´óÏó´«Ã½

Sammy Wilson is launching the new Environment Agency at Carrickfergus tomorrow, but there might be a few spare tickets for the event. David Ford is refusing to go, describing the event as "a total sham" and "the political equivalent of the emperor's new clothes". This is because Sammy's predecessor, Arlene Foster, rejected the creation of an independent Environmental Protection Agency. Instead the "new" body will be a revamped version of the current in house Environment and Heritage Service.

Not to be outdone, the Environment Committee chair Patsy McGlone has also declared that it would be "an absolute waste" of his time to attend. "Just as Marathon became Snickers" Patsy argues "the new Environment Agency replacing Environment and Heritage Service has all the same packaging and content - the only thing to change is the name."

Whilst dwelling on green matters, I'd like to revisit my entry Green Sammy's Debut 1. A few days after publishing it a reader pointed out that our Minister's signature wasn't on Early Day Motion 893 dealing with "Rainforests and Climate Change." I thought I must be going crazy as I was sure I had spotted it. After checking with the parliamentary authorities, though, I gather that Sammy did sign the EDM. Clicking on the button which allows you to switch from "Open Signatures" to "All Signatures" reveals his name, and the Commons tell me this means he withdrew his signature (apparently on 26th June, 3 days after I published the blog).

I am still waiting to hear from the Environment Department the reason why, but in the meantime you can examine the At the time of writing, Sammy Wilson's signature is still on which "agrees with the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser that climate change is a threat to civilisation".

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Back in 2006 Nigel Dodds caused a few ripples when he talked about it taking "a political lifetime" before unionist confidence for devolving policing and justice could be built. By contrast, today Peter Robinson told barristers gathered at the Waterfront Hall that he was "not gloomy" about the prospects for progress in his talks on the issue with Martin McGuinness. He added that devolving justice would "benefit" people here.

However the DUP leader said there "are real and particular sensitivities about who will be the policing and justice minister". Obviously he means that his party isn't ready to see a Sinn Fein politician in that role.

And in an echo of Nigel Dodds' "political lifetime" comment Mr Robinson went on "do we wait, potentially for years, perhaps for a generation until the necessary level of support is reached for such options to gain widespread public confidence? Or do we search for another basis that may be able to command confidence in the community?"

"Another basis"? I suppose that could mean SDLP or Ulster Unionist justice ministers. But do Sinn Fein or the DUP want to hand plum jobs to their direct political rivals? The DUP favour a single department to handle policing and justice. Given the choice, I think they'd favour a single minister as well.

Which brings us back to last week's entry An Alliance Justice Minister? What's clear is that the DUP don't want to hand Jim Allister another stick to beat them, by giving Gerry Kelly any kind of authority over the judiciary. They know that if they veto a republican they cannot expect to avoid a matching veto on their own potential candidates.

Of course we have been around this track before. In December 2006 Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly appeared on "Inside Politics" and told me his party "would not collude" in its own exclusion from a policing and justice department. But that was two years ago, so can the two parties crack this one in the intensified discussions promised over the summer?

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With the Portadown Orange talking to Gerry Adams, and the West Belfast Orange about to set off on their Whiterock parade, this weekend's guest on Inside Politics is the Orange Grand Secretary Drew Nelson. He spells out Orange Order HQ's bottom line for talking to Sinn Fein, explains the Grand Lodge's reservations about power sharing and reveals why some tourism officials think the Order should go slow in its efforts to make the 12th more visitor friendly.

That's on Inside Politics at a quarter to one tomorrow.

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At the start of the week I set a little test to see who could identify two quotations. No correct answers so far, so I can reveal that they were...

1. A quotation from "A Year In The Province", a memoir of Jesus Sanchez Ventura a/k/a Christopher Marsh, who has managed to imagine what might happen if a Don Quixote figure from Spain decided to forsake the orange groves of southern Spain for the Orangemen of Ulster.

2. A quotation from "Yours Confidentially- Letters of a would-be MP" the latest in Garbhan Downey's "Shay Gallagher" saga, which continues to add a blend of comedy, dirty tricks and murder to the politics of the North West.

