The future of the Community Relations Council has been up for debate between the Stormont parties as part of their much delayed Cohesion, Sharing and Integration talks.

Although the final shape of that strategy has yet to be determined it seems unlikely that the Community Relations Council will hold on to both its current roles as a distributor of grants to community groups and a watchdog keeping an eye on the Executive.

The council was created as an independent charity 22 years ago, in the days of direct rule, with the aim of "promoting a peaceful and fair society based on reconciliation and mutual trust."

It has a dual purpose - administering millions of pounds in grants to community groups tackling division on the ground, and serving as a watchdog commenting on how successive administrations performed when it came to building a shared future.

However the council's relations with the two biggest Stormont parties have sometimes been fractious.

When the Executive's draft strategy on Cohesion, Sharing and Integration emerged two years ago it was criticised by those who believed it enshrined a "carve up culture".

Sinn Fein's Martina Anderson responded angrily back in 2010 by referring to what she called a raft of "unelected, unnecessary and ineffective" good relations quangos, adding that in the context of an agreed Cohesion Sharing and Integration strategy "many of these quangos could be redundant and should be abolished".

The DUP has been less outspoken, but late last month I asked the First Minister if the council would continue its current role.

Peter Robinson didn't provide any guarantees, telling me "I think we must always look and see if there are better ways of doing things and we mustn't get tied to any particular organisation that has been there and has done a good job while it has been in existence."

Earlier this week the Alliance leader David Ford clashed with both the DUP and Sinn Fein over which party was serious about community relations.

One of the "minimum requirements" Mr Ford set out for a new Cohesion Sharing and Integration policy was what he called "an independent delivery system for community relations, with enough clout to challenge government when it isn't doing enough."

He elaborated on this, telling me that "it's absolutely clear that we need an independent voice dealing with community relations matters and in particular holding the government to account when it's failing to deliver. The Executive is currently failing to deliver, that's why we need an independent body with teeth."

What's under debate is not the outright abolition of the council, but a division between its grant giving and watchdog roles. In fact much of the Community Relations Council's grant activity has now been taken over by the new Stormont Victims Support Service, whilst others grants have been lost because European peace money is running out.

The Irish News columnist Brian Feeney is no friend of the council - he sees it as "a bit of window dressing by the Northern Ireland Office" which didn't seriously address divisions here.

However he warns the Stormont politicians they if they establish a new body to give out cash to community groups, they will have to be careful that's it's seen to be independent rather than being run by a political party or one government department.

"There have been all sorts of criticisms about an alleged slush fund that Sinn Fein and the DUP are administering through the OFMDFM, but there has to be some sort of organisation to hand out those grants.

"In some places in Britain that have problems of the streets it's local councils that give out grants and maybe there's a point in doing that here that you give money to councils and they hand it out rather than having some grandly named Community Relations Council."

The Community Relations Council chair Tony McCusker expressed some frustration earlier this week over the delay in the politicians producing an agreed strategy.

He makes the point that his council was set up as an independent charity and says they would be concerned if the plan is to turn them into an advisory body appointed by Executive ministers.

"I think our preference would be that the CRCF would remain as an independent body" he told me "but be invited to advise and to challenge the Executive and local society about how community relations issues are being taken forward."

So how does Mr McCusker respond to criticism of his organisation as an unnecessary quango and a part of the community relations industry, whose job would be better performed by local councils?

"There's an issue of 11 or 26 bodies doing it rather than just one" Mr McCusker says "I think the other issue is whether community relations becomes subject to political oversight and political dogfights either within the Executive or at a local level. The advantage of the Community Relations Council is it has its independence and can sit outside the political demands of the parties at both levels."

One compromise might be to remove the council's grant giving role, but hand it over neither to the district councils nor to the First and Deputy First Ministers' Office, but instead to a small number of regional administrative bodies.

However whether any such compromise can be agreed will depend on the Cohesion Sharing and Integration talks making the kind of progress they have so far failed to deliver.

The speed with which the junior minister performed his U-turn reflected the embarrassment of the DUP over remarks which picked out golf just weeks ahead of the prestigious Irish Open.

Sinn Fein's Martina Anderson hasn't followed suit as yet - a party spokesperson told the BBC's Nolan show that "people shouldn't lose sight" of what the junior ministers were saying.

"They were highlighting the fact that sectarianism exists throughout society in the north," the spokesperson said.

"For too long the finger has been pointed at working class communities and especially, at times, those who live in interface areas.

"This is a debate that we all need to have in order to deal with and overcome sectarianism."

I'm not a golfing enthusiast - the high point of my career to date is once winning a golden coin on the final hole at the Dundonald crazy golf. Yet pinpointing this sport at this particular time appeared strange.

