91Èȱ¬

The UUP treasurer Mark Cosgrove is in cheerful form, not just because of the in his party's finances, but more in anticipation of getting married this weekend.

We have heard a lot about the "courtship" between the UUP and the Tories, so maybe it's fitting that one of the guests at Mark's wedding will be Davey Cameron.

Apparently Davey called him recently when he was chatting to a Conservative and the Tory's eyes nearly popped out as the name flashed up on Mark's mobile.

Before the PSNI start wondering why they haven't been informed in advance about the occasion, we better point out that this Davey Cameron is Mark's office manager, not the potential future Prime Minister

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Anyone aware of the problems the army used to face moving soldiers around South Armagh and the importance of the helicopters based at Bessbrook for resupplying the border surveillance towers will have followed the debate about the need for more helicopters in order to avoid landmine attack in Afghanistan with a degree of familiarity.

Now we have a spate of stories about many accompanied with references to the Northern Ireland example. However as Lord Ashdown pointed out this morning on Good Morning Ulster and in discussion with Douglas Alexander there are limits to the analogy, not least that the Taliban leadership seems convinced at the moment it has far more to gain from continuing fighting.

Jeff Dudgeon sent me a copy of his News Letter review of John Bew, Martyn Frampton, and Inigo Gurruchaga's new book "Talking to Terrorists: Making Peace in Northern Ireland and the Basque Country". He distills the book's message as "terrorism thrives on talking, unless already in yield mode. And that state force works." It is, I suppose, working out when an organisation might be entering "yield mode" which is the difficult part.

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It's Mark, not Martina. I'm just back from a typical Irish beach holiday, which involved being rained off the beach once and on another occasion being advised by a lifeguard to seek shelter in order to avoid being hit by lightning. This after purchasing a metal fishing net for Devenport junior which no doubt would have acted as an excellent conductor.

I'm back for a while, but my blogging tag partner Martina is promising to fill in again during August when I shall abscond once more. So you can look forward to some more quality entries then.

All fairly quiet on the Stormont front today with the exception of Peter Robinson's assault on the Equality Commission and its 34% Protestant workforce. The DUP leader makes no secret of his intention to ensure that a unionist is appointed he points out that Shaun Woodward is due to appont four Commissioners in September. "This is an opportunity for the Secretary of State to address the shameful past legacy of this body. I would strongly urge him to fulfil his legal obligations to ensure representativeness on the commission: something that has been absent up until now."

But during the European election campaign the DUP briefed that they wanted a "Commission Cull", merging the Equality, Human Rights and Children's Commissions (the policy was illustrated by an axe in a tree stump which Mr Robinson assured us was not intended for Monica McWilliams personally. So if the party gets its representatives on these bodies will it remain so keen on their cull?

Last week when I was away the TUV's Karen Boal (no relation to the lawyer Dessie Boal I am assured) challenged the DUP to say what has happened to their promised Today Mr Robinson assured Martina that the plans are still on track and we shall hear more detail on them in September.

On a quite separate theme, sounded vaguely familiar to me. Then I realised that the memory it had triggered was of the old Trimble-ite wheeze that an Assembly election should be held on exactly the same day as a "border poll". The theory was that such a poll would bring out all those garden centre unionists who would also mark their preferences for UUP candidates.

Of course the "border poll" idea got no further than the old UUP HQ drawing board. It will be interesting to see if the AV referendum makes it any further. What the UUP then and Labour now have in common is that both were/are in a tight corner and both were/are compared to contemplate fairly far fetched tactics in a last ditch attempt to change the electoral realities facing them.

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There is likely to be a by-election in Ballymoney if councillors can't agree to coopt a replacement for Councillor Roy Wilson who quit the council recently. The DUP man cited work, family and church reasons for his departure and now his Rasharkin seat may be contested by the TUV. The council is due to meet on August 3rd and first item on the agenda is a discussion around replacing Roy Wilson. If one councillor objects it goes to byelection.

If there is a poll - most likely in late September/early October - voters should beware about bringing out-of-date ID documents with them to the polling station. It seems that expired passports, driving licenses, electoral ID cards and Translink Smartpasses are not allowed for council elections - even though they were allowed for the last Euro-poll in June. Moreover, voters who were allowed to use a Translink 60+ Smartpass, a Blind Person's SmartPass,and a Translink War Disabled SmartPass cannot do so for council elections.