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According to the book of Genesis, God ordered the Great Flood (sparing only Noah) because he was exasperated about "man's wickedness...over the face of the earth". But surely there can have been no reason for divine intervention which might have led to the sudden flooding of Iris Robinson's Assembly office. My contacts tell me that the deluge was so great that it cut off electricity to neighbouring UUP offices, including the one assigned to the party leader Sir Reg Empey. Maintenance staff were hard at work trying to fix it today and there was a wheelie bin parked outside, presumably to collect sodden material. A big "Wet Floor" signs sits in the corridor outside.

Having ruled out Yahweh, I am blaming a faulty radiator valve.

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Our politicians are promising to use their forthcoming summer break to intensify negotiations on outstanding matters - principally academic selection and the devolution of justice. The DUP resisted agreeing any timetable for devolving justice during the stand off which preceded Peter Robinson's confirmation as a First Minister. But a senior party source pointed to the end of September as a date by which the politicians might want to announce an outcome to their summer negotiations or, alternatively, tell the people straight that they have not been able to find a way forward.

The source says the IRA army council has to be dealt with and "the sooner the better". The DUP continues to baulk at the idea of a Sinn Fein justice minister. However if they veto a republican candidate, they know Sinn Fein will engage in tit for tat. Some sources have suggested to me that the DUP is again attracted to the idea of passing the job or jobs on to others, perhaps even the Alliance party.

Last time that was floated Alliance did not like the idea of taking a job which would not give it voting rights in the Executive and could make its minister subject to hiring and firing by the FM and DFM. Sinn Fein seemed less than lukewarm about it. In the end the option appeared to have been by Schedule 5 of the

If it is back on the table the Alliance proposal would require fresh legislation. But I am sure Shaun Woodward would rush that through if he thought he had a deal. In Northern Ireland Questions both Mr Woodward and Mark Durkan advanced the argument that the completion of devolution should be expedited in order to ensure that dissident republicans cannot exploit any doubts or difficulties.

I can see that a crisis, stand off or vacuum over devolving justice might play, politically, into the hands of the dissidents. But how much difference would the appointment of a local policing minister make in practice to the kind of people capable of trying to kill a police officer or murdering a pizza delivery man?

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Northern Ireland questions got fairly feisty this morning, as the Tories pursued their insinuation that the DUP had done a deal with the government over the 42 day detention of terror suspects, and the First Minister and the Secretary of State crossed swords over security bases and the Maze.

Owen Patterson claimed that an "Ulster White" must be a new breed of flying pig. Shaun Woodward told him he was impugning the reputation of the "principled" DUP.

The Tory Peter Bone wanted an assurance that any proceeds from the transfer of former security bases would go to the MoD in order to bolster their efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Peter Robinson said a "deal was done" over transferring bases, not now, but back in 2003. He wanted to know when the government would make good on its promise to give the executive more bases.

The Secretary of State responded by noting that the 2003 joint declaration said "further sites might be made available". He went on to note the Executive's failure to develop the Maze which, he argued, is now jeopardising Northern Ireland's role in the 2012 Olympics.

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We had been given a heads up. Gerry Adams was about to threaten that the Stormont institutions' survival was in peril. His logic being that unionists were engaging in "irrational hostility" to Irish language schools. This came during a DUP sponsored debate alleging that Caitriona Ruane had been giving favourable treatment to an Irish language primary school in Derry. The Sinn Fein President was about to argue that if the parties failed to work together in the common good we could "march back into meltdown and failure".

Then, as Gerry was about to get to his killer quote, Peter Weir jumped to his feet. Was the DUP member going to fight fire with fire? Well not quite. What the North Down MLA wanted to check with the Speaker was whether Gerry should be wearing a tie.

Puzzled looks all around. The Speaker Willie Hay confirmed that the Sinn Fein President, wearing a jacket but no tie, was not breaking any dress code.

Mr Adams tried to pick up his thread, and delivered his warning about "meltdown" but somehow Mr Weir's bizarre intervention took the stuffing out of him. Memo to SF: next time you threaten to bring down Stormont, remember to wear a tie.

