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A stingy sleight of hand

• Mark Devenport
• 23 Mar 07, 02:16 PM

In keeping with this morning's gloom in government circles, Ian Paisley made a fairly uncompromising speech to the Federation of Small Business, accusing Gordon Brown of being stingy and unfair. He argued that the Chancellor's rolling together of Irish and British money amounted to a sleight of hand. Returning to the political doubts of many in his Assembly team the DUP leader demanded an improved sanctions mechanism.

That said, there was also a real sense of Ian Paisley relishing the prospect of becoming First Minister. At the very end of his speech he accused Downing Street of changing the time of his meeting, adding that when he got his hands on the levers of power he'd sort the timetabling out.

So is this hardballing in an attempt to extract more from Tony Blair or a reflection of a real wobble within the DUP ranks? By midnight tomorrow we should all be a bit wiser.