It seems Parliament failed to legislate to ensure these forms of ID and expired ID could be used for Council elections. Oops.

What a headache for the Electoral Office - after spending so much energy educating people on ID for the European election.

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TUV leader Jim Allister has issued a lengthy press statement attacking the lack of transparency and opening of North/South bodies. The cross-border bodies have immunity from the Freedom of Information Act 2000. He claims Code of Practice on Freedom of Information promised when they were established only materialised in 2006 and is "useless."

And he's been met with a "stalling wheeze" from the Department of Finance on information he's seeking on EU peace funding for ex-republican prisoners.

It seems the "stalling wheeze" has lasted for six months.

Those of us who have tried Freedom of Information are familiar with that stalling wheeze!

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Niall Ó Donnghaile, the Sinn Fein press officer, has been hurling on the green at Stormont- along with a colleague from the press office, David and a friend, Seanna. The trio had their pictures taken, holding their hurls and posted it online. As they returned to work, past Carson's statue, Seanna reminded them that Lord Carson himself played the game at Trinity College. Are they thinking of starting a Stormont team?

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Breandán Mac Cionnaith, general secretary of Éirígí, and Garvaghy Road residents representative, has expressed confusion over the Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams' remarks that there are six disputed Orange marches which require dialogue. Mr Mac Cionnaith claims he can count at least 21.

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I returned to work this morning to find a press statement from the Deputy First Minister congratulating Tyrone following their victory in this year's GAA Ulster football final. I didn't notice the First Minister's name on the release. Is Peter Robinson an Antrim fan?
He did manage a joint congratulations with Mr McGuinness for Antrim teenager Michael McKillop when he won the gold medal in the 800 metres in the paralympics in Beijing. And both ministers jointly congratulated the Irish Rugby team on their Grand Slam win in Cardiff in March.

So I was wondering what happened? Is there a protocol for these things? I notice there is now a protocol for Derry/Londonderry as evidenced in their joint statement last week on the funding for festivals.

I did ask the DUP. And this was the response:

A DUP spokesman said: "Politicians are usually criticised for what they do say rather than what they don't. But as we are in the mood for looking for congratulations all around, we look forward to hearing the chair of the D-CAL committee congratulating the organisers of Orangefest for a hugely successful Twelfth of July."

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Just finished editing a profile piece on Edwin Poots for radio and television - should be airing on Monday. As part of the research I dug into our archives and found a piece of footage from 1997 - Gerry Adams's first appearance on 91Èȱ¬ Question Time. Yes that was controversial back then. And a young Edwin Poots marched onto the stage to protest. He was quickly escorted off the stage as Mr Adams dismissed his attack as a "DUP stunt". When I reminded the new Stormont Environment minister of the incident, he declared: "That is something I have no regrets about. So I have been thrown out of the 91Èȱ¬ - but I've been thrown out of better places than the 91Èȱ¬."

Surely not - such as???

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Greetings all! It's Martina Purdy again - it's taken months but I've finally driven Mark Devenport out of the office for a well-earned rest. So you will have me to contend with for much of the summer.

First talking point - An Bord Snip - the Republic's cost cutting body - has put the spotlight on North-South bodies. And it appears that the tourism budget may be getting the snip. There's a proposal to save 12 million Euros from the Tourism Marketing Fund which is administered by the cross-border body, Tourism Ireland. It seems this is a matter for the finance ministers is Belfast and Dublin, as well as the Department of Enterprise Trade and Investment and presumably also the Executive and the North South Ministerial Council. So it could be a while before there's agreement on this....

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Our new MEP Diane Dodds has now got her feet under her desk in the European parliament. Today she took an early crack at the government, criticising Baroness Kinnock for naming Tony Blair as the likely UK candidate for EU President and thereby treating the Irish referendum in October as a "fait accompli". The DUP news release was headlined "No need for any EU President, let alone an EU President Blair", although disappointingly she didn't list all the reasons why Tony shouldn't get the job.

Earlier this week, the Guardian reported Mrs Dodds' apparent at being seated next to the BNP's Andrew Brons. She is reported to have abandoned her seat in protest. Presumably no handshake took place.

With the BNP on one side and the Blairite Eurocrats on the other where is a new DUP MEP to turn to? Let's hope she doesn't rush into the Ladies and bump into Bairbre De Brun.

