Cuts, crisis or recovery?

David Cameron has singled out Northern Ireland as a suitable candidate for public spending cuts, but long term whichever party wins power in Westminster, the future looks bleak for a region, which enjoys the UK's highest levels of state spending, alongside levels of long term unemployment and persistent household poverty more than double those in Great Britain. For all Cameron's talk about 'rebalancing' the Northern economy, are Tory gestures to lower corporation tax, while directing government contracts towards local businesses, simply too little too late?  And given the depth of the crisis, how can we begin to imagine what form a recovery would take? 

Following February's debate on Northern Ireland's political crisis, the Belfast Salon considers the post election economy, asking where will the cuts fall, what will be the impacts on public life and what are the alternatives? The UK economy is on life support, with hundreds of billions being drip fed in the hope of stimulating growth and stabilizing the markets. Meanwhile local political parties are studiously ignoring the region's vulnerability to the the broader economic crisis, focusing on winning community support for micro issues. In a climate of denial and dependency, we are reconvening to consider the economic and political choices that will shape our futures.