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Rates 2024

As we enter the final few days of councils rate setting process rumours circulate about the scale of increases being planned by Mid and East Antrim Borough Council. During my time there prior to 2019 I warned that failure to address structural issues would lead to a crisis, that crisis arrived late last year with the announcement of a circa £7 million black hole.  Should it transpire that the corporate response is to introduce double digit rates increases then its clear that sufficient lessons have not been learned.  For new councillors the blame is not theirs, those who have sat in the chamber the longest carry the biggest responsibility for failing to challenge the mindset. But therein lies a lesson. In the late 1980’s Star Trek The Next Generation introduced us to a new species of alien, the Borg. A species which sought not to eradicate other species but assimilate them into the collective, a single all encompassing hive mind from which no original thought could originate. Resistanc
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ATM Theft

Ulster Unionist Councillor Stephen Nicholl has condemned the theft of ATM's from Tesco in Ballymena and called for a more realistic response from banks. "Once again a local community has been inconvenienced by well organised criminal gangs raiding, seemingly at will, across Northern Ireland. Not only are we losing the ATM's in areas where they have been stolen but we are also seeing the gradual withdrawal of services elsewhere as ATM's are not being replenished or having limited cash restocked. It would seem a rational move to have alarms fitted to ATM's activated by excessive movement or tracking software installed as most phones have. Banks certainly have a responsibility to protect not only their property but the businesses undermined by both the physical and economic damage. We cannot expect the PSNI to be everywhere but on this occasion, fortunately, the PSNI interrupted the robbers and gave chase. Hopefully enough evidence has been gathered to
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When a cash surplus is not all that it seems

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Over the next few weeks I'll be publishing a number of videos highlighting key issues in Mid and East Antrim, of particular concern is the way council uses it's borrowing powers. Long term, sustainable financial management is key to delivering value for money and reduced rates.
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Accountable and responsible

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As we enter into the election period there are some parties whose grasp of facts and events has become less than robust. To aid in the understanding of historic events I have published the Ulster Unionist position in relation to the rates setting process in Mid and East Antrim Borough Council for the 2018/2019 financial year. This is not something written with the benefit of hindsight but the actual minute of the meeting at which the rates were set. It is for the public to decide if, on that date and in those circumstances, we were accountable and responsible.
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The consequence of "filling yer boots"

Following the release of the draft Withdrawal Agreement Sir Jeffrey Donaldson was asked about the impact on the Confidence and Supply Agreement between the DUP and the Conservative Party. It was noted that not all the promised funding had yet been provided and may be lost. Sir Jeffrey replied that in such a scenario the DUP could recoup the funds by negotiation with the Government on a vote by vote basis. Since the 2007 St Andrews Agreement the DUP have reduced unionist politics in Northern Ireland to a single issue, the DUP must have more seats than Sinn Fein. Irrespective of social policy, economic policy or any other issue, political control due to this one issue is absolute. Ten years of this form of politics has delivered a party whose arrogance and complete rejection of normal politics has transformed the world’s impression of unionism. Believing the Union is protected by the principle of consent in the Belfast Agreement, the DUP have played fast and loose with probity, gov
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We can afford it

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“We can afford it” A simple enough phrase intended to assure those listening that financial arrangements are sound and in good order. Except that on its own the phrase contains none of the detail required to determine the voracity of the statement. For example, I can afford a Rolls Royce. If I were to arrive home this evening in a Rolls I could, in response to my wife’s inevitable quizzical look, state “We can afford it”. She will of course seek further clarification at which point I can point out that by not paying for heating oil, electric, rates, holidays, telephone etc. the car is easily affordable. After a very short discussion, led by her, on the nature of affordability the car will be returned to dealership forthwith. I won’t pick up a Rolls Royce tonight because I understand a very basic governance and financial management rule, whether at home, in a company boardroom or a council chamber, when someone says “we can afford it” the response is not “great” the proper res
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The threat to the Union

Unionism is facing its own existential crisis and must learn how to come to terms with it. Put simply the Democratic Unionist Party represent a clear threat to the very union they purport to uphold. In May 1974 then Prime Minister Harold Wilson used the term “spongers” to describe unionists involved in the UWC strike. Today it is a term that many in the rest of the UK would apply to what the DUP consider robust negotiations.   Losing the goodwill of our fellow UK citizens at a time when Northern Ireland’s position in the UK is the principle barrier to many achieving the Brexit they aspire to cannot be considered a strategic position to take. The DUP constantly refer to the principle of consent underpinned in the Belfast Agreement, an agreement they had no hand in, yet they miss the point that while people are free to make their own determination others are free to try and persuade them of one view or the other. Ignoring this point is central to the risks attached to their threa
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