Tom Kelly: ‘The purpose of minutes is not to record events. It is to protect people’

I never tire of watching the BBC series Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister. Like the House of Cards drama, it’s staggeringly accurate.

Take for example this exchange between Sir Humphrey and Bernard discussing as yet unwritten minutes of a cabinet meeting.

Bernard: So you want me to falsify the minutes?

Sir Humphrey: I want nothing of the sort. It’s up to you Bernard: what do you want?

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Bernard: I want a clear conscience.

Sir Humphrey: A clear conscience?

Bernard: Yes.

Sir Humphrey: When did you acquire this taste for luxuries?

Well, at least Sir Humphrey kept minutes.

The Stormont regime (and not for the first time) prefers to take informal notes during Executive meetings. This formula ensures recorded minutes are little more than an attendance record.

It’s as if nothing was learned or remembered from the RHI debacle.

The Covid Inquiry which has rolled into town exposes what the proverbial dogs in the streets of Belfast already knew – that the Stormont Executive is merely a dysfunctional group of random individuals who hold public office and meet on occasion to collude in charades with the public and find ways of undermining each other.

A bit like a dinner party designed by Blackadder for the Borgias and Machiavelli.

It’s clear from the early inquiry hearings that the Northern Ireland Civil Service has not covered itself in much glory. It was revealed that the contingency planning for the threat from a virus was less than it should have been and was actually outdated and under-resourced. In fact, under-resourced is probably the greatest understatement since the captain of the Titanic was informed: “We have found a hole.”

It’s not surprising political parties were at sixes and sevens with each other and the public, as they seemed more interested in political point scoring than following science or indeed common sense.

There were also some senior political figures who simply believed Covid was merely another flu.

The handling of the pandemic was far from perfect. Delays and dithering in decision making cost lives.

The disclosure that a civil servant mooted a possible need for a ministerial reshuffle is surreal.

Doug Beattie, the UUP leader, rightly calls it “extraordinary and bizarre”. But the answers to his questions need to be examined by someone external to the omnishambles which is the Northern Ireland Civil Service.

Any notion that together, Michelle O’Neill or Arlene Foster could have done any better than Robin Swann by taking on an overarching role in coordinating the health response, is for the birds. After the political fallout from the Storey funeral, the inquiry was told there was “decided chill” between the two politicians.

For ‘chill’, read a full blown permafrost – with Foster calling on O’Neill to stand aside and O’Neill doubling down.

Families who lost relatives during Covid had (and have) a right to feel aggrieved, hurt and angry for the seemingly two-tier approach.

To paraphrase Seamus Heaney, they were lucky to get to bury the dead with little more than a shroud and coffin. This writer knows some who carried the burden of bereavement whist in isolation and their sense of loss lingers, as does their outrage.

The pandemic was unprecedented. Many civil servants and politicians were learning their emergency trade on the job. But unprecedented shouldn’t mean unprepared

Their voices, those of health workers and of the emergency services should echo to the heavens from the Covid Inquiry – not the fist-full of apologies and excuses from those allegedly in charge.

In fairness, the pandemic was unprecedented. Many civil servants and politicians were learning their emergency trade on the job. But unprecedented shouldn’t mean unprepared.

The last word to Sir Humphrey on taking minutes: “You choose from a jumble of ill-digested ideas a version which represents the prime minister’s views as he would, on reflection, have liked them to emerge... The purpose of minutes is not to record events. It is to protect people.”

Ain’t that true.