The '˜dreadful shame' that we should all deeply resent and regret

Nevertheless, angry they are, here in Northern Ireland at least, where the Chartered Accountants Ulster Society proclaimed this week that local political uncertainty has ‘gone on too long’.

There’s a distinct whiff of Father Ted and ‘down with this sort of thing’ about the headline but the business desk is not about to start attacking such an august body of men and women, some of whom run a great many of our most successful businesses.

Many others seem to be lawyers but we’ll talk about that another time...

In fact, the Chartered Accountants are to be commended for their protest this week at the ongoing farce that is our political process.

Schoolchidren have no schools to go to and people who should be in hospital are spending up to four hours at a time driving there and back from their homes for treatment.

“We believe that Northern Ireland is a great place to live, and a great place to do business, but there is considerable frustration and anger over what is happening on Brexit and the local political stalemate,” said Ulster Society chair Niall Harkin, urging the parties to get back to work at Stormont to deliver good government “for all our people”.

“Brexit is of massive historic significance,” he continued.

“This most momentous change requires a joined up approach but that is absent without a Ministerial team operating at the Executive table.

“That is a dreadful shame and one which our members deeply resent and regret.”

The business community may not yet be playing the full role it did when Northern Ireland first built its reputation for excellence across the world, and the reasons are not hard to understand when a man delivering dog food to police kennels could at one time find himself placed on someone’s list as a ‘legitimate target’.

But it’s coming and if it’s the accountants who start it, then, so be it and well done to them.