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Election 07

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A cordial relationship

  • Mark Devenport
  • 27 Apr 07, 10:58 PM

You might have thought the appearance in court on serious charges of the brother in law of our Deputy First Minister in waiting would have sparked a full blown political crisis. But on the very same day Martin McGuinness鈥檚 brother in law Marvin Canning faced seven charges linked to the cross border kidnapping and assault of a man and a woman, my spies tell me Messrs McGuinness and Paisley were holding what some described as pleasant, cordial and businesslike meetings at Stormont with other politicians.

In a conversation with the new chair and vice chair of the Committee of the Centre, the Ulster Unionist Danny Kennedy and Alliance鈥檚 Naomi Long, there did not appear to be any evident tension between the First and Deputy First Minister in waiting. Indeed Ian Paisley talked about what 鈥渨e鈥 intend to do, apparently acknowledging the joint nature of their office.

Martin McGuinness had by this stage already made clear his unequivocal condemnation of the abduction and assault. He also said whoever was responsible should be made accountable through the courts. Marvin Canning has denied any connection with the alleged offences during police interviews.

While Messrs McGuinness and Paisley await the official birth of the new Executive, Scotland and Wales are about to elect their devolved governments. I鈥檝e just been talking to the DUP鈥檚 Gregory Campbell and Sinn Fein鈥檚 Daithi McKay for an Inside Politics programme which looks at the potential implications for Northern Ireland if the SNP makes headway in its quest for independence. You can hear that discussion on Inside Politics on Saturday on Radio Ulster at a quarter to one, and I鈥檝e written an accompanying article summarising the politicians' contrasting viewpoints. It should be published on the main website over the weekend.

Sinning and spinning

  • Betsan Powys
  • 27 Apr 07, 02:56 PM

I've headed West but seeing as how you asked the story surrounding "the infamous Ruthin hustings" has been online for a while and was covered at lunchtime on radio bulletins.

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about here is

We're still trying to contact all the candidates who were there so we can check their recollection of what Darren Millar did, or did not, say. Call us fussy ... but one contact number we were given so we could confirm the story turned out to be for someone who passed away some weeks ago.

Reality checks

  • Betsan Powys
  • 27 Apr 07, 12:55 PM

Back from Plaid Cymru leader Ieuan Wyn Jones' final keynote speech - or as my colleague Guto suggested it might be headlined, "Plaid leader leaves Ynys Mon shocker!" Mr Jones has his own battles to fight and has been reluctant to stray too far from home recently.

Not surprisingly Plaid and the Tories have swapped press release writers. The Tories believed the last ITV/NOP poll, Plaid said it didn't reflect what they were hearing on the doorsteps. This time round the disbelief is Mr Bourne's. And it's twice the size of course, because this time there are two polls to contend with - one by NOP, the other by Beaufort and they are remarkably similar.

Either way they've shoved us very nicely into the last week of the campaign.

If our posh graphics reflect these percentages - or anything like them - in a week's time then hats off to the pollsters. But I haven't seen all the figures. Those who've seen more than I have of the second NOP poll and who can therefore make far more sense of the figures are genuinely wondering to what extent it's comparable to the first.

Caution then. A reality check all round. But still a great 24 hours for those who keep words like weighting and methodology in their anorak pockets.

A half decent joke from Plaid Cymru's Adam Price this morning. Plaid, he said, had gone out on the campaign trail to share their 'elan, verve and infectious energy'. (No, not that bit). They'd been determined to start their conversation with the Welsh people early and had succeeded, "even if it's teenagers in Rhymney shouting at us 'Where's my free laptop then?'"

Ah but will they bother voting for you?

Googleganger

  • Mark Devenport
  • 27 Apr 07, 09:55 AM

The Belfast Telegraph has introduced me to the concept of a Googleganger, by noting in their Insider column that if you put my name into the search engine, the first result is, apparently, the writer, director and star of a film called "Why I Hate Parties (But Pretend to Love Them). Insider notes that this is probably my job description. Since I didn't plant the story, one thing I wonder is why they were Googling me in the first place?

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