The pressure forced education bosses to put the scheme and transport back in place for this summer. Unfortunately, one of the demands of the campaigners, that the Education Minister, Caitriona Ruane make more money available for the scheme, was not met. Instead, the cuts may shift to another area again hitting children, parents and workers.
Ruane and the Assembly politicians keep peddling the lie that education cuts can be made while protecting “frontline services”. In reality, the budget they want to cut is the money for special needs, school meals, school transport and cleaning – all of which are essential to the daily running of the schools. The administration staff she tries to make the public believe can be targeted in fact, only account for a tiny part of the education budget.
Trade unions have a duty to answer the politicians’ lies and get the message out that the budget is not enough, public services will suffer and our communities will be the poorer for it. Even more important, the trade unions must learn from the union reps who led the campaign for the summer scheme and raise their voices now to declare we will fight the cuts. Workers are waiting for their union leaders to fight – if they will not do so, then they must stand aside.
IT DOES not come as much of a surprise to most people in Northern Ireland to hear that, yet again, the Assembly has managed to make a monumental mess of things. But the decision of Environment Minister Sammy Wilson to ban the broadcasting of a government TV ad encouraging people to switch off electrical appliances when not in use in order to save energy has left even the most hardened political cynics open-mouthed.
Seldom before has an idea spread so quickly across the world. Within days tens of millions watched Invisible Children’s “KONY 2012” video as it went viral across the internet and social media. Shocked at the story of killing, rape and child soldiers, demands multiplied that “something must be done” against Joseph Kony and the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) he leads in eastern and central Africa.
The cynical posturing of the Green Party in calling for a January General Election for the “good of the country” will not save it from annihilation when the Irish people go to vote. In three and a half years in government, the Greens have shown themselves to be no more than a clutch of arch opportunists who were quite happy to assist Fianna Fáil make working class people pay for the consequences of the economic and political crimes of that party who carry full responsibility for the disaster which has been viswited on society.