Editorial: Stormont has indeed at times seemed to use the begging bowl

​Since Stormont returned in February, there has been a unity between DUP and Sinn Fein.

There never seems to be any disagreement on anything, although it does seem that SF is the more confident of the two parties, and almost shrill about its demands over Casement, and a Pat Finucane inquiry and now over Irish language signage.

Even so, it is hardly surprising that the two largest parties are generally trying to avoid conflict now that the assembly has been restored, and the abnormal system of forced mandatory coalition is back in place.

Yesterday the first minister Michelle O'Neill, deputy first minister Emma Little Pengelly and finance minister Caoimhe Archibald were in London yesterday for a meeting with Chancellor Rachel Reeves to demand an enhanced formula for calculating the amount of government money allocated to the devolved Stormont executive.

The aforementioned highly partisan approach of SF was apparent when Ms O'Neill accused the previous Conservative governments of "decimating" public services in Northern Ireland. It was nonsense – the Tories continued the cross-party approach of Westminster going back more than 50 years of pumping money into the province.

By come calculations we are supported massively more than other UK regions. Our water and sewerage system is in crisis in part because the parties at Stormont have refused to consider water charges, as is paid in the rest of the UK. They declined even to try to reclaim some of that shortfall via a rates increase.

So Ms O’Neill is right to say that the Stormont coalition in Belfast was "united" in its demand for improved funding. Yet the delegation to London smarted from the idea that they using the ‘begging bowl’.

Sadly, begging is indeed how the perpetual complaints of successive administrations have seemed.