Done. I think it went very well. Did anyone listen?

Done. I think it went very well. Did anyone listen?

Shame the fact that the UK economy has been consumer led, fuelled by debt on the back of high house prices was not brought up.

Yes, there are so many points to make and so little time during these features.

Yes, there are so many points to make and so little time during these features.

NI house prices highest in Europe


House prices in Northern Ireland have risen more than anywhere else in Europe, according to a new report.

The cost of property increased by an average 36% in 2006, more than three times the figure for the UK as a whole.

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors European Housing Review found the market was proving extremely difficult for first-time buyers.
RICS Northern Ireland spokesman Tom McClelland said growth across Europe had been solid.

The continent had resisted the lead of the US, where the market ground to a halt, he said.
'Pushed prices up'

"Fears of a considerable house price slowdown in the UK, Spain and the Republic of Ireland - which are considered to be over-heated markets - once again proved to be off the mark," he said .

Undoubtedly, the economy is in trouble. It is alarmingly dependent on the British state, which is responsible for 63% of economic activity and directly employs a third of all workers. Its manufacturing industry, which was heavily reliant on the textile, clothing and ship-building industries, has shed 100,000 jobs in the past 35 years.

It has had some limited success in attracting foreign investment — about 100 American companies provide employment for some 23,000 people — but its achievements pale beside the Northern Ireland’s economic statistics, which show reasonable growth and low unemployment, mask a host of problems. State spending, which is now under severe threat from Brown’s belt-tightening regime, is the main driver of the economy.

Unemployment figures do not show the true level of economic inactivity in the north, where the number of people claiming incapacity benefit is 74% above the UK average. Neither do they chart the scale of the province’s brain drain. Because the number of university places is capped, more than a third of school- leavers attend university in the UK, and half of them never return.

The British subvention runs at a net £5 billion (€7.4 billion) a year, yet, for all the money, the quality of services falls below UK standards. Northern Ireland’s health service receives 9% more per head of population than the UK average, but its waiting lists are longer and productivity is lower.

Northern Ireland is now a junkie economy, hopelessly addicted to handouts from the British exchequer. It is difficult to see how it can wean itself off. Far from benefiting from an economic “peace dividend”, the North has become progressively more reliant on handouts. In the past, when the IRA were bombing and maiming, it was possible to explain the North’s financial neediness on the “war”.

Today, more than 10 years after the ceasefire, that no longer holds water.
Why is the North such an economic basket case, more akin to East Germany than Western Europe? Why are all its unionist leaders happy to be the most craven region of the UK? (My targeting of the unionist in particular is based on the assumption that nationalists are not happy with London full stop. That said, Sinn Fein’s economics and those of the DUP seem remarkably similar and essentially Statist). Why are they happy to simply stick out their economic forearm for yet another fix? Why do we not hear someone talking about the economy and the need for the North to stand up on its own two feet? After all, ask people down here and (despite our problems) most will attest to the liberating nature of getting the economy right finally.

Hello Stephen Nolan, didn't realise you read this site!

?????

He said he follows this website.

Good stuff! One thing though, when you said 5.5%, didn't you mean 5.5x when you were talking about FTB's mortgage to salary ratio?

And thanks for the mp3, Little Professor.

I think we can forgive him that! Great performance, he even had the RICS guy admitting that it was all down to easy credit which will not last forever. And despite mentioning "doom and gloom" the presenter was fairly impartial, which is generally unheard of.

Pretty straight talking people those Northern Irish. Not afraid to tell it like it is, probably due to their political environment (being a small population without a global super rich elite lording it over them may also help).

I was on the Stephen Nolan show on BBC Radio Northern Ireland.

Click here to listen to the programme.