"Slim on Actions"
I'm just on my way home from the Institute of Directors' Annual Dinner. Apparently a small number of students protested outside carrying placards with the slogan "Fat Cats" -a response to Joanne Stuart's report this week pointing towards a future increase in the cap on tuition fees (a report which the IoD is keen to point out she didn't write in her capacity as their local chair).
In his after dinner speech, the actor Dan Gordon joked that Joanne Stuart should take care walking around the university area in the near future ("especially around 4 o'clock in the afternoon when the students are just getting up"). But he also picked up on the way in which the Employment and Learning Minister Danny Kennedy (another guest) had been happy to use Ms Stuart as a way to dodge the tuition fees bullet, claiming the minister had mentioned her by name 32 times during his speech to the Assembly.
Perhaps feeling empowered by having set out her stall on the fees issue, or because this was her last speech as IoD Chair, Joanne Stuart didn't hold back in criticising those Stormont politicians who she believes have sought refuge in delay and indecision when it comes to wider economic priorities.
She called for the Executive to adopt a "more businesslike approach". "The draft budget makes claims about economic growth" she argued " but it is slim on actions and lacks a compelling vision".
"Nor does it help" she continued "that some Ministers are chipping away at each other at every public opportunity. Government must be decisive, act cohesively and deliver the actions it is responsible for - it must not be one in which individuals or groups seek advantage".
Ms Stuart finished with an appeal to politicians and public servants to adopt a more collegiate approach, to take the business community's seriously and "to accept that an element of managed risk is crucial to progress".
P.S. I didn't arrive at the IoD dinner until late because I had been attending the Naomi Long got politician of the year and the Devenport Diaries received a special mention for which I am very grateful to Mick Fealty and all the Slugger-ites. More to the point, I got to meet a couple of people who I have only hitherto known by their pen names - please keep the comments coming they are always much appreciated.
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