A friend once compared Stormont to student politics. It means so much to the cliques involved yet matters little to everyone else, he said. To my mind that did a great disservice to student politicians.

After ten months of talks amounted to nothing, it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which the DUP and Sinn Féin will share power at all any time soon nevermind with any degree of generosity.

Despite the emergence of fresh faces since both parties came to dominate unionism and nationalism respectively ten years ago, much of the ‘us versus them’ rhetoric and zero-sum tone of our politics remains the same.

The most recent merry-go-round of events – from RHI fall-out, “crocodile” insults, to the current standoff – demonstrates how easy this small clique armed with narrowmindedness continues to hold Northern Ireland to ransom.

Do ‘the people’ care? All recent LucidTalk opinion polls show yes, they do. The fact that most voters consistently show support for the idea of getting an Executive back up and running reveals the biggest farce of this sorry episode: they’ve been led to believe that a deal between the parties has been within grasp.

Few outside the perimeters of Stormont seem too concerned. Just once since January has the Prime Minister, Theresa May visited Northern Ireland.

It wouldn’t be fair to write, point blank, that our politicians don’t care. But if the ‘big two’ are in it for more than power games, effectively tying hands behind society’s back, then they have a cruel way of showing it.

Polls tells us that the electorate voted for parties to act, not to neglect their duties. Whilst the UK Government plans to do MLAs’ jobs for them by setting Northern Ireland’s upcoming budget, what means much to cliques ‘on the hill’ doesn’t seem to resonate with those on the ground. They have no choice but to experience the repercussions of there being no Executive, like decisions to cut public service funding.

Clearly, those who should be governing and those wanting to be governed have very different priorities.