AS Nicola Sturgeon demonstrated last week when she was stepped down as SNP leader and Scotland's first minister, politicians sometimes do quit politics. What's different about Patricia O'Lynn's shock resignation from the assembly is that it came so soon after she was elected – little over nine months from last May's poll. But with the current impasse at Stormont meaning MLAs aren't able to do their jobs as required, and have even had to endure a 25 per cent pay cut, we shouldn't be entirely surprised if some of them feel unfulfilled.
The 33-year-old is clearly ambitious – you only have to check out her relatively extensive Wikipedia entry to see that she boasts an impressive CV, including a recently acquired doctorate. Her new job is likely to offer a salary in excess of what Stormont was offering, even on full pay, so who would blame her for taking a more secure position with better working conditions?
When the assembly was down the last time, a number of MLAs and special advisers switched careers, seemingly frustrated by too much down time. If the current deadlock isn't broken soon, surely we can expect more MLAs to exit stage left.
Slugger O'Toole deputy editor David McCann said departures from politics when Stormont is down is "not a new feature of our politics".
"In the past Simon Hamilton and Steven Agnew have departed for new roles outside of politics," he said.
"It's never a popular thing to say but being an MLA is an uncertain and hard role – with no functioning assembly others will likely be thinking about a life outside of politics too."
University of Liverpool politics lecturer Professor Jon Tonge tweeted: "Things are that bad at Stormont, people are quitting for academia."
