ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ

Back in the late seventies, a cameraman applying for a job at ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Belfast was asked during his interview how he would go about covering a forthcoming visit by the Pope. β€œWith two comps and bisque” he replied. These were, at the time, different kinds of ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ leave entitlement.

With similar timing, I have managed to avoid covering next week’s British Irish and North South summits by arranging a week’s holiday before they were announced. I’m taking some on again off again leave over the next few weeks, but the plan is that Martina Purdy should contribute here when I’m away, so expect her to raise the whole tone of this blog.

As usual on a Friday, I recorded an Inside Politics programme for broadcast on Radio Ulster on Saturday at a quarter to one. This week’s victim is the Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern, who is looking forward to both of next week’s summits.

He runs through the roads and canals north of the border which have benefited, or will benefit, from Irish taxpayers’ money. He is supportive of both a North South parliamentary forum, bringing MLAs and TDS together, and a North South consultative forum, which would be a bit like the old civic forum, but organised on a cross border basis. The Ulster Unionists were a bit dubious about the former and I guess quite a few parties might ask questions about the latter, given the civic forum’s reputation as a talking shop.

Ian Paisley’s explanation that Alex Salmond’s nationalism was fine because he recognised the Queen prompted me to ask the Foreign Minister if the Irish Republic might ever consider joining the Commonwealth, like other republics such as India. Unlike his party colleague Eamon O’Cuiv back in the nineties, Dermot didn’t bite.

As I finished the interview I realised I had forgotten to ask the Dundalk TD if, given the new British Irish dispensation, the Dail should field a team in next month’s parliamentary soccer knockout in London. Drat. I’m sure it will be high on the agenda at Monday’s summit at Stormont.

If you want to find out what really happens, there's special live coverage on ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ2 on Monday at noon, as well as on Talkback on Radio Ulster.

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