Plan A or plan B? Deal or no deal? The Parties (DUP / SF) are at a fork in the road.
All clichés that have been bandied about since last week when there was a faint glimmer of hope that there would be some sort of resolution to the talks that apparently have been ongoing at Stormont.
I say apparently, because unlike previously, there has been very little said publicly about what is going on. In the leaky sieve that is politics where tactics often include getting your point of view out there ASAP by whatever means necessary, that is an achievement in itself.
There was a question asked on BBC Question Time as to whether or not our politicians feel embarrassed about taking their salaries when they continue to bicker like toddlers. I was in the audience and can vouch for the unanimous applause in support of the question. Of course, the response was they don’t.
More interesting have been the comments I have heard along the lines of there’s no point in stopping salaries, this is what ‘people’ have voted for.
I think that dismisses the frustration felt by the many who either didn’t vote DUP/Sinn Féin or those who did and are now seeing the outworkings of the fact that Northern Ireland is drifting and no one who can effect change apparently will.
There are ideological differences between the nationalist and unionist parties. There always have been and there always will be. So let’s move on.
Get back into Stormont and give us, the ‘people’, a political structure which we can lobby, question and hold to account. We’ll give our verdict on your actions at the ballot box.
Sara McCracken works in communications for an educational body. She previously worked for the Green Party for #AE16 and in the health sector.
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