Here, There and Everywhere
It's "location, location, location" day at the Assembly as our MLAs discuss affordable housing, delays in planning and opening up vacant properties. But the location which made headlines this morning is this place, where we live, God's Own Country, if you know what I mean...
If you don't, then let me explain that unionists are not impressed by a memo from the Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy telling his staff how he wants this wee part of the world to be described. It's not "Northern Ireland", but "the North" or "here". "Londonderry" is "Derry" and the "Irish Republic" is "all Ireland".
Conor says it's not a republican diktat but just an attempt to explain to staff what language he would feel comfortable using in correspondence and statements going out under his name. However the memo on the topic also says such language should be used in submissions from officials to the minister.
The DUP's Gregory Campbell says its "puerile" and "absurd". One thing is for sure. Conor hasn't been discussing his terminological exactitude with his colleague Fra McCann, whose motion on vacant properties is just about to be debated in the chamber. The motion notes that "some 36,000 homes lie empty across Northern Ireland". "Northern Ireland"? Surely Fra means there are such homes dotted here, there and everywhere.
I'm 
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Conor Murphy says it's not a republican diktat but just an attempt to explain to staff what language he would feel comfortable using in correspondence and statements going out under his name. I would have thought that the 'language' he feels more comfortable with is Irish Gaelic! What a load of Hibernian babble...
The big question is, since Conor Murphy is Minister for Regional Development, which is in charge of public transport, how is he going to refer to βNorthern Ireland Railwaysβ and βUlsterbusβ??????