³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

The Speaker took the Ulster Unionist Fred Cobain to task at the start of proceedings today for making "personal or bad-tempered remarks" about Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly. During a debate on the McGurks bar bombing Mr Cobain had said he found it galling to be lectured by "the representative of an organisation that, for 30 years, practised the bombing of bars and the killing of innocent men, women and children from the Protestant community". He went on to accuse Mr Kelly of promoting the "bombing of bars and the killing of men, women and children".

In 1973 the Sinn Fein junior minister was convicted of causing explosions and conspiracy to cause explosions and received two life sentences plus twenty years. The explosions in question killed one person and injured 200 people.

Of course time has moved on, but is it now a breach of the rules for an MLA to mention the "war"? This ruling echoes the previous exclusion of the DUP's Nelson McCausland, when he made comments about Gerry Adams' IRA past.

If the TUV leader Jim Allister gets elected to Stormont, it will be interesting to see how long he spends in the chamber before running foul of this "don't mention the war" regime.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

Whichever count you were at, the winners of the Irish election stood out as the people hoisted above the rest on the shoulders of their supporters. Only Enda Kenny, who doesn't like being raised up, stayed firmly rooted to the ground.

This prompted a conversation amongst the female team on our Dublin election special programme as to what the victorious woman candidate should wear. As the transfers roll in, is a trouser suit the order of the day?

The SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie thinks not - she prefers to wear a dress to the count. But the supporters who hoisted her up in South Down after last year's Westminster election victory were under strict instructions to protect her dignity.

Talking of fashion, Ms Ritchie addressed a Down business awards ceremony at the weekend. It was only when she took to the stage that she realised she had slipped on two odd shoes - a black one and a brown one. However she got a good laugh from her audience when she admitted to the fashion faux pas.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

We were having coffee in the Stormont gift shop this morning when Sammy Wilson hurried in. The Finance Minister was trying to buy a comb to put though his hair. The reason: the DUP were gathering their candidates together for a photo call on the Stormont steps.

Whilst the party wanted to get some nice snaps of its election hopefuls, the press were most interested in probing Peter Robinson for his thoughts on Sinn Fein's success in the south. He argued that it may spur unionists to try to stymie Gerry Adams' all Ireland project by backing the DUP when they vote in the May assembly elections. Mr Robinson claimed there would be a growing contradiction between Sinn Fein pursuing what he called irresponsible opposition policies south of the border whilst taking a more responsible role in government in Northern Ireland.

Amongst the candidates on the steps were two MPs - Sammy Wilson and Gregory Campbell. At their annual conference, the DUP made no secret of the fact that they were rethinking their previous pledge to end double jobbing. They pointed out that others, such as Sinn Fein and the SDLP, still intended to field their big hitters in this election. However this hasn't stopped the TUV and the UUP pointing to the candidacy of Messrs Wilson and Campbell as - in their view - proof of a DUP broken pledge.

The DUP also have seven women candidates - amongst them Brenda Hale, whose husband Captain Mark Hale was killed whilst serving in Afghanistan in 2009. Ms Hale was drawn to politics when working with her local MP Jeffrey Donaldson after feeling abandoned by the Ministry of Defence.

When Mrs Hale's husband died, the MoD sent her his final month's pay cheque but at a greatly reduced rate. When she queried the amount, she found it had been reduced to reflect the number of days he actually worked - with just half a day's pay for the last day of his life as he had been killed in the morning. This was the kind of government bureaucracy which spurred Mrs Hale to get involved in politics.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

We just had an interesting discussion on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio Ulster about what implications, if any, the Irish election results will have for the Stormont assembly poll in May. The UUP's Basil McCrea worries that Sinn Fein's success will have "huge implications". But neither the DUP's Jeffrey Donaldson nor the SDLP's Conall McDevitt agreed - Conall pointed out that, in South Belfast, no-one had ever raised southern politics on the doorstep with him. Conall argued that, in opposition, Sinn Fein would prove largely an irrelevance, whilst the other northern parties should seek to build a strong partnership with the incoming Irish government.

Sinn Fein, no doubt, will regard that as sour grapes. The TV cameras will now inevitably follow Gerry Adams and the other Sinn Fein TDs as they take their seats, a handy bit of publicity in the run up to the Stormont campaign.

