And the viewers verdict is...
As I left Parliament Buildings this evening an Ulster Unionist berated me for being too generous towards Ian Paisley. On Stormont Live, Jim Fitzpatrick asked me for a rating out of ten for the First Minister's First Question Time. I gave him 7 and a half, reflecting that he had his hits and his misses.
The hits were a good put down on Danny Kennedy, when the Ulster Unionist deputy leader tried to emphasise his closeness to Martin McGuinness, "a self confessed IRA commander". Dr Paisley said a "man in a glass house shouldn't throw stones". His second best hit was scored against Sinn Fein's Barry McElduff who complained about the failure to set an exact date for a meeting of the North South Ministerial Council. After a quick word with his son Ian Paisley Junior, the First Minister responded that the Executive was waiting for the formation of a government in Dublin after an election in which Mr McElduff's party "didn't do very well". "Where have you been?" he asked the West Tyrone MLA. It reminded me of one time when the DUP leader asked me "who are you, Rumpelstilstkin?"
His biggest miss, however, came in failing to answer questions from the SDLP's Thomas Burns and Patsy McGlone. Obviously keyed up for a question about Ian Paisley Jr.'s recent comments about gays, the First Minister trotted out a pre-packaged reply even though the two SDLP MLAs had in fact cross questioned him about old quotes from his son rubbishing the role of junior ministers.
So 7 and a half out of ten? No doubt if I had been leaving the building in the company of a DUP member he would have told me I'd been too harsh. I'd be interested to know if any of you watched Stormont Live on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳1 this afternoon and what your verdict was.
However, I have a horrible suspicion that the main sentiment will be annoyance from fans of afternoon TV that we were on at all. At least noone got killed in the chamber - I think the programme we replaced was "Murder, She Wrote".
I'm 
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Mark, I watched the QT with great interest and although it does not compare with Westminister, it is a good start. A lot of supplementals which perhaps should be explained by your team how they work. The two FM & DFM should have been side by side but we look forward to a similar event in a fortnight.
Gavin
Any idea what the viewing figures are like?
MARK REPLIES: Stormont Live tends to come under our public service category of programming, rather than rivalling East Enders for ratings!. But on the afternoon in question our figures show the First Minister's First Questions were watched by an estimated 14,000 people, which coinicidentally represented about 14% of the TV audience here at that time.
What was so good about Paisley's reply to Danny Kennedy? Why is Kennedy in a glass house as regards being close to terrorists? It was hardly sparkling repartee.
The main thing that came across was that the questions didn't register with him.
And isn't it a bit pathethic expecting a laugh every time he says the word Pope in a loud voice?
We all get old I suppose.
I think you were a bit lenient with the 7 1/2 out of 10. Paisley showed himself to be completely unaware of what was actually going on. He couldn't answer the questions asked by Thomas Burns and Patsy McGlone! Was that because his hearing is going in his old age or just because he wasn't actually paying attention because he couldn't give a damn. Damning evidence to prove the latter was in the response given to Dolores Kelly, who actually did ask about the remarks made by Paisley Jnr about "Gays". Making reference to the Pope and hinting that OFMDFM were Gods making whatever the hell decisions they want. Mark I am disappointed in you! I would have expected you to give him a 5 out of ten, if anything. I feel most sorry for the people who elected Paisely, they must have been mortified to be represented by a geriatric who has delusions of being godlike.
Dr Paisley laughs and sniggers all the time now - even when he spurts out 'Not an inch and No Surrender', as he did today in the Senate Chamber. It seems to me it is nothing to do with being a 'geriatric' as described by Clare, or being 'old' as Anon mentioned, it's Dr Paisley's total lack of intellect which has become manifestly obvious...
Pandora has a point lol. It could be a mixture of all of the above.