I'm not aware of our children being divided into schools that only offer golf, as opposed to schools that only offer table tennis. However as any parent knows we do have predominantly rugby-playing schools, soccer-playing schools and gaelic-playing schools all of which may have developed their traditions for perfectly valid reasons, but which may have the undesirable side effect of separating our youngsters along either class or religious lines.

On which theme, it seems only fair that having highlighted the ministers' controversial comments at Monday's community relations conference, I should put on record the contribution made by Short Strand community worker Paul McCrory.

Mr McCrory won a prize for his efforts to ease tensions on the east Belfast interface, work which he carried out just a week after donating a kidney to his young son.

According to the Belfast Mayor Niall Ó Donnghaile, Paul is known locally as "Coocher".

In his acceptance speech Mr McCrory argued forcefully that "we are not going to move forward until we get our children into the same classroom, I don't care what anyone else says".

"The biggest jigsaw in our society is teaching people to live together, and the question I continuously ask is 'How can we hate someone, that we don't know?'", he said.

"We don't know each other. We need to start building a society where we go to school together, we work together and we live together."

Whilst this is a noble aspiration, the Executive parties remain deadlocked about producing a final community relations strategy which it's hoped might chart a way forward.

Indeed Alliance has been drawn into a war of words with the DUP and Sinn Fein over which party is serious about the process and who is responsible for the document's delay.

It's five years since the work on a strategy to replace the direct rule "Shared Future" policy began and two years since the Executive published a much maligned draft.

In his speech to the Community Relations conference David Ford listed Alliance's "minimum requirements" including a "legal acknowledgement that all space is shared space with, no compromise on territorialisation, including a strong protocol on flags" "a landmark Review of Equality and Sharing in public housing" "serious investment in integration in teaching, including shared education and teacher training" and "an independent delivery system for community relations, with enough clout to challenge government when it isn't doing enough."

That last point is a reference to the debate about the future role of the Community Relations Council, which I hope to report more on later this week.

Finally I can reveal that not only are our politicians unable to agree a strategy, they are even having difficulty coming up with a title for the policy.

During a previous consultation the "Cohesion, Sharing and Integration" label was criticised as unwieldy.

Now a long list of possible new titles is being mulled over, and here it is:

Do any of those take your fancy? If not, in the light of recent events, I have a couple of ideas of my own.

How about "Out of the Bunker of Prejudice",

"Reducing Our Collective Handicap",

"Chipping Away (At Bigotry)" or

"Towards An Open Society"?

All other suggestions gratefully accepted.

But if Indiana Jones devoted a lucrative blockbuster to the trail of the lost Ark of the Biblical Covenant, then I now find myself, rather less spectacularly, on the hunt for the lost page of the Ulster Covenant.

Since Thursday's report a few leads have emerged. The first page of the Covenant has variously been stolen by the UVF, lost in a fire in a snooker hall, blown up in an explosion at Belfast City Hall, or on the wall of an Orange Hall in County Tyrone. We are still trying to confirm that last report.

I've also been reminded of past thefts from the Public Record Office, although I should point out that in their statement, the Record Office insist they never had the missing document.

I am discounting one claim that the missing page is hidden underneath Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but am keen to make a small diversion by exploring the history of the ink well into which Carson dipped his pen. Feel free to keep the clues coming as I continue my quest for the missing ten signatures.

The two biggest parties have tended to resolve their differences in private, and the replacement of Mary McArdle in March had appeared to take some of the sting out of the issue.

The new appointments procedure recommended to the finance minister back in October didn't ban anyone with a criminal conviction from being appointed as a special adviser.

Instead it introduced security vetting by the agency Access NI into the system.

In the case of ordinary civil servants the default is to "generally reject" candidates with "convictions demonstrating a propensity to violent, destructive or abusive behaviour".

But as the October paper sets out, there's an appeal process which can be triggered under which an independent panel can consider criteria such as "an expression of remorse/regret" or "the absence of a pattern of repeat offending".

In the case of the new culture adviser, Jarlath Kearney, this appears to be entirely academic as - to the best of my knowledge - Mr Kearney has no convictions which would pose any vetting problem.

However it seems that Sinn Fein is unwilling to set a precedent, in case the new procedures prevent them from making any future appointments of former IRA prisoners.

Mary McArdle isn't the only adviser with a pre-ceasefire past.

Leo Green, an IRA hunger striker convicted for the murder of a police officer, advised Bairbre De Bruin when she was Health Minister, whilst Paul Kavanagh, husband of junior minister Martina Anderson, remains an adviser in the deputy first minister's office.