But no-one should take a bounce for granted. After all in 2007 Sinn Fein got no bounce in the south from its healthy showing in the Assembly elections and the pictures of the restoration of devolution. The question is do nationalist voters in the north take more notice of southern Irish politics, than southern voters take of affairs north of the border?

P.S. Whilst Basil McCrea is concerned about the Irish election, the TUV's Jim Allister thinks unionists should be looking to it as an example - his argument being that voters throwing a government out of office is exactly what democracy is all about. Mr Allister will now add the election outcome to his list of arguments against what he refers to as the "absurdity" of the Stormont mandatory coalition.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

I'm just off air from our ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio Ulster Election programme, reporting on the momentous Irish election. Momentous, but in some ways not surprising - if you were a reporter doing vox pops in Dublin any time in the last few months you had to ask people to form an orderly queue as they mae clear their disgust at Fianna Fail's handling of the economic crash.

So the drubbing handed out to the outgoing government could have been predicted - whats harder to foresee is how long it will take Fianna Fail to rebuild and whether they will ever regain anything like their former influence.

Fine Gael still looks likely to form a coalition with Labour. But with the economic options facing a new government still bleak it's hard to imagine their honeymoon, should they form a coalition, lasting any longer than the one enjoyed by Messrs Cameron and Clegg.

Sinn Fein will rightly be jubilant with their performance. They got a bit more than 170,000 votes in last year's Westminster election - I'm guessing they might get around 200,000 votes in this Dail poll. Given Sinn Fein's emphasis on all Ireland politics, it will be interesting to see what the pecking order of party strengths is across the island as a whole - SF, I think will still be behind Fine Gael but in front of the weakened Fianna Fail.

Of course that's just a parlour game and right now it's how votes translate into seats that will count. Sinn Fein will easily form a technical speaking group in the Dail - but how will they compare in strength to Fianna Fail?

When I heard about Martin Mansergh's poor showing I couldn't help thinking about to the day in 1994 when Gerry Adams travelled down to Government Buildings in Dublin to be welcomed in from the cold by Albert Reynolds and John Hume. The giants of nationalism gripped the hand of the outcast. Now Sinn Fein has surpassed the SDLP and has Fianna Fail in its sights. Everything has indeed changed utterly.

When Gerry Adams appeared on the programme Audrey Carville asked him if he'd miss northern politics - he told her that he "hasn't gone away, you know".

I'm off now to prepare for our teatime TV news. Tomorrow lunchtime there's more special election coverage, starting at noon, on both ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio Ulster and ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳1.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

That's how long you are likely to live if you are a male or a female in Northern Ireland. according to the The averages cover the years 2006-2008 and are both up about 9.5 months on the previous average recorded in the years 2001 - 2003.

Michael McGimpsey makes the point that our ageing population is putting extra strain on the under resourced health service. But, looking at it from another tack, our hospitals, together with other factors such as better food intake, must be getting something right or we wouldn't be living longer in the first place. The Health Department puts the improvement down to falling circulatory disease in the over 60s. And whilst we are in need of doctors as our 76.4th and 81.3rd birthdays approach, haven't we enjoyed more years of decent health in our earlier decades than preceding generations?

So let's celebrate living longer whilst entering a note of caution about the statistical gaps opening up. For instance in deprived areas males only live to 71.8 years - nearly three years less than the average, and the rate of improvement in this group has been only about 2.5 months. By contrast people are living longer in rural areas (especially, it seems, the south east) due to a lower incidence of cancer and respiratory disease.

I'm spending today sucking lozenges and taking cold remedies. I think it's just a sore throat, but being a bordeline hypochondriac I am now starting to worry about where my eventual place will be in the Health Department's statistical pecking order.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

Earlier today I spoke to the Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness who remains exercised about the unwillingness of the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP to back the budget. Last week Mr McGuinness said the Ulster Unionists had been talking to the Northern Ireland Office about funding an opposition. That's something Tom Elliott has made no secret of - he told Martina Purdy he hoped the government would address the issue in their so called "Normalisation Bill".

