Lack of confidence in the Assembly
During the festive season when fun, games, family and friends from home and abroad, are engaged in social activities not so frequent during the rest of the year; I was surprised to hear some comments from people not normally outspoken on political matters.
These I considered to be the mature, cautious types who generally commented with balanced consideration.
The matter of the state of affairs in our Assembly was raised and I noticed they were quite unreserved in their opinion. They expressed disgust at the collective and individual behaviour of members and suggested that direct rule should be tried again as it involved the experience of national parliamentarians.
My unexpected, non-academic research with a comparative few had one thing in common; they all thought our Assembly an embarrassment, quite useless; and should be replaced by direct rule.
Our Assembly members must realise that lack of confidence in them is growing and the show cannot keep going on.
David Barbour, Coleraine