Four into One
So far we have a mixed response to the announcement that there will be a new Victims Commission with four commissioners - former UTV and 91Èȱ¬ Good Morning Ulster presenter Mike Nesbitt, mediator Brendan McAllister, former Interim Commissioner and RUC widow Bertha McDougall and Patricia MacBride. Ms MacBride has worked in PR, was a victims representative on the Civic Forum, worked for the Bloody Sunday Trust and is the sister of an IRA man shot dead by the SAS in Fermanagh,
The multiple appointment has been criticised by the UUP Deputy Leader Danny Kennedy and the Alliance Deputy Leader Naomi Long, who described it as a "damaging fudge". But the DUP's Jeffrey Donaldson and a number of his colleagues have leapt to the defence, making light of the notion that the OFMDFM will now be paying four Commissioners' salaries (c.£65,000 p.a.) whilst it had initially been presumed it would only be forking out for one.
When Bertha McDougall was being dragged though the courts in relation to her unorthodox appointment, few would have believed her career would outlast the man who appointed her, Peter Hain. But the two have certainly had different fortunes this week. I wonder whether this multiple appointment will ensure the matter does not return to the courts, or if some might seek a review on the grounds that they would have applied if they had known a panel of four was in the offing?
And what about the children and the elderly? Will we see them on the steps of Stormont demanding three extra commissioners?
The appointment of the new Commission is one of the topics I tackle with the UUP leader Sir Reg Empey on tomorrow's Inside Politics. We also discuss how his party will vote in next week's debate on the budget, his reaction to Ian Paisley Junior's comments on the DUP leadership succession and just how sorry he feels for the departing Peter Hain.
The programme is on air at 12.45 pm on 91Èȱ¬ Radio Ulster, and if you miss that, the programme can be caught again on the web Inside Politics .
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I would love you to ask Sir Reg to justify his existence in politics. He seems to make a stupid statement and look for answers. So say that he may oppose the budget is rubbish. To say he wants everyone to go through university as the tax payers expense is unrealistic. To also say everyone should get free prescriptions is pathetic. Most people already do. What is he going to come out with next. They are going to defeat the DUP......
I cannot believe the incompetence and indecision responsible for the appointment of four Victim Commissioners - this shows such cowardice and lack of leadership by our politicians. Surely one of the four applicants was more suitable than the others - if that was not entirely clear a selection/interview panel has to make a best judgement on the information available. Now we will be paying the salaries for four individuals rather than one - I am absolutely appalled at this situation. But we get the politicians we deserve and this epitomises the politicising of any administrative decision in NI - we may not have the volume of bombings and bloodshed we have had in the past but how much has really changed in people's attitudes? Our MLAs should be leading by example but are clearly not.
Mark
VICTIMS’ COMMISSION – A JOURNEY INTO BUREAUCRATIC OUTER SPACE
The decision to have four Victims’ Commissioners within a Victims’ Commission is akin to a horse being built by Committee and ending up being a camel. The Commission is doomed to failure because addressing the suffering of Victims’ has not been a consideration in its creation. It has been spawned out of the DUP/Sinn Fein Fascist Coalition’s need to disguise their direct involvement in instigating and perpetuating the Troubles. What better way to shroud their wicked pasts than to create a structure that takes the Victms’ issue, no expense spared, into bureaucratic outer space. The Commission will be a rudderless, overstaffed, paper-spewing, cash-gobbling, committee-sprouting quango that will avoid taking hard decisions in support of Victims for fear of imperilling the Assembly’s existence. Importantly, it will compartmentalize Victims into Fenian, Prod and Other categories, thus further entrenching society’s divisions, a consequence that suits both the DUP and Sinn Fein. Trust me, Mark, the proposed Commission will make the Child Support Agency look like an exemplar of sound strategic management and financial probity.
In summary, the Joint First Ministers have failed to come up with a single vision that will give redress to Victims, preferring instead to ensure that their own Parties’ squalid pasts stay well hidden. In forming this mishmash of a Commission, the real message from the Fascist Coalition to the Victims is: YOU’RE STILL ON YOUR OWN! If any of the four nominated Commissioners have an ounce of decency they will refuse to participate in this charade. Don’t hold your breath!
PS: I’ve just heard that Sir Kenneth Bloomfield has given his support to the new Commission; that says it all because, on past form, the pompous Knight’s imprimatur is equivalent to a Mafia Kiss of Death.
Susie
Carryduff
What has happened to the Victim Commissioners-Designate? Are they at their work or on extended leave? I wonder how much of the £33m of tax payers' money they have already spent?
Oh! Mark - glad to see you have been elevated to a higher position on the 91Èȱ¬ Northern Ireland web page!