Stories You Seldom Read

I haven't posted anything today - most of the day I've been away at the hospital being tortured by the physiotherapists. But when I came back and read the undernoted story on the Scotsman web-site I began to wonder whether it was my head that needed attention rather than my heart. I've checked - today is NOT 1st April. Ian Paisley is Sinn Fein's choice for top assembly job DAN McGINN SINN Fein will attempt to have the Rev Ian Paisley nominated as Northern Ireland's first minister when the province's assembly is reconvened next week, Gerry Adams said yesterday. As Stormont's 108 Assembly Members prepared to gather next Monday for the first time since they were elected in November 2003, Sinn Fein's leader said his party was focused on trying to get the power-sharing institutions under the Good Friday Agreement set up. The West Belfast MP told his party's assembly team at Stormont that the assembly proposed by the government was an inferior model to the one which had previously operated. He also dubbed it the Peter Hain Assembly, a reference to the Northern Ireland Secretary. Mr Adams said: "After a thorough discussion we have agreed very strict guidelines and conditions for our party's participation in the Peter Hain Assembly. "Consequently, our focus will be on the restoration of the institutions. So, I intend to nominate the Rev Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness for the position of first and deputy first ministers."