North’s future mixed at best

Traditional industries have collapsed over the last several generations: the Harland and Wolff shipyard now employs a mere 500 people, down from 30,000 at its height.
With political stability still open to question, thousands of jobs have been lost this year alone, most recently at textile firm Desmond’s, which closed three factories in May, moving contracts to Turkey, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Then there is the disturbing reality of the Northern Irish situation, that it is kept afloat by the UK taxpayer.
Annual security costs still run at