A sea of promises
We are swimming in a sea of promises at the moment as the First and Deputy First Ministers unveil their programme for government. There are pledges on job creation, free public transport for older people, school building and so on. With a delegation of Iraqi politicians looking down from the gallery, Martin McGuinness has described the ability of the sometimes divided executive to agree a draft programme for government and budget as "a remarkable day".
Inevitably not all MLAs see it that way. The SDLP leader Mark Durkan insists that the "saccharine language" does not hide what he sees as dressing up old priorities as new initiatives. He claims the Strategic Investment Board which the DUP and Sinn Fein previously critcised is now the centrepiece of their new policy. The Ulster Unionist Danny Kennedy tried to focus on what he reckons is the lack of a peace dividend from the Treasury. And Alliance's Naomi Long sarcastically suggested that some pages must be missing because the government programme did not mention tackling segregation or creating a shared future.
The First and Deputy First Ministers hit back. Of course they have special interests - the First Minister already qualifies for free public transport, whilst the Deputy First Minister should qualify in three years time.
Officials tried to make the lengthy speeches accessible, but inevitably it wasn't "never, never,never" tub thumping rhetoric. The First Minister had a bit of trouble getting through so many statistics. This might explain why at one point he promised to bring 520 million tourists here. Even if we all rent out our spare rooms I'm not sure we've got the space for that number of people.....
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Nothing more outstanding in the programme for government that direct rule ministers would have done. The local clan leaders have little experience in government and will take a long time before they can be treated as serious. They are savaging themselves because they did not have the acumen and courage to carry out their threat not to enter government until the price was right. Local services will surely suffer as a result. Where is the so called broad executive agreement for the programme for government in view of the Minister of Health's statement that he agreed nothing and the budget is not sufficient to move things forward.