Exclusive? Maybe not....
There was a moment during this afternoon's Stormont Live when Jim Fitzpatrick and I thought a major story might be unfolding on air. Discussing the performance of his health department in successfully reducing its underspend and the prospects for future cuts, Michael McGimpsey appeared to indicate that his party's political arrangement with the Tories was over.
We were discussing whether health spending should be ring fenced here, as it has been in London. Mr McGimpsey is strongly in favour, whilst the DUP's Jim Wells declined to take a position. The Health Committee Chair said this would be a matter for the Executive.
I put it to the Health Minister that, when it came to the cuts, he was playing the roles of both Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, as his ally David Cameron who would be wielding the axe. The minister responded "we know the financial situation the Kingdom as a whole is in, and we're aware that of the £19 billion that Northern Ireland benefits to the tune from the Treasury, we make a contribution of £12 billion in taxes back. So we make a very very substantial gain being part of the Kingdom, and gaining from Treasury. As far as a relationship with the Conservatives, we had a relationship for the last election, that is true. That relationship no longer is part of our political arrangement because the Assembly is entirely devolved matter."
I could see the DUP's Jim Wells, sitting between me and the minister, raising his eyebrows. But when Jim and I pursued the matter Mr McGimpsey appeared to row back insisting he was merely setting out the factual position that his party's link with the Conservatives had been for the Westminster election, not for Assembly matters. This may be a hard one to sustain when it's George Osborne who is writing (or maybe not writing) the cheques.
We continued our discussion with David McNarry, who told us he still thought there was merit in the Conservative link up. Mr McNarry shared our studio with Gregory Campbell for the first time since he wrongly predicted (in October last year) that the DUP would be reduced to "a couple of MPs". Fortunately he wasn't a betting man, and gamely offered the East Londonderry MP a congratulatory handshake and admission he'd got things wrong.
However he refused to rule out any further predictions come this autumn. Watch out for "Mystic McNarry" then.
P.S. Thanks to those who spotted my original typo on the Chancellor.
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