The cynics are now assembling after the glorious return of Stormont – a 100-year-old institution once covered in shit to evade German bombs, now covered in bullshit to evade implosion – that’s what the cynics would say. But not us. We know better. We have almost twenty years’ experience with Stormont - every department, every level of the civil service, every kind of minister from every kind of party - from which to say with certainty that a seismic change is just around the corner, with human rights at the top of the agenda.

Have faith in our institutions.

We may be three months in and there is no agreed programme for government, unrealistic budgets have been allocated for plans that don’t exist, the Minister for Transport can’t find the power to direct the transport authority to put a few bilingual signs up, the Minister for housing can’t explain how, where or when we will build homes for 86,000 people on our growing social housing waiting list, The Executive Office can’t clarify how it will respond to the rise of the far right whilst simultaneously facilitating the racist ideology of the UK Home Office, and the Minister for Health has refused to agree to his own government’s budget. It’ll be business as usual in our crumbling physical and mental health services, until he makes a nice career move for a seat in Westminster.

These facts may fuel the cynics, but let’s be grown ups. Change doesn’t happen overnight. It may not have come yet - but it will come if we have faith in our institutions.

According to our sources, Stormont is gonna get great again very soon – just like it used to be in an imagined reality. The last few decades may have entrenched a sectarian carve up, deepened inequalities, grown poverty, harmed our collective health, overseen scandals with impunity, spent huge sums producing millions of words and then renegotiated them all again – but change we can believe in is on the horizon.

The stuff that was promised a few months ago – teamwork to fix our schools and healthcare, solve the housing crisis, rise to the existential threat of climate collapse – that’s where we will see real progress.

The stuff that was promised a few months ago – teamwork to fix our schools and healthcare, solve the housing crisis, rise to the existential threat of climate collapse – that’s where we will see real progress. Homes, health, jobs, schools, parks, play centres, planting stuff - diversity, equality, opportunity and prosperity – will feature in every manifesto as we gear up for another round of elections, which will not be characterised by factionalism and short-term agendas to get as many votes as possible by any means necessary.

The cynics will say that focussing our energy on accountability at Stormont – lending it credibility as the centre of gravity for social change - is like volunteering to be sucked into a black hole, from which no light can escape, in the hope of emerging in a better universe.

But the cynics are wrong. We should have faith that our institutions will deliver the change we need. Together, we can Make Stormont Great Again.

Alternatively, we can get organised and here’s a few ideas for starters:

Take Back the City

Kind Economy

New Script for Mental Health