Obama’s peace message to G8

The Syria crisis remains intractable, though many will be relieved that David Cameron appears to be backtracking on plans to arm Bashar-al-Assad’s opponents, while the prospects of multi-national companies paying a fairer share of tax are about as remote as a lasting peace settlement in the Middle East.

That said, the very fact that Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, Francois Hollande and others are even meeting in Northern Ireland is a positive endorsement of the peace process which should be acknowledged.

It was still in its infancy eight years ago when Britain last hosted G8, and when the Gleneagles gathering was overshadowed by the 7/7 suicide bombings in London, and it is thanks to the perseverance of peacemakers that Northern Ireland can still look to the future with optimism, and in spite of lingering tensions over, for example, when the British flag should fly over Belfast’s City Hall.

Yet it was significant that President Obama, and his wife Michelle, should implore Northern Ireland’s youth to lead by example and renounce the segregation that still divides some Protestant and Catholic communities.

As President Obama told his audience: “Ultimately, peace is not just about politics, it is about attitudes, it is about a sense of empathy, it is about breaking down the divisions that we create for ourselves in our own minds, in our own hearts, that don’t exist in any objective reality but that we carry with us, generation after generation. The terms of peace may be negotiated by political leaders but the fate of peace is up to each of us.”

He is right – and there’s a greater likelihood of the peace being a lasting one thanks to the emergence of a generation spared the violence that so scarred Northern Ireland for so long. The challenge is looking at how these values can be nurtured in other troublespots, even more so when the G8 leadership seems so distant from the suffering in Syria – or those Islamic jihadists who pose such a threat to the West.

Ghost villages

THE impact of last year’s washout summer on businesses across Yorkshire’s rural and coastal areas was a reminder of the importance of tourism to the region’s economy, and the narrow margin between a profitable and loss-making season for many firms in this sector.

That is why a measured response is required to new figures suggesting close to one-in-five houses in the North York Moors National Park is a holiday let, second home or standing empty.

Second homes, empty for months on end, can rob village schools of pupils, take customers away from pubs and post offices and make it hard for bus operators to justify running services, particularly outside the holiday season.

Perhaps most perniciously, the voracious appetite for rural getaway homes that has proved remarkable resilient to the country’s economic downturn has artificially inflated prices well beyond the means of local familes.

In sustainable numbers, holiday homes can help to bring a welcome stream of visitors that helps to sustain local amenities and supports thousands of jobs. The National Park Authority has already taken measures to restrict access to newly-built properties to local families but these are difficult to implement at a time when developers are slow to bring forward housing schemes and some lenders are reluctant to grant mortgages on homes where there are restrictions.

Those efforts must be redoubled to ensure Yorkshire’s villages remain affordable places to live for local people and appealing holiday destinations for tourists alike.

Labour’s lesson

IT is significant that Labour now intend to embrace the freedoms that Michael Gove has devolved to academies and free schools. It means that these increasingly successful schools can plan ahead without having to worry about any uncertainty ahead of the 2015 general election.

Labour deny that this is a u-turn following its opposition to academies – the party’s education spokesman Stephen Twigg says the move is merely “a response to events” – but it still does not reduce the risk of schools policy, and other public services, being plunged into turmoil.

Significantly, Mr Twigg says Labour will not allow any new free schools if it wins the next election – and he obfuscated when asked if he would back Mr Gove’s wide-ranging changes to GCSE exams which are due to be introduced in the autumn of 2015.

Yet, at a time when teachers – and NHS staff 
for that matter – are weary of the never-ending changes that stem from every change of government, it is frightening to think how much money is wasted when one policy is introduced – and then ripped up before its effectiveness is assessed. 
A more consensual approach is required which enables services to evolve without the stresses associated with such political upheavals.