Arlene Foster and the RHI scandal

It really is jaw dropping, I thought we were the masters at wasting Government money!

NNesbitt making his play. Arlene is in a very weak position following her disastrous politicking over Brexit.

Is it my imagination or was there a clumsy edit/censorship just there?

He has had plenty of time to collapse heaven, smacks of jumping ship and career salvaging.
Just tell the story, leave god out of it, she/he has his own heating like the devil.

Arlene deflected the questions and went for character assassination.
I had difficulty believing both of them tbh. Truth is somewhere in between and who jumped first.

CrabRevolution wrote: »

Is there any chance Sinn Féin are saying nothing because that's one sure fire way of ensuring many unionists rally behind Foster?

The old political mantra applies, if they are doing enough damage themselves, leave them at it?

Well it is normal politics in the sense that it has nothing to do with parades and the usual normal N.I. politics. It's a good old tax payers money waste scandal!

midnight city wrote: »

She won't resign either how very Irish. She would fit in well in our Dail.

Does anyone know for sure who is telling the truth? I'd guess that Bell is telling the truth but that's based purely on the body language of Foster in the interview. Is there any more concrete evidence in the public domain as to which version of events is closer to the truth?

Foster mentioned in her interview that Bell was a very aggressive individual. I don't know the guy from Adam but any NI'ers care to give their opinion on him?

GreenFolder2 wrote: »

I wonder how this would go down if Westminster starts to investigate. The Tories LOVE public expenditure overruns by regions they know little about....

That money comes from somewhere and it's unlikely to be NI tax payers in reality.

The money is 'paid for' by vulnerable NI citizens who cannot get health care or home helps because the funds for these things have gone up in smoke.

I wouldn't trust many NI MLAs as far as I could throw them, but I have to say that having watched the 2 interviews, Bell does come across as the one telling the truth. He answered every question put to him, didn't deflect like Foster did. He appears to be genuinely distressed during the interview, but maybe he is just a good actor?

As for Arlene, well her interview was shocking imho. She did a lot of personal attacks on Bell, basically saying he was a bully, rude, loud, scary and it wasn't just her who found him like that, ask any DUP member, MLA or business leader. A big accusation to make.

For me, Bell is looking for a full enquiry, judge led. Would you do that if you had anything to hide?

As for the overall outcome, not much will change, despite this being probably the biggest fincancial cockup in NI history. Politics in NI is orange v green, always will be. In any other right democracy where religion isn't the be-all and end-all, heads would roll for this, and parties would lose heavily in the next election. Not in NI though, your people will always vote you back in again, no matter how much of a bad job you do.

Dead man woman walking.

Any politician/party who mentioned God so much would never get my vote.

What's a Spad they keep mentioning?

realdanbreen wrote: »

I'd say you would be wasting your time. SF were very nieve in asking her to step aside as any call like that from SF would only unite unionists.

Did the UUP not exit stage right? Hardly 'uniting'.
The power play between unionists will continue.
Between this and Brexit Arlene has made a right royal mess of it all.

FrancieBrady wrote: »

Did the UUP not exit stage right? Hardly 'uniting'.
The power play between unionists will continue.
Between this and Brexit Arlene has made a right royal mess of it all.

Perhaps but I thought SF calling for her to step aside was a mistake. Their might have been a bit of a split in the DUP had SF kept out of it.