Deep in the depths of Dundela Ave, something is stirring...

Attempting to reading the DUP runes to anticipate their current thinking and strategy can be compared to Western journalists trying to break through the walls of the Chinese Communist Party's cryptic pronouncements in order to check, for example, how much of an insult was actually intended when sending in the cleaner, as opposed to the Interior Minster, to meet Hilary.

Not quite a direct comparison, but in terms of "cute hoor-ness" the DUP have clearly now moved well in front of the previous Masters of Spin from the other side of the Northern Irish political pond, Sinn Fein.

There are two recent examples illustrating this. Firstly, Robinson's thoughts on Unionist Unity which become much more nuanced after closer inspection; whilst the Orange Order typically continues to stomp its Size 12 hobnails all over the flower bed, the erstwhile E.Belfast MP delicately tip toes around the roses in order to achieve what is (perhaps) the same target. There's clever tactics at work, read it here and guess where you think they are leading.

In a similar vein:

If the government can get the support to introduce the 55 per cent vote requirement for a vote of no confidence, then that will make it even more difficult for a crisis, which could lead to the fall of the coalition, to emerge.

I must say I find the fury which has been directed towards this measure rather strange, since the same parties and individuals who rail against it imposed a far more rigorous weighted vote requirement on the Northern Ireland Assembly and in order to keep the coalition government alive in Scotland there is a 65 per cent voting requirement.

The coalition is aiming for a five-year term, a change in the confidence vote requirement will help achieve this but it can be no substitute for working to devise policies which can command the support of a majority in the House of Commons. That must be the first priority since the last thing the country needs at this time of economic crisis is unstable, uncertain and unworkable government.

Actually not factual in one part (there's a coalition government in Scotland?) and the reasoning is garbled - never mind its inherent undemocratic nature, "weighted majority has been disastrous for governance in Northern Ireland: why should it then be tolerated at Westminster? But more importantly, if I'd had to put money on which of the 650 Honourable Members had said this, Sammy Wilson wouldn't have made the Top 10...or 640 for that matter.

No more of the "England's weakness is Ulster's opportunity" nonsense which was being bandied about a few weeks ago. Nope, instead what we (collectively, the United Kingdom) need is a "stable", "certain" and 'workable" government, which if it lasts the next five years, will be exactly the same Conservative Government which we were warned less than a month ago by the DUP would be sending in commandos from the Bullingdon Club to steal the pensions from Ulster's grannies. Tied in with the eulogy to "our" parliament's traditions at the beginning of the piece, a most un-Sammy-like piece of unregionalist, pragmatic, UK Unionism and... and, like Robinson's piece initially, it just doesn't add up.

Missed in translation?

A belated follow-up to this post I wrote last year:

Speeches made in the Welsh assembly in English should not be translated into Welsh in the record of proceedings, an independent review has concluded.

The Assembly Commission's plan to stop such translations to save £250,000 a year was opposed by the Welsh Language Board but backed by a review panel.

The Welsh Language Society called the decision "disgraceful" and it is looking at a legal challenge.

CBI Wales said it hoped the "sensible" approach would also apply to business.

Lord Elis Thomas, who is chair of the Assembly Commission as well as Presiding Officer, welcomed the review's findings.

He said the commission had appointed the independent panel to look at the assembly's bilingual services because it wanted the best possible advice and expertise, and to gather opinions from a wide range of people.

The other recommendations:

1. A verbatim text record of assembly proceedings be published in the language used in the chamber, together with a record of the "contemporaneous translation" of Welsh to English, as heard during Assembly proceedings.

2. The Assembly's online television service Senedd.tv should become the principal comprehensive stored record for researchers and future historians.

3. Creation of a guide to best bilingual practice for those holding functions on assembly premises.

4. All members of staff at the assembly should have or acquire some skills in the Welsh language.

That last suggestion is the most interesting.
Will the logical follow-up be that anyone applying to work at Assembly will also need "some skills" in the language?