‘Live horse and you’ll get hay’ is one of the greatest lies of Northern Irish politics. It means, in short, that if you’re patient and stay quiet you will get your reward.
But as Derry has learned during its century as ‘second’ city of the NI state, our patience – or tolerance – is not always an asset.
Instead, it has been cynically used against us to deny the North West a fair shake in everything from infrastructure to third level education.
Ask any child what Derry needs to reboot its economy, and they will give you the same starting point: two proper roads to the island’s capitals and a university.
This has been true for more than fifty years.
Derry, for a while under post-ceasefire Stormont, did start to hope again. There were suggestions of new roads to Dublin and Belfast and a major university expansion. The 2011 One Plan promised us new dual carriageways for the A5 and A6, and 10,000 students at Magee.
Today, we are being told that the A5 has been delayed, again, until at least the autumn, and UU have stopped making any promises about Magee, while they run three to four years behind schedule on the new campus in Belfast. This is the same campus which should have been built in Derry.
The DUP is now making noises that they could release the block on the A5 if Stormont reconvenes – just as they could arrange for a Derry ‘City Deal’ from the £1billion they negotiated from the Conservative Party to prop up the Brexit administration in London.
Unfortunately, they have no credibility and their influence is on the wane. It would be folly indeed if the North West was to sell itself short by agreeing to bail out hardline unionism, on the basis of promises they have no intention of fulfilling.
Parking problems
City-centre residents need protection from rogue parkers. Footpaths, laneways, disabled spots – nowhere is sacrosanct. Trying to get access to a house in Derry’s Northland Road area during a busy weekday is near impossible without double parking.
Our police and traffic officials, quite rightly, allow a certain degree of flexibility – with both residents and visitors alike. And it is very rare indeed that clamping is ever required.
Thus it is a little odd that a punitive measure like clamping would be necessary even in a big city like Belfast at 7.20am on a Friday morning.
There are few of us who would go so far as to produce a set of bolt-cutters out of the boot and take the clamp from our car. Though we might certainly feel a little aggrieved that no other sanction had been applied.
But no-one is above the law, and f Gerry Kelly was illegally parked, he should, of course, pay for the cost of the replacement of the clamp he removed from his car outside the Belfast MAC.
But to make a minor matter into a major political issue is just wrong. It is not as if half a billion pounds has just gone missing from the coffers.
Categorics
The British government have told the EU categorically that there will be no hard border in Ireland.
At the weekend they stated that they were "categorically" leaving the EU Customs Union.
Unless, they are being deliberately misleadubg in either statement A or statement B, it would appear that they will categorically have to grant the North special status after Brexit.
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