My guest on this weekend's Inside Politics is our very own Iron Chancellor, Peter Robinson. He expands on what he is trying to achieve through this week's budget and responds to concerns raised by the Health Minister Michael McGimpsey. I also ask the DUP Deputy Leader about the murder of Paul Quinn and his spat with the Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie over her decision to axe UDA linked cash.
Inside Politics is broadcast at 12.45 pm on Saturday on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Ulster - and according to the latest RAJAR figures the show attracts around 50,000 listeners.
I have ummed and ahhed about whether to blog this one...but given the look of dismay on the Alliance Deputy Leader's face during this exchange I think it's worth highlighting this extract from yesterday's debate on the Programme for Government.
"Naomi Long: How long do the First Minister and deputy First Minister intend to dine out on the feel-good factor created on 8 May 2007? When will they back it up with substantive action to deliver on a shared future and make that hope a reality?
Some Members: Hear, hear.
The First Minister: I am sure that the honourable lady enjoys dining out herself...."
Overshadowed by the budget and programme for government, yesterday MLAs voted in favour of the government discontinuing all operations at the nuclear plant at Sellafield. Nationalists and the Alliance backed the motion, whilst unionists came over as decidedly more nuclear friendly.
Highlights included Brian Wilson telling MLAs that opposition to nuclear power was "one reason that the Green Party came into power". After chortling broke out in the chamber, the sole Green MLA had to correct himself by saying no nukes was a reason the Greens had come into existence, not power.
Another good moment was when the DUP's David Simpson reckoned that "were I to go around every MLA and ask each about his or her knowledge of nuclear physics, I would probably be met with a few blank faces." Mr Simpson also acknowledged that "yes, my face, too, would be blank, if asked my knowledge of nuclear physics. If a Member were to tell me that he or she had a degree in that subject, I would ask what the heck he or she was doing in the Assembly."
The Upper Bann MP's previous contribution to scientific debate has been to argue that creationism should be taught as part of the science curriculum. Let's just hope that the big bang remains a theory about the start of the universe, rather than anything to do with the future of Sellafield.
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