Opinion

Patrick Murphy: Time to tackle failings inherent in the Good Friday Agreement

Patrick Murphy

Patrick Murphy

Patrick Murphy is an Irish News columnist and former director of Belfast Institute for Further and Higher Education.

Patrick Murphy
Patrick Murphy Patrick Murphy

The more things change, the more they stay the same. That sobering thought might be the most appropriate comment on the election outcome.

It suggests that superficial change merely guarantees the preservation of the status quo, which means that politicians may come and go, but the plight of the people remains the same.

You might argue that change is coming, but when the counting is done and the posters are down, we will be exactly where we have been for 24 years: citizens of a dysfunctional government.

The problem stems from political parties’ blind faith in the Good Friday Agreement (GFA), even though it has produced political stalemate, institutional collapse, economic inequality and, in many cases, human misery. That view, of course, is not popular, but there is ample evidence to support it.

The agreement was a politicians’ charter, designed by and for politicians, not for people. They created jobs for themselves, with grand titles, cars, offices and subsidised food. But they ignored health, education and welfare, opting instead for sectarian division over everything from flag flying to academic selection.

They said the way to resolve a 25 year sectarian war was to replace it with a political system which rewarded sectarianism. They got the rewards. We got the sectarianism.

A second weakness in the GFA is that it failed to address our social and economic inequalities, following a war which began in a welfare state and ended in a Thatcherite society. They gave us a vote on flags, as enshrined in the GFA, and everyone cheered at the result. But they never offered us a referendum on what sort of society we wanted. Now we know why.

Today Sinn Féin and the SDLP complain about Tory austerity, but they urged us to vote for British rule in 1998, without requiring significant economic intervention to repair a broken society. Power was more important to the parties than people. Now, 24 years later, the SDLP says, “People First”.

Britain’s funding gap is being filled by the private sector, which brings us to a third area of evidence.

Dublin, London and Washington wanted to avoid the risk of a radical Stormont (a rather low risk). So by shelving normal left-right politics and opting for sectarian interdependence, British and US corporations gained access to delivering the north’s public sector services.

The local parties ignored the need for public funding to prevent the run-down of health, education and welfare, knowing that the private sector would fill the gaps.

Today that sector has a major role in health (now a thriving private business, available only to those who can afford it), welfare (SF employs a private firm to administer welfare assessments), social housing provision (which SF has effectively privatised) and a range of other government services.

The big five (Thatcherite) parties in Stormont are all entitled to sit in government by law, with no parliamentary opposition to challenge them.

Meanwhile Stormont spends less on educating a child here than anywhere else in the UK. (£6,400 as opposed to £7,600 in Scotland.). School funding is down by 11 per cent since 2009. Mrs Thatcher would be so proud.

Many suggest that Stormont’s parties must work together, but collaborating on Thatcherism is not a way forward.

None of that will change. Instead, nationalists are asked to acclaim a new era of Fianna Fáil-ism: never mind your poverty, close your eyes and think of Ireland (and if you are unionist, just close your eyes).

While coverage of the election focuses on who won, there is scant mention of who lost. The losers include those in poverty and ill health, hungry children and those waiting on an ambulance. Political honesty, hope and integrity have also lost badly.

If it is time for change, we must change (and not just tinker with) the failings inherent in the GFA. Will the big parties support that? If not, then the more things change, the more they will stay the same.

Assembly Election Results