Sylvia, Owen and Dave too

Lady Sylvia Hermon has been taking a break from active politics since the death of her husband, the former RUC Chief Constable Sir John Hermon. But I'm told that the North Down MP will meet the Conservative leader David Cameron next month to discuss the courtship between their parties. Given that Lady Sylvia has appeared cool on the idea, and has a voting record which favours the Labour party, it should be an interesting encounter.

My guest on Inside Politics this weekend is the Conservative spokesman Owen Paterson. I ask him about the UUP link, the Eames Bradley proposals and how he intends to handle next week's Westminster Committee meeting on the extension of the law which underpins General de Chastelain's decommissioning team. At the last Northern Ireland question time in the Commons many MPs were sceptical about giving loyalist paramilitaries another year to disarm. But since then the Secretary of State has indicated he would be ready to rescind the law if no progress is made in the next six months.

Inside Politics is on Radio Ulster at 12.45 pm on Saturday, or (if our technicians have fixed the recent fault) via the programme's webpage.

My colleague Kevin Sharkey has more on the prospects for loyalist disarmament on the Politics Show in Sunday. That's on BBC1 at noon.

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