Browned off
That's what unionists were after the PM told them to get on with setting a date for devolving justice. When Tony Blair delivered a stern message to one side, he used to balance it with a bit of sugar coating, or a partial rebuke for their opponents. However the glum faces on the DUP benches suggested that Gordon Brown had not come anywhere near pulling off the Blairite balancing act. Afterwards they grumbled about his lack of charisma. Republicans, by contrast, seemed quietly satisfied.
His meeting with the 6 party leaders (David Ford and Dawn Purvis joined the 4 Executive parties) did not clarify whether there would be an Executive meeting on Thursday or not. One minister says it will now be a mammoth job to get the necessary paper work together, even if Sinn Fein does have a last minute change of heart.
I understand Mark Durkan and Sir Reg Empey raised the question of the Panorama revelations about Omagh and GCHQ with the PM, who has promsied to write to them about the matter.
On a recent Inside Politics Shaun Woodward told me a leadership challenge to Mr Brown would be "insane", but Mr Brown could be forgiven for looking a shade suspiciously at both him and Paul Goggins. Now that 3 former NIO ministers, David Cairns, George Howarth and Barry Gardiner have all joined the anti-Brown cabal can anyone associated with Hillsborough be trusted?
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