In 2011, the then Stormont minister for Social Development, Alex Attwood, announced that some 200 houses were to be built in north Belfast, on the former Girdwood Barracks site. The plan was met with outrage and was branded as ‘deeply destabilising’ by the largest party in Stormont, the DUP.

During the recent ‘community relations week’ in the Six Counties (May 12-19), various Stormont ministers, MLAs, members of publicly-funded quangos, media commentators and others, all queued up to address the problem of “sectarianism within society”.

On Tuesday [May 8], the Six County Assembly again demonstrated its primary purpose as a rubber-stamp mechanism for implementing British government policy when its members voted to approve the Pensions Bill.

On Tuesday [March 20], the Tory-led British government succeeded in passing its Health and Social Care Bill in Westminster. The Bill represents the greatest upheaval of the NHS since its formation in 1948 and and proactively facilitates a further opening up of the service to private companies.

There are over 110,000 people unemployed in the Six Counties. Over 80,000 children are living in poverty. As harrowing as these figures may be, spare a thought for that oft maligned group also on the verge of sinking into penury – our politicians.

Over 80,000 children in the Six Counties are living in poverty, according to a new report published yesterday [January 10]. The report, produced by the Campaign to End Child Poverty, found that over 1 in 5 children in the statelet live below the poverty line – the point at which families struggle to pay for basic necessities such as food, heating and clothing.