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I was over in London at the start of the week discussing with some colleagues the likely themes in the run up to the next General Election. Although many observers are assuming an outright Conservative victory, as Newsnight's Michael Crick pointed out on his blog in April, this would require the second biggest swing in 60 years.

If we do have a close race and head into "hung parliament" territory, then Northern Ireland may come into its own. Back in February 1974, after all, it was the refusal of the Ulster Unionists to take the Conservative whip which deprived Ted Heath of his ability to form a government.

The chose July 12th as a suitable date to ruminate on Northern Ireland's likely impact on the General Election. Inevitably we shall spend a lot of time focussing on whether the DUP will hold on to all their 9 seats, whether the TUV or UCUNF can make any gains, what Lady Sylvia Hermon will do in North Down and how the battle between Sinn Fein and the SDLP might work out in South Down and elsewhere.

However if the arithmetic across the UK is close, local MPs, no matter which banner they stand under, could have a crucial part to play in the formation of a government (the obvious exception being the abstentionist Sinn Fein). In that case the period immediately after the election could turn out to be even more interesting than the campaign or the counts.

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The vast majority of yesterday's Orange Order parades may have been completed in a peaceful, almost carnival atmosphere (even though some senior Orangemen, like the Grand Chaplain Reverend Stephen Dickinson appear hostile to the whole notion of a soft edged, shopping friendly "Orangefest").

But the TV images of the trouble at the Ardoyne shops will be what sticks in the mind for the wider world.

Sinn Fein blamed the riots firmly on republican dissidents, naming Eirigi and the 32 County Sovereignty Movement as the people with questions to answer. Eirigi, in the shape of its General Secretary Breandán McCionnaith, has denied instigating the trouble. Mr McCionnaith claims PSNI officers "violently attacked" peaceful protestors and accuses Sinn Fein of "acting as apologists for state violence against the nationalist community".

This morning both Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness challenged the Orange Order leadership to sit down face to face with Sinn Fein. The DUP's Nelson McCausland argues that's a red herring as talks did take place in North Belfast between marchers and Ardoyne residents.

However there are clearly anomalies in the current situation which has seen the Portadown Orange talking to Gerry Adams and on the brink of meeting Breandán McCionnaith (wearing his Garvaghy residents' hat), but the Order's central leadership continuing to stand on ceremony (despite a recent interview in which the Grandmaster Bobby Saulters acknowledged that you should "never say never").

After Peter Robinson's recent Garvaghy road diplomacy, a Sinn Fein Orange meeting could be seen as a symbolic step forward for dialogue. That said, given the alleged role of dissidents in yesterday's trouble, there has to be a question mark over Sinn Fein's ability to deliver calm on the streets. It would be ironic if, having held out so long against talking to republicans, the Orange leadership do so at a time when the people on the other side of the table are no longer able to guarantee a peaceful outcome.

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"A place as mysterious and alien to most of its fellow citizens in the UK as, say, the Amazon basin".

That's a quote from by Patrick Hannan, a journalist who has spent much of his career working for 91Èȱ¬ Wales. And you can guess which corner of the UK he's talking about.

I started " A Useful Fiction" on the Belfast to Stranraer boat a couple of weeks ago and finished it after a flight to England this week, which seemed fitting for a book dealing with the changing nature of politics across the UK. Patrick engages in a tour d'horizon of contemporary events which includes his views on Prince Charles and the coverage of Madeline McCann's abduction. But what distinguishes this from other more metro centric tomes is his grasp of the complexity of the shifting sands of our constititional arrangements.

For example, his discussion of the tensions between the separate political classes of Welsh AMs and Welsh MPs will ring bells with anyone who has followed the local debate about double jobbing and the sometimes competitive relationship between MLAs and MPs.

He's also insightful on the limited status of the devolved nations given their lack of tax raising and gathering powers. At one point he likens them to pensioners drawing their allowances from a Westminster post office, "they have to allocate a large part of their income to the fundamentals of everyday life - food, power, accommodation - and with what's left over they can choose between cat food or a couple of pints of beer".

With the Lords review of the Barnett formula due in the coming week his analysis is worth checking out.

Patrick also quotes the Scottish journalist Ian Jack, writing in the Guardian back in 2008, as predicting that "if Cameron wins he will be the last Prime Minister of Great Britain (sic). If he goes two terms he will become the first prime minister of England. Our United semi-states will be no more. Then there really will be a new Canada in the north." (that last reference being to his vision of Scotland).

