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Good morning John

People are being squeezed from every direction, and some of those in power are making it worse.

Fuel costs are punishing families at the pump and pushing businesses to the brink. I heard this week of a haulage firm in Tyrone whose fuel bill has risen by over £5,000 every single week. I also spoke with a taxi driver who has seen his fuel costs rise by £500 every month. They are not looking for sympathy. They are asking whether they can survive.

When Gregory Campbell put that reality directly to the Prime Minister this week, the response was hollow. No reassurance. No plan. Just the kind of non-answer that tells you everything about how much this Government is actually listening.
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That is why what Gordon Lyons secured this week matters. As Communities Minister, he has delivered £100 of direct support for fuel bills - and crucially, it will not just go to those on benefits. It will reach the working poor too. The people who earn just enough to be overlooked but not enough to get by. That is what listening to people actually looks like. Not gestures. Delivery.

Because if Westminster won’t listen, you might hope Stormont would. We do. The others don’t.

At the Assembly this week, parties backed a proposal to provide free school meal payments over the summer holidays carrying a price tag of over £20 million this year, rising to more than £30 million annually - with no credible answer to one basic question: where does the money come from?

Paul Givan asked it plainly. Nobody answered.

Because the answer is uncomfortable. That money comes out of the education budget. It means fewer resources in classrooms, reduced support for children with special needs, and cuts to frontline services. That is the trade-off, and too many parties simply refuse to say it out loud.

The same is happening on net zero. Targets are announced. Motions are passed. Questions about cost are waved away. The consequences are already here. A court ruling on the A5 Western Transport Corridor, a road designed to save lives, found that other infrastructure projects may have to be axed to meet emissions targets. When climate policy starts blocking life-saving roads, something has gone badly wrong. At a time when households are already under severe financial pressure, refusing to confront that reality is not ambition, it is negligence.


Who is responsible?

Sinn Fein, Alliance and the Ulster Unionist Party have backed both the summer meals proposals and refused to face up to net zero realities - knowing full well the financial consequences are unresolved.

They want the headlines. They want the social media clips. But when the bills arrive, it will not be their politicians who pay them. It will be the families, farmers and small businesses already struggling to get by.

That is gesture politics. And it has a real cost.

Governing means making choices and being honest about them. If you want to spend more, say where the money comes from. If you cannot answer that question, you have no business casting the vote.

People across Northern Ireland are not asking for grand promises. They want honest decisions, real priorities, and a government that understands the pressure they are under.

Enough excuses. Enough empty votes. Sinn Fein, Alliance and the Ulster Unionists need to start living in the same reality as the people they claim to represent, and we will make sure they are held to it.

Yours sincerely,
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Rt. Hon. Gavin Robinson MP

DUP Leader

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