Leadership vacuum in north

Northern Ireland's chief constable Sir Hugh Orde has said the failure to provide "political top cover" left a vacuum which dissidents were trying to exploit with attacks on police.

His comments follow the failure to meet of the Stormont cabinet on Thursday.

The scheduled meeting was blocked by Sinn Féin, who are frustrated at the failure to devolve justice powers.

The DUP wants more proof that the IRA's "army council" has disbanded for good, and last month First Minister Peter Robinson warned of "serious consequences" if the executive failed to meet on this day.

BBC News

Northern Ireland's chief constable should stay out of politics, according to First Minister Peter Robinson. Mr Robinson said dissidents were active while Stormont was running smoothly.

BBC News

Politics in the north presently consists of childish tit for tat from politicians who sit on comfortable salaries from the UK tax payer, refuse to meet each other and have yet to accomplish anything of any real value. Meanwhile ordinary people are readying themselves for (what's shaping up to be) a particularly brutal recession, in a region known for it's volatility and unresolved political status. People are desperate for some sound leadership to take them forward and show them that it's possible to weather hard times without things descending into intercommunal feuding.

Northerners aren't as passive as their brethren on the other side of the border and won't stand such petty incompetence for long without getting very frustrated. That doesn't necessarily mean that northerners have any more solutions than the rest of the Irish however; simply that they wont obliviously re-elect the same bunch of con-men year in year out for nigh on 80 years before deciding to get off their asses and doing something themselves.

Orde mentions that the paramilitaries and splinter political groups dont have the broad support of the people, which is true. But if the circus in Stormont goes on as it is for much longer you can expect their support to grow.