Pressing ahead?
The DUP has released a 35 page document on the eve of its annual conference under the optimistic title of If you were to read Peter Robinson's foreword you might conclude that the party is about make a great leap forward.
The party leader says that "once again unionism faces a choice in the next few years. Do we build on what we have achieved or risk throwing it all away chasing unrealisable goals?" And he continues "we have restored devolution on satisfactory terms, now is the time to take the next step forward".
So are we on the brink of transferring justice powers? Hold on to your horses, because the next step the First Minister appears to be referring to is reforming the Stormont system. After mounting a spirited defence of the DUP's decision to do a deal with Sinn Fein two years ago as "a choice between emotion and reason", the paper revisits Peter Robinson's Ulster Hall speech. It once again pushes weighted majority voting at the Assembly and how the workings of the Executive might be improved - the DUP reckons that has been the biggest structural difficulty at Stormont.
A section titled "the next steps forward" brings together the need to deliver better government with the devolution of policing and justice. It doesn't give much away noting "we have already agreed the institutional arrangements. Now it is necessary to resolve the financial issues and ensure the requisite community confidence exists."
Jim Allister has dismissed the pamphlet as "spin" arguing that "change will only come when the present unworkable charade is brought to its knees and that will not happen through working it, but through thwarting it by electoral rejection". However British and Irish officials may take heart from the fact that the DUP seems to be trying to sell the benefits of devolution at this sensitive stage.
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