday Feb 2012
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
George Osborne, Government spending, HM Treasury, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland
It's handy to have HM Treasury if the economy is like a cork bobbing in an ocean of debt.
The Deputy First Minister yesterday compared the Northern Ireland economy to a cork bobbing about in a raging ocean. He conjured this analogy as part of his announcement of £580m of public expenditure on public infrastructure – roads and hospitals. He indicated that rather than just “lie down” the Executive was committed to spend money to save the economy.
It’s fortunate that the UK exchequer is there to provide the funding, of course. The UK is one of a dwindling number of Western economies still able to easily borrow and still clinging to a AAA credit rating.
Northern Ireland is indeed a miniscule player in the global economy. Were it to go it alone in the economic ocean it would not have the luxury of a top-drawer credit rating, or the unbounded borrowing potential of the UK treasury. Hence, despite having an even worse economy than the Republic of Ireland, with a greater public account deficit, and poorer levels of economic output, the Executive is still able to announce this largesse – “to help the construction industry”. Quite why the construction industry has been singled out for such state subvention is a bit of a mystery.
The £580m stimulus package announcement comes just a few weeks after similar big ticket public infrastructure announcements in Britain. George Osborne is resorting to good old Keynesian spending to help stimulate the economy. However, it’s very unlikely that Keynes ever expected UK government borrowing to be £1.046 Trillion by fiscal year 2012. Quantitative easing has never looked like this before.
Much of yesterday’s £580m announcement will be spent on professional fees, and a great deal will leak from the Northern Ireland economy. Vast amounts will be sucked up by civil service administrative bloat.
It was interesting, also, that the announcement came just a day after announcements in the Republic of Ireland that a major shake-up in the education sector is planned. These plans will rip out administration and overheads in Irish tertiary education. Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland, there appears to be no resolve by the Executive to reduce the vast waste of public money by our over-abundant central government departments and local councils – required to run a place with a population 700,000 less than Greater Manchester.
08 Wednesday Feb 2012
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PolicyNI was inspired by a blog post on my personal blog. Following that post, many people contacted me to say that the idea of a political think-tank dedicated to small government – and a rational basis to political discussion – was a good one. Indeed, for many who contacted me, it is absolutely the right time to be starting such an initiative.
Northern Ireland is changing for the better – but our political class is failing to meet the needs of our electorate. Voter turnout here is the lowest in the United Kingdom. Our society is now divided more on the basis of political interest or disinterest than on the basis of religion or tribalism. But our political structures still reflect back at us a tribal basis to political thinking.
The new “peace process” consensus is based on mutual congratulation for recognising our tribal based cultures: the First Minister attends a GAA Match and, hence, the Deputy First Minister considers meeting the Queen. The tit for tat basis of political tribalism trudges on.
And, yet, when opportunities for real political progress arise – such as an opportunity to reduce corporation tax – no political consensus can be reached. Instead our political ‘leaders’ lapse into the politics of begging bowl, hand-out and “peace dividend”. It appears that politics here, is little more than cultural trading off, mutual respect for each others’ tribes, and little more than posturing to fundamental reforms to encourage real economic growth.
PolicyNI, however, has been created to give a voice to those of us who have little inclination towards Party-politics, but are motivated to argue for change. People who have contacted me are business people, academics, students, parents – people who want a means of expression other than a political party.
I hope that you will get involved.