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Sammy Wilson fielded questions today for the first time as Environment Minister. Having spent so long watching Sammy engaging in rhetorical flourishes whilst asking questions, it didn't seem right to watch him conveying civil service answers to MLAs. But yes, unionism's answer to Boris Johnson has, like Boris, made it into the corridors of power. Incongruous, but true.

Of course Sammy put his own particular stamp on the proceedings, joshing the self proclaimed Guardian reading David Ford and fielding a suggestion from Paul Butler that he could be turning into a "tree-hugger".

Indeed indications of worrying liberalism on Sammy's part have come my way. A contact pointed out that our minister is a signatory to a parliamentary The EDM expresses concern at the "alarming rise in deforestation rates in the Amazon rainforest over recent months" and " further notes that deforestation already accounts for 20 per cent. of global carbon dioxide emissions each year and that curbing deforestation is one of the single most effective ways of halting catastrophic climate change". And I thought Sammy didn't believe in this stuff and nonsense...

However my faith in his climate change sceptic credentials was slightly restored when I saw that he has also signed , calling on the British pub industry to ignore calls for a ban on patio heaters. Now that's more like the non-green Sammy we know so well.
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From time to time I get sent copies of books dealing with Northern Ireland, most of which are academic tomes. But in recent weeks I've received two books which are rather lighter in tone, both of which I've enjoyed flicking through.

So here's a couple of quotes for a "name that book" competition. Answers at the end of the week. Authors banned from taking part.

1. "My memoir will present you with almost everything that you could wish for in such a narrative. It has orgasms, phantasms, fanaticism, witticism, ostracism, osteopathy, empathy, energy, synergy, misery, mystery, history, hysteria, wisteria, wisdom, condoms, cordons, organs and, last but not least, orgasms."

2. "While I often heard it said that politics is a beauty contest for ugly people, I never thought that so many people would actually set out to prove it true.....There are some particularly unfortunate photos. Sammy Wilson has foregone a tie in favour of a black Aran jumper which, and let's call a spade a spade here, almost makes him look like a Fenian. As for Mickey Brady, well, suffice to say, it is not for nothing that he is known in these parts as An American Werewolf in Newry and Armagh. Then, capping them all, you have a sheet-white, terror-struck John O'Dowd, who clearly has just seen a ghost - or been asked to give evidence to the PSNI's Unsolved Crimes Squad."

Not my words, I should stress. So whose are they?

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I'm just back from a day trip to St Malachy's High School, a non-selective school in Castlewellan. Maybe it was the sunny weather, the new building, the school's impressive natural setting amongst the Mourne mountains or the persuasive manner of its principal, but I came away thinking that if all non-selective schools made such a good first impression we wouldn't be having such a strenuous debate about post-primary transfer.

My reason for heading to St. Malachy's was to catch up with the Education Minister Caitriona Ruane for tomorrow's Inside Politics. She hadn't seen today's Daily Mirror front page predicting she could soon be sacked and replaced by Martina Anderson. So I felt it was my duty to bring along a copy for her perusal.

If you want to hear her reaction to the Daily Mirror story and to the erudite mutiny led by Sir Kenneth Bloomfield's Association for Quality Education, tune in to Inside Politics at 12.45 pm tomorrow on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Ulster.

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Back in March we reported that the Police concert had been moved closer to the Assembly building. But now the stage for Friday night's gig is being erected halfway down the drive.

Apparently the reason is that the stage is higher than the ones used for previous concerts and Health and Safety advisors were worried it might topple over. After spending so long trying to shore up the police in Northern Ireland, it would have been a shame for the band of the same name to have collapsed in mid anthem.

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At the end of last month, we saw how the appointment of thenew Stormont director was revealed to the world in a slightly unorthodox way. Today his four faithful lieutenants were confirmed in a more traditional manner.

The new Director of Engagement will be Dr Gareth McGrath who is currently employed as a Senior Manager within Deloitte consultants.

The Director of Properties, responsible for security, will be Stephen Welch, currently Assistant Director of Estates at Queens University.

The Director of Resources will be Richard Stewart, currently the Assembly's Head of Finance.

The Director of Clerking will be John Stewart, currently Director of Corporate Services in the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority.

