The Northern Ireland Utility Regulator, John French, has revealed that a “simple mechanism” to deliver the £400 winter energy payment has been sent to the Treasury.
Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi visited Belfast ten days ago to discuss it with Sinn Féin communities minister Deirdre Hargey and DUP economy minister Gordon Lyons. French, also present, told the BBC he believed the chancellor agreed to the plan at that meeting.
Yet when Zahawi returned to Belfast last Monday for a follow-up meeting with all the main political parties, he announced a new ‘joint taskforce’ to “drive forward a solution”.
The semi-collapse of Stormont is entirely the DUP’s fault. But other parties and perhaps even the government may not be above keeping the heat on the DUP, even if it risks freezing the rest of us.
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Small landlords are selling up for various reasons, with one obvious consequence: the number of tenants rendered homeless has doubled in a year, to 1,380.
A 2020 study for the Housing Executive found the average cost of moving one household through emergency accommodation back into a regular tenancy is £14,000. During the time a household is in emergency accommodation the monthly cost is £1,350 if using a private provider. These are just the costs to Stormont - they do not include housing benefit and other social security payments, which are outside the block grant.
So when a landlord sells up, it might often be cheaper for the taxpayer to buy the property and rent it back as a social landlord. There are numerous ways this could be done and no shortage of policy proposals.
But there would have to be a working Stormont to consider them.
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Mathematics replaced English as the most popular A-level in Northern Ireland in 2015 and now accounts for an eighth of all entries and rising. Figures in Britain are similar. This reflects rapidly changing priorities among students, universities and employers. So it is increasingly unacceptable that many secondary schools here fail to offer A-level maths. Even those that claim to provide it often refuse unless a minimum number of pupils apply. An even worse problem occurs with the sciences, which may not be offered separately from GCSE stage. Every young person should have a clear pathway to taking these key subjects, at their own school or - if that is impractical - through transfer or day release to another. It is bad enough we segregate children by religion and social class without continuing to close off opportunities because some subjects are awkward to timetable.
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There is certainly an argument that the fuss over Belfast band Kneecap’s anti-police mural has been excessive and everyone needs to lighten up. That appeared to be the case made by Queen’s University Belfast Professor Colin Harvey, a director of Ireland’s Future, when he tweeted that playing Kneecap backwards reveals “subliminal pro-protocol messaging as Gaeilge.”
The same tolerance must apply to historian Ruth Dudley Edward, who wrote in the News Letter in January that she would like to banish Prof Harvey to a desert island.
Condemnation of this by Amnesty International and other human rights groups has been absurd. Elderly ladies are as entitled as young rappers to thumb their nose at the establishment.
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A masterclass in the use of murals has been delivered by Belfast publican Willie Jack, who commissioned artist Ciaran Gallagher to paint Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak on a street-front in the Cathedral Quarter. Witty and skilfully done, its most impressive feature was perfectly spotting a need. Every newspaper and television station covering the Conservative hustings in Belfast was bound to find such an image irresistible and it was duly splashed around the UK, Ireland and beyond. To quote Andy Warhol: “Being good at business is the most fascinating kind of art.”
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In theory, the difference between parliamentary privilege at Stormont and Westminster is academic in cases of defamation. Simply put, MPs definitely cannot take each other to court, while MLAs can try but would definitely lose.
In reality, all kinds of mischief might break out if MLAs had absolutely no fear of the law, given how keen many would be to throw around accusations.
We may be about to find out. Liz Truss has promised to extend parliamentary privilege to all the devolved assemblies. Labour leader Keir Starmer is among those who agree. Their concern follows former SNP leader Alex Salmond’s 2020 assault trial, when standard reporting restrictions ended up blocking publication of a Holyrood inquiry. So this is about protecting MSPs from contempt of court. However, it could have the side effect of removing all restraint MLAs show to each other.
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The Green Party has a new Northern Ireland leader, with Belfast councillor Mal O’Hara replacing Clare Bailey, who lost her assembly seat in May.
While the Greens’ eviction from Stormont is a downgrade, they retain an outsized importance in Irish politics.
The party is organised on an all-Ireland basis, key decisions require a vote of two-thirds of the membership, one-third are in the Northern Ireland branch.
Joining the current coalition in Dublin required such a vote. Bailey and O’Hara were both opposed.