Anyone who heard my documentary in March on the life and times of the former bomb disposal officer Peter Gurney, will have heard his emotional account of picking up fragments of his best friend Ken Howorth's cardigan after Mr Howorth was killed trying to defuse an IRA bomb in the basement of a fast food restaurant in London's Oxford Street.

Paul Kavanagh was convicted for his part in Ken Howorth's murder as well as other IRA attacks such as the Chelsea barracks' nail bombing which claimed the lives of two civilians.

As David Trimble once said, just because someone has a past doesn't mean they can't have a future, and Sinn Fein aren't likely to agree to a regime in which ministers who are themselves former IRA prisoners cannot employ anyone with a similar conviction as their adviser.

A Sinn Fein source's revelation that some of Peter Robinson's DUP special advisers recently received a big salary increase which their Sinn Fein counterparts didn't get points to significant tension between the "big two" over this issue.

They'll need all the "special advice" they can get to chart a way forward, especially as the TUV leader Jim Allister promises to hold the DUP's feet to the fire by pushing forward with his private member's bill banning those with serious criminal convictions from becoming ministerial aides.

P.S. If you didn't hear yesterday's "Inside Politics" you can catch it on the BBC iPlayer here.

Amnesty's Patrick Corrigan shared his fears about the limitations of the executive's inquiry into historic child abuse in state and religious care homes, which he expects will start work next month, and we had a discussion between local Conservative and Labour members on the likely impact of last Thursday's local elections in England, Scotland and Wales on the stability of the Westminster coalition.

Influential figures from past negotiations, such as Martin Mansergh and Séan OhUiginn, wandered by.

But the gathering was also notable for those who weren't there - no David Trimble, no Seamus Mallon, no former British Labour ministers and no Bertie Ahern. (I wonder why?)

Delegates from places like Moldova and Kazakhstan, Egypt and Israel sat around the table, whilst simultaneous translators worked hard to interpret the peace process jargon.

Hillary Clinton appeared via a video message, paying particular tribute to the role of women as mediators during the troubles.

Peter Robinson told delegates it could be harder persuading your own side to take a step forward than brokering an agreement with your enemies.

Like a staged "noise off" Jim Allister (predictably not on the invitation list) declared there was nothing to celebrate in the Northern Ireland negotiations unless the "perversion of justice and democracy is your stock and trade (sic)".

Martin McGuinness took a crack at David Trimble for squandering the goodwill generated by the Good Friday Agreement (although he didn't add that the IRA's reluctance to destroy its guns made things tough for the former first minister).

He also claimed that a key minister in the current UK cabinet had opposed talking to Sinn Fein when John Major was prime minister (he didn't name him but you didn't need to engage in any secret contacts to work out he was talking about Kenneth Clarke).

Besides listening all the places visited by Stormont politicians, Mr McGuinness acknowledged the places which haven't taken the Northern Ireland example on board.

He expressed great disappointment that his visit to Sri Lanka hadn't assisted the Tamil Tigers and the government there to broker a Northern Ireland-style deal.

Instead the Sri Lankan army tried to finish the conflict there by force, leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of Tamils and the continued displacement of tens of thousands more in holding camps.

After the formal opening speeches, the press left the hall, so I can't give you a blow by blow account of what points the various foreign delegations raised (although one source suggested the Moldovans wanted to know how you could ensure the media toe the line!)

A line in Mr McGuinness's speech about the need for "making new compromises" led to more intense speculation that the deputy first minister will meet the Queen if she visits Northern Ireland during her Diamond Jubilee year (frankly it would be more of a surprise if he didn't after his very public pondering of the matter).

Meanwhile Peter Robinson said the development of the "Maze/Long Kesh prison site" peace building centre would send out a powerful signal to the rest of the world that Northern Ireland has moved beyond conflict.

Remember when a unionist would never say "Long Kesh"?

I'm not sure if the foreign delegates were aware, but on the radio a mother was talking about taking her son to an agreed place at an agreed time to have him shot in the legs.

Mr McGuinness said those responsible were oppressing the people of Derry and belonged in jail.

The coincidence of the diplomatic niceties in opulent surroundings in Dublin and the continuing barbarity in a back alley in Londonderry served to emphasise that whilst there's much to take pride in, ending violence in Northern Ireland remains a work in progress, one which may never reach a perfect conclusion.

Mr Robinson was reflecting on his recent joint trip with Martin McGuinness to India and Dubai.

He recalled meetings with travel journalists and declared he had found a "massive interest" in Northern Ireland as a destination, highlighting the buzz created by our local golfing prowess.

All well and good. Despite the critics who regarded the plethora of coverage of the Titanic centenary as in bad taste, up at Stormont ministers are proud of the £90m Titanic centre and believe they have handled what is undoubtedly an important tourism "brand" in an appropriate way.

