Paisley puts political power before his church’s shrinking pew of bigots

PROOF that something is rotten in the state of the North came at the weekend with the resignation of Ian Paisley as moderator of his own Free Presbyterian Church.

The First Minister and Deputy First Minister might be getting on so well that they have been nicknamed The Chuckle Brothers, but not everyone is smiling, let alone gurgling with laughter, about the DUP-Sinn Féin coalition.

Does it matter? Surely the two governments must have got something right if the Free Ps are offside? Or does it reveal deeper unease within the unionist population, mirrored by republican “dissidents”, about standards of integrity in public life? And how capable are the naysayers of undermining the Paisleyites just as they, in turn, undermined David Trimble?