Ulster [Unionists] Say No!

Strange to think that today it was the Ulster Unionists that said 'No'. That used to the be single word epithet us from Northern Ireland used to place with the DUP.

If this had been the first assembly there wouldn't have been the cross community agreement to devolve police powers. But that was was when the UUP were a bigger Unionist voice than the other Unionist parties now that role is reversed.

There is of course one dissenting UUP voice, Lady Sylvia Hermon MP is the widow of former RUC Chief Constable Sir Jack Hermon. She herself trained in law and was a professor at Queens alongside David Trimble for a time. In February while the talks about devolution of policing and justice were ongoing she asked Shaun Woodward in the Commons:

"For those of us who definitely do not want to go back to direct rule and who want devolution and the talks at Hillsborough to succeed, with the principles of tolerance and respect at their core, what more can we in this House do to encourage those in the negotiations to take them forward and make them successful, in the interests of everyone in Northern Ireland?"

Interesting that the sole UUP representative with inside knowledge both of the upper echelons of Northern Irish policing and law should take such a different stance from Economist and leader Reg Empey.

I think her independence from a bizarrely shaping up UUP and Tory marriage, is probably all that is going to be needed to return my home seat to becoming held by some form of independent Unionist once again after 9 years or experiencing the mainstream. Or is having the only UUP member for the last 5 years really the mainstream?

New Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds

As Paul Walter points out today Iris Robinson has been appointed Crown Steward and Bailiff of the three Chiltern Hundreds of Stoke, Desborough and Burnham in the County of Buckingham. At last she has a political appointment that her husband hasn't had before her.

Though she is the second successive member for Strangford to hold the post. On the same day, 17 December 1985, that Peter was briefly Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead, her predecessor John Taylor of the UUP also resigned, he was the fifth of eight Unionists to be appointed to the Chiltern Hundreds that day. Of course they both along with other 6 steward of the Manor of Northstead that day were protested over the Anglo-Irish Agreement.

So the people from Dundonald, Newtownards, Saintfield, Ballynahinch, places in between and the Ards Peninsular are now without an MP. Shortly they will also have a new DUP MLA appointed by the party, as Iris was also top on first preference votes here in 2007. She is leaving the current of public life behind her, which links neatly into Paul's video of the crossing from Portaferry towards Strangford as the mouth of Strangford Lough.

First Minster to Stop Double Jobbing

Sadly not the one in Holyrood but the one in Stormont.

Yes, there has been a valid reason until it was shown the the DUP/Sinn Fein executive could work. As Mick Fealty over on Slugger O'Toole points out the announcement that the MPs will not carry on hold Ministerial or Committee chairs in the Assembly came in my home town of Bangor. It effectively means he is also about to remove his wife from the chair of the Health Committee.

So if the DUP can do away with dual mandates after merely a year after resuming a stable and workable agreement with their tersest rivals for the past number of decades what excuse does the MP for Banff and Buchan and MSP for Gordon have left for holding down two jobs over two years after assuming power and maintaining good ratings in the polls ever since?