So what are the "brands" which Northern Ireland can rely on to touch a chord with people far beyond these shores?

There is no doubt the Titanic is right up there, even if the level of attention might not be so intense as the centenary recedes.

The Giant's Causeway is our only world heritage site, now on track to be complemented by its new visitor centre.

When the Troubles were at their height, even the most cautious suggestion they might be exploited for tourism stirred huge controversy.

But although there's been no agreement on a "Troubles museum" (something which has been discussed for many a long year), there is no doubt, when you take a black taxi or open-top bus tour around Belfast, or trip over yet another delegation from another conflict zone visiting Stormont, that "Troubles tourism" is a part of the local offering.

What else might stir foreign interest? Golf, certainly, and maybe some of our literary or cultural heroes, say Van Morrison, CS Lewis and Seamus Heaney.

There's "the Twelfth" - undoubtedly a spectacle, although marketing it as "Orangefest" poses its own particular challenges.

I am sure I have missed out some key local brand, and I am more than happy to take on board any other suggestions.

But last on my list is St Patrick.

King Billy may have tens of thousands of people marching close to home, but St Patrick prompts more than six million people to take to the streets all around the world.

Whatever you think of the excesses of the 17 March international green beer extravaganzas, there is no doubt that St Patrick has the instant recognition factor.

Which is why it is so sad that the Downpatrick St Patrick's Centre is experiencing such difficulties.

Set beside the multi-million pound budget of the Titanic centre, the tens of thousands being sliced off the centre's budget by Down District Council seems minuscule.

Anyone who has looked at the Downpatrick newspapers in recent months knows the centre's funding has been a long-running saga.

There is more than a suspicion that it has been treated as a political football between the local SDLP and Sinn Fein groups.

If so, that would be a shame as, like Titanic, the St Patrick brand should really be cultivated centrally rather than left to councils like Down and Armagh to stake out their different claims.

Back in October, South Down MP Margaret Ritchie published a plan for maximising the impact of St Patrick on tourism.

She argued that, having been Ireland's greatest import, the saint should now be a great export as "a premier Christian heritage tourism product throughout the world".

Maybe what St Patrick needs is a good commemoration.

Ms Ritchie says he started his work in Ireland in 432 AD. So we have only 20 years left to finalise the 1,600th anniversary celebrations.

That should be long enough even for Stormont officials to work out how to foster this unique saintly selling proposition.

But even before m'learned friends don their wigs, Mr Larkin's decision to invoke a rare aspect of the contempt legislation has been earning him some enemies both at Westminster and Stormont.

Usually contempt of court proceedings are brought because someone is accused of "an act or omission calculated to interfere with the administration of justice".

Classically a journalist like me could be in the firing line if I broke the rules on what can be reported at an early stage of a criminal proceeding and thereby made it impossible for a defendant to receive a fair trial.

But in this case Mr Larkin has relied on a little used interpretation of contempt as "scandalising the court", by denigrating a judge.

What sparked the case was a section in Peter Hain's autobiography "Outside In", in which the former secretary of state hit out at Mr Justice Girvan for ruling against him in a judicial review over his appointment of interim Victim's Commissioner Bertha McDougall.

Without repeating Mr Hain's comments - which a libel lawyer might study with considerable interest - it's fair to say they constituted a pretty outspoken attack on the judge's handling of the case.

However during Prime Minister's questions on Wednesday, both the Prime Minister David Cameron and the former Home Secretary David Blunkett sympathised with Mr Hain, expressing the view that this was a question of freedom of speech which should generally be kept out of the courts.

Now more than 120 MPs have signed an early day motion backing Mr Hain which was drawn up by another former Home Secretary David Davis.

Perhaps more ominously for Mr Larkin, the political furore has not been confined to London.

Interviewed for "Hearts and Minds" on Thursday, the Justice Minister David Ford appeared reluctant to comment.

But his executive colleague, Finance Minister Sammy Wilson, felt no such constraint, telling the BBC's Gareth Gordon, that he believed if Peter Hain's comments were libellous then it should have been for Judge Girvan to pursue the former Secretary of State for defamation using private money and a private libel lawyer, rather than for the attorney general to take on the case at the public expense.

Given that Mr Wilson's party leader Peter Robinson, working jointly with Martin McGuinness, appointed Mr Larkin as attorney general this is a fairly extraordinary turn of events.

Mr Larkin was appointed in 2010 for a four year term, and is the executive's chief legal adviser.

Mr Wilson is the minister in charge of the departmental solicitor's office which aims to provide "high quality, cost effective legal services" to Stormont officials.

So who will be the judge when these two separate legal arms of the devolved government take a different view of a contentious matter?

