First of all I'd like to apologise to the Culture Minister Edwin Poots. In "Blood Thicker Than Suspension 2" I said only 2 out 108 MLAs had given blood when the Transfusion Service visited Stormont on Monday.
But Marty assures me that Edwin gave an armful as well. How does Marty know? Well he's the man who punctured my arm this afternoon when I visited the Blood Donor Clinic in central Belfast. The clinic had to draft in an archaeologist to dig up the records of my last visit, way back in 1992.
So 3 out of 108 MLAs. It's better than 2, but even so?
The one benefit of giving blood was that it meant I could provide a good excuse why Gareth Gordon should stand around outside today's Executive meeting. Gareth confessed he didn't get the allusion to Tony Hancock in the previous entry, so for those not au fait with the Blood Donor sketch. here's a Youtube link.
P.S. The Transfusion Service nurses assure me that they are all distraught, as their champion blood taker Marty is leaving them soon to join the Ambulance Service.
Some of this blog's previous "Jeux Sans Frontieres" entries have drawn attention to whether the British and Irish plans for e-borders will place travellers from Northern Ireland in a different position to others within the UK.
Yesterday in the Lords, Baron West of Spithead got into a muddle about where the UK begins and ends. Lord West was formerly the head of the Royal Navy but he is now one of Gordon Brown's GOATS (which stands for "government of all the talents"). Recently he had to turn on a sixpence over controversial comments about extending the 28 day limit for detaining terrorist suspects, then defended himself as a "simple sailor" new to politics.
Yesterday in the Lords, whilst explaining the e-borders concept, the Admiral said "we are applying a sensible way forward to identify the loophole that existed of people moving in through the Republic of Ireland, into Northern Ireland and then travelling across to the United Kingdom."
He was challenged by the Conservative peer and former UUP leader Lord Trimble who pointed out "my Lords, does the Minister not realise that, when he spoke a moment ago of travelling from Northern Ireland to the United Kingdom, he demonstrated clearly his lack of understanding of the basic concept?"
And so the "simple sailor" was forced to explain that "my Lords, it was a slip. I certainly understand it. As I said, I have served in Northern Ireland. It was rather like the slip that people make when they forget that the United Kingdom is in Europe. It is a slip that is made sometimes."
The Tory Spokesman Owen Paterson has demanded that the Common Travel Area between the UK and the Republic should be upgraded, and accused Lord West of demonstrating "utter incoherence" on the topic.
I'm 