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Media Obession with bleak economy

Posted by Sammy Wilson, MP for East Antrim, at 10:37, Mon 17 January 2011:

It is my job as Finance Minister and a responsible public representative to strike the balance between reporting the economic difficulties we face while at the same time being optimistic about the possibilities which are available to make a better economic future for everyone in N.I. The job is not made any easier when you are working with a media who thrive on bad news and are not interested in good and positive developments.

I was feeling good about the economy this week. It started with a visit to a factory which makes pumps for boats, caravans and motorhomes in Bangor. The directors who I met were so proud of the work they did and were totally committed to keeping jobs in N.I. They were exporting to a wide range of countries leading the industry in developing new products and even during this recession had grown their employment by nearly 40% with definite plans for another 100% increase over the next few years. They wanted to talk about how the Executive could help them to realise their ambitious plans and the measures from which industry generally could benefit.

The next day I met two delegations from the Chamber of Commerce in Belfast and Londonderry. They wanted to talk about the work which they were doing to beat the recession and invigorate the centres of the two major cities in N.I. (sorry Lisburn and Newry!!). They were bubbling with ideas, enthusiastic about the future and realistic about the pressures which they had to face in a difficult market, but were determined to look for ways of making their part of N.I. better. It was refreshing to hear from people who took pride in their cities and took seriously their role in making them better.

On my way home from Westminster I met a man who worked for a local construction firm. He looked tired and as I got into conversation with him he revealed that he had just flown in from one of the Gulf States where his firm is now doing booming business as it seeks to weather out the recession in the U.K. This is exactly what Arlene Foster as Enterprise Minister has been encouraging firms to do as a way of building long term growth prospects for the N.I. economy and it is good to see local entrepreneurs responding.

I contrasted this with two events on Friday. Firstly after meeting with the Finance Minister from the Republic of Ireland we did a quick joint interview for the local media. It was brief and quite frankly the reporters were more interested in the breaking news of the problems being faced by Brian Cowan than our discussions about banks and E.U. money. Afterwards one of the financial journalists asked if I would do a longer interview. We talked about a number of angles but when it turned out I had no bad news to talk about he decided that he wouldn’t bother with the interview. It does frustrate me that our local media seem to only want to report bad news which of course plays a part in depressing the economy and creating an unnecessary loss of confidence.

The second event was the Health Minister announcing how he intends to spend the money allocated to him in the budget. It is important to point out that the budget which he received was primarily determined by the amount of money made available to N.I. by the Conservative/ Liberal Democrat government at Westminster. Our budget has been cut by £4bn over the next four years. The irony is that Michael McGimpsey, now one of the chief critics of the budget outcome, actually encouraged people to vote for the Conservative Party which drove our budget cuts. I find his hypocrisy depressing and it is little wonder that people become cynical about politics and politicians.

How can any public representative who wishes to maintain a shred of credibility wrap himself in the colours of a party which stands on a spending cuts platform and then put on his cloth cap and join the Trade Union protest against those very same cuts? Yet that is what he did. How can a minister complain about the impact of Conservative Party cuts on his budget and yet represent a party which wants to be the franchise for that party in N.I.? Yet that is the position Michael McGimpsey has adopted.

Despite the fact that the Health budget in N.I. is the most generously treated of all Health Budgets across the UK there are still hard choices to be made. Of course I would like to see more money available but it doesn’t grow on trees, I can’t print it and I have had no suggestions from the Health Minister as to which budgets I should cut to give him more. As I listened appalled at his claim about 4000 nurses losing their jobs only to hear him, when pressed about the detail, say this is a “rough calculation” I was angry on two counts. Firstly, what responsible minister would on the basis of a “rough calculation” spread fear amongst the staff he is responsible for? Secondly he has made no proposals on how he could cut out waste in the Health Service, nor has he looked at alternative ways of delivering some services eg greater use of the Social and Voluntary sectors of the economy, and he has given no indication of his plans for reducing the administrative costs in the Health Service costs which are substantially higher than other parts of the U.K.

While I am encouraged by many of those I meet on a weekly basis, I never cease to be dismayed by the negativity, hypocrisy and lack of vision displayed by politicians like the N.I. Health Minister.