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Orange might be the colour you would associate with our Traditional Unionist MEP Jim Allister. But today he sported a green jersey in the European parliament, as part of a Eurosceptic protest against the apparent strategy of European leaders to by pass the Irish people's rejection of the Lisbon treaty. Undaunted by jibes from the Fine Gael MEP Avril Doyle, Mr Allister says he has no hang up about the colour green and was proud to wear the shirt which bore the slogan "Respect the Irish Vote".

Earlier in the week, when asked on the Politics Show whether he was embarrassed to be on the same side of this argument as Sinn Fein, the MEP responded that if republicans said the sky was blue he could hardly be expected to insist it was red.

Orange, blue, red and now green. At this rate the TUV is going to end up joining a rainbow coalition.

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In response to Barry McElduff's implicit threat to neutralise the pro British symbols around Stormont, which I alluded to in the Stormont Didgeridoo, David McNarry has now confirmed that both Craigavon's Tomb and Carson's statue are protected as listed monuments.

A written answer from Arlene Foster, before she left her Environment brief, also explained that "there are likely to be surviving buried archaeological remains in the area". Will they shift in their graves if the Police play too loud on Friday night?

The estate includes an enclosure and a mound "likely to be the remains of a monument known as a rath or ringfort, a type of high status semi defensive earthwork monument that often contained a farmstead in the period between c.700 - c.1000 A.D." During that era of raiding Vikings and warring local Chieftains, I am sure a good solid earth bank came in very handy. But how could those original Stormont farmers have survived without standing orders, D'Hondt and cross community voting?

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Over on the Downing Street website I see that a petition to reprimand Iris Robinson over her remarks on gays has now attracted more than 5000 signatures. Although I imagine the Strangford MP won't believe too many of the signatories would have been amongst the almost 21,000 votes she received back in 2005.

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It was back to porridge today, literally and metaphorically, as I returned to the Stormont canteen for my breakfast gruel.

During Education questions, Caitriona Ruane "refuted" the suggestion that she had snubbed George Bush. But the minister still didn't provide any detailed explanation as to where she was when the US President toured one of her department's schools.

At the close of the day, 4pm, Kieran McCarthy questioned why MLAs were finishing early after having enjoyed a "day off". The Deputy Speaker David McClarty admonished him, saying that Mr McCarthy might have had a day off but others were working hard in their constituencies. Of course anyone who tuned in to our epic coverage of the President's visit on ´óÏó´«Ã½2 would know that Kieran McCarthy wasn't off, but was in our studio helping us fill time whilst we waited for the President to walk down the Stormont Castle steps.

Although it was good to get some words from the President (apparently the White House took some persuading before agreeing that he should say anything) noone could argue that yesterday's visit was a great day for press freedom. Our reporters were kept well away from the President, who talked to a "pool" camera. The US view, presumably, was that a news conference in London was quite enough, but it did make the visit seem a bit like one very long video news release.

A meeting at Stormont Castle with Gordon Brown seems to have been productive enough for Sinn Fein, with Gerry Adams revealing a £6 million injection into the Irish language broadcast fund. Welcomed by our new Culture Minister Gregory Campbell, the move was described as a "fig leaf" by his DUP colleague Nelson McCausland.

Another thought - after the departure of POTUS and FLOTUS (the President and First Lady of the United States) should we have an FL and a DFL? Of course Iris Robinson doesn't need any more publicity, whilst Bernie McGuinness would hate being in the spotlight. But should they have official status in our system, or is one civil partnership (between the FM and DFM) quite enough to be going on with?

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That was the label the children at Loughview Primary School put on one of the plants they have grown which they showed to the US President when he dropped in for his last stop on today's flying visit. POTUS, as he is known to the US Secret Service, bought the plant for the US Consulate.

After meeting the children, President Bush shot a few hoops together with the "Peace Players" a group who use basketball as a way of breaking down barriers around the world.

Conspicuous by her absence was our Education Minister Caitriona Ruane. Sinn Fein deny that she was boycotting the visit, but so far there's no explanation why she couldn't be at the school, in contrast to the SDLP minister Margaret Ritchie, who accompanied Laura Bush at another project. Could it be something to do with Caitriona's views on US Foreign Policy, especially in Latin America?

