DUP JUNIOR Minister Jeffrey Donaldson and Sinn Féin MP Pat Doherty clashed on the fringe of the British Labour party conference yesterday over a continuing block on meetings of the Stormont Executive and the failure to agree a timetable for the devolution of policing and justice powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Mr Donaldson repeated an earlier suggestion that the DUP might seek a judgment, possibly by the International Monitoring Commission (IMC), on whether Sinn Féin Ministers are in breach of their legal obligations.
Mr Doherty countered that the IMC had been "a nonsense from day one", while charging that the core of the problem at Stormont lay with the DUP's opposition to compulsory powersharing and hesitation on the part of the party's new leader, First Minister Peter Robinson.
The two men were addressing a traditional "Ulster Fry" breakfast event. A large audience including Irish Ambassador David Cooney and Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward heard Mr Donaldson criticise prime minister Gordon Brown's address to the Assembly last week, during which he said a date should be set for the completion of devolution.
Mr Donaldson noted that Mr Woodward had redressed the "balance" in his conference speech on Sunday by also telling Sinn Féin that the Executive needed to meet and had business to transact. Describing Mr Brown's approach as "unbalanced", however, Mr Donaldson ventured he thought "this was not a mistake Tony Blair would have made".
Following this and Mr Doherty's unflattering comparison of the roles played by Mr Robinson and his predecessor, event chairman Gary Gibbon drew laughter with a summary suggesting that the DUP now hankered for the return of Mr Blair, while Sinn Féin wanted to see Rev Ian Paisley back.
That moment of light relief apart, many present thought both men's performance "depressing" and the event suffered from the absence of the advertised speakers Mr Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.
SDLP deputy leader Alasdair McDonnell hosted a packed "fortieth anniversary" event on "civil rights in the 21st century". Speakers included Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, Gerry Conlon, of the Guilford Four, and SDLP leader Mark Durkan.