But today the Deputy First Minister widened the accusation to the SDLP, claiming he had information that the party had also been involved in discussions on funding an opposition. He mentioned Margaret Ritchie by name.

Both Ms Ritchie and Alasdair McDonnell were quick to deny this - accusing Sinn Fein of "kite flying". When I spoke to a government source, they also said that in recent meetings between the NIO and the SDLP the question of funding an opposition had not been raised.

However tonight Sinn Fein hit back - claiming that Mr McGuinness's information had come directly from the Secretary of State Owen Paterson, at meeting with the Deputy First Minister at which note takers were present.

So we have diametrically opposing versions. Sinn Fein are concerned about the matter not just because it feeds into the short term tensions over the budget, but also because they believe this discussion could pave the way towards a "voluntary coalition" which could see republicans excluded from ministerial office.

Although the former SDLP leader Mark Durkan coined the phrase about Stormont's "ugly scaffolding" the party's position is that it's not the Good Friday Agreement system which has to change, but rather the behaviour of the major parties.

Expect more claim and counter claim as the May 5th elections draw closer.

UPDATE: The NIO tonight said that during his meeting with Martin McGuinness, Owen Paterson did raise the hypothetical possibility of the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP going into opposition in the future and asked Sinn Fein's view. However the NIO say their notes don't include a reference to Margaret Ritchie and they acknowledge that the SDLP themselves has NOT raised the opposition option. The NIO says its position is that no changes to the Stormont system will be made without the agreement of the local parties.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

As the pressure mounts on Colonel Gaddaffi, the South Belfast MP Alasdair McDonnell has challenged Gerry Adams to condemn the atrocities being carried out against people there arguing that "the total silence of Gerry Adams over the deaths and injuries suffered by hundreds of innocent protestors at the hands of the Provo benefactor is a shameful indictment of a morally bankrupt politician."

Given Libya's record in supplying arms and cash to the IRA, this charge against republicans was inevitable. But UDA leaders also travelled to Tripoli in the 1970s to seek assistance from Colonel Gaddaffi.

More recently after approving the secondment of PSNI officers to train the Libyan police. Yes, the same Libyan police who are now being accused of human rights outrages on the streets of Benghazi and Tripoli.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

The SDLP recently unveiled a Polish and a Portugese candidate for Craigavon council. Today they confirmed a Polish Assembly candidate for East Belfast. Magdalena Wolska is no stranger to Stormont - she arrived in Belfast four years ago with £100 in her pocket, got a job in the Assembly canteen, then moved on to work as a Stormont security woman, where she was always a colourful character around the Great Hall. With a family background in the trade union "Solidarity" she has now left the Stormont staff for work in a private sector firm - whether she returns as a politician (given the likely packed field in East Belfast) is open to doubt, but if she did she wouldn't need anyone to show her around the building.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

The Foyle SDLP MLA Pol Callaghan complained at the start of proceedings today about the Finance Minister Sammy Wilson bracketing him with Cambodia's most notorious dictator. During a debate on tuition fees Mr Wilson said "I do not know whether his name is Pol Callaghan or Pol Pot, but if the latter rewrote the history of Cambodia, Mr Callaghan is trying to re-write the history of the SDLP". and today Mr Callaghan asked the Speaker to look at the matter - the SDLP may pride itself with being left of centre but to lump it in with the Khmer Rouge is going a bit far.

No MLAs, so far as I am aware, are called Muammar, so there's been no mention of events in Libya in the chamber today. But if there's regime change in Tripoli what will the repercussions be for Northern Ireland? Presumably much less of a chance of the compensation package for IRA victims being negotiated by Jeffrey Donaldson and others. And would a new regime open its official files on Libya's past dealings with the IRA and other paramilitaries?

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

I'm just off air from this weekend's Inside Politics, during which we broadcast an interview with Peter Robinson recorded on Friday. The First Minister said "there was never a pup's chance" that the SDLP and UUP intended to vote for the Executive budget, even if the cash to their respective departments had been doubled. He said that if extra money had been available health wouldn't be top of the list.

The DUP leader claimed Tom Elliott was playing catch up with his policy on the need for an opposition at Stormont and criticised the UUP's concentration on the need for funding, saying "I'd have thought this was a metter of principle" and that money "wouldn't be the main issue involved".

