Archives for January 21, 2008

The lightest moment during Deputy First Minister's question time today concerned the existence of a Ballymena bunker in case of nuclear war or some other disaster. The SDLP's Alex Attwood wanted to know who was on the list of 300 people to be taken there in a moment of peril. The DFM Martin McGuinness replied that he knew nothing of the bunker and hoped he wasn't on the list, whilst the Environment Minister Arlene Foster said she hadn't given it planning permission. More than one MLA joked about Ian Jr. being sent to the bunker.

If the MLAs had computers in the chamber a quick web search would have turned up the bunker, complete with a quote from Mr McGuinness's own OFMDFM.

Ballymena Bunker

Meanwhile when it comes to the budget the Executive parties have now climbed out of their respective silos, agreeing a final document to be officially launched by Peter Robinson tomorrow. So there's a truce in the Executive civil war. Margaret Ritchie is getting more than £200 million to build 5000 plus affordable homes over the next three years. The Ulster Unionists claim their settlement for health amounts to £150 million over 3 years, but other parties reckon that's an over inflated figure. Sir Reg Empey looks set to get his hands on around £40 million of the British-Irish innovation fund, and Sinn Fein are hailing committments to equality built in to the budget process.

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The BBC Director General Mark Thompson gave an interview to the Guardian last week suggesting that the BBC's coverage of Westminister, Stormont, Cardiff and Edinburgh could be reinvented in the same way as our drama has been overhauled with Doctor Who and Life on Mars. I briefly pondered blogging about this but almost any line I thought of threatened to do to my BBC career what the Daleks habitually do to anyone or anything which crosses their path.

But I can now soberly note that the Sunday Life newspaper has picked up on the interview and reproduced a striking image of yours truly as Dr Who stood beside the Tardis in the company of la Purdy as my assistant, Rose.

They have not yet assigned suitable Dr Who/science fiction characters to Gareth Gordon or Jim Fitzpatrick both of whom are rattling their keyboards next to me. Any suggestions?

P.S. Gareth points out that our Stormont office is as small as an old police box, but that is where the similarity with the Tardis ends.

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