What’s the point of Stormont? It’s a question I often ask myself while I’m there – and one more and more of you are asking. The failure to deliver meaningful change in public services is one thing – our problems have built up over a long time – but worse is the refusal to provide straightforward and honest leadership. But it really doesn’t have to be this way. We can do better.

Last week, the Executive had its first meeting back since the summer (a long break, you may say) and it was well over a month since the first and deputy first ministers had even been seen together. People were expecting a clear policy response to the sectarian and racist hate crime we have seen in Belfast, coming after the appalling racist scenes in Ballymena.

There were lots of clear actions that could have been announced. Extra money for courts and police. An urgent review of the Tackling Paramilitarism programme to root out the control of social housing which gangs like the UDA try to exert. Bringing forward years-overdue hate crime laws.

What did we get? A photo and a press conference with some platitudes. The first minister said the Executive was going to “throw everything” at the epidemic of hate, but then announced nothing.