On whether the DUP would refuse to nominate a Deputy First Minister if Sinn Fein becomes the biggest party, Mr Robinson said he was happy to confirm it was the legal situation that one appointment could not be made without the other. But would this be the "clever device" he intends to operate? He replied that his device would be ensuring the DUP is the biggest party.

During the interview Mr Robinson also said he couldn't support an inquiry into the 1971 Ballymurphy killings and spelled out his opposition to using the AV system for Westminster elections. (That's in contrast to my studio guest political consultant Quintin Oliver, a veteran of the Good Friday Agreement referendum campaign who is now preparing to throw his organisational weight into the local "Yes" campaign).

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

The Social Development Minister Alex Attwood is claiming a victory in his battle to encourage the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition to show more flexibility in its plans for welfare reform. During recent discussions with Welfare ministers Iain Duncan Smith and Lord Freud, Mr Attwood argued against imposing a 10% housing benefit cut for anyone unemployed for more than a year. The Guardian puts the decision to drop this proposal down to a But the SDLP politician says he got in first, pressing the case with the Liberal Democrat Lord Freud.

Despite that change there's no doubt the changes outlined today will be significant for plenty of people in Northern Ireland. The DSD reckons there are 580,000 people here who claim one benefit or another - around 1 in 3 of the population. The Westminster coalition government says some people will be better off once a new universal benefit replaces the various allowances currently on offer. But in his speech David Cameron made no bones about his desire to save money - he's planning to cut the welfare bill by £5.5 billion across the UK over the next four years - and that has to have ramifications in Northern Ireland.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

On the margins of his breakfast event, Tom Elliott expressed the hope to my colleague Martina Purdy that the government would legislate for an officially recognised opposition. An NIO source told me this has been raised by the UUP. But there are no plans to include it in the "Normalisation Bill" due to deal with political donations and double jobbing. That bill is currently expected in 2013. Of course any party can choose not to take seats in the Executive. However, in contrast to Westminster, there is no funding or official recognition for a Stormont "opposition". My source suggests the question of funding might be one for the Assembly Commission, which manages Stormont, rather than the NIO.

Perhaps if the number of MLAs and departments is cut that will free up funding for an opposition. As things stand, though, the Commission has just approved (according to the public service union NIPSA) a 17% cut in the Assembly budget over the next four years. That could translate into nearly 90 job losses. NIPSA members have been invited to a meeting tomorrow to voice their "sense of concern and anger". All of which could limit the official assistance given to whoever might emerge as Stormont's equivalent to Ed Miliband.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

In the last blog I implied that Danny Kennedy had dodged a bullet by using Joanne Stuart as cover for a future tuition fees hike. So I should confess to being a bullet dodger myself. When I booked a few days off to cover the kids' half term, I didn't realise I had neatly avoided two of the Assembly's longest sitting days. Now I just have to persuade my sleep deprived colleagues this was honestly the case.

On a half term day trip, the children whiled away the time in the car listening to an audio book of the story of a boy called Tom who steals down the stairs from his bedroom in the middle of the night to turn back time with the help of a magical grandfather clock. He spends a lot of the book wishing his brother Peter would join him, but apart from a late ghostly apparition, Peter never does.

Now, on my first day back in the office, I'm reading through Tom Elliott's speech to a business breakfast in which he seeks to change the hands on the Stormont clock (forwards or backwards is a matter of opinion). Whether you agree with the UUP leader or not, it's actually

Tom Elliott's thesis is that Stormont needs an opposition - but not just yet. He thinks a new system should come into place from 2015, not 2011. That's prompted the TUV to accuse him of dithering, rather than pressing for immediate change. By contrast the SDLP argues the system isn't the problem, it's the failure of the DUP and Sinn Fein to abide by the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement.

Although the UUP leader talks about the need for "genuine power sharing rather than a self-serving carve-up" he doesn't specify how he believes a government should be formed in 2015. A straight majority? A weighted cross community majority?

