In fairness to the Stormont Executive parties, their long-awaited Programme for Government (PfG) has adopted a novel approach to policy making.

Most governments base their policies on a single political ideology, ranging from the theories of Karl Marx to the inequity of Margaret Thatcher

The Executive parties have opted for a different philosophy. Presumably after much research into strategic planning and policy formulation, they have drawn their inspiration from three highly respected political theorists.

The first is that well known philosopher and cartoon character Bart Simpson who, when he breaks something, says: “It wasn’t me who broke it. It was like that when I got here.”

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In relation to health, for example, the PfG states: “We have the longest hospital waiting lists in the UK.” So the Executive did not break the health service, it was like that when they got there.

Their document illustrates that the waiting list for a first consultant-led out-patient appointment rose from nearly 80,000 in 2008 to almost........

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