Apart from the school house plant (a marigold?) there have been plenty of pressies exchanged between the Paisleys and the Bushes. Also our new Culture Minister Gregory Campbell gave the President a book in Ulster Scots. I shall have to consult Jim Shannon on how you might translate "don't misunderestimate me" into Ulster Scots.

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Gregory Campbell predicts a fairly frosty "business like" relationship between himself and Martin McGuinness across the Stormont Executive table. On Saturday's Inside Politics (12.45pm on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Ulster) he also talks about how the DUP will use its influence at Westminster in the months ahead and how he will deal with some of the items in his ministerial in tray at the Department of Culture.

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A modest proposal. Next time our First and Deputy First think of visiting Washington D.C. I think we should insist on closing the US Congress building as a pre-condition.

When George Bush arrives on Monday it looks like our parliament will shut, even though he's not expected to visit the building. There will be no Assembly session and no Committee meetings. Only MLAs will be allowed to drive to the building (essential staff will be bussed in) and those brave souls who do make it in will not be allowed out for more than five hours.

Okay, it's not 42 days, but it does look like a return to the days of "selective internment" to borrow Lord Maginnis's old phrase. It's just this time we have good intelligence on 108 or so likely suspects.

Citizens may find it hard to notice any difference between a shut Stormont and an open Stormont. But what will be the reaction when they learn that the Mo Mowlam Children's Park will be closed both on Sunday and Monday? I predict furious protests by anti-Bush toddlers.

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So, as expected, the DUP voted for 42 days. When they arrived at Belfast City Airport today they again denied cutting a side deal. But let's just see how things pan out in the next few weeks and months. To quote Sammy Wilson from the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s Evening Extra, "we have doen the right thing by the people of the UK and we'll be reminding the government of that in the future".

The Ulster Unionists, meanwhile, have obviously been getting withdrawal symptoms, missing the old days of constant internal division. This can be the only explanation for the party's only MP, Sylvia Hermon, voting for 42 days, whilst three of her colleagues in the Upper House, Lords Maginnis, Rogan and Laird, have pledged their support to the former Conservative Home Secretary David Davis in his Yorkshire by-election, called specifically to oppose the proposal.

The three UUP peers compare what they call "the highly principled stand of Mr Davis" to the similar action taken by 15 unionist MPs when they resigned their seats in the Commons in protest against the Anglo Irish Agreement. Of course, those with long memories will remember that 15 unionists fought the by-elections, but only 14 survived them, with the SDLP's Seamus Mallon taking Newry and Armagh from the Ulster Unionist Jim Nicholson.

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The official position is that the DUP will meet at 5pm to decide whether or not to back Gordon Brown over 42 days, but over at the Daily Mail, Benedict Brogan seems pretty much convinced they will vote with the government. If so he predicts vengeance from the Tories once they get in to power: If I had to make a bet at this point I think I would also back the DUP voting with Gordon Brown. We shall have to analyse future financial matters (guarantees on the policing budget, the transfer of security bases?) in order to see if there has been any tacit understanding underpinning their decision. Both the party and the government deny anything so venal as a deal.

The DUP have clearly enjoyed being in the spotlight in the run up to tonight's vote. As I think again about this week's Stormont reshuffle I wonder if Peter Robinson had Westminster on his mind in more ways than one. Obviously he has now brought more MPs into his team, increasing them to four out of five. But by promising to consider a reshuffle in 18 months' time he seems to be mindful of the next Westminster election. Could a reshuffle free up the MPs to prepare to defend their constituencies without facing accusations of holding down ministerial office at the same time? If that's the logic then MLAs who aren't MPs or Westminster candidates could be the ones to benefit.

One small consequence of the reshuffle which also has a Westminster aspect could be a shift in the timing of the weekly Stormont Education Committee, which used to provide so much banter between Sammy Wilson and Caitriona Ruane.The committee met on Fridays to accomodate the East Antrim MP's parliamentary timetable, but now the North Antrim MLA Mervyn Storey is in the chair watch for it moving earlier in the week, maybe starting in the autumn.

