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Commentators discuss the recent meetings about the future of Northern Ireland.

that Gordon Brown and Brian Cowen flew home leaving it to Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson to demonstrate that they can do grown-up politics, "all on their own":

"Some think it is perhaps too late for logic, and that Assembly elections are unfortunate but inevitable. The problems over transferring policing and justice powers and parading won't go away after elections, but there's a view that a poll might cleanse the political system.
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"It's as bleak as that. Wisdom and experience tend to indicate that Robinson and McGuinness won't be able to lead a functioning Executive and Assembly, and that the time and effort of Cowen and Brown will be frustrated and mostly wasted."

the body language of the two ­leaders and their facial expressions asked "what on earth are we going to do with these people?"

"There are a few days left to save this Northern Ireland assembly. If it can't be retrieved, look out for direct rule: or worse - for unionists - joint authority between London and Dublin.
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"There's an old adage in Northern ­Ireland: every time the unionists walk away from the table, the less there is for them when they come back.
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"A personal prediction? Some kind of halfway house deal will be done, fairly soon. The parties have invested too much in the process to let it go."

the intervention by the leaders of the four main churches:

"It's a favoured tactic of government to drag out these clerical clowns and get them to act as echo chambers for prevailing policy.
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"After all, they were to the fore in cheerleading to get convicted murderers out of prison so we can all see how morally bankrupt they are.
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"And now, they plead for the political class to prostitute the essential tenets of policing and justice so that the IRA can also corrupt that. Wholly fools."

a meeting of the party's assembly team will focus on discussing "a pretty sad week's politics":

"That the big two seem determined to keep our politics in the sectarian trenches firing pot shots at each other from the comfort of their own defences is a sad reality we are going to have to confront.
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"The people of this region are over parades. They are over squabbling about the date to devolve policing and justice. They voted for inclusive government but got two exclusionary parties who prefer side deals to collective agreement. They voted for reconciliation but got block politics which shows no signs of tackling the divisions in our society."

the two prime ministers to two figures from literary history:

"Mr Cowen and Mr Brown left the parties to sort it out among themselves in the next 48 hours, leaving Micheal Martin and Shaun Woodward, the Northern Secretary, to help them along if they can.
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"Mr Martin will have plenty of time to go sightseeing in this quaint plantation town in Co Down, as Sinn Fein and the DUP both indicated they'll ignore this deadline.
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"In Hillsborough, Mr Brown and Mr Cowen were comparable to Don Quixote and his sidekick Sancho Panza on an ultimately doomed quest.
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"The Shinners and DUPers are the windmills that just won't be tilted."

what the impasse means for each of the parties:

"Sinn Fein faces a difficult choice with the very credibility of the party at stake.
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"Republicans historically play the game long but even they could be about to take the ball and walk off the pitch.
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"The DUP can 'hang tough', even into the challenge of another Assembly election, arguing it fought off pressure from two governments and refused to dance to Sinn Fein's tune on policing and justice, while defending the right of the loyal orders to their ancient rights to parade."

the Tory leader David Cameron's recent talks with Northern Ireland's unionists have raised concerns about his role in NI if he becomes prime minister:

"His decision to forge a political union with the Ulster Unionists was already a high-wire act. Long ago the Ulster Unionists ruled Northern Ireland as a one-party state but the compromises forced upon them by Mr Blair's determination to drag Sinn Féin into the democratic tent left them badly beaten by the new top dogs the Democratic Unionists.
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"But with Unionist votes likely to split three ways in coming elections and the consequent ascent of Sinn Fein to become Northern Ireland's largest party, the talk is once more of the need for a political realignment.
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"Mr Cameron has a few months in which to convince sceptics in Northern Ireland that his party's mission really is to draw the sectarian poison and push the Province into mainstream national politics."

that the two prime ministers deserved A for effort but were walking away with an F for failure:

"It was all so different in Tony Blair's day when he could trot off little sound bite gems like feeling the hand of history on his shoulder. The hand of history is still there, but now the main Stormont players seem content to direct it at each other's throats."

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