What did Aunt Mabel give you?

Thanks to commenter PJCavehill for bringing my attention to this question from the SDLP's Thomas Burns "To ask the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister to detail all Christmas gifts they sent and received."

I am assuming Mr Burns' query is limited to any official gifts to or from the Office, but I'd like to think Peter and Martin could extend their reply so we discover all the wooly jumpers the Junior Ministers got from their relatives. Let's hope they kept a good note of who gave what.

On a separate note the local banks weren't giving a lot away when they gave evidence to the Finance Committee today. They are, it appears, hard working types doing the best for their community against a backdrop of global financial meltdown.

It took 8 weeks for the Finance Committee to persuade them to appear. Its members seemed fairly satisfied that the meeting took place at all, rather than insisting on getting much concrete out of it. The bankers were asked about mortgages, credit cards, overdrafts and loans to small businesses.

During one exchange (appropriately enough between Banker Eric Leenders and MLA Declan O'Loan) the banks were accused of not doing enough to fund independent debt advice like that provided by the CAB. The Committee chair, Mitchel McLaughlin, says the bankers have agreed to come back to the politicians on a number of points and if they don't provide satisfaction the committee will return to "the politics of confrontation".

Tough talk, but with yet more depressing news about Nortel and Seagate how much can Stormont politicians do to ameliorate the impact of the credit crunch?

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Newsvine |
• NowPublic |
• Reddit
• - What's this?