Political Will

I was writing yesterday about the poor health of the less well-off here in parts of Belfast and the near impossibility of changing peoples attitudes to what they eat and consume generally. Thinking it over I realise how badly served we are by the political class in Northern Ireland (and I'm not just talking about politicians but political journalists too). Everything is reduced to fighting for tribal territory, community identity and all of that. And what is absurd is that in the end it does not matter a damn - any of it. Yet, parity of esteem, cultural recognition and so and so forth are what elections around here are fought on.

The Green Party is seen as a joke. Maybe it is, I have not lived back in Northern Ireland long enough to really see if that is the case but I am probably going to vote for them in the next election simply because no other party seems to be concerned with things like global warming, community health, erosion of the economic base by multi-nationals and the other issues I think are pressing.

In times gone past, people of a left-wing political persuasion protested that N.I. politics furthered tribal warfare when it should have been involved in class warfare. And indeed, there is truth in it - the poor of both communities were being shat upon in identical fashion. In the last few years the 'Troubles' have thankfully finally petered out and Belfast is a fairly normal place with only the kind of problems you'd find in any other regional large town in the UK or Ireland. Why then have the politicians not moved on? Why is the same sectarian tripe still being trotted out? Is it not time we began to force our politicians to rethink their priorities and look at what really matters? A united Ireland or a strengthened union with the UK will be the last of our worries if we cannot get global warming, growing obesity rates or state-sponsored corporate power under control.