A big to do – meantime no progress on education, health parades or a shared future

What a manufactured crisis.

The DUP say the need to the UUP to vote yes but the truth is they don’t.

Sinn Fein say they are the party of equality yet every big decision they have taken in the past year has been built on inequality like denying nationalism a seat at the Executive table.

But that is not the point today.

The point is we need to take a decision in principle to bring these powers to Northern Ireland. It is another small step on the road to real politics here. I’ll be joining my SDLP colleagues to vote yes to that but we will return to the detail in the weeks ahead and argue that the government of policing and justice could be much better.

Not to mention the lack of progress on education, health, a shared future or parades.