That convention has got various politicians thrown out of their chambers, and the development of clever circumlocutions such as referring to someone else's "terminological inexactitudes".

But how about other, more general insults, such as labelling an opponent a "village idiot"?

Health Minister Edwin Poots used the term to describe comments made by Alliance's Kieran McCarthy during a debate on the provision of accident and emergency Services last month.

Other MLAs - notably the SDLP's Alban Maginness - complained about the term, but the minister declined the opportunity to withdraw his comment when interviewed on BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback programme.

The Speaker Willie Hay reviewed the matter over the Easter recess and on Tuesday afternoon ruled that the term "village idiot" broke the Stormont rules.

He ordered Minister Poots to apologise to Mr McCarthy at a meeting in his office. The minister agreed but Mr McCarthy refused to attend.

Mr McCarthy's point is that the insult was delivered in the assembly chamber, so the apology should also be delivered in public.

The speaker - sounding a bit exasperated - has ruled the matter closed, so it looks like Mr McCarthy won't get the apology he wants.

An outsider might say the MLAs all need to calm down. In which case there was no better man on hand in Stormont than the supremely relaxed Vietnamese Zen master of Mindfulness, 85-year-old Thich Nhat Hanh.

Accompanied by around 300 followers, including brown-robed Buddhist monks, the Zen master strolled at a leisurely pace down the Stormont steps and past Carson's statue, a somewhat bizarre contrast in styles.

During a meeting in the Senate chamber, the Zen master, known as Thay or Tie to his followers, talked about the need for calm reflection to soothe the nerves, and how compassionate listening can assist peace negotiations.

MLAs gave him a respectful audience - indeed the Sinn Fein junior minister Martina Anderson appeared so enthusiastic that when she bowed to the Zen master I thought she was another acolyte.

Amongst those present was the Victims Commissioner Brendan McAllister, who told me he has found many of the Master's teachings relevant to his work resolving conflicts here.

I'm not a natural adherent of meditation and listening to prayer bells, but given Mr McAllister's long track record of successful mediation, I'm not going to scoff.

But if the experience was meant to spread calm all around ("Cooling the Flames" according to the Zen Master's leaflets), then it failed to work for me personally.

When we brought our TV pictures of the Zen Master back into the Stormont office, the computer said no.

The digital camera card was corrupted and so far no amount of deep breathing or imagining myself "as blooming as a flower", "as fresh as dew" or "as solid as a mountain" has brought my video back.

Zen master, your visit to Stormont raised my stress levels.

I intend to engage in a prolonged period of breathing in and breathing out. Perhaps Edwin Poots, Kieran McCarthy, Willie Hay and all the others exercised by the "village idiot" saga would care to join me.

Over the last 20 years, Northern Ireland has played host to presidents and prime ministers.

We have been spoilt in many ways with world leaders coming here regularly to see how political life has changed.

It is then perhaps understandable if people get a little blasé about the latest arrival of a foreign politician.

However, there are high hopes at Stormont that Liu Yandong's trip will be different and our executive ministers want this visit to be more than just handshakes and photo opportunities.

One of the highest ranking politicians in China's Communist party, she is a member of the Politburo and is poised to become one of the most powerful figures in Chinese politics.

Her arrival has been regarded in political and business circles as a "coup".

She is seen by some observers as a reformer and appears to be in favour of increasing China's contacts with the outside world.

This could help Northern Ireland and may dovetail nicely with attempts by the Executive to forge closer trade relations with China.

Dr Vicky Kell, from Invest NI, said she hoped the visit would create business for Northern Ireland.

A number of local firms already trade with China and many feel closer political ties could help to bring jobs here.

This autumn, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness hope to travel to Beijing - and they will use this visit to discuss their own trip.

Liu Yandong's visit will also have an educational focus and she will spend some time with students and lecturers and talk about educational links between China and Northern Ireland.

She is the latest Chinese politician to arrive on the island of Ireland and her trip underlines how Chinese relations with the UK and Ireland have changed.

In February, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping came on a three-day visit to the Republic with a 150-strong Chinese delegation of business leaders and government officials.

With Irish trade with China worth an estimated 8bn euros a year it was understandable that officials in Dublin were keen to welcome the Chinese vice president.

It is also easy to see why politicians at Stormont want a slice of that economic action.

However, there are words of caution and hopes in some quarters that the economy will not be the only subject of conversation.

Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International's Northern Ireland programme director, wants local politicians to use this latest visit to highlight China's record on human rights.

He said: "China's human rights record is atrocious. It is the world's number one executioner.

"A minimum of 190,000 people are in 'administrative detention', many of them in forced labour camps.

