Also: Senior Plaid AM refuses to rule out Conservative pact; Villiers pressed for historical investigations cash; Labour try to pressure SNP with tax pledge; Welsh UKIP in turmoil; and more.
Also: Jones engulfed by transparency row; SDLP face leadership challenge; Carmichael faces election court; and UKIP brace for Welsh success.
The province’s institutions are in critical condition because sharing power has totally failed to forge a sense of common purpose between unionists and nationalists.
The general election saw nationalism fall back as unionism recaptured two seats and fall just short of decapitating the SDLP in Belfast.
The need to fight separately in the campaign has not hardened Tory hearts against a second coalition with Nick Clegg’s party.
Also: Calls for referendum as NI Assembly votes down gay marriage by two votes; and Jones and Davidson join the debate on EVEL.
Ed Miliband’s party is only the sixth least popular choice as a potential Conservative coalition partner. Read all about it.
Also: Alliance attacks unionist pact and bids for pro-Union voters; rocky start for Plaid Cymru’s campaign; and Northern Ireland awaits judgement in ‘gay cake’ case.
Hard-line cultural unionists have done as much as anyone to box Northern Ireland out of normal British politics. Let this be a wake up call.
Also: the tests facing the new SF speaker; green/nationalist anti-nuclear coalition prepares for 2015; and SNP MSP spies a conspiracy against Holyrood.
Also: NI Justice Minister denies handing Republican prisoners control of prison wing; and Welsh Assembly mulls 18 per cent pay rise.
Also: Stormont flirts with disaster over budget deadlock; ‘Help to Buy’ sees Scotland run out of bricks; and BBC staff plan Commonwealth Games strike.
Also: DUP veto gay marriage a third time; ex-IRA man accuses Adams of giving him orders; and Scottish teachers sack general secretary after three weeks.
Also: Labour MSP calls for defence to be ‘out of the hands of nation states’; and PUP leader defends terrorist past.
Six months on from the general election, a candidate in next year’s Assembly elections reports what he learned about campaigning in Ulster.