Welfare reform and the political crisis in Northern Ireland.

If the public thought the Northern Ireland political institutions were failing to meet their expectations before, then the recent shenanigans can only have confirmed this view.

The response by the Deputy Leader of the DUP to the murder of Kevin McGuigan in mid August was that ‘it can’t be business as usual’ in the governing of Northern Ireland until the question of whether the Provisional IRA was involved – and by some form of implication, Sinn Fein – has been sorted out.