NI Conservatives’ co-chair, Trevor Ringland, has branded Northern Ireland’s executive parties “thoroughly pathetic”, after they failed to reach agreement in talks chaired by US diplomat, Richard Haass.
“They engineered this set piece because of repeated failures to build a shared society, and yet they still can’t come up with an accord”, Trevor observed. “A lot of people genuinely engaged with the process and justifiably feel let down. The fact that flags are the most intractable problem is particularly ridiculous. There is absolutely no excuse for any party not to sign up to flying the Union Flag on designated days, right across the province. That is the most sensible and the fairest solution.”
“The people of Northern Ireland are absolutely fed up with political parties that don’t deliver. In fact I detect that the whole Haass process was viewed with scepticism and boredom by the vast majority. The only thing we can be grateful for is that the parties didn’t concoct some sort of Christmas fudge to hide their blushes. Northern Ireland is crying out for real politics, which get on with creating jobs, addressing social issues and delivering good public services. The current parties at Stormont simply aren’t delivering that.”