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News reaches me that the Stormont Long Gallery has been booked for a reception on June 24th in honour of NI's "Rainbow Project", a group dedicated to supporting gay and bi-sexual men, and COSO, the Coalition on Sexual Orientation.

One of the organisers, Sinn Fein's Martina Anderson says the aim of the event is to distance MLAs from what she describes as "the pain and offence" caused by Iris Robinson's recent remarks about gays and lesbians. The latest news item on the Rainbow Project's website is headlined "How to report Iris Robinson for Hate Crime Offences".

So will Iris go to the ball? Martina Anderson says she and 107 other MLAs will all be invited. Who knows, this may be the ideal occassion for the First Lady's recommended pyschiatrist to put his theories to the test.

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Sammy Wilson took to our airwaves today, underlining his scepticism about the extent to which climate change is man made, having a go at green campaigners and prompting the SDLP to describe him as a "flat earth" minister. He argues that NI is only responsible for 3% of UK emissions and the UK for only 3% of the world. So not worth doing anything, then...

The East Antrim MP and Belfast City Councillor will also be in charge of the transition to 11 super councils. Speaking on "Stormont Live", he confirmed his intention to stand down as a councillor, but not until after he passes legislation which will allow for systematic co-option rather than having to hold by-elections. Councillor Wilson will have to be careful in handling this legislation if he is to ward off any accusations of having a conflict of interests when it comes to local government.

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I suppose I could say you heard it here first, but I'm not into that sort of thing... This afternoon the new DUP team appeared before the cameras in the First Minister's Office, but reporters like myself weren't invited in. One can only presume that this was in order to exclude the possibility of questions about Iris Robinson's controversial comments on gays and lesbians.

Climate change sceptic Sammy Wilson will make a colourful choice as Environment Minister. The proud recipient of a "most anti-Green MLA" award, Sammy committed three gaffes in quick succession - he was late for the photocall, his mobile went off continually and he made a joke about banning all traffic cameras (presumably so he could drive to Stormont quicker) which might be considered inadvisable for a minister whose brief now covers road safety.

Gregory Campbell had been rumoured over the weekend to have delayed saying "yes" to Culture. Presumably his enthusiasm for soccer and TV ( he is a Bruce Forsythe aficionado) persuaded him.

The outgoing Culture Minister Edwin Poots went down fighting - telling Barry McElduff that he hadn't been indecisive over the Maze, and accusing other ministers of being "divisive" when they thought they were being "decisive".

The Sinn Fein Culture Committee chair accused the departing minister of displaying bad manners in the way he handled his last question time. The Speaker disagreed. A final sign, perhaps, that Sinn Fein will never forgive the Lagan Valley MLA for torpedoing the Irish Language Act.

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So back to Downing Street. At least today everyone walked through the front door, so I didn't have to lurk around the back to catch a glimpse of a politician scurrying away, as was the case with Gerry Adams on Tuesday.

Gordon Brown prefaced the meeting with a quick tour of the Number Ten back garden (the one where the IRA mortars landed and Gerry and Martin played with the Blair children).

Aware of the pool camera, the three principals avoided politics by talking about football (Ronaldo and Drogba's transfer prospects and Nani's skills). I am tempted to say that the days of "Never, never, never" have given way to "Nani, Nani,Nani", but our new First Minister is a Chelsea, not a Manchester United, fan. Gordon Brown spoke fondly of Avram Grant - perhaps feeling an instinctive sympathy for someone who wasn't appreciated after taking over from a flashy performer and then spent a long time nobly preparing for the sack.

The First and Deputy First then spent fifteen minutes in the Cabinet room, before the PM left them to it. Peter Robinson wants the talking to move now back home to Belfast, whilst Martin McGuinness defended starting the process in London. The DUP leader is also keen to involve other parties. He claims to have turned the tables on the PM by posing him some tough financial questions. Details are scarce but the future financing of policing and justice and the transfer of security bases like the Lisanelly barracks at Omagh are likely to have featured.

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After the tributes to Ian Paisley (including one through gritted teeth from the SDLP's Declan O'Loan) and the acceptance speeches from Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness (who acknowledged that the honeymoon is over) tomorrow it's off to Downing Street. I am really looking forward to my second 6:45 am flight of the week.