"This is a matter of values. We must not trade away human rights concerns."

North Antrim MLA Jim Allister also added his concerns.

He said: "China has an abysmal record of human rights abuse, both against dissenting political activists and those wishing to exercise religious freedom."

Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness have high hopes for the visit - it will require diplomatic skills.

They are being urged to use the next 48 hours to talk trade but also talk tough.

You can follow Stephen on Twitter at StepWalkTV

Traditionally Sinn Féin dominates the political headlines at Easter.

It is a moment to mark the events of 1916, discuss how life has changed across the island of Ireland and it is an opportunity for senior republicans to map out where they think politics needs to go.

For those tasked with drafting the Sinn Féin Easter message, it has become a tried and tested formula in speech writing.

They are often polemical and historical and with an eye on the news bulletins, each address is naturally sprinkled with soundbites.

At this time of the year the political news agenda is quiet with Stormont, the Dail and the House of Commons in recess so Sinn Féin politicians find it easier to make headlines.

This year, the party sent out advance notices of major speeches being given by party president Gerry Adams, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, Donegal TD Pearse Doherty and national chairperson Declan Kearney.

There is a common theme to each address and although the words are slightly different the sentiments are the same.

Essentially each Sinn Féin platform speaker was saying that if republicans want a united Ireland they must win the argument politically and that means convincing sceptical unionists by engaging with them in a thoughtful constructive manner.

Declan Kearney expanded on this thesis by calling for greater dialogue and engagement with the wider unionist community.

He acknowledged the practical difficulties and said that "presents a huge challenge for us".

"Unionists continue to harbour suspicions about republicans".

Addressing the past 40 years he said: "Unionists have been hurt by the war and so too have republicans.

"We need to keep moving the peace process into new phases ".

It was a theme picked up at an event in north Belfast by the Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly who said his party wanted a united Ireland that "unionists feel welcome in".

So has this fresh overture to unionists worked?

Well, first accounts would suggest that the cynicism and the questions that existed before Easter still remain.

The Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson took to the BBC Radio Ulster airwaves and said he would judge republicans by their actions rather than by their words.

The DUP MP told the Stephen Nolan show that when it came to investigating the past, republicans were not cooperating in the way they should.

He claimed that as an example Sinn Féin and the IRA could do more to assist the Smithwick Tribunal in Dublin which is investigating Garda collusion with the IRA.

He said if republicans were serious "they must step up to the mark".

Building trust and understanding your political rival's intentions naturally takes time and it is clear other unionists are wary about Sinn Fein's motives.

Jim Allister, the TUV MLA, is unconvinced by what he heard at the weekend.

He said: "It is clear that when Sinn Fein talks about 'reconciliation' they mean nothing less than their age old bloodstained ambition of the unification of Ireland, something already democratically rejected by the greater number of people in Northern Ireland."

Ulster Unionist Basil McCrea says the "jury is still out" on whether Sinn Fein's hand of friendship is genuine.

He had previously taken up an offer from the party to speak at one of their conferences.

Whilst he said he was received well at that event he said once it had happened there "wasn't much engagement afterwards".

He thinks the various Sinn Féin Easter messages were also aimed at another audience.

He told me Sinn Féin is "most worried about the dissidents" and said the Easter statements were aimed at the "wider republican community to keep them onside".

Basil McCrea says unionists need more information on exactly what Sinn Féin mean.

The UUP MLA wants "clarification" - now where have we heard that word before?

You can follow Stephen on Twitter at StepWalkTV

Mike Nesbitt walked down the steps, past the statue of Lord Craigavon and into the Great Hall at Stormont to announce his first reshuffle as party leader.

He looked relaxed and was dressed casually without a tie.

Unlike his leadership launch last month, this time he was not flanked by supporting MLAs.

The former journalist admitted that he isn't keen on press conferences where politicians are surrounded by supportive colleagues.

He told us he has never liked that idea and said it was "quite distracting".

So standing alone before the cameras he went through the changes to the UUP assembly team. To the listening journalists there was a sense of anti-climax.

Danny Kennedy would remain as the party's sole minister for the time being.

He would be replaced at a convenient time and Mike Nesbitt confirmed that close to the next assembly poll he would sit at the executive table.

This was not news since he had already told viewers of the BBC Sunday Politics programme the same thing.

The new UUP leader would not say when Danny Kennedy would stand down but it is thought that he will go some time next year.

It is possible that Mr Kennedy's immediate replacement could be another Danny.

The South Antrim MLA Danny Kinahan got a new job in the Nesbitt reshuffle. He is to become vice chair of the education committee, a role Mr Nesbitt had before he became leader.

Mr Kinahan's move will be seen as a reward for his support during the leadership campaign.

