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One government target which didn't last very long was the First Minister's pledge to ensure that 30% of school children receiving free school meals would obtain 5 or more GSCE passes at grades A* to C by 2011. My colleague Maggie Taggart phoned the Education Deaprtment to double check and they told her the target was actually 2 GCSEs. So no A* for someone then.

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• - What's this?

As I prepared for my Newsline 1.30 live contribution on the budget I surveyed the kind of scene that only Stormont can provide. At the bottom the steps around 100 North Belfast primary schoolchildren, dressed as Vikings, prepared to storm the Assembly building. They waved their swords and shook their shields as Nigel Dodds, Edwin Poots and Nelson McCausland looked on approvingly.

Some turbanned Iraqi politicians, appearing rather perplexed, stared down from the balcony. On the steps a group of local manufacturers held placards calling for lower industrial rates. Inside the building the Kosovo trade minister had just finished some talks with Nigel Dodds.

Inside the Chamber, our Finance Minister Peter Robinson did his impression of the Iron Chancellor, sternly warning about the need to slash waste and inefficiency, then concluding with a crowd pleasing freeze on the regional rate.

At least we now have a series of benchmarks by which to judge this Executive. If they don't create 6500 jobs in the next three years we will be able to ask them why not. Equally if they don't begin work on the Belfast rapid transit system by 2011 we will be able to wave our programmes for government in their faces.

If they deliver on all the promises, no doubt the voters will be happy. But if they don't, given our mandatory coalition system, it will prove difficult for anyone to vote them out.

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• - What's this?

We are swimming in a sea of promises at the moment as the First and Deputy First Ministers unveil their programme for government. There are pledges on job creation, free public transport for older people, school building and so on. With a delegation of Iraqi politicians looking down from the gallery, Martin McGuinness has described the ability of the sometimes divided executive to agree a draft programme for government and budget as "a remarkable day".

Inevitably not all MLAs see it that way. The SDLP leader Mark Durkan insists that the "saccharine language" does not hide what he sees as dressing up old priorities as new initiatives. He claims the Strategic Investment Board which the DUP and Sinn Fein previously critcised is now the centrepiece of their new policy. The Ulster Unionist Danny Kennedy tried to focus on what he reckons is the lack of a peace dividend from the Treasury. And Alliance's Naomi Long sarcastically suggested that some pages must be missing because the government programme did not mention tackling segregation or creating a shared future.

The First and Deputy First Ministers hit back. Of course they have special interests - the First Minister already qualifies for free public transport, whilst the Deputy First Minister should qualify in three years time.

Officials tried to make the lengthy speeches accessible, but inevitably it wasn't "never, never,never" tub thumping rhetoric. The First Minister had a bit of trouble getting through so many statistics. This might explain why at one point he promised to bring 520 million tourists here. Even if we all rent out our spare rooms I'm not sure we've got the space for that number of people.....

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• - What's this?