Mr Elliott's vision of a new model (which includes cutting the number of MLAs and departments ) is pitched for four years' time. But he also proposes one immediate change. This is that the Stormont parties should agree a Programme for Government before appointing departmental ministers. "That way" he argues "all the parties agree what needs to be done first. We begin by sorting out the likes of education, RPA and the Maze/Long Kesh before we start wasting money disagreeing."

According to the Northern Ireland Act, the parties currently have 7 days to appoint both the First and Deputy First Ministers and the departmental ministers. So under the UUP vision, a government programme would have to be agreed in a week. That's a tall order, but as Mr Elliott points out, the Conservatives and Liberal Democats reached their deal in 5 days. (P.S. An Ulster Unionist reader has pointed out that the 7 days is from the first sitting of the Assembly - if you start the clock from when the election results are counted you would a few days more.)

This of course begs a question. What if all the parties cannot agree a Programme for Government within the UUP's proposed timetable? Would the UUP decline to take any department to which it may be entitled. Mr Elliott says "the Ulster Unionists are NOT preparing our members for Opposition in 2011". But if they take a department without an agreed Programme for Government in place they will be contravening the first stage in their leader's new vision for change.

I haven't mentioned the possibility of Sinn Fein being the biggest party, because that remains hypothetical (if not quite as hypothetical as Mr Elliott's vision of a different Stormont system.) But of course the outcome of the May election will have a significant impact not just on how much of a toehold the UUP retains within the Executive, but also on how urgent this debate about Stormont's "ugly scaffolding" becomes.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

I'm just on my way home from the Institute of Directors' Annual Dinner. Apparently a small number of students protested outside carrying placards with the slogan "Fat Cats" -a response to Joanne Stuart's report this week pointing towards a future increase in the cap on tuition fees (a report which the IoD is keen to point out she didn't write in her capacity as their local chair).

In his after dinner speech, the actor Dan Gordon joked that Joanne Stuart should take care walking around the university area in the near future ("especially around 4 o'clock in the afternoon when the students are just getting up"). But he also picked up on the way in which the Employment and Learning Minister Danny Kennedy (another guest) had been happy to use Ms Stuart as a way to dodge the tuition fees bullet, claiming the minister had mentioned her by name 32 times during his speech to the Assembly.

Perhaps feeling empowered by having set out her stall on the fees issue, or because this was her last speech as IoD Chair, Joanne Stuart didn't hold back in criticising those Stormont politicians who she believes have sought refuge in delay and indecision when it comes to wider economic priorities.

She called for the Executive to adopt a "more businesslike approach". "The draft budget makes claims about economic growth" she argued " but it is slim on actions and lacks a compelling vision".

"Nor does it help" she continued "that some Ministers are chipping away at each other at every public opportunity. Government must be decisive, act cohesively and deliver the actions it is responsible for - it must not be one in which individuals or groups seek advantage".

Ms Stuart finished with an appeal to politicians and public servants to adopt a more collegiate approach, to take the business community's seriously and "to accept that an element of managed risk is crucial to progress".

P.S. I didn't arrive at the IoD dinner until late because I had been attending the Naomi Long got politician of the year and the Devenport Diaries received a special mention for which I am very grateful to Mick Fealty and all the Slugger-ites. More to the point, I got to meet a couple of people who I have only hitherto known by their pen names - please keep the comments coming they are always much appreciated.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

Whilst the changes to tuition fees might not encourage student mobility around the UK, the North South Ministerial Conference continues to ponder the obstacles to cross border job mobility. The Foyle MP Mark Durkan tells me one difficulty is that those who work in the north, but live in the south are treated by the Irish and British tax authorities as "complex cases". This can lead to slow processing of their taxes and tax credits. Mr Durkan adds that the process has been slowed down even more by the tendency of the British authorities to try to communicate with the Irish tax office dealing with these cases via letters bearing second class stamps. Maybe someone in the Inland Revenue needs to be made aware that Letterkenny (where the office in question is located) is over the border.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

The main debate generated by Joanne Stuart's will be about the recommendation that the cap should rise to as much as £5,750, from its current level of £3290.

However, perhaps because I left Stormont just as Danny Kennedy finished his statement to fly to London, I started pondering the increasingly complex relationship between England and the devolved nations when it comes to higher education.

