This column would like to apologise for being too polite about the Stormont Executive during the Covid pandemic.

Although highly critical of the government (apart from Robin Swann), the column used words and phrases such as “Stormont’s consistent failure”, “cannot adequately protect the lives of our citizens” and “maladministration”.

I realise now that those expressions were unbecoming. As the ongoing Covid inquiry has shown, a more colourful description lies in those immortal words of the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Michael McBride: “dysfunctional b*****ds” (again, not counting Robin Swann).

His words, and the associated information from the Covid inquiry, should come as no surprise to anyone. While Boris Johnson partied during Covid in Downing Street, Sinn Féin and the DUP political-partied in Stormont. Johnson has gone. Sinn Féin and the DUP are still there.

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March 2020 was a heart-breaking time for many of us, but by the beginning of May, this column recognised that Stormont’s two main parties were using the pandemic for their own political purposes.

It highlighted Sinn Féin’s attack........

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