https://www.itv.com/news/utv/2025-02-11/public-should-campaign-to-reform-stormont-naomi-long
The Alliance Party Leader Naomi Long has suggested that the public should push for reform at Stormont by contacting the Secretary of State.
She also voiced her frustration at delays to the long-awaited programme for government, urging her ministerial counterparts not to allow perfection to be the enemy of the good.
The Alliance Party has been calling for changes to how Stormont runs to prevent one party being able to trigger the collapse of the institutions again in the future.
In an interview on UTV's View From Stormont programme, Naomi Long said as well as voting for parties which want to reform the institutions, the public could take action to call for change.
Naomi Long said: "They can have a direct say by contacting the Secretary of State in terms of lobbying for it, just like I do.
"I see no reason why not, there are lots of public campaigns about important things and if the institutions remaining stable is important to the public."
The Alliance Party leader denied she was making the suggestion because her party is not making progress in convincing other parties as well as the British and Irish Governments to make changes.
Ms Long added: "I have actually had really good responses, I've written to the Taoiseach, I've written to the Tanaiste.
"I've had really positive responses from them about where they want to go with this and the fact that they are engaged."
Naomi Long also said the search for perfection should not delay Stormont's Programme for Government.
Stormont ministers agreed a draft Programme for Government last September, but a final programme has not yet been published.
The Justice Minister Naomi Long said: "In terms of the Programme for Government, the last we heard of it was it was with the Executive Office and it was due to come back to us at the Executive I think fairly imminently.
She said, "I think it is important when we consider these things as an Executive and as a society, that we don't allow the perfection to become the enemy of the good.
"We are never going to get a programme that everyone is going to be one hundred percent happy with, but we do have to do these things in a timely way.
"And I think that now we are a full year into this Executive, it's important that the programme is out there in a substantive form, that we are able to start delivering… it would be nice to have it as a guide for the public to hold us to account."
"Naomi Long was asked if she was frustrated by the delay in finalising the plan she said, "Of course, I get frustrated by delay all the time."
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9 comments
She is right. It cannot go on as it is.
Hilary Benn:
He also refused to back calls from some parties for the power-sharing institutions at Stormont to be reformed to avoid future collapses.
“I’ve thought carefully about what I’d say on this – it seems clear to me that reform will have to come from within the parties who took that decision 26 years ago to move things forward, but they have the means of avoiding collapse in their hands,” he said.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0qw37kxn0po
So, one person who doesn’t have the foresight to adapt and improve, who the electorate of NI can’t vote for, is an additional obstacle to the usual suspects.
Maybe she should think about campaigning for Stormont reform?
What’s next, sinnfein asking me to fix the NHS?
Dup asking me to fund schools more?
That’s your fucking job!
I think most people gave up on Stormont doing anything remotely useful years ago.
If they’re out on one of their marathon huffs, health, education, the roads etc etc are a mess. If they’re sitting, it’s exactly the same, with the bonus of some ‘themmuns got this and we didn’t’ faux outrage.
Can’t change the system of government without referendum, yes Alliance voters etc can talk about St Andrew’s etc having made changes to things but there are some issues that are core to GFA and can’t be changed by the SoS or anyone with a public vote.
I mean technically there is a chance it would need to be ratified both North and South.
All politics aside, I am really impressed Naomi is still alive
Should be deadlines in place like any other workplace.
Institutionally the wider issue is that to tinker with the fundamental structures of the GFA is to overtly or tacitly imply that the structural issues in NI society are solved.
I don’t think they are, and it’s decades away from being equitable.
I also suspect that Naomi Long’s ‘reforms’ would look more like baking a third intractable group called ‘other’ into stone. The GFA setup is far more static than any other political system already and doesn’t need another hurdle to dynamism.
Naomi isn’t wrong.
Maybe forming some sort of cross-party working group designed to jointly devise and draw up proposed reforms – capable of addressing legacy structural deficits of the system etc could be a start.
That way, Everyone (regardless of partisan leanings) has a stake in things. Whatever proposals are brought forward hold a greater weight and conceivably stand a greater chance of serious consideration / implementation.
Asking for reform without presenting any firmly codified outline of what things would look like isn’t likely to endear or engender confidence.
Change is the only constant or certainty, better all concerned come together, acknowledge the deficits and work toward creating a structure less vulnerable to collapse when one pulls a strop and sends everything into a state of paralysis and chaos.
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