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Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

We would love to take great comfort in the journey that these three clauses have made from being necessary as a contingency to being utterly redundant in a matter of weeks. If they had made that journey by going past the certainty of a restoration date and a known future election date for the Assembly, we could have taken such comfort, but, in the absence of such certainty, we cannot. As the hon. Member for Belfast, North (Mr. Dodds) has said, it seems that the Government are busking on this issue and hoping that whatever happens catches the eye of somebody who passes by.