Northern Ireland: strong words ahead

There could be strong words tonight from the Irish Prime Minister and Gordon Brown as they try to get the Northern Ireland parties talking to each other again.

Sinn Fein and the DUP have been upping the ante in recent weeks. Sinn Fein didn’t like DUP leader Peter Robinson’s talk of re-thinking the Good Friday Agreement blocking mechanisms on decision making.

They won’t have liked DUP MLA and MP Gregory Campbell’s words that devolution of policing and justice is “years away” – not quite the timing they were working to.

Martin McGuinness has started threatening to do what he was explicitly ruling out when I interviewed him in September at the Labour Party Conference in the Grand at Brighton, to pull down the executive in January 2010 and force a fresh round of elections.

The DUP has been worried about falling support and won’t want that. The two Prime Ministers will, presumably, be announcing a fresh push on talks to sort this out – anyone for Leeds Castle?

Meanwhile, back in Belfast, the MLAs in the Northern Ireland Assembly are voting themselves a bumper pay rise that could amount to 17 per cent.

– Get new posts from Gary Gibbon’s blog emailed to you. Sign up here for free (link takes you to Google’s Feedburner service).