Assembly deadlocked - Agreement helps sustain divisions

AT lunchtime yesterday, Sinn Féin announced that talks to save the North’s power-sharing Assembly have ended and the basis for a deal now exists.

At the time of writing, despite more than two weeks of high drama and top-level massaging, it was uncertain if this conclusion might be shared by the Democratic Unionist Party, the other half of the two-party ding dong that has dominated politics in the North since the Belfast Agreement was signed 12 years ago.

The protagonists are – were, hopefully – deadlocked on transferring policing and justice powers from Westminster to Stormont and on parades.