Norn Iron has, for the last 152 days, trudged on quite nicely.
Schools have remained open, hospitals have continued doing their things, roads have been repaired, health visitors have gone about doing their things, taxes have been collected, bins have been emptied, swimming pools have been monitored, flights have gone on time, oil has been delivered. There was a worry about the banks, but the governments in London and Dublin have been dealing with them1
And all this despite (because of?) a lack of activity in Stormont.
Unfortunately, that is about to change.
Here’s the thing: those 152 days without a regional government didn’t do any damage at all. The politicians were free to get on with what they do best (snipe at each other and produce lots and lots of hot air), and the country kept on keeping on. Which only goes to show, to my mind, how useless the lot of them are. And how better off we’d all be if they just let Stormont keep going, but without any actual power. Let the politicians keep turning up, and keep talking, but don’t let them do any damage…
And chance of it happening, do you think?
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1 – for a given value, and success level, of ‘dealing with’. But either way, it’s not something that locals could deal with.