A ministerial aide to Mr Kennedy - he surprised many by backing the former broadcaster rather than his boss.

Mr Kinahan offered his resignation to Mr Kennedy but the minister refused.

Bearing in mind his work with Mr Kennedy, and his understanding of the Department of Regional Development, Mr Kinahan is well positioned to replace Mr Kennedy when Mr Nesbitt decides the time is right for a change.

Loyalty was rewarded in other ways in this reshuffle.

Last week North Antrim MLA Robin Swann declared for Mr Nesbitt.

Mr Swann did not attend Mr Nesbitt's leadership launch but backed the former victims commissioner, saying he was the best candidate.

Mr Nesbitt made him chief whip and he replaces John McCallister who Nesbitt handsomely beat in the leadership race.

Mr McCallister remains as deputy leader of the assembly party and has been given extra responsibilities. He will lead a commission examining constitutional issues, focussing on the union and looking at the next phase for the devolved administration.

Basil McCrea, a keen supporter of John McCallister and a former leadership candidate in 2010, remains in place.

He stays as chairman of the employment and learning committee, a post that will disappear when the department is scrapped.

Like his predecessor Tom Elliott, Mr Nesbitt will be chair of the OFMDFM committee which scrutinises the role of Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness.

In all this was a cautious reshuffle by Mr Nesbitt - one that will not grab headlines but will give a number of MLAs an opportunity to get new experiences.

Despite newspaper speculation there was no promotion for Jo-Anne Dobson, the MLA for Upper Bann.

Tipped by the Belfast Telegraph to be the next deputy leader at Stormont she was not part of this reshuffle.

The UUP leader told reporters that she was as surprised by the speculation as he was.

Asked why no women were part of his reshuffle, Mr Nesbitt said both Jo-Anne Dobson and the other female UUP MLA Sandra Overend were happy in their current roles and asked to remain as party spokespersons on agriculture and the economy respectively.

Mr Nesbitt is conscious that, if he wants his party to attract more women voters, the UUP needs to be seen as female friendly and clearly he has an eye on promoting Ms Overend and Ms Dobson in future reshuffles.

He said the issue of female involvement in the party and recruiting more women was "certainly on my radar".

With that Mr Nesbitt's press conference was over and he exited the Great Hall - one wag on Twitter said it was more a "toe tap rather than a reshuffle" But that was not the end of the action.

Rather like a Shakespearean play, as the new leader departed, one of the old guard arrived.

Enter stage right David McNarry, Mr Nesbitt's Strangford running mate who has been expelled from the party for nine months.

The veteran MLA has questions of his own for the new UUP chief. He says his primary focus is to clear his name.

Close to the spot where Mr Nesbitt had unveiled his new team Mr McNarry spoke to reporters.

He said that the Ulster Unionist Party has a lot to do and "it didn't take Mike Nesbitt to come in and tell us that".

He described the new UUP leader as "someone in a hurry".

However, he did wish his former colleagues in the party well. He also wished good luck to those included in the new leader's first reshuffle. He added that "they will need it ".

Despite their differences that is something that David McNarry and Mike Nesbitt will probably agree on.

The Ulster Unionists knew they were buying a media personality, but did they know they were getting a trainee impressionist?

It seems to me that in this doorstep by the lifts in the Ramada Hotel in south Belfast, Mike decided to attempt an impromptu impersonation of veteran broadcaster Eamonn Mallie.

So did Mike get Eamonn off to a tee? Judge for yourself.

No such luck, though, on Radio Foyle where I was cornered into giving a view that, whilst he's fought a strong campaign and proved beyond doubt what a safe pair of hands he has, John McCallister won't be able to overhaul Mike Nesbitt.

Radio Foyle duly promised to play me back my own words in the event of a McCallister victory.

Such a prediction doesn't seem too risky, in line as it is with Friday's Belfast Telegraph survey.

However, I have previous experience when it comes to calling UUP contests wrong.

When the party picked Jim Molyneaux's successor, Radio Five Live demanded a prediction and I opted for John Taylor.

In the light of the former Strangford MP's comments to Gareth Gordon I wondered whether history would have taken a different course if he had beaten David Trimble.

Would the UUP have touched the Good Friday Agreement with it's "40 foot bargepole?"

Would Jeffrey Donaldson and Arlene Foster have remained within the ranks? Was the rise of the DUP inevitable?

Of course it is just a parlour game now, but my predictions for Radio Foyle could turn out to be just as counterfactual in the end.

Stormont still has nothing like as many as Westminster, but at the latest count there are 22 all-party groups.

Many are concerned with medical matters, one on sport (rugby to be precise) and another on funerals and bereavements, which, under the heading of forthcoming meetings, notes (accurately in all our individual cases) "to be arranged".

