"What is going to kick start this election?"

Fellow pedants will be as delighted as myself that the DUP have now updated this previously erroneous claim:

“My DUP has delivered free prescriptions for everyone in Northern Ireland, the most generous scheme in the UK”

It now reads in their "40 of our achievements in 4 years" document:

"We've introduced free prescriptions for everyone in Northern Ireland- they're not available in England"

The last part is undoubtedly true, although I think a Unionist party should always tread very cautiously when boasting of any socio-economic advantages we may enjoy over our fellow British citizens.

Regarding the whole document, the question is when the DUP talk of "we" are they referring to "we" as in Northern Ireland's all-encompassing "government", or we as in the "We" operating out of Dundela Towers?

It's not clear and perhaps in terms of influencing the election, it doesn't really matter anyway who gets the credit for whatever the Assembly is claimed to have achieved; the journalist Eamonn Mallie asked plaintively yesterday on Twitter:

"what is going to kick start this election?"

He joined in with the host of replying metaphorical yawns:

"J'en ai marre" (Roughly, "I'm right-o pissed-off already with this boring oul crap"

The DUP's biggest enemy this time is not other mainstream Unionists, Sinn Fein or even Jim Allister. It's voter apathy which may undermine the legitimacy of the devolved assembly and, by extension, its executive, which is more than likely going to be still controlled by the DUP-Sinn Fein Axis.

The last Assembly Election pulled out 63.5% of the electorate, last year's Westminsters' 58%.
Could the total vote drop below 55%, or even 50% this time?

And if it did, what would be the message being delivered on the "first full devolved government in Northern Ireland for over 40 years"?

Never mind the quality, feeeel the cheapness.

One of the basic fundaments of UK politics is that parties don’t expect us to take anything contained or promised in their manifestos too literally but still, this proclamation from "Lynn of Co Antrim" does fall down on two crucial points:

“My DUP has delivered free prescriptions for everyone in Northern Ireland, the most generous scheme in the UK”

First, whose idea was the free prescription”?
Under the aegis of whose “ministry” was it introduced?

Secondly, both Wales since 2007 and Scotland (admittedly the day after Lyn of Antrim made her claim) since this year have also offered free prescriptions, so it’s not strictly accurate to call it the "most generous” scheme in the UK.

Incidently, I hope Lynn does indeed come from Antrim and not somewhere like Little Muck, Arizona....  the DUP did have one or two problems on that score before.

But as I said, no one reads manifestos, never mind believes the nonsense inside them. More important is how, as touched on by Owen Polley here, we look to improve upon the delivery of our health service and (management, trade-unionists and bureaucrats hold your breath now) ultimately “empower” patients and doctors (ie provide better healthcare, more efficiently)

In England, as the CEP have been quick to remind us this week, prescriptions have gone up from 7.20 pounds a week to 7.40.

On bare facts, devolution has, once again, delivered an unfair state of affairs.

However, despite those discrepancies in prescription prices:

Historically Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have had higher levels of NHS funding per capita thanEngland. The research confirms this but shows other striking and troubling differences between the four nations, some accentuated since devolution.

In particular, these were higher numbers of doctors, nurses and managers per head of population, lower crude productivity per staff member (particularly in Scotland), and a higher percentage of the population waiting for care in Wales and Northern Ireland than in England.

The analysis presented in this report suggests that England’s NHS spends less and has fewer staff per capita than the health services in the devolved countries, but that it makes better use of its resources with respect to delivering higher levels of activity and productivity and lower waiting times. Comparing the devolved nations with regions of England that are similar on a range of health and socio-economic indicators, the differences highlighted in the analysis are even more pronounced.

I posted that finding from the Nuttfield Trust just over a month ago.

So, English patients do pay prescription fees but also receive a better quality service than that “enjoyed” (or make that “endured”) by their fellow Brits in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Why?

Well, in my opinion, prescription prices, like University Tuition fees, have become the Devocracy’s populist rallying call in the hope that the short-term dust the debate throws up blinds the electorate to the fact that in both areas nasty truths have only been temporarily postponed.

Actually, it’s only one nasty core truth- society is not prepared to pay the extra money needed, or make the sacrifices required (eg unemployment resulting from streamlining the NHS or less students attending university) to deliver the kind of high-quality health service or third level education system they demand.

The Devocrats in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales know that fact and as a consequence have taken the coward’s way out:

“You get a worse health service than the English and it’s getting worse but hey, we don’t charge you prescription charges"

or:

“The quality delivered by our universities is going down the pan but sure, if we don’t charge you to attend them in the first place who cares?”

In the ideal world (ie around about one generation ago) we could get away with free (OK, that was always a misnomer because somewhere down the line someone did have to pay) university education and prescriptions. We’d all also be 100% happy with the service offered by the health service and third-level educational institutes.
But both demographically and economically, we most certainly don’t live in that ideal world.

 I don’t want to pay for my prescriptions and in the far-off future, I don’t want to have my offspring paying to attend university. But I also demand better than adequate healthcare and high-quality third-level education- how do the devocrats in Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh propose to square that circle?
Shush- I think I can just about hear the pitter-patter of a tactical retreat.

When even the DUP insults have ceased... can it get any worse for the UUP?

Traditionally you could always tell that an election was in the offing in Northern Ireland by watching the pattern of the DUP's press releases- they would be balanced delicately by, on the one hand, various party luminaries calling for "Unionist Unity", whilst on the other, their colleagues would be simultaneously tripping over each other busily a-slammin' and a-blastin' the UUP.

The fact that (as of today) the last current 20 releases from the DUPes contain nary a whisper of "The Protestant People Demand Unity" (block capitals would have been invariably added for max effect), never mind the slightest hint of a "slam" or "blast" of their "partners" in Unionism is perhaps the worst  possible indictment of the "threat" now posed to their communal hegemony by the UUP under Tom Elliott.

Confidence is now apparently so high that even "Smashing Sinn Fein" is off the cards... a none too subtle message also then for both Martin McGuinness and the TUV Ultras.

Britain Votes!

Britain-Votes.co.uk is a "political blog founded by Tom Harris and Chris Terry. We were inspired by the American blog Electoral-Vote and our intent is to offer insight and analysis on British politics that is accessible to both the keen and casual observer".

Well worth a read, here they are on the upcoming Lagan Valley Assembly contest.

Anyone but Adams

The topic  Sinn Fein would like the electorate of Louth to be voting on next week:

And this is the topic they should be voting on:

(Click to enlarge)

Hussey surprises at the hustings.

When I was thinking over Christmas about where I wanted the blog to go this year, I must say that the approaching nightmare of this year's NI Assembly Elections and all the attendant intra-communal hot-air and inconsequential baiting and "slamming" (the only synonym apparently in the local politician lexicon for "criticise strongly") didn't exactly motivate me to bother continuing the thing full-stop.

As it stands at the minute, I'm mildly interested in the results. No longer being a member of a participating party at this present stage I couldn't give a fiddlers about the campaign.

Having said that, this early election press-release from the UUP's candidate for the West Tyrone Constituency, Ross Hussey, has surprised me in a positive way: