FROM a distance you can see them, the carrion birds flocking over Stormont waiting for the cadaver of so-called regional democracy to be hoisted onto the roof of Parliament Buildings – you know, the bit in the middle where vainglorious unionists had once planned to put a dome, but never quite got round to it.

As we inch towards next year’s Assembly elections, we are at the stage where the two main parties start jockeying for position, and begin to wonder whether it would be better for them to bring the shaky edifice of Stormont crashing to the ground.

This time around there is added piquancy as the polls suggest both Sinn Féin and the DUP are losing the confidence of voters.

That’s hardly surprising. Neither has delivered.

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Sinn Féin may be responsible for transport, among other things, but it couldn’t even get people to the Fleadh on time. Big events seem to take Translink by surprise.

As for the DUP, the Donaldson scandal looms large, and its political incompetence is clear now even to the most orange of unionists.

It’s a sorry tale. For those of us who believed that government delivered by people who lived here would be better than decisions imposed by direct........

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