BBC NI political editor Mark Devenport with a slightly different take on the message delivered to the Northern Ireland First and deputy First Ministers by the new Prime Minister than Brian noted.
By telling our ministers they can take the pain now or take it in the next financial year, the Prime Minister has posed the Stormont Executive with a difficult choice. Their track record on water charges and freezing rates would appear to indicate the Executive will choose procrastination (or what the Alliance termed in their recent manifesto “cheap populism.”)
And he points to a possible outbreak of actual politics…
So the Executive faces a dillemma over postponing cuts. Down the line it could also face a dillemma over the Conservative proposal for lowering Corporation Tax, because, as this blog has pointed out before, that will require cutting the budget elsewhere. The discussion on Good Morning Ulster today between a business advocate and a trade unionist could be just the start of a period of classic left-right debates dominating our local politics.
It could only be an improvement on what we currently have…
Of course, other events may prove much more influential.