Whilst the Stuart report opts for a cap of between £5000 and £5,750 it recommends a different course of action for those who for the sake of argument, I shall refer to as "blow ins": suggesting the adoption of the "UK Government fee structure for non NI domiciled students studying at NI HEIs - basic fee level of £6,000 with a maximum fee cap of £9,000." But as the report also notes "due to European Union (EU) legislation, this would apply only to students from England, Wales and Scotland." This is similar to a previous report in Scotland, and suggests (if my reading is correct) that a student from the Irish Republic (as an EU citizen) would therefore be charged less than one from England.

The numbers of "blow in" UK students involved are pretty small - a table in the Stuart report states that in 2008/09 there were 165 first year students from England at NI universities, and just 10 from Wales and 20 from Scotland. But when you look at the number of students from Northern Ireland studying elsewhere in the UK the figures increase dramatically. The same table shows 2965 NI first year students in England, 115 in Wales and 1110 in Scotland.

Elsewhere the report estimates there are 8,500 NI students enrolled at English and Welsh universities. If the Stormont Executive subsidised them so they didn't pay any more for their studies than their counterparts who stayed at home, the reports says it would cost anything between £2M and £34M (a wide range which depends on the cap adopted in Northern Ireland and the actual fees charged in England and Wales.

Not so long ago David Cameron was declaring his "passionate" unionism and the need to end Northern Ireland's "semi-detached" status. But the contrasting policies on fees being considered by the various UK administrations look set to treat UK citizens in radically different ways if they seek to be educated in a different UK region from the one where they were born.

P.S. I was just about to hit publish on this blog when some colleagues here at Westminster drew my attention to some comments today from the Economic Secretary Justine Greening during a debate sponsored by Plaid Cymru and the SNP on fuel costs. Ms Greening suggested that devolved administrations should consider alleviating the high costs of fuel from their own budgets "to fund their own form of grant scheme to support motorists in their areas." She continued by arguing that the devolved governments have "taken decisions around tuition fees that are different to those faced by those of us living in England. And I think what it shows is that, actually there is some additional scope - that perhaps wasn't there in the past - for devolved administrations to look at this as a priority for them in terms of their spending, as well as for national government."

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

I've just broadcast some details on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Newsline and Radio Ulster's Evening Extra from a draft of the UK government's paper on rebalancing the economy here. Although the paper stops short of proposing a cut in corporation tax, its tone contrasts strongly with the December 2007 At one point it notes that reducing corporation tax to match the Irish rate "would, on its own, be likely to have a positive effect on local private sector investment" and could "play a significant role in helping rebalance the Northern Ireland economy".

The draft I have seen is probably only one of a series - the text is still being batted back and forth between London and Stormont ministers. If they reach agreement a final paper could be put out for public consultation in March, before the Assembly breaks up for the election campaign.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

Sinn Fein's Francie Molloy has been on his feet in the Assembly this afternoon defending a proposal that two "regulated" hare coursing events should be maintained in Northern Ireland. Previously MLAs backed a ban on the practice. Mr Molloy argued that there had been too much "scare mongering" about the decline in the hare population. But that prompted an intervention from the Alliance's Stephen Farry, who commented that "the population of hares is irrelevant, it's the cruelty and lack of purpose to hare coursing" which is more important.

Mr Molloy countered by defending the whole tradition of hunting "rather than going in for the kill" he said coursing was "more akin to a leisurely stroll."

The DUP's Jim Wells claimed Mr Molloy had been put up to it by his colleague Kerry TD Martin Ferris. Francie Molloy denied that and said that next Mr Wells would ban anyone killing mice or fishing. Mr Wells retorted that hare coursing was like "fishing in a fish tank".

Mr Wells' colleague Peter Weir joined in on his behalf, noting that Tony Blair's former spin doctor Alastair campbell is visiting Stormont this afternoon, and "in terms of the spin he's put on things, I suspect even he could learn something from Mr Molloy."

The debate is still continuing.

UPDATE 1740: Francie Molloy's amendment has just been rejected by MLAs who are now debating an Alliance attempt to add the hare to the list of protected species.

