Richard Ramsey, Chief Economist, Ulster Bank on #TheReset Project

Series two, episode 1 opens with an introduction to #TheReset, a joint project between Slugger O'Toole and Ulster Bank.

And after a brief break after the first series of the Cargo Of Bricks, we start the second series in partnership with Ulster Bank and a brief introduction from Richard Ramsey to the Reset Project, where we find ourselves viz a viz the Covid crisis, and how you might get involved in #TheReset.

In it he covers...

• How politicians need to take heart from their ability to work under the pressure of the crisis and change things that needed changing, now to take urgent but unpopular decisions and actually see their popularity rise as a result. And how leadership has come from right across the field.
• During the debt crisis of 2008/9 Northern Ireland experienced the deepest and the longest recession of any part of the UK. We needed a conversation then, which subsequently failed to happen. The contraction this time is three times larger. We can no longer duck that conversation.
• If our elderly are on the frontline of the health emergency, our young people are on the frontline of the economic emergency. Youth employment is set to rise to unprecedently levels. He urges us all to wake up, throw off our 'capture' by the status quo, and find new ways to mitigate those effects.

The crisis has revealed many of the underlying conditions that have been holding Northern Ireland back. Serious deficits in infrastructure, the highest rate of unqualified students leaving school, and the longest health waiting lists in the UK. Few of us want to return to that status quo.

If you would like to get involved in #TheReset, either as an individual or as part of an organisation, please do get in touch by emailing us at editor@sluggerotoole.com with an idea for inclusion in a range of articles or events over September and October.