At Stormont we never get quite as earthy as they seem to in the Welsh Assembly . However during the discussion of graduated driving, the DUP's Jim Shannon reminisced about his days as a 17 year old driving a Mini which doubled up as a babe machine". The image promises to give his colleague Peter Weir "nightmares". The Deputy Speaker David McClarty added drily that he could only imagine what Jim's babes looked like.
There was nothing salacious about the "bent bananas" though. That was the Alliance leader David Ford's chosen image for the shape of one of the new proposed super councils. The minister Arlene Foster thought he was referring to a "big banana" council, and added that she was glad he wasn't naming the new bodies.
However I am getting tired of that term "super council", Maybe "big banana" council could catch on before they become a reality in 2011.
We have had some energetic debates over whether first, the Victims and Survivors Bill, then the Local Government Boundaries Bill should be given "accelerated passage". But the DUP and Sinn Fein's failure to resolve their differences over the Victims Bill has now led to a novel procedure which we may dub "decelerated passage" in which a bill's movers schedule a piece of legislation for debate not once, but twice, and each time withdraw it with a minimum of explanation.
The parties fell out over Alliance amendments suggesting the appointment of a Chief Commissioner and the adoption of a majority voting system on the four strong Victims Commission.
The Alliance party is now threatening to table its own duplicate Victims Bill, so we could have a legislative race in order to see whether the private members bill beats the decelerated Executive bill to the Royal Assent finishing line.
UPDATE: Since I posted this entry, ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness put out a statement confirming that they have agreed changes to the Victims Bill, but not spelling out the details. We wait to see whether the measure is accelerated or decelerated when it comes back to the Chamber on May 6th
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