Don't mention the MI5 war
I'm off to London tomorrow for the First and Deputy First Ministers' meeting with the Chancellor George Osborne. Although they wlll no doubt present a united front, there's been a distinct contrast between their two parties in the run up to the discussion.
First there's the longstanding difference between Sammy Wilson making contingency plans for the cuts which Sinn Fein say should be resisted.
Then there's the question of dissident republicans and last week's MI5 warning. Sinn Fein sources are annoyed about reports (including the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's) that the MI5 alert about possible attacks on Great Britain might feature in the discussion. Their point is that the meeting has been arranged for a month, long before the MI5 warning, which Martin McGuinness implied was more about the Security Service securing its own budget.
Sinn Fein, for obvious historical reasons, would never want to be seen as praying MI5 in aid, even if it is to fend off cuts. However the First Minister Peter Robinson feels no such constraint. On Friday he was quick to make the point that the MI5 warning underlined the need for adequate resourcing for security. He repeated that message during question time this afternoon when he said the Treasury needed to recognise the best way to stop dissident actions taking place in Great Britain was to stop them in Northern Ireland.
Maybe they aren't that far apart really. Both could argue that "there is no doubt that the cuts with which we are being threatened can be extremely damaging, particularly for a society and a community emerging from a conflict that has lasted some three decades." That would get the security sub-text over without mentioning either the dissidents or MI5. Not my words - the quote comes from Martin McGuinness speaking at a Sinn Fein away day at Mullaghbawn on September 10th.
P.S. During First Minister's questions, Alliance's Stephen Farry had a query about the OFMDFM's Sexual Orientation Strategy. Peter Robinson left it to his junior minister Robin Newton to launch into a lengthy explanation of how the office was handling LGBT issues. All these acronyms nearly had me reaching for a stiff G&T. But Martina Anderson cut through the alphabet soup when she asked Minister Newton bluntly whether he would himself attend a gay pride event or intended to follow the Tom Elliott example.
The East Belfast MLA never gave her a straight answer. But he did say he had met people from the LGBT sector at various gatherings, recognised government needed to deal with them and expressed some sympathy with the new Ulster Unionist leader arguing that his own party hadn't given him so much as a one day honeymoon period.
Oustide the chamber Ms Anderson accused the DUP of stalling on the sexial orientation strategy saying that Mr Newton's comment that it wouldn't be put in place until 2012 is a sign that the DUP is "going into election mode."
I'm 
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