The private sector must be revived in Northern Ireland
James Forsyth 8:36pm
One quirk of the welfare reform debate is that many of the reforms won’t
automatically apply in one of the parts of the United Kingdom with the worst welfare problems: Ulster. As Owen Paterson, the Northern Ireland Secretary, points out in a speech tonight,
‘Northern Ireland has proportionately one third more households living on out of work benefits as the rest of the UK’. He also notes that 1 in 10 of the population there are on
Disability Living Allowance, double the UK average. But the Work Programme doesn’t apply in Northern Ireland and any welfare reform there will have to be done by the Executive.
Paterson is now campaigning to make the case to local politicians for reform, for maintaining parity with the rest of the United Kingdom. His speech tonight is a strong argument for the importance of work and the private sector in reviving Northern Ireland. The current situation where public spending accounts for more than three quarters of GDP and the median salary in the public sector is £9,000 higher than in the private sector is simply unsustainable.
Key to boosting the Northern Irish public sector will be a corporation tax cut to assist the North in competing with the South. According to Paterson, the ministerial work group on the practicalities of cutting corporation tax there should have completed its work by the end of the summer.
The quicker this new lower rate can be introduced the better it will be for the stability of Northern Ireland. Indeed, the revival of the private sector in Northern Ireland is as crucial to its future peace and prospeity as the Good Friday agreement.
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David Lindsay
February 27th, 2012 9:52pm Report this commentThe last integrationist MP to date elected specifically as such was the Labour-minded Robert McCartney. The Ulster Unionist who defeated him, Sylvia Hermon, has since left that party due to its alliance with the Conservatives, allying herself to Labour and even to positions generally associated with the Labour Left, notably opposition to nuclear weapons and to European federalism. Northern Ireland trade unionists sit as Labour peers.
The Welfare State, workers’ rights, full employment, a strong Parliament, trade unions, co-operatives, credit unions, mutual guarantee societies, mutual building societies, and nationalised industries (often with the word “British” in their names) were historically successful in creating communities of interest among the several parts of the United Kingdom, including between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, thus safeguarding and strengthening the Union.
The Oncoming Storm
February 27th, 2012 11:45pm Report this commentOf course this will never happen here, thanks to Blair we have a political system designed to give SF and the DUP power with little accountability. Like the Party in 1984 they merely seek power to have it not to do anything with it, the only solution they have to any problem is to throw money at it. Politics here is totally corrupt and based on the main parties giving favours to their benefactors, NI is governed more like a Deep South state in the 1930's than part of the United Kingdom.
Fergus Pickering
February 28th, 2012 6:09am Report this commentUlster folk, my kind of people.
Framer
February 28th, 2012 11:06am Report this commentCut employers' national insurance rather than fiddle around with Corporation Tax thus making employment cheaper in Northern Ireland and increasing business profit.
The privates sector is not likely to grow in a recession while the UK public sector is supported by high taxes that divert the spending power of taxpaying workers.
With retail and the building industry in permanent crisis and depression there is no other way out.
Business rate reductions for empty commercial property (in Stormont's gift) might provide a bit of a breathing space and stop bulldozers being sent in to destroy still useful buildings (necessary tax avoidance).
john gerard
February 28th, 2012 11:07am Report this comment"revived"? It barely exists in the first place. With the public sector accounting for something like 75% of GDP, it needs radical surgery. Turn it into a guinea pig to demonstrate the power of the private sector, a special economic zone. 10% corporation tax, 10% CGT, Higher income tax threshold (at least £12k), lower income taxes for all (10% and 20%), abolish inheritance tax and mortgage interest tax relief, cut VAT in half, and burn the tax code. In 20 years it'll look like Hong Kong. Probably.
justathought
February 28th, 2012 11:31am Report this commentAdministrator,
I have just tried posting my comment and was 'timed out' !. Just how long are we given to compose a comment and post it?
I notice that many commentators have deserted coffeehouse and wonder how many of them are affected by the same problem and decided to give up?
Can you post a sticky when you make alterations to you system?
Peter From Maidstone
February 28th, 2012 11:52am Report this commentWe moved to www.coffeehousewall.co.uk when the Spectator one was shut down.
We have nearly reached the milestone of 1000 posts.
justathought
February 28th, 2012 12:44pm Report this commentthe key is not just a cut in the rate of corporation tax but rather wholesale reform. A good start would be the land Law Reform Bill (Northern Ireland) which was drafted by the Law Commission in 2010.
justathought
February 28th, 2012 12:47pm Report this commentThe Chairman of the Northern Ireland Law Commission said in his foreword to the report NILC 8
"there has been widespread and longstanding acceptance that the land law of Northern Ireland is outdated, opaque and unjustifiably complex...and has been considered and debated in excess of four decades"
justathought
February 28th, 2012 12:49pm Report this commentThe NILC Chairman also stated "Northern Ireland finds itself out of step with other common law countries, including sister jurisdictions, where extensive legislative reforms in land law have been completed"
justathought
February 28th, 2012 12:52pm Report this commentThe Chairman of the NILC 8 report concludes
"The process of law reform in Northern Ireland will be barren indeed if reports of this nature do not culminate in legislation. The through and comprehensive process preceding this report should ensure there will be no good reason for failing to legislate in its wake"
telemachus'
February 28th, 2012 12:55pm Report this commentPeter From Maidstone
What in fact you find on that site is cosy right wing chat which brooks no dissent.
justathought
February 28th, 2012 12:59pm Report this commentNorthern Ireland is in many ways no different to Greece with its high dependency on the block grant coupled with its "outdated, opaque and unjustifiably complex" rules and regulations. This is a significant barrier to doing business in NI.
Simply lowering corporation tax will not make NI competitive without law reform
Peter From Maidstone
February 28th, 2012 2:15pm Report this commenttele.. that is what you would expect on a conservative site. And it is trolling which is not permitted, not dissent.
Fergus Pickering
February 29th, 2012 7:06am Report this commentWhat Peter from Maidstone fails to tell you is that the 1000 comments are written by 3 people. It's kind of sad.
Ian Boersma
March 25th, 2012 9:42pm Report this commentOwen Patterson makes the point that there are per head of population twice as many people in Northern Ireland claiming DLA than in the rest of the UK. I wonder if after a civil conflict in England lasting a generation in which one in every 400 people were killed would the national average perhaps catch up with that of Northern Ireland.
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