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Moats and Beams

Mark Devenport | 16:35 UK time, Tuesday, 4 May 2010

Well it was David 1 Volcano 0. Whether the Conservative leader will chalk up a similar victory when its David versus the Voters only Friday morning will tell.

His battle against the ash clouds provided material for the best gags at the La Mon hotel in County Down. Sir Reg Empey said the critics had argued that "David Cameron wouldn't be able to get here unless he could walk on water". He followed that with an enigmatic "Well?"

The Tory leader followed through by joking that he'd have got here even if he had to don his swimming trunks.

In his speech he made his already trailed pledge not to single Northern Ireland out for cuts. But if some might have seen this as an olive branch towards the DUP, he followed through with a few barbs about double jobbing and politicians "dipping into multiple pots". Then there was a pledge that the Conservatives and Unionists would never be a "swish family": an obvious reference to the Robinsons.

When I asked him if this wouldn't make any potential negotiations with Peter Robinson rather more difficult should there be a hung parliament on Friday, Mr Cameron replied by saying he had seen and called it as he saw it. So what was this "moat"? Mr Robinson's house doesn't have a moat, even though it's not far from Dundonald's Moat Park. Did the Conservative leader confuse it with his own backbenchers well documented castles with moats? No doubt the biblically inclined DUP will be telling him to take the beam out of his eye before seeking the mote (not the moat) in theirs.

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