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Having followed Willie Ross around the campaign trail for (sad to admit) decades, I had to ask him at this morning how things have changed. He used to think tweeting was something birds did when dawn broke. Now he's twittering away. He used to rattle his statements off with a typewriter and carbon paper. Now a hit of the computer button disseminates his "words of wisdom" (his description) to us all instantaneously. Despite that he claims the basic principles - getting out on the doorstep and defending what you believe in - remain the same.

Beyond this trip down memory lane the TUV manifesto launch was interesting in injecting some real disagreement into the campaign.

I'm not just talking about Jim Allister's well documented aversion to power sharing with Sinn Fein (although a ban on ministers who have terrorist convictions and a repeal of the law which could propel Martin McGuinness into the First Minister's office is high on his agenda).

There's also a contrast between the TUV and the "big 4" on economic policy. Whilst one way or the other all the big 4 advocate reducing local corporation tax, the TUV are less convinced. They want all taxes reduced, but expressed scepticism about the corporation tax cut locally on the grounds that it would fall foul of European law, assist big corporations more than small and medium sized businesses and might be the thin end of a nationalist wedge in transferring fiscal powers from Westminster to Stormont.

Other TUV policies include a flat tax (David Vance rejected my query about whether this was a rich man's charter) and a "moratorium on all third world immigration".

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