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At the US Investment Conference I asked Gordon Brown about the chances of Downing Street gifting the Executive any further security bases rather than making them pay the market rate. He replied that this was the subject of continuing discussions. I assumed it might be tied in to negotiations on the possible devolution of justice. But, according to the Daily Telegraph, Gregory Campbell is linking the bases to the goverment's search for support for its

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Caitriona Ruane's proposal for a transitional test for pupils leaving primary school has been described as a "climb down" by her critics, but defended as realistic, responsible politics by Sinn Fein. It will be discussed by the Executive tomorrow. So far grammar school supporters appear unimpressed, likening the three year transitional test to a "stay of execution" rather than a compromise.

What the minister's timetable does mean, however, is that academic selection will not have ended by the time of the next Assembly election in 2011. Instead the minister envisages that in 2011 grammar schools will be allowed to select only 30% of their pupils on an academic basis. She wants academic selection phased out altogether by 2013.

This poses an interesting selection question which is rather more political than academic.
Will the DUP, if it is the biggest party, select the Education department after the 2011 election? If so would a DUP Education Minister unravel Caitriona Ruane's plans?

Or does the DUP remain wedded to the idea of selecting Finance as first choice, on the grounds that the DFP Minister is the spider at the centre of the Executive web?

Caitriona Ruane recently bated the unionists by asking them "why didn't ye take it?" about the Education brief. Will the Executive parties have sorted the schools stand off out by 2011, or will the DUP once again be faced with the twin prongs of this

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