The engrossing saga of what the Stormont Committee of the Centre could be called reached its exciting climax today. Did they go for my suggestion of "Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness - Our Part In Their Downfall"? Did they opt for Philip White's "Committee for the True Folks on the Hill"? Or Susie Flood's "Committee for the Pantomime Horse?" Or John's "Committee for keeping tabs on Religious Fundamentalists and Retired Terrorists"? Or RJ's "Committee of the New Deal"?
No, they rejected all our proposals and the chair of the Committee Danny Kennedy also noted that there had been some helpful and unhelpful suggestions for a new name (surely not a reference to this blog).
Some members entered into the spirit of things. There were suggestions for Committee of the Left of Centre, Committee of the Soft Centre and Committee of the Hard Centre. But alas none of these ideas won a consensus.
Instead the scrutiny body will, presuming the full assembly approves, henceforth be known as the Committee for the Office of the First and Deputy First Ministers. A snappy title, as one member, tongue firmly in cheek, acknowledged.
They say all politics is local, but there's no doubt that the most ingrained political feuds tend to be within tight geographical boundaries. Yesterday the Strangford MP Iris Robinson refused to give way to the Strangford MLA Kieran McCarthy during the Assembly's debate on Free Personal care. Later she accused the Alliance member of shouting at her from a sedentary position. But that was nothing compared to what the MP said at the end of the day during a debate on a motion from Mr McCarthy criticising the standard of the roads in Strangford.
Mrs Robinson told members that she found "it difficult to take Mr McCarthy’s complaint seriously, as most of his constituency work is concentrated in Kircubbin and Portaferry. I doubt whether he could tell me anything about the road infrastructure in Killyleagh or in other parts of the constituency." Then later she added "I really have to bite my tongue sometimes when it comes to Mr McCarthy, because we often see memos that claim that he has done all sorts of wonderful things when, in fact, it was not him and he came in on the coat-tails."
After the MP's speech the Deputy Speaker commented "That was very entertaining — from a distance". I guess those are not the exact words Kieran McCarthy would have picked.
I'm 