Tonight a well informed source told me the new DUP ministerial team will be:

Finance, Nigel Dodds
Enterprise, Arlene Foster
Culture, Gregory Campbell
Environment, Sammy Wilson

I am presuming Jeffrey Donaldson will remain as a junior minister. There is a suggestion that the new team may remain in place for a relatively short time before another reshuffle.

Another source told me earlier in the day that Edwin Poots has circulated a paper to his fellow ministers countering Peter Robinson's downbeat DFP appraisal of the Maze stadium. A last blast, perhaps, by an outgoing minister?

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• - What's this?

After all the rattling over recent days, the sabres are now back in their scabbards. Who backed down? Senior DUP sources say Sinn Fein was looking for a date and a mechanism for devolving justice, but settled for talks in London. Sinn Fein will probably maintain that it has put its concerns firmly on the agenda, engaged the prime minister and alerted the new First Minister not to take republicans for granted. The agenda for Friday's Downing Street talks includes investment, devolving justice, concerns about paramilitaries, parades, the Irish language and education (funny I though education was devolved already - what's Gordon Brown got to do with academic selection?). So they should have all those sorted out by lunchtime...

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• - What's this?

Downing Street can sometimes produce great incongruities. One time I remember broadcasting on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Ulster's Evening Extra about the peace dividend, whilst a few yards in front of me the England soccer squad were filing in to Number Ten. Hard to concentrate on the details when you are staring at Nancy Dell'Olio in her finery.

Today I was scouring the street for any sign of Gerry Adams when a swish car deposited Sir Michael Parkinson at the shiny black door. I know dialogue is all important, but what would the chat show host bring to this attempt to break the log jam? Anyone who has survived being attacked by Rod Hull and Emu, I imagine, can hold their own in a tough negotiation.

I'd almost given up all hope of a glimpse of the Sinn Fein President when I spotted him around the back chatting on his mobile. He was some distance away, but when he spied our camera it was clear he wasn't interested in clarifying whether this latest episode is a real crisis, or just a sham fight.

Senior government sources are trying to calm things down expressing confidence that the parties will find a resolution. But with the DUP due in Downing Street later it's still far from certain what will happen in the Assembly on Thursday.

Stormont Spy - thanks for your questions many of which are very pertinent. However after three hours sleep and a 4:30 am alarm call they are making my head hurt. Keep them coming and if I get a moment to draw breath I shall do my best to answer them (although the answer to question number 1 is "I don't know, but wish I did").

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I strolled down the Stormont steps this morning flanked by two contrasting photocalls. On one side Gerry Adams posed in the sunshine with a group of primary schoolchildren from Derry. On the other Peter Robinson was being snapped together with Margaret Ritchie as part of the promotion of a £3 miilion greenway scheme through East Belfast. But will Messrs Robinson and McGuinness agree to smile and say cheese on Thursday?

The rumours I referred to in my last entry have been the talk of the corridors in Stormont today. Sinn Fein could quash the rumours with a simple on the record denial, but they have declined to do so. By contrast Gerry Adams put out a statement this afternoon saying that commitments on the Irish language and the devolution of justice must be honoured. He said that detailed discussions are underway aimed at resolving these outstanding issues.

If republicans don't put Martin McGuinness's name forward on Thursday they could delay the handover for seven days. If that time expires, we could then be looking at a fresh election. Under the old rules that would have kicked in six weeks after the dissolution of the Assembly. But since the St Andrews Act the date of a fresh election is left at the Secretary of State's discretion.

On the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s "Stormont Live" the DUP chairman Lord Morrow said the DUP wouldn't give in to Sinn Fein brinkmanship and Sinn Fein's Willie Clarke appeared to acknowledge there wasn't any great appetite amongst the public for a summer election.

Moreover if his game of "political chicken" isn't resolved it could disrupt President Bush's visit to Stormont in mid June?

Will it go that far or will the two main parties pull back from that brink? When I chatted to Ian Paisley last week he told me he had no intention of carrying on as First Minister after this Thursday. A special "Stormont Live" is being planned for Thursday (time TBA) when we might see the nomination of a new First and an old Deputy First Minister. Or maybe not....

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