Politics is probably the only job where you can publicly fail for years but return every five years after a review.

The review will point out that you have failed in multiple areas, you’ve gone back on some of your most dearly-held beliefs, and you did almost nothing you said you’d do.

Most are returned to the job. You might even get promoted, and you’re almost guaranteed a pay rise.

A lot of democratic societies are like this, from the House of Representatives to the House of Commons.

Failure often presents with a nice suit and no sense of shame.

For Stormont, we’d have to invent a new word for failure.

Although the politicians shoulder much of the blame, the institution itself is set up to fail.

We learned this month that the north “raises the lowest level of revenue in the developed world compared to other jurisdictions”, with the Treasury providing 95% of the Executive’s budget.

Forget pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, we’ve not even got socks on. Stood barefoot, with our hands out to our coloniser, begging for scraps off........

© The Irish News