Combing the countryside for candidates
We were having coffee in the Stormont gift shop this morning when Sammy Wilson hurried in. The Finance Minister was trying to buy a comb to put though his hair. The reason: the DUP were gathering their candidates together for a photo call on the Stormont steps.
Whilst the party wanted to get some nice snaps of its election hopefuls, the press were most interested in probing Peter Robinson for his thoughts on Sinn Fein's success in the south. He argued that it may spur unionists to try to stymie Gerry Adams' all Ireland project by backing the DUP when they vote in the May assembly elections. Mr Robinson claimed there would be a growing contradiction between Sinn Fein pursuing what he called irresponsible opposition policies south of the border whilst taking a more responsible role in government in Northern Ireland.
Amongst the candidates on the steps were two MPs - Sammy Wilson and Gregory Campbell. At their annual conference, the DUP made no secret of the fact that they were rethinking their previous pledge to end double jobbing. They pointed out that others, such as Sinn Fein and the SDLP, still intended to field their big hitters in this election. However this hasn't stopped the TUV and the UUP pointing to the candidacy of Messrs Wilson and Campbell as - in their view - proof of a DUP broken pledge.
The DUP also have seven women candidates - amongst them Brenda Hale, whose husband Captain Mark Hale was killed whilst serving in Afghanistan in 2009. Ms Hale was drawn to politics when working with her local MP Jeffrey Donaldson after feeling abandoned by the Ministry of Defence.
When Mrs Hale's husband died, the MoD sent her his final month's pay cheque but at a greatly reduced rate. When she queried the amount, she found it had been reduced to reflect the number of days he actually worked - with just half a day's pay for the last day of his life as he had been killed in the morning. This was the kind of government bureaucracy which spurred Mrs Hale to get involved in politics.
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