{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/67a0e00da78c5e076777bb77/697137cad00eff242de8bc24?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"Stormont Is ‘Nasty & Directionless’: Alliance MLA Kate Nicholl on Fixing Northern Ireland Politics","description":"<p><strong>Is Stormont broken — or can it still be fixed?</strong></p><p>In this episode of <strong>Stormont Sources</strong>, Alliance MLA for South Belfast <strong>Kate Nicholl</strong> delivers one of the most candid insider accounts yet of life inside the Northern Ireland Assembly.</p><p>Kate reflects on:</p><ul><li>Entering Stormont during collapse</li><li>Balancing politics, motherhood, and public service</li><li>Why Assembly politics feels “nasty” and directionless</li><li>The toll dysfunction takes on public trust</li><li>Why committees work — but the Chamber often doesn’t</li><li>Structural reform, data-driven policy, and long-term thinking</li><li>Whether she will run again in the next Assembly election</li></ul><p>We also debate:</p><ul><li>🔹 <strong>Unionist Unity</strong> — can the DUP, UUP and TUV really cooperate?</li><li>🔹 Gavin Robinson’s olive branch to new UUP leader John Burrows</li><li>🔹 Whether a single unionist Westminster party is realistic</li><li>🔹 Succession planning inside the DUP</li><li>🔹 Why Stormont struggles to deliver legislation</li><li>🔹 Listener questions on committees, scrutiny and reform</li></ul><p>With <strong>David McCann</strong>, <strong>Tim Cairns</strong> (former DUP Special Adviser), and <strong>Michael McKernan</strong> (former SDLP Special Adviser), this episode goes deep inside the personalities, structures and failures shaping Northern Ireland politics.</p><p>📌 <em>Stormont Sources is Northern Ireland’s most-listened-to political panel podcast.</em></p>","author_name":"Shortbread Media "}