New Year’s wishes - Hopes for the nation in 2006

IN addition to our own personal desires we can have many New Year wishes for the country.

That the Northern politicians on both sides of the political divide would get together and try to govern Northern Ireland in the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement once and for all.

That the Government here should act in the national interest, take their courage in their hands and do the right thing nationally, not just in their own constituencies as was epitomised by the Punchestown Equestrian Centre affair. With an election due within the next 18 months there is a danger that the national interest will be sacrificed for short-term political gains.