Editorial: Not an MLA will speak out for those who suffer from strikes, which hardly suggests Stormont will deal with difficult matters

Not one of the main Stormont parties has a word to say against the strikes in Northern Ireland.

Yesterday, all public transport services were shut in the province when Translink staff walked out. There is next to no private transport provision in NI, unlike in England, and so there was no option for the many people who need public transport, including the young and old.

If our Stormont MLAs, most of whom tell us that devolution must return and who say that its absence is causing hardship, were concerned about the way in which the vulnerable were left without transport, a week after they were left without it for two days, they did not say so. If they were concerned about hospitality and small businesses being hit for three of the most important trading days of the year, they did not say so.

It was left to a regional newspaper, the News Letter, to ask what they thought about the strikes. BBC Northern Ireland, with its massive resources, which impact greatly on the regional press, never seems to do much demanding questioners of all the strikers, rarely seems to challenge them on matters such as the far greater public sector pensions that many strikers get, and so on.

But in Northern Ireland money grows on trees, and so when we asked we found that essentially no politicians oppose the strikes. No wonder there is a wave of such industrial action – public sector strikers know that when Stormont returns, their demands will be met, unlike the 70% of NI that works in the private sector.

The assembly has shown itself wholly – not slightly – incapable of making hard decisions on health. MLAs are most to blame for the crisis in the NHS. Their response to the strikes suggests they won’t be able to handle wage disputes either.

And a Conservative and Unionist Party, of all entities, is applying huge pressure for Stormont's barely reformed return.