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This morning I interviewed the First Minister about the latest comments from Sinn Fein T.D. Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin threatening to withdraw ministers from the Executive if the stand off over devolving policing and justice is not resolved. Peter Robinson vowed not to respond to threats, then warned of "serious consequences" if an Executive meeting scheduled for September 18th does not go ahead as planned.

The DUP leader refused to spell out what those consequences might be, but a couple of possibilities appear to be in the air. In the old Executive Sinn Fein took David Trimble to court for refusing to nominate their ministers to go to North South council meetings. Perhaps Sinn Fein could be on the receiving end of similar legal action.

Another option might be resorting to the Independent Monitoring Commission. The IMC's headline role has been, until now, to keep an eye on paramilitary ceasefires. However they were also given a potential role overseeing if politicians at Stormont kep to their pledges. At the time it was speculated this might be deployed against the DUP's "empty chairs" tactic, but now the DUP could resort to the IMC in their battle with republicans.

Finally the Stormont Assembly and Executive Review Committee had been due to take the policing and justice negotiations forward. If there's no September 18th meeting that could be pulled.

I would call this a crisis, but out of deference to Barack Obama (see below) I think we should henceforth refer to difficulties at Stormont as a "kerfuffle".

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