No Gloss – Just Matt!

This blog will primarily be used as an insight into what really goes on in the politics of West Belfast; it will be composed of my view of the world and formed by my interaction with the constituents I speak to everyday among other things.

From time to time however, it will be necessary to comment on the wider political front and give my view of what’s happening and I think it only right to have my first post address the current political goings on at Stormont and SF’s bizarre attacks on the SDLP.

It was not a week ago that Carál Ni Chuilin, Sinn Fein North Belfast MLA was attacking Margaret Ritchie for her work on fuel poverty and saying this was not the issue. That the delay was a disgrace, and that ‘vulnerable people in our society’ should not be used ‘to score petty political points’.

 

We also had the bizarre and rather blatant dishonest (read lie) statement that NIE would benefit from any proposals Margaret Ritchie would introduce, something that DSD and NIE have exposed as untrue and misinformed. If that wasn’t embarrassing enough, that Sinn Fein where so misinformed, fast forward a week and what do we get: -

 

Sinn Fein finally accepting that fuel poverty is a major issue, accepting that Margaret Ritchie’s proposals where right and liking them so much that they stole them and claimed them as their own.

 

As for Ms Carál Ni Chuilin, if she had an issue with a delay she really needed to speak to Martin McGuinness, so that he could have gone and spoke to his boss, Peter Robinson (the team leader), and had this important issue put on the agenda. Everyone is aware that everything that goes on the agenda has to be to the liking of the DUP/SF and if fuel poverty was delayed then it was delayed because they wanted it delayed.

 

SF stealing and promoting SDLP policies and proposals as their own, that’s a new tactic isn’t it?

 

Snatching £30 million off DSD and the Housing Executive and hurting the most vulnerable people in society was the result – so yeah the most vulnerable people in our society should not be used to score petty political points. If Caral Ni Chuilin believes that, she should tell Martin McGuinness, so he can tell his leader.

 

Just on a side note, the new phrase coming from McGuinness HQ is that “the executive needs to work as a team”. “Margaret Ritchie is not a team player”. “Team”, “team”, “team”.

 

He’s right, Margaret Ritchie is not a team player, because the team Martin McGuinness is referring to is team DUP, Margaret doesn’t play for them as she demonstrated over C.T.I., SF play for them, promote their ideas and policies and exercise team DUP’s manifesto pledges – no Irish Language Act, no end to academic selection, and the list goes on.

 

Next post West Belfast……………

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 at 1:58 pm and is filed under Assembly, Executive, Margaret Ritchie. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.