Sunday, April 01, 2007

Paisley & McGuinness jointly ask Hain to quit Stormont?

The BBC News website this morning carried the story below. I still can’t quite work out if it’s an April Fool or not!

It’s like the Newsletter’s Edwina Curry to be Secretary of State story from many years ago. It had a ring of authenticity ... and if someone had run a story saying Peter Mandelson would be NI Secretary of State on April 1st, it would have had the same incredulous reaction!

“The DUP and Sinn Fein have asked the Northern Ireland Secretary to move out of his offices at Stormont.

In a letter signed by Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness, Peter Hain was asked to vacate his office before power sharing begins in early May.

It is thought to be the first ever letter jointly drafted and signed by Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein politicians.

Mr Hain told Broadcasting House on BBC Radio 4 he would be delighted to leave.”

2 comments:

auth said...

I have to say I thought it was an April Fools too, but its after noon. Either the fool's on them or we have the makings of a fully functioning OFMDFM.

Alan in Belfast (Alan Meban) said...

And the Belfast Telegraph's now running the story too - which gives it some credibility. All we need is a comment from Slugger O'Toole to make it definite!

(While devolution is a fine thing, there are aspects of local government that haven't been devolved. It seems a teensy weensy bit soon to clear out the office of the man who controls the non-devolved stuff. Unless they'd like him to use a Portakabin around the back of Stormont, or maybe the gate lodge at the bottom of the hill!)