Friday 13th Agreement? Hopefully not, we need all the luck we can get…
In the last 10 days Northern Ireland lost around 1,000 jobs. Not good. Global economic conditions have been to blame as per usual, but the fact that we are not exactly one of the most politically stable parts of the world can’t have helped either.
Today we see ourselves at the tail end of another round of talks with the UK and Irish Governments on the same issues that we discussed 6 months ago and 6 months before that - welfare reform, legacy of the troubles and how much money we might be able to borrow from the Chancellor.
First Minister Peter Robinson said this week that much progress has been made in terms of dialogue, but the next stage is to get some of those conversations onto paper and seek universal agreement from the other main parties such as the Alliance, SDLP and the Ulster Unionist Party.
A North-South Ministerial meeting scheduled for today has also been postponed which hopefully indicates that some form of announcement will be made today or tomorrow. The superstitious person in me hopes that it will be tomorrow. Being Friday 13th we need all the luck we can get.
Cutting through the VAT
On a more positive note the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee launched an inquiry this week into how tourism and hospitality services in Northern Ireland can be promoted through the tax system – namely looking at the effect a reduced rate of UK VAT would have on the tourism and hospitality sector in Northern Ireland.
Due to the land border with the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland is at a distinct competitive disadvantage with a country that has a VAT rate of 9% whilst the UK is fixed at 20%. We’ve been told that a differential rate with the UK can’t happen, but we were told that about setting our own rate of Corporation Tax.
New leader for the SDLP?
The SDLP party conference takes place tomorrow and also a vote to unseat the current leader Alasdair McDonnell MP. At 32, Colum Eastwood MLA from the Foyle constituency is the challenger to the long serving Belfast based McDonnell. Around 350 SDLP delegates get to vote and many expect Eastwood to win, but political observers will know that McDonnell still has many supporters in the ranks. Writing him off would be naive. All will be clearer at around 5pm tomorrow.