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Northern Ireland election

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The Sky's The Limit

  • Mark Devenport
  • 4 May 07, 03:22 PM

After a brief period off air, to allow my Welsh and Scottish colleagues to monopolise the system, I'm back in blogland. Sitting in the Stormont Great Hall this morning waiting for an interview with Ian Paisley, I was treated to some entertainment from "Sky's the Limit" a performance troupe of young adults with special needs. They were rehearsing for Tuesday's ceremony, to be attended by Tony Blair, Bertie Ahern and - it seems - Senator Ted Kennedy.

It's all systems go at Stormont with workers erecting marquees and press stands. But interviewed for Inside Politics, Ian Paisley injects a bit of uncertainty into the proceedings. He warns Gordon Brown that so far the peace dividend is insufficient. And he says in no uncertain terms that the DUP's participation in Tuesday's "pantomime" cannot be taken for granted.

Personally I can't see the DUP walking away from Tuesday, but it may serve their interests to try to keep the Treasury guessing about their intentions.

Comments   Post your comment

  • 1.
  • At 06:54 PM on 06 May 2007,
  • Pandora wrote:

The war cry from the DUP before the election, during the election and immediately after the election was that if there was no viable financial package forthcoming from the Chancellor, then it would be a 'deal breaker' - at least Β£1 billion was the make or break figure...

Will this indeed prove to be the deal breaker or will it be another u-turn spin from the DUP to allow them to remain in power? Remember their election slogan - 'Delivery, Delivery, Delvery'. Not much delivery here.

  • 2.
  • At 08:30 PM on 07 May 2007,
  • samuel fannin wrote:

This is not a daily blog on N.Ireland politics, in fact it is seldom renewed, the present material is quite out of date. Come on, give us soething new.

  • 3.
  • At 12:28 AM on 13 May 2007,
  • Dominic Ford wrote:

I was surprised that the performance by "Sky's the Limit" didn't attract more comment than it did. On my TV, the performers appeared to be miming with instruments to the sound to background music (the keyboardist certainly wasn't pressing his keys).

Aside from thinking that this was perhaps a little patronising for the performers, I wondered whether this was supposed to be a metaphor for the parliament just opened? Westminster plays the music, while the new parliament mimes along?

The strangest entertainment I've ever seen.

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