The St. John the Baptist Tour
I caught up with Ian Paisley outside the US State Department this morning. He arrived in style - in the British ambassador's Rolls Royce. At one point there had been suggestions that the First Minister would meet the US Presidential candidates during this, his farewell tour. But nothing came of that - the biggest political "face" on his itinerary here is Senator Ted Kennedy, who he is due to see in about an hour's time.
The First Minister then heads to New York, where he will be joined by the Deputy First Minister. The two men are seeing the New York City Comptroller William Thompson, for what the Comptroller's office is billing as the biggest US public investment in Northern Ireland to date. As the Big Apple's chief financial officer, Mr Thompson is in charge of a pension fund of more than 100 billion dollars so if he decides to look our way he can make a big difference, credit crunch or no credit crunch.
William Thompson was a leading advocate of the , essentially a code of conduct for US firms operating in Northern Ireland. The campaign's supporters argued they were a necessary counter to discrimination, whilst unionists (and direct rule ministers) used to attack them as an obstacle to much needed investment. The fact that William Thompson is making this announcement, and both Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness will be there to applaud it, is another sign of how far we have come.
But what about John the Baptist? Well the Pope is due in Washington D.C. next week so I couldn't resist suggesting to Ian Paisley that he must be the "warm up act". He himself joked that people had decided he must be playing a John the Baptist role, although given his views on the "Anti Christ" he made it clear that nothing could be further from the truth.
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John the Baptist lost his head in a prison cell for telling the truth and standing by his convictions. Our First Minister faired much better since his prison days.