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Goco calling

• Mark Devenport
• 16 Mar 07, 03:29 PM

What does the fact that the parties want the first water bills scrapped say about their readiness to meet the March 26th deadline? The new government owned water company goes operational on April 2nd. The first bills are due out soon afterwards.

Will Gordon Brown put his hand in his pocket and give the parties the 拢70 to 拢80 million needed to scrap the first year's charges if the DUP tells him they are still undecided about devolution and won't make their minds up until the summer? When he meets them on Thursday March 22nd the Chancellor will undoubtedly want an assurance that the executive will be up and running by the turn of the month. Only then might he tell the GoCo what to do with its bills.

On an entirely different topic I see the Greens have declined their invitation to President Bush's White House St Patrick's jamboree because they want to reduce their carbon footprint. In the future governments will count their carbon just like they count their cash. So says no less a person than the Chancellor. By that standard I wonder what a carbon audit of the peace process would look like?

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