'NI still troubled by crises'

Government is still facing "big squeeze" on policing

By BBC NI political editor Stephen Grimason

It wouldn't be Northern Ireland if there wasn't a crisis and this week we appear to have two - the continued wrangling over the Police Bill which had its second reading in parliament and the threat to keep cabinet papers from the two DUP ministers in the executive.

Appear is probably the right word, as crises in the peace process are often more apparent than real.

The Police Bill row has more of a real look to it.

Why would the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern fly to London for dinner with Prime Minister Tony Blair on Wednesday and then fly home again without a word to the waiting media?

That little trip had all the hallmarks of potential crisis in the making.

Mr Blair is being squeezed on policing.

The Irish Government, the Social Democratic and Labour Party and Sinn Fein are all pressing for the restoration of what the Patten Report on policing originally envisaged, not what they consider to be the rather anaemic legislation on offer.

Republican warning

The SDLP has more than 70 amendments down and Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams fired a shot across the British government's bows in the middle of the week when he again signalled that the IRA's offer to put weapons verifiably beyond use was within the context of the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement - and that includes Patten.

Stephen Grimason: Amending Police Bill to please all sides will not be easy

The Ulster Unionists are on the other side of the squeeze. They succeeded in doing little more than buying time on the badge and flag and the concession on the name is at least obscure.

No-one has yet successfully presented a form of words which satisfactorily explains Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson's commitment to put the letters RUC in the "title deeds" whatever they are.

Unionists have reacted badly to nationalist determination to beef up the powers of the new police board and the ombudsman, especially the powers of inquiry.

Mr Trimble and his colleagues worry about Sinn Fein and the SDLP pushing for what would amount to politically motivated fishing expeditions into the RUC's past.

This will not be an easy call for Mr Blair and Mr Mandelson.

If the Police Bill does not deliver for nationalism and republicanism the new force could be doomed from the start. If it goes too far for Ulster Unionists you don't need to be a genius to see the sort of trouble the First Minister could be in.

Collission course

The other crisis may not prove to be so serious.

Robinson and Dodds: "unfazed" by Trimble-Mallon offensive

David Trimble and Seamus Mallon's calling to account of the "in the executive but not in the government" Democratic Unionist Party ministers has put the first and deputy first ministers on a collision course with the anti-agreement camp.

The UUP, SDLP and Sinn Fein ministers have been increasingly irked by what they see as the DUP's policy of ministerial splendid isolation, picking up all the benefits of office and suffering none of the political pain the others have had to endure.

The threat by regional development minister Peter Robinson and social development minister Nigel Dodds to "reveal what is going on at the heart of government" is, according to Mr Trimble and Mr Mallon, tantamount to a declaration that they will not abide by cabinet confidentiality.

They will not receive Northern Ireland Executive papers relation to other departments until they give an assurance they will be bound by the ministerial oath.

On Friday morning Mr Robinson and Mr Dodds said they had always observed executive confidentiality and had given a face-to-face assurance on that to Mr Trimble when they first took office.

Shooting creates further tension

The difficulty for Mr Trimble in all of this is that if he pushes too hard the only sanction open to him is to seek the exclusion of the two DUP ministers while at the same time keeping Sinn Fein in government.

That would not play well within the UUP at a time when security sources are laying the blame for the recent murder of Ed McCoy in a bar on the outskirts of Belfast at the door of the IRA.

The First Minister would do well to remember the old business saying which runs something like: "When you are up to your rear in alligators its difficult to remember the original object of the project was to drain the swamp!"

The Yes camp may be more than a little irritated by the DUP's curious approach to the executive but they may yet rue this attempt to bring the party to heel.