The House of Robinson- not yet fallen, but it's tottering.

If Gerry Adams were to tell his electorate (and I’m paraphrasing Anthony McIntyre here) to assemble tomorrow at Dunville Park for the three o'clock spacecraft to take them to a united Ireland, there would be a disturbingly high proportion of the residents of West Belfast who, despite the revelations of the last few weeks, would still turn up with their packed lunch for the journey ahead.

Unfortunately for Peter Robinson and the DUP, there is, as last year’s EU Elections proved, no such unthinking loyalty amongst those who may have voted for the DUP in the past. I’m sure a proportion of the TUV 70,000 voters indeed turned against the DUP for their temerity to allow a "fenian 'terrorist' about the place”; I also think that a great number posted a negative vote against the DUP as a protest against, amongst other things, the Expenses Scandal, the Paisley Saga and the overall sense of untouchable arrogance conveyed by the DUP Elite...

"A Mont Blanc pen here, a bit help for the odd ‘I know of him’ property developer there matters not a jot when the plebs know Sinn Fein must be smashed"

Might have worked in hmmm…less cynical times, those times have changed.

In my opinion, Robinson has played the diabolically bad hand delivered to him as well as he could have up to this point- but whilst any kind of doubts remain with regards to his own responsibility to the "public interest" in this case, he is presently a liability to his party and any extra liabilities are not what they need at the approaching election when, for the first time for perhaps ten years, they face real credible opposition from both pro-Union flanks at the ballot box. Strategically, Robinson must know in the present circumstances a DUP (and an Executive come to that) with him as leader is a much harder selling proposition than one where he has honourably, “until my name is fully cleared”, temporarily relinquished his positions?

Once the name is cleared, no reason why he can’t resume his previous positions- he would be resuming the leadership from a position of strength.

If his name, for whatever reason, isn’t to be cleared, well, then he has also done the honourable thing by saving his party (and country) from further damage.