PM at Stormont to prop up ailing administration.
Gordon Brown finds himself forced to spend today in Northern Ireland fearful that the political process is unravelling.
Sinn Fein and the Dup have been at loggerheads for ages over the failure of Peter Robinson and his colleagues to press ahead with slotting into place the final piece of Northern Ireland's political structure - the return of local control over policing and justice.
Sinn Fein's Martin Mc Guinness split the atom last week in publicly declaring " I regret to record I have no personal working relationship with Peter Robinson."
This sent alarm bells ring in Downing Street.
Mr Robinson stood a tetchy Gordon Brown up following an invitation to talks in London to advance the fiscal package for the devolution of policing and justice.
The Prime Minister accordingly took the bull by the horns and has tethered the party leaders to Stormont House all day today.
The last thing he wants is the collapse of the Executive and the Assembly right now.
It is the singular beacon still shining on a dark horizon in the United Kingdom.
The urgency of a resolution to this very public row between Peter Robinson and Martin Mc Guinness is informed by the arrival here in seven days time of US Secretary Hilary Clinton.
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