A bit of a flap when the Assembly debated the fishing industry this evening. The new Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew wasn't there. Some unionists objected to her nominating her party colleague Conor Murphy as a substitute. But it was hard for them to work up too much of a head of steam since Ms Gildernew is in Washington representing the Executive at a dinner promoting food prepared by four local chefs.
The DUP motion called for the creation of an all party working group on fish. That prompted Sinn Fein's Sue Ramsey to enquire whether the fish concerned would be male or female. Her point being that when Sinn Fein called for an all party working group on women to be set up last week, unionists argued there were too many all party groups already in existence.
Yesterday appearing on "Stormont Live" I was asked to "talk around" a clip of Ian Paisley Junior raising his concern about an alleged attempt to burn down the Assembly boiler house on March 12th. That was the first day when MLAs arrived at the building after the March election. I quoted one Stormont source as suggesting the incident could have been someone having a "crafty smoke" where they shouldn't have been. Since then I've been told that it looks more sinister than that and the authorities are in pursuit of a suspect. So let's watch this space.
This wouldn't be the first time I've been ill informed about fires at Stormont. In January 1995, when I was the BBC's Ireland Correspondent I got a phone call from my mum in England to tell me that Stormont was ablaze. She's heard an eyewitness who had phoned Radio 5 from their vantage point on the Newtownards Road. Yours truly rushed to the scene to play catch up and got there whilst the building was still well alight.
As proceedings in the Chamber got going today, Sinn Fein's Barry McElduff wanted to know whether MLAs had to wear jackets or could address the Assembly in short sleeves. The Speaker Willie Hay said protocol was clear - jackets are required.
As I write, Martina Anderson is addressing the Chamber on the topic of the Single Equality Bill which seeks to bring various pieces of anti-discrimination law together. She is wearing a turquoise dress with short sleeves, but no jacket. So is the protocol only applicable to male MLAs - and could this be a matter for the draftspersons behind the new bill to consider?
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