Rewriting the Agreement
I'm just back from the Ulster Hall where the First Minister made a speech to the new group, which suggested not so much an evolution more a revolution in the way matters are handled at Stormont.
Picking up on the concern about deadlocks and mutual vetoes which dominated the "Beyond Westminster" report broadcast at the weekend on Radio 4, Peter Robinson is calling for an end to the designation system and a move towards a 65% weighted majority vote. That has always been implicit in the DUP's preference for a voluntary coalition, but the DUP leader has just made it a bit more explicit now.
If my maths are right (and it never was my best subject) 65% of the current 108 member assembly equals just over 70. So you would need 71 MLAs to agree an initiative. Under the current numbers this would remove Sinn Fein's veto and also (unless they took a couple of defections) the DUP's veto.
This kind of rewriting of the Good Friday Agreement isn't going to happen overnight. The Robinson speech didn't say such a change was a precondition for devolving justice, but he did say he thought it was equally important.
In the shorter term he is proposing a shift in how business is done in the Executive, suggesting that SDLP and Ulster Unionist ministers will be briefed at an earlier stage and even that some decisions in the future should be unanimous.
There were no nationalist ministers at the Evolve event, but Sir Reg Empey (perhaps somewhat disgruntled about a few barbs thrown at his Tory UUP experiment) described the Robinson speech as "a cry for help". Sir Reg is sympathetic to the talk of reforming the system but thinks the First Minister might be trying to spread responsibility within the Executive just to ensure he isn't the only one whohas to answer for difficult decisions about policing and justice.
I'm 
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