That made me ponder again on the Conservative Ulster Unionist arrangement, and the reasons why David Cameron is so keen to build bridgeheads anywhere outside England.

On the topic of the Conservatives and Ulster Unionists, Sir Reg Empey is my guest this lunchtime for the last Inside Politics until the autumn.

Sir Reg talks about whether he will stand as a candidate for Westminster in East Belfast (he is keeping his options open, but sounds to be veering against), the prospects for transferrring justice powers and the latest tensions within loyalism.

Elsewhere in the programme we discuss the marching season and Peter Robinson's attempts to bring the Garvaghy residents and the Portadown Orange together and Toireasa Ferris's article in An Phoblacht criticising Sinn Fein's performance south of the border.

That's after the one o'clock news, or you can listen to it later on the I player. And the next series of Inside Politics is due back on 91Èȱ¬ Radio Ulster from September 13th.

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Sammy Wilson arranged a photo opportunity today at a social housing construction site in Belfast's Mersey Street to mark his announcement of £20 million in extra funding for the sector. But he knew before he left Stormont that Michael McGimpsey had stolen the headlines by angrily denouncing the failure to give his department any extra cash to fight swine flu.

As the Finance Minister donned a safety helmet for his tour of the site he quipped, "People will be wondering why I am putting this on - is it protection against swine flu? Is a swine going to hit me on the head?"

Michael McGimpsey points out that even though he cut a deal with previous Finance Ministers to keep his own efficiency savings and not to bid for extra money from other departments' surpluses, an exception was specifically written in for emergencies like flu pandemics.

Sammy Wilson retorts that there is still a live negotiation, involving Scotland and Wales, with all the devolved nations looking to the Treasury for extra swine flu cash. He accuses Mr McGimpsey of being a "maverick minister" (which is quite something coming from Sammy) whose solo run could undermine those efforts.

One way or another it seems certain that the £18 million needed for swine flu vaccines will be found, but it looks like this argument over the projected £50 million figure for combatting swine flu here could still be continuing in the autumn, provided our ministers are well enough by then to row about anything.

By the way I forgot to mention that when ministers unveiled the rough route of the new improved A5 from Aughnacloy to Donegal at yesterday's North South meeting, someone noticed that the map provided (presumably by Irish officials) identified the Maiden City by the term "Londonderry".

The Deputy First Minister leapt in, putting his thumb over the letters spelling out "London". That reminded me of Paddy Kielty telling a TV audience recently that he had advised Michael McKintyre that to please everyone in the North West he should call the city neither Derry nor Londonderry, but simply "London".

Anyway it was interesting that at a north south meeting which was supposed to be dealing with the economy and swine flu, we didn't have the Finance, Enterprise, Employment or Health Ministers. Oh yes, they are all unionists aren't they?

Today Michael McGimpsey denied Sinn Fein claims that he and Sir Reg Empey were boycotting the North South plenary meetings, pointing out that he met the Irish Health Minister Mary Harney at a health sectoral meeting just a few weeks ago. Maybe if they keep referring to the second city as "Londonderry" the North South Ministerial Council secretariat will find themselves overwhelmed with unionists wanting to attend future gatherings.

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I drove down to Dublin, stopping at the Drogheda bridge toll station to fumble around for some euros, and wondering whether my journey would prove worthwhile. I'd been tipped off already that Messrs Robinson, McGuinness and Cowen would be announcing some new money for the A5 and A8 road improvements. But whilst 8 million pounds might be very welcome as a statement of intent from Dublin to complete these north south infrastructure projects, it doesn't buy you a lot of tarmac.

However when the news conference began at Farmleigh house it became clear that rather bigger sums had been under discussion. The ministers had been discussing Dublin's plans for a , a so called "bad bank" due to take on up to 90 billion euros of so called run up by Irish banks. I have to admit I wasn't familiar with the acronym NAMA, but on enquiring further about this aspect of the discussions I learned that an estimated 30 billion euro worth are outside the Irish Republic, and anything between 15 and 20 billion of these assets could be in Northern Ireland (if the language here sounds vague it's because the officials are dealing in guesstimates - they still don't know exact figures for the toxic assets).

