Reviewing the manifestos
Posted by Lisa on Feb 22 2007 under Uncategorized |
The Press Association has drawn together a panel of experts to review each party manifesto. The panelists are “from policy areas which will become key battleground issues during next month’s Assembly Election. As voters look beyond the constitutional debate which has dominated politics, our five experts will cast a critical eye over what the party manifestos have to say on health, education, the economy, crime and the environment”. They are:
HEALTH: Mary Hinds, the director of the Royal College of Nursing in Northern Ireland which represents almost 13,000 nurses. A nurse for almost 29 years, she is a former director of nursing at Belfast’s Mater Hospital.
EDUCATION: Anne Moran, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ulster. She is a former head of education at the university.
ECONOMY: Fergal McCormack, managing partner of FPM Chartered Accountants in Newry in 1990. He is a member of the board of InterTradeIreland, secretary of Newry Chamber of Commerce and Trade, a past chairman of the Ulster Society of Chartered Accountants and served on the Industrial Development Board.
CRIME: Suneil Sharma, an independent member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board. A property developer, he is a former Commissioner with the Commission for Racial Equality, a founding member of the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities and is currently a director of the Portadown-based Preparing for Post Conflict Trust.
ENVIRONMENT: Shirley Lewis, aka “The Bag Lady”, has made it her goal to get rid of the 500 million plastic bags misused every year in Northern Ireland. A native of Ballymena, she spent 30 years living in Sydney before returning to Northern Ireland and recently received Environment and Heritage Service funding for a 16-month campaign.
They are an interesting panel. However its a shame that there was no one to give analysis from an social inclusion, equality and shared future perspective. Surely two of the biggest challenges facing society here is how are we going to bridge the ever widening gap between the have’s and have nots? and how are we all going to finally manage to live together?
However, fear not. Micheal Wardlow from NICIE has agreed to cast his eye over each manifesto and post his musings on the blog. Look out for them from tomorrow…
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