IF American business leaders are prepared to invest in the north, why can’t our politicians do the same?
That is the obvious question which arises from watching the leaders of the main political parties here sitting down to dinner together in Stormont, while failing to go there to do the job they were elected to do.
Like a dysfunctional family putting on a show for the neighbours, our politicians were on their best behaviour in front of US Special Envoy Joe Kennedy and his delegation of senior US executives.
However, good behaviour at dinner is no substitute for good government. It raises the level of cynicism among a frustrated electorate and it certainly does little to assure a hard-headed business delegation.
The American visitors can hardly have been impressed, not just by the absence of a devolved government here, but by the lack of urgency to form one.
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When US business leaders do more for our economy in a week than 90 MLAs have done in the past 20 months, it raises the question of politicians’ relevance in shaping our economic destiny.
A Stormont which is used only for dinner parties does not inspire confidence about our politicians’ ability to tackle the growing list of social and economic problems which burden people in their everyday lives here.
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said he was not embarrassed by the absence of a functioning government during the delegation’s visit. He should have been.
He relied instead on his meaningless mantra that talks between the DUP and the British government still have “a distance to travel”.
While the US delegates travelled a minimum of 3,000 miles to get here, it is not clear what distance, if any, Sir Jeffrey has travelled to reach agreement on the Windsor Framework. He needs to start moving.
He apparently sees no contradiction is his claim that the north is open for business while Stormont remains shut.
While it is generally recognised that the Windsor Framework requires the ironing out of some practical issues, Tánaiste Micheál Martin has rightly pointed out that unionists are missing an economic opportunity for the north by failing to accept it.
It is time for the DUP to recognise that if business leaders are prepared to invest in our economy, they need to invest in politics. Disinvestment is no longer an option.
