Ticking and Turning
Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness weren't giving anything away when they left Downing Street tonight. They described their talks with Gordon Brown as very useful but said they wanted to report back to their Executive colleagues before going into any further detail.
As already reported there are a lot of "tick and turn" papers to be approved at tomorrow's meeting. The title of one is "Retrospective approval of the Northern Ireland Executive element of the written response to the list of issues for the UN Committee on the rights of the child by the Executive."
Now we're clear on that, I would like to make a modest proposal. The joint agreement published at Stormont yesterday is littered with the word "modalities". Can we ban it? If so what do we put in its place?
I'm 
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~21~RS~)
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Mark
SUSIE'S THESAURUS HAS THE ANSWER
Funnily enough, my Thesaurus notes that in the context of deals reached between the partners in the Fascist Coalition an appropriate synonym for "modalities" is "obfuscations".
Sounds right to me.
Susie
Carryduff
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Mark,
Transparency?
When will the list of what has been agreed between the DUP and Sinn Fein be released so the voters can read it? The DUP and Jim Allister are involved in childish blame games on what happened? I think within the last 3 working days Jim Allister has had 3 goes at guessing and so far it appears it is wrong. The DUP and Sinn Fein are giving nothing away while the SDLP have their heads well and truly buried in the sand.
Stormontspy
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Bananas.
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How do you know Jim Allister is wrong StormontSpy unless you know what has been agreed? Your question indicates that you don't know but insist in attacking Allister nonetheless.
Watch out for concession on the Education and Skills Authority, an organisation that will oversee the destruction of the entire education system not just academic selection at 11. Meantime the DUP have just endorsed the Churches' and unions' move to (s)election at 14 without clarifying the situation. Is this the triumph of St Andrew's in detail StormontSpy? more modalities and obfuscation from the DUP?
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redflyfisher,
Stormont spy attacking Jim Allister just the for the sake of it? surely not? :O
surely you have noticed by now he attacks him on obout 99% of his posts.
You would nearly swear he was one of the various DUP MLA's who dismiss Jim Allister as "irrelevant" on one hand, but yet remain utterly obsessed with him on the other.....
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Comments 4 and 5.
Let me respond. I would like to make a few points.
You say that I dismiss Jim Allister as irrelevant on one hand yet remain utterly obsessed about him. How am I obsessed? I am obsessed with transparency. Jim Allister is clearly not. You clearly didn’t think the last statement out as I could turn it on you in regards to Allister. Why do you dismiss the DUP, Sinn Fein and Stormont yet appear to be obsessed. Your leader issues statements every day in order to stir up attention.
You also say I am a DUP MLA. I wish I was an MLA of any sort but sadly I have to work for a living and pay taxes to keep Politicians in the life style they have been comfortable with.
My last point for now is if Jim Allister is so upset with the DUP why is he living of the DUP name and ticket? Why not resign and trigger a by election? Do what David Davies did.
Stormontspy
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Would it not be the tax payers who would have to pay for such a by-election though?
Is this wise and responsible during these worrying days for the economy?
Also Jim has stuck by the manifesto so why should he resign?
surely if anyone is to resign it should be the DUP MLA's who have turned their back on the manifesto they stood under at the last assembly election?
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Traditional Unionist
After reading your blog I laughed for over 5 minutes. For months you have ignored the fact that I and other tax payers are curious as to why Jim Allister won't declare his expenses. The fact remains that he has something to hide. To say that you care about the - cost wise up. If Jim was confident he could get the vote he would have done it last year. Only on Thursday night on Let's Talk message after message appeared on screen saying that people that left the DUP for the TUV are now regretting it. Why? One person called the big man a dinosaur.
Stormontspy
PS Are you Cedric Wilson in disguise? Looking at a profile on Wikipedia it states that Cedric Wilson in the 2001 UK general election, when contesting the Strangford seat he received 1.9% of the vote.
This poor showing was reflected in the Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2003, when Wilson initially placed only tenth out of thirteen candidates, and all the NIUP members lost their seats.
When Cedric stood as an independent candidate in the Strangford constituency at the 2007 Northern Ireland Assembly Cedric only polled 305 votes (0.8%), thus finishing last out of the fifteen candidates.
If you think he/you are going to win a seat at the next election you ought to seek medical help.
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first I am working for Jim. and now I am Cedric Wilson!! :D
keep guessing. its fun!
as for the messages. do yo believe everything you read?
do you not know by now how the DUP work?
The TUV continues to grow. Just watch :)
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