"Six County Glasses"
Assembly members had some urgent business on their agenda at the start of today's proceedings. They had to vote on Friday's motion calling for Israel to grant safe passage into Gaza for the Irish Aid ship M.V. Corrie. Yes, the M.V. Corrie - the vessel which was intercepted by the Israelis on Saturday. Those on board, including the Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Corrigan Maguire, had already been arrested and deported by the Israelis by the time the Assembly held its vote. But such are the vicissitudes of the Stormont rules that the petition of concern brought by unionists delayed a vote until this aspect of the motion had already been consigned to the dustbin of history.
Still there was more to it than that - the motion included, for example, a demand that Israel should end its blockade of Gaza. So the vote went ahead and produced a dead heat with 40 for and 40 against. Given that the petition of concern required the motion should be subjected to a cross community test, we got the breakdown. 39 unionists voted against, 36 nationalists voted for, 4 others voted for and 1 other voted against. 3 MLAs abstained.
After the result was announced, the Speaker was subjected to some sustained cross questioning from members of his own party, the DUP. They were annoyed that Friday's special sitting had been convened. The Environment Minister Edwin Poots wanted to know if Mr Hay had some discretion to refuse such requests. Gregory Campbell wondered whether the assembly would have to meet no matter how - in his words - "spurious" a debate might be. Nigel Dodds argued that the rule needed to be clarified as the public could decide such special sittings were "ludicrous".
Willie Hay played a straight bat, insisting that he had no role whatsoever in accepting or rejecting requests for special meetings, provided they had the necessary 30 signatures.
Then the West Tyrone GP Kieran Deeny weighed in. He had signed the request for a special sitting together with the Fermanagh MLA Gerry McHugh, but didn't actually attend the sitting on Friday ( because, according to Mr McHugh, it clashed with his surgery). Evidently annoyed by the unionist put downs, Dr Deeny asked why the Assembly should not deal with global issues of humanitarian concern. Why should Stormont, he continued, look at everything through "Six County glasses"?
That got the unionists going and the noise level in the chamber rose as the Speaker called for order. "Let us move on to the business of the house", Mr Hay intoned, then looking as much at sea as an Israeli commando dangling on the end of a rope, he added "whatever that is...".
The Clerk helpfully whispered to the Speaker that they needed to suspend standing orders, and MLAs got back to their day jobs, authorising £1.5 million in annual expenditure on an Older People's Commissioner and ensuring all our Six County Dogs are microchipped and licensed. By which time the five Irish activists from the M.V.Corrie had flown back to Dublin and the Israeli navy had shot and killed four Palestinians in diving gear off the Gaza coast. One assumes they did not check to assess the likely reaction from the Stormont Assembly before pulling their triggers.
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