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Comment from the Editor

"Political progress might mean that Barry Gardiner can soon return to looking after the good citizens of Brent North in London, or move on to another ministerial role amidst he corridors of Whitehall.

In his short time here, Mr. Gardiner has managed to impress a few of those who’ve had dealings with him in his role as Enterprise, Trade & Investment Minister.

But the Labour politician has made plenty of enemies in his other role as Education Minister for Northern Ireland.

It might be something to do with the fact that he flies into and out of Northern Ireland from the traditional Labour stronghold of Brent, a place synonymous years ago with the very worst excesses of the Left.

Whether that’s the reason or not, Mr. Gardiner clearly doesn’t like Northern Ireland’s extensive network of grammar schools or any form of selection process for that matter. He seems hell bent on introducing a comprehensive style system for this part of the world, despite a large groundswell of opinion in the opposite direction.

Mr. Gardiner comes across as an old style Labour politician in the traditional mould. The fact that the comprehensive system is a widespread failure around Great Britain doesn’t seem to occur to him. Nor does the fact that his own local education area in Brent North is ranked a less than impressive 84th in the league table for GCSE results.

Unless he is replaced soon by a local Minister (but let’s not hold our breath for that), the existing Minister needs to start spending more time around here and listening to the views of local people….instead of rushing to catch the Heathrow flight at the first available opportunity.

He could, for example, try a spot of cross-departmental listening.

While he’s wearing his DETI hat, Mr. Gardiner should try talking to local business leaders about our education system and what they think of it. He should try asking them what educational route they’ve chosen for their own children. He should try putting together a little survey of his own amongst members of the business community.

He won’t find many who’ll pat him on the back and tell him that he’s doing a wonderful job at education as he takes us all down the comprehensive route.

Then again, does he have to worry?

Probably not. The voters of Brent North require a rather different approach.

The recent decision by the GAA to back plans for a new multi-sport stadium in Northern Ireland, alongside football and rugby, is to be welcomed.

Now that the three key audience-generating sports are on board, we can all turn to the thorny issue of where the proposed stadium will be located.

It’s not hard to understand why the old Maze Prison site is being heavily touted. Putting a stadium there gets around all sorts of difficult and contentious debates. Without doubt, it’s a nice, safe end use for a site with a pretty grim history.

But it’s also a completely useless site for a sports stadium….for the very simple reason that it’s too far out of Belfast.

The example of Cardiff and Millennium Stadium has been bandied around by supporters of a Belfast site. The Strategic Investment Board has a point when it says that like must be compared with like. We’re not planning anything on the scale of the Millennium Stadium.

But the Cardiff principle remains valid. Put a stadium in the middle of a city and you reap the benefits – the hotels get business, restaurants and pubs get business, shops get business, and so the list goes on. Put a stadium effectively out in the countryside and that doesn’t happen.

The Government needs to take a firm grip on this one.

The Titanic Quarter – as close as possible to the Odyssey Complex – is the ideal place for the new stadium.

Despite the fact that it appears to be the politically correct option, and that it has some sort of mysterious momentum of its own, the Maze site just doesn’t make sense."

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