Clearly a sudden move by NAMA to try to claw back cash by selling northern assets could have a sudden negative impact on overall property prices. Certainly the figures involved dwarf the roads money, and once again emphasise the thin economic ice we all appear to be skating on.

On the margins of today's North South Ministerial conference I asked Peter Robinson about the Jeffrey Donaldson expenses story. The DUP leader said Jeffrey was right to be repaying around £680 to the Commons authorities. Back at Stormont my colleague Martina Purdy was asking the Lagan Valley MP about which films he had watched. Jeffrey said they were all blockbusters and family entertainment and gave as an example "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe".

Having once starred as "Mr Beaver" on the Edinburgh fringe, I think I picked the wrong story. I was following the Yellow Brick road from Dublin to Donegal, when I should have been concentrating on the White Witch and her Turkish delight.

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I have just finished presenting this weekend's "Inside Politics". My main guest Jim Allister predicted that his party would force another council by-election, this time in Ballymoney, after the resignation of the DUP Councillor Roy Wilson. So could this be another Dromore?

Whilst we were on air the DUP rang up to deny Mr Allister's assertion that Councillor Wilson had resigned from the party. They said his decision to step down from the council was a personal matter not connected witht he party policy on power sharing.

Either way the contest, as Mr Allister maintained, should prove interesting given the focus on North Antrim in the run up to the next Westminster election.

Jim Allister also talked about the Larry Zaitschek case, his annoyance at Peter Robinson supposedly lumping anti-power sharing unionists together with dissident republicans as "wreckers" and the recent erratic behaviour of Ballymena Councillor Robin Sterling (who does not look as if he will be expelled from the TUV).

During discussions with my two guests, Politics Professor Rick Wilford and former civil servant Bill Smith, we covered a number of topics including Westminster expenses in the wake of the the likelihood of the mandatory coalition being repleced by a voluntary coalition and the supposed diary mix up which saw Martin McGuinness walking in to Downing Street to discuss policing and justice on his own. Rick pointed out that the current mandatory coalition, for all its faults, is more voluntary than people sometimes concede as any of the parties could walk away. Bill, wearing his civil service hat, reckoned that, when it came to the dairy mix up, the "cock up" theory might be more persuasive than the conpiracy one.

Amazingly, on a Drumcree Sunday, we didn't touch on parading. That would not have been imaginable 12 years ago.

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I started the day at the Hilton Hotel, where the Committee on Standards in Public Life were holding their only public hearing outside London. No local MPs showed up, in part because they were having to deal with a bill on the new Parliamentary Standards Authority.

It must be hell being Peter Robinson's diary secretary - first Gordon Brown wants to see him in London to discuss policing and justice when he has to be in Belfast for the swearing in of his new ministers. Then Sir Christopher Kelly wants to see him in Belfast when he feels he must be in the Commons.

The DUP has pledged to give Sir Christopher's committee its evidence next Tuesday in London. But now Sinn Fein wants them to be in Stormont on that day for an emergency meeting of the Assembly to process the delayed June Monitoring round.

How can anyone be expected to be in two places at once? Sounds like a prima facie argument against double jobbing.

On which topic the PUP's Dawn Purvis, the first witness today, sounded very strong. She is preparing an anti-double jobbing private member's bill which she plans to introduce at Stormont in the autumn. She urged the Committee to recommend a Westminster ban on the dual mandates without delay.

In his Peter Robinson pledged to end the dual mandates by 2015. However Dawn Purvis argued that voluntary action wasn't sufficient as, come election time, each party would end up looking over its shoulder to guess whether its rivals would retire their big hitters or not.

Sinn Fein's Alex Maskey told the Committee his party also wants to end dual mandates. But stressed the fragility of the Assembly as the context for double jobbing. It described Stormont as "a work in progress".

Predictably, the DUP argues that Sinn Fein's MP expenses should be cut, whilst republicans maintain they are necessary to support their constituency work. Although Sir Christopher Kelly was playing his cards close to his chest I detected a great reluctance for the committee to make a ruling on such a sensitive political topic. I predict that they will bounce this ball back to the government.

In their evidence, suggested limiting MPs to the employment of just one family member, whilst the supported an MP's right to hire relatives. However I was struck by the fairly tough line one committee member appeared to take in his questions about family employment, pointing out that the practice had already been ended so far as schools, doctors and dentists are concerned. So could the Committee be about to hand out P45s to the relatives?

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