Negativity is not giving us the good government we have been promised

If I were I would have switched off from local politics a long time ago rather than put myself through the pantomime which passes itself off as government. What I am, in fact, is relentlessly miffed. I was going to use another phrase there, but I don’t want you choking on your cornflakes.

I want the Assembly and Executive to function properly. I want the parties to implement the agreements they claim to have given the nod to. I want parties to have the opportunity to grow and mature in an effective and fully functioning opposition. I want decisions made rather than booted into the long grass. I want collective responsibility instead of Executive ministers threatening legal action against each other. I want an end to the silo mentality. I want our government to do something other than the sort of routine stuff that could just as easily be done by three direct rule ministers.

I don’t expect the Executive parties to like each other. Heavens, I’m well aware that half the members of one party don’t actually like the other half of their own party! But I expect them to respect each other enough to govern together.

It’s what they signed up to do in 1998 and what the DUP and Sinn Fein signed up to do in 2007 and again with the Fresh Start agreement a few months ago.

I’m sick to death of the “it’s better than it used to be” mantra that accompanies any criticism; and even more miffed (yes, I still don’t want you choking) when critics are accused of undermining peace and progress.

I sometimes wonder if our leaders would have expected Mrs Lincoln to have emerged from the Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865 and announce to the press: “But apart from that, it was actually a rather enjoyable evening and a very well acted play.”

Saying that you don’t want something to work, or going out of your way to make sure it can’t work, is relentlessly negative. Saying that you want it to work and offering suggestions as to how it could work is not negative – relentless or otherwise. It is criticism: valid criticism in the case of the Executive and Assembly.

The real negativity comes from those who pretend – and they know they’re pretending – that things are much better than they seem on the surface.

I watched the DUP and Sinn Fein on The View on Thursday evening kicking responsibility for an issue from one to another: a bizarre form of Pass the Parcel in which they didn’t want to be holding it when the music stopped.

It’s a game that happens day in and day out on a range of programmes, in a flurry of gobby press releases, and in tetchy, increasingly snide exchanges across the Assembly floor. They pretend to work together (“look, we’ve more call centre jobs and golf tourists”), yet undermine each other in word and deed.

The damage being done to the perception of politics here is damage they, themselves, are doing. The negativity is their own doing.

Most people in Northern Ireland are not disinterested in politics. They do have opinions on everything from Trump, Islamic State, the EU referendum, whether Sinn Fein will make it into government down south, the state of our health service and the Assembly. They turn up at meetings to hear panels discuss politics – even though a member of the DUP’s press office tweeted, in response to a recent event at which a DUP MLA was also speaking to 250 people – “truly real members of the public don’t go to those kind of events”.

When gathered around dinner and pub tables they will talk politics. When they meet people like me (and my daughters hate shopping with me because of it) they will stop me and tell me what they think about local and international politics.

The vast majority of these people aren’t negative or disinterested. They still want devolution to work. They still want decisions made. They still want choice and alternatives. They still want to be proud of rather than embarrassed by the parties. They still want waiting lists for hospital appointments reduced. They still want potholes filled. They still want money sensibly spent. They are not afraid of honest debate. They are not scared of truth. They want this place to be a better place. They don’t want a return to instability.

In 1998 and 2007 they were promised change: palpable, unambiguous change. But the only people in a position to actually deliver that change are the five main parties. They were tasked to govern together – either collectively in the Executive, or through an Executive and Opposition. They were tasked to decide rather than delay. They were tasked to build a new-era Northern Ireland.

Telling them that they are failing to do their job is not negative. The real negativity would be turning away and remaining silent. I want good government: and I’m going to keep on saying that I want good government. But, as you’ll all know by now, subtlety isn’t one of my strong points.