Late Nights, Rows and Mr Jelly
My colleagues on Today at the Assembly had their work cut out last night as the Stormont proceedings ran on until nearly 10 pm shortly before they were due on air. Gareth Gordon hung on until the end. I ducked out early as I was due on Good Morning Ulster at 7 am.
At one point we had the Obama inauguration on one screen in the press room and the Assembly chamber on the other. It was slightly bizarre as the cheers and jeers of the MLAs and "order, order" from the Speaker mingled with the rhetoric from Capitol Hill.
During the lengthy debate on the Financial Assistance Bill there were a number of clashes between the SDLP and the DUP. if you examine the Hansard, you can see that at 12.30 pm. the First Minister crossed swords with Declan O'Loan over whether the SDLP MLA had accused him of being deceitful. When he didn't like the response from the Deputy Speaker after taking advice from the Clerk, the First Minister went on "maybe you will tell your Clerk to listen more carefully before he gives you such advice, because the person who is bringing forward this measure is myself, and if a deceit is being perpetrated, it can only be by the person who is bringing it forward."
Later Mr Robinson clashed with the SDLP Leader Mark Durkan. Between 3.30 pm and 3.45 pm Mr Robinson told MLAs that Margaret Ritchie had led her Executive colleagues to believe that she already had the power to make fuel poverty payments without requiring legislation. After 4 pm Mark Durkan challenged this brandishing an Executive paper which he claims proved Mr Robinson's statement was inaccurate. He accused the First Minister of misleading the Assembly, a use of language which can get an MLA thrown out if they can't justify its use. SDLP sources produced ministerial rules saying all ministers must give the Assembly accurate information, or if not they should resign.
Much later, between 7.30 pm and 8 pm the Speaker Willie Hay ruled on the matter. Without naming the First Minister he reminded MLAs that it was not in order to refer to the Assembly officials. He then said he would be calling on Mark Durkan to withdraw his remarks at the earliest opportunity. The SDLP objected to the Speaker naming Mr Durkan but not Mr Robinson.
If Mark Durkan refuses to withdraw, then he is likely to be suspended from the Assembly on Monday. However it's possible he could alter his words sufficiently to avoid walking the Stormont plank. But as the SDLP question the facts underlying the ruling and what they see as the asymmetric nature of the Speaker's judgement they say they won't let the matter rest.
The details of this parliamentary spat are arcane. In general terms, however, it's another illustration of the dysfunctional nature of the Stormont coalition in which the smaller parties are increasingly an opposition within.
So where does the jelly come in? Well in the final stage of the Public Authorities (Reform) Bill, by which time Willie Hay's head was probably well and truly turned, the Speaker introduced a hitherto unheard of minister, namely Mr Jelly.
With laughter all around, Gerry Kelly thanked the Speaker for giving him a new name.
I'm 
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~18~RS~)
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Mark
It appears that the SDLP are not fit for Government. There Minister seems clueless to the party line. Why does she vote for everything in the Executive then her party opposes it? Every day in the Assembly Ms Ritchie gets laughed at and ridiculed.
On Tuesday 12th January Martin McGuiness said “For some time, Members have spoken about cohesion and about the Executive’s ability to work collectively. As Minister of Education, I was a member of an Executive that was led by David Trimble and Seamus Mallon. On countless occasions, at countless Executive meetings, Seamus Mallon, as deputy First Minister, emphasised, at every opportunity, the responsibility on individual Ministers to deliver their parties for Executive decisions. However, the SDLP’s general approach to the Executive now seems to be the total opposite of that, and it repudiates what Seamus Mallon said. On 15 December, the First Minister and I attended the Executive meeting to discuss the December monitoring round, and I did not hear the SDLP Minister oppose the decision or vote against the Executive’s decision...... When a Minister sits mute at an Executive meeting and then, at the first opportunity, runs out to the media and claims that there was a smash-and-grab raid on her Department — which was total and absolute nonsense — it makes me have serious concerns about the role being played by the SDLP in the Assembly and in the Executive.”
Then on Monday 19th January Ian Paisley said – “Most people will be amazed by the SDLP’s decision to show two faces in this debate. Margaret Ritchie told the Executive that she was prepared to support the Programme for Government that called for this review, that called for change and that supported a lean government. Her party’s leader and his sidekicks, however, have stood up and demanded that there be more government and, with that, more expenditure.”
Than yesterday we had more of the same. How did Mark Durkan get an executive paper? If Margaret Ritchie passed it to him then there is a very serious problem.
Stormontspy
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The problem is that the DUP don't want any oposition and the bully is trying to create a bannana republic where dissenting voices are removed.
The SDLP and UUP should join Alliance in opposition leaving the blood brothers in harness.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
Stormontspy, you clearly don't understand the idea of an 'opposition within', just as Martin McGuiness clearly doesn't understand that the new DUP/Sinn Fein alliance is dominated by a First Minister intent on screwing nationalists at every step.
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dcpete
If you are going to provide opposition you must do so on a sound basis. If the SDLP want to be seen as an oppostion party then why does Margaret Ritchie agree with everything then her parties disagree? Surely the SDLP are only making a laughing stock of themselves
Stormontspy
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Mr Jelly.
Very good Mark. It gave me many many chuckles.
Wille Hay's soothing, almost nursery rhyming, tones come all too clearly to me; I can imagine it now like an auditory hallucination:
"...and now a supplementary from Mr Jelly.
Mr Jelly."
Brilliant. Absolutely Brilliant. Well done for another gracious put down of our MLAs.
Gerry Kelly aka Mr Gelly.
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