A Celtic Pincer Movement?
Chatting over lunch the other today, a Westminster politician mused about the possibility of a future parliament, which is either hung or controlled by a party with a very slim majority. In such a scenario, wondered my contact, could the parties associated with devolved governments in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff gang up on London to push for more powers, lower regional tax rates and so on?
Then today we have Ian Paisley's account of his congratulatory telephone call to Alex Salmond. Our First Minister pays tribute to his counterpart in Scotland as a clever man who pulled off a political "miracle". "There are things Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have in common" continues Dr Paisley "that if we go to the British Government in harness, we will get more out of them".
Add the DUP, SNP and Plaid Cymru Westminster teams together and you get 18 - a voting bloc not to be sniffed at. But if they play that game will they add to the numbers of English MPs, like a Tory I heard on Radio 5 yesterday, calling for non-English MPs to be excluded from votes on English issues and for the financial settlement underpinned by the "Barnett formula" to be re-written?
I'm 
