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So nothing happened, unless you count "informal gatherings" of ministers as a substitute for the real McCoy. It looks like we might be entering a phase of government by correspondence, in which policies are pushed through via the "urgent procedure". That's the way Martin McGuinness suggested Margaret Ritchie's fuel poverty package should be implemented. The DUP balked, claiming the procedure would be invalid when an Executive meeting was already scheduled. But with no meeting pencilled in until early next month, Peter Robinson now seems prepared to countenance such urgent measures. Ministers corresponding in writing, empty chairs at Executive meetings. It all sounds vaguely familiar.

The image of the day was Margaret Ritchie walking down the Stormont Castle steps flanked by the two unionist leaders. Was she wise? Her calculation must be that nationalist voters will view her as the minister trying to tackle the bread and butter issues. But Martin McGuinness was quick to link the image to Mark Durkan's recent speech on the "ugly scaffolding" at Stormont. However much the SDLP leader denies it, the Sinn Fein tactic is to portray his party as flaky on the Good Friday Agreement.

How long will the deaqdlock persist and will the two governments step in with a fresh round of inter party talks? At the start of the day Shaun Woodward continued to argue that the glass was half full rather than half empty, but London and Dublin will be anxious to ensure the Stormont arrangement does not unravel. The DUP will be reluctant to be "hot housed" into a devolution of justice timetable, so if the governnments decide to intervene they will have to be more subtle than Gordon Brown during this week's visit to Stormont.

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