The Assembly and the Executive need a home win.
They have been losing at away venues far too much!
The game up until recently has gone reasonably smoothly for the DUP having stifled an Irish Language Act ,having killed off any notion of a national stadium at the Maze, having blocked Caitriona Ruane’s radical education proposals and having retarded the devolution of policing and justice.
What stuck however and will continue to stick particularly is the issue of expenses.
Sinn Fein has taken a lot of pain at the hands of the Dup. That party has absorbed the heavy punches.
Sinn Fein think long term. The leadership could have bucked and pulled the team out. That didn’t happen.
Sinn Fein is observing the further fragmentation of Unionism. That party likes a Unionist bedfellow with which to share power but ‘the project’ in Republican parlance works is working it self through to an aspired end.
Should Peter Robinson be mindful to sign a deal with Martin McGuinness in London, Dublin and in Washington that would go down well.
Senior voices in the DUP are becoming more shrill by the day. Finance alone for Policing and Justice will not seal the deal. Old sores have still not healed over going into government with Sinn Fein. Jim Allister is making sure that no one forgets.
