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Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

Look how quickly the Minister is willing to blame his colleagues as he seeks to protect himself. There will be no hiding place if the Assembly is re-established. I respectfully point out once again that there is a powerful incentive for Northern Ireland politicians to regard this Bill, which will soon be enacted, and other legislation, as an opportunity to provide a firewall between the legislation that the Government will impose through Statutory Instrument Committees and the alternative legislation that Northern Ireland politicians are collectively likely to introduce in the Assembly. As the Bill passes into law, I hope that the DUP and others find it easier to work together, even with those parties that they still distrust and unquestionably dislike, because it is surely in the greater interests of the citizens whom they represent for those differences to be managed and Northern Ireland politics to be established on a devolutionary footing, which I hope and believe that we all want to see.