UPDATE 1903: Alliance's bid to add the Irish hare to the protected list as just been defeated by 56 to 19 votes.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

So Judith Gillespie, faced by a half million pound question, didn't phone a friend, didn't take 50/50, and didn't pick either A, B, C or D. Instead the Deputy Chief Constable stunned colleagues by picking P.S. N.I. over her potential Patten severance pay out.

She has a "glass ceiling award" on her desk for breaking through as a senior woman officer. However, as things stand, she still can't apply for any future vacancy as Chief Constable because the Policing Board rules state that any candidate must have served as an Assistant Chief Constable or equivalent in another force for at least 2 years.

So either DCC Gillespie will have to spend some time away, or maybe the Policing Board should change the rule to its own 50/50...either spend time elsewhere or demonstrate your committment by turning down half a million quid.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

I'm not entirely convinced I buy the Belfast Telegraph take on the Conservatives' announcement of a new Bangor headquarters. The City Edition suggests that the Tories are parking their tanks on Tom Elliott's lawn, and will be contesting all elections in the future in competition with the UUP.

However a senior Conservative source insists the announcement complies with the deal struck in December which saw the Tories agreeing not to contest this May's Assembly election and the UUP agreeing to take the Conservative whip should they ever get an MP elected again.

Indeed Alex Huston, a young local Tory who joined me as a guest on a recent Inside Politics, takes a contrasting view. "The Conservative Party are attempting to placate Northern Irish members with a full-time office" he told me. "The local party don't need or want an office, they want Assembly seats! It is counter-intuitive to have a full time office when we have only one councillor and when all future councillors must cooperate with the Ulster Unionists".

On the related matter of Tom Elliott's appeal for a change to the law on how the First Minister is chosen, this has seemed increasingly unlikely since November. That's when Owen Paterson made a speech in London about his plans for a "normalisation bill". He talked about political donations and double jobbing, but there was no reference to altering Section 16C of the Northern Ireland Act (which permits Sinn Fein to take the post if they are the biggest party).

Indeed in an interview to be shown on tonight's Hearts and Minds the Secretary of State is asked about the prospect of Martin McGuinness getting the top job. Mr Paterson replies "I think it would be an extraordinary endorsement of the progress that has been made here . and I think we should celebrate that fact that everyone wants to vote...but how that election turns out , as Secretary of State, is not for me to comment on. It's down to local people to go to the polling booths and vote."

To see that interview in full (and an encounter between Noel and Martin McGuinness) watch Hearts and Minds tonight.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

I've just been chatting to the Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew - not about her strategy to achieve a healthy population of honeybees (published today), but rather about her views on student fees.

The Employment and Learning Minister Danny Kennedy is currently in North Carolina But next Tuesday he's expected to be back at Stormont spelling out the conclusions of Joanne Stuart's updated review of student finance.

Ms Gildernew says she "afraid of what I'm hearing" both from the coalition government in London and Mr Kennedy's Department of Employment and Learning. She says she won't implement "Tory policies" in her department so has instructed her officials to freeze the fees currently paid by 1600 students in 3 agricultural colleges, rather than increase them in line with inflation. She has also ordered them to break with previous practice which would have been for the agricultural students fees to line in tandem with rises in other further education colleges.

The freeze on fees shouldn't cost the Agriculture department any more than £60,000 so it's a fairly cost efficient way for Sinn Fein to make a public distinction between its policies and any increase adopted by the Ulster Unionist DEL minister. Danny Kennedy will have to struggle with much bigger sums if he is to make the further and higher education budgets balance.

But it should make for a lively debate whenever Mr Kennedy decides to spell out what action he intends to take.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?

So Brian Cowen, leaving in a degree of ignominy after the Republic's economic crash, regards his contribution to the peace process as his proudest achievement. Sounds a bit like Tony Blair, hounded over his decisions in the run up to the Iraq war, turning to Northern Ireland as proof that he was, whatever the critics say, a peacemaker.

Maybe Northern Ireland has found its role - to provide a silver lining for politicians in the terminal phase of their careers.

P.S. For those who didn't catch my report on Gerry Adams in Louth on last night's ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Newsline, there's an online version of it here.

P.P.S. I wrote that headline before remembering where it came from.- Martin Fletcher's

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?