party has been been blocking its participation over the brexit trade border with the uk. senior civil servants are in effect running northern ireland at the westminster government has been setting budgets for northern ireland in the absence of local ministers. of local ministers. thank you for the update- the latest gdp figures have just come out. nina s here with the latest. good morning. this is something we look at every month, the overall value reflected what we make or do. interesting this month, this is looking at the month of october, during that period the economy grew by 0.5%. on the face of it, good news. it s partly because we compare that with september which was the month that the queen died so economic activity slowed down significantly. if you put it in the context of the three months up to october, overthe context of the three months up to october, over the period the economy 0ctober, over the period the economy contracted by 0.3%. it s the time
that, they said it because of the rising of the leading, that very high inflation rate, that didn t amount to being a rise at all, in fact in reality it was a pay cut. so the bosses of all of the health trusts in northern ireland have issued a joint statement, saying that they wish their staff would be rewarded fairly in their pay. rewarded properly in their pay. while they haven t said it explicitly, what many here are reading that as is a coded expression of frustration at the political situation. all of this industrial unrest is happening at a time when there hasn t been locally elected ministers in place for quite a few weeks now and there has been a fully functional devolved government for ten months, the democratic unionist party is currently blocking the restoration of a power sharing executive at stormont over its opposition to the brexit trade border with the rest of the uk. the question of the strikers,
were concluded and there was no further business that could be conducted. the recall brought about by sinn fein, now the largest party in the assembly, the irish republican party, they put down a motion to be debated saying that the democratic unionist party should lift its veto on the restoration of the power sharing devolved government so that local ministers could be appointed to tackle the cost of living but the dup said it was sticking to its position, that the assembly and the stormont executive could not be restored and it would not allow it to be restored until the brexit trade border with the rest of the uk known as the northern ireland protocol, is removed. so a lot of speeches and passionate, angry even, some pretty tetchy exchanges, but ultimately northern ireland politics is doing the same it was in at the start of the same it was in at the start of the business at noon and that is no
devolved ministers have left office and the ballot box is beckoning. i am ashamed, ashamed to be part of this circus yet again. we know that elections in northern ireland do not solve problems. they deepen the crisis. the political system in northern ireland is different to almost everywhere else. it s based on the good friday peace agreement signed in 1998 after a long conflict. a majority of unionists and nationalists must agree to share powerfor a devolved government to be formed. the democratic unionist party says it won tjoin a coalition until the brexit trade border with the rest of the uk is scrapped. in the election in may, sinn fein became the first nationalist party ever to win the most seats.
time has run out for stormont. the home of the northern ireland assembly is no longer a place of government. devolved ministers have left office and the ballot box is beckoning. i am ashamed, ashamed to be part of this circus yet again. we know that elections in northern ireland do not solve problems. they deepen the crisis. the political system in northern ireland is different to almost everywhere else. it s based on the good friday peace agreement signed in 1998 after a long conflict. a majority of unionists and nationalists must agree to share powerfor a devolved government to be formed. the democratic unionist party says it won tjoin a coalition until the brexit trade border with the rest of the uk is scrapped. in the election in may, sinn fein became the first