Barry McElduff has just solicited a list of Stormont's symbols and emblems from the Assembly Commission. It's part of the general battle over Britishness, Irishness and neutrality which we've already seen played out in some council buildings.
Putting that to one side, the list makes interesting reading .
It includes the famous painting of King Billy and the Pope, two jardinaires (aka planters) reputedly made from timbers of the "Mountjoy" (the ship which broke the boom during the Siege of Derry), the Speaker's "full bottomed wig in a carry case" (which Willie Hay doesn't wear these days) and a didgeridoo, presented to the Assembly by the Aboriginal ambassador to Europe.
UPDATE: Barry McElduff has now floated the idea of setting up an ad Hoc Committee to examine the equality aspects of the Stormont artefacts. And thanks to Alan for spotting my spelling error, now corrected.
Having been outmanoeuvred on the chess board by 8 year old Raghav Gupta at last Friday's Stormont Elite Chess tournament, our Green MLA Brian Wilson found himself checkmated by the Environment Minister Arlene Foster this morning when she ruled out the creation of an Independent Environmental Protection Agency.
Instead she is revamping her in house Environment and Heritage Service, which will become the NI Environment Agency from July. It will be renamed but not independent. The decision overturned the recommendations of a review commissioned under direct rule. It left the Ulster Farmers Union happy, but green campaigners fuming.
The DUP's own one man green wing, Jim Wells, asked for a re-assurance that the minister was not ruling out an Independent EPA for ever and a day. She paid tribute to his green credentials and assured him that the case for an independent agency could be examined again in the context of an overall review in 2011.
Of course that's the year the next Assembly election is due, after which who knows which party will take the Environment portfolio. Unless Jim has more success in converting his party colleagues to his green cause than he's had so far, it's hard to imagine a DUP Environment Minister revisiting this one.
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