And so it begins

Yes, people. The peace dividend has arrived.

450 public sector jobs to go in the Housing Executive. That's nearly five hundred people sacked from only one state agency.

How many do you think will be sacked overall, once this wave of 'rationalisation' is complete?

See, what people never realised was that there was in reality a civil war dividend in Northern Ireland.

The stipend from the UK to the province was estimated conservatively at £6 billion. It didn't all go on security. It also went on the most bloated civil service in the Western world.

That's coming to an end. For sure, in order to bribe everyone to stay inside Stormont, there will be a few hand-outs from London, Dublin, even from America and the EU.

But in the long run, this is the future. The over-reliance on state and semi-state sector jobs is a thing of the past.

Expect much weeping and gnashing of teeth across the six counties as people are weaned off the teat of cushy state jobs for life.

It's not going to be pretty.