The oldest all-party group, which has survived all of Stormont's periodic crises and suspensions, is the all-party group on International Development.

On Thursday night, I had the privilege of compering the group's second annual awards ceremony in the Stormont Great Hall.

We have witnessed a brawl in the hall, and glitzy balls, but I have never been so much in awe in the hall as I was in announcing a series of awards for a collection of inspiring people.

They have devoted their lives to trying to help people struggling for existence in the poorest parts of the world.

There was a bit of a "swords into ploughshares" theme with awards for Richard Moore, blinded at the age of ten by a plastic bullet, for his charity "Children In Crossfire" and Andrew Jordan, injured as an RUC reservist during the troubles.

He has gone on to raise a quarter of a million pounds for Tearfund.

Holy Cross Girls' School, once in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, was also now justly recognised for its work with a number of schools in Uganda.

Then, leaving our local troubles to one side, there were many stories striking in any context - such as the tale of Franseur Makula, a street child from the slums of Nairobi adopted by missionaries.

He now teaches religion at Campbell College and runs his own charity assisted by volunteers from Northern Ireland, working back in the most deprived areas of Kenya.

For a complete list of winners you can look at the APGID awards twitter feed.

As previously reported here, the all-party group has developed a strategy to partner with North East Uganda.

The next challenge is to try to get a budget line in order to devote some resources to achieving the strategy's goals.

This could be easier said than done, as the big obstacle is that international development is not a devolved matter - instead it is the responsibility of the Department for International Development in London.

MLAs involved in the group have been pressing for a small cash injection, but the executive may be fearful of opposition from those who will ask - at a time of austerity - why resources should be channeled away from local health provision to far off countries.

One MLA talks privately in gloomy terms about officials who "when light appears at the end of the tunnel appear keen to explore only how the tunnel can be made longer".

That said the enthusiasts point to the benefits of development education for school pupils and students, as well as the obvious links between Stormont's international aspirations in relation to trade and sharing expertise in conflict resolution and other areas.

They can point to 20 years of work in this regard by the arms length body NICO, which provides public sector staff from Northern Ireland to other countries.

But perhaps the strongest argument will be that both Scotland and Wales have already funded their own development programmes, so Northern Ireland is now lagging behind.

There is Bertie with Tony Blair, Bertie clasping Ian Paisley's hand, Bertie alongside Kofi Annan, Gerry Adams and Jonathan Powell reading out a peace declaration intended to resolve the Basque conflict.

There is no reference to the Mahon tribunal, no talk of operating without a bank account or depending on financial "dig outs" from friends.

Rewind to the moment when Mr Ahern rushed back from burying his 87-year-old mother Julia to continue the Good Friday Agreement talks.

The consensus view would have been one of sympathy for the young Taoiseach, admiration for his determination to continue his work and recognition for his skilful handling of high-wire negotiations.

In 1998 both Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair appeared at the height of their powers - intelligent enough to grasp the complexity of the problems, but flexible and decisive enough to find a way through.

Fast forward 14 years and everything has changed completely.

Tony Blair remains sought after and well remunerated on the international statesman lecture circuit.

But many of his countrymen will never forgive him for his handling of the 2003 Iraq war, and the infamous and ultimately non-existent weapons of mass destruction.

Now Mr Ahern is at his lowest ebb - threatened with expulsion by his own Fianna Fail party after the Mahon tribunal refused to believe his accounts of his complex financial dealings.

Mr Ahern has vehemently protested his innocence of any corruption and insisted that he "told the truth to this tribunal" strongly rejecting "any suggestion that I sought to mislead it."

With Fianna Fail anxious to put its tarnished past behind it, it does not look likely the party will extend Mr Ahern the benefit of the doubt.

Back in 2010, after publishing his autobiography, Tony Blair talked to me about, at times, stretching the truth "beyond breaking point" to keep the peace process on track.

Charles Haughey famously called Bertie Ahern the "most devious and cunning of them all".

Both men knew exactly which leader to court to seal a deal and when to employ a bit of "creative ambiguity".

In the interests of peace, most people recognise that the end justifies the means.

But if the public suspects you are pursuing less worthy goals, you could find yourself fighting to preserve your good character, as Mr Ahern has now discovered.

In previous years, Justice Minister David Ford has been the undisputed champion of the event but he is absent.

This year, he is in Washington DC for the delayed St Patrick's Day festivities.

However, together with East Belfast MLA Chris Lyttle, he ran the Sport Relief mile through the streets of DC and here is photographic evidence to prove it.

Update: All over and done with at Stormont with the SDLP's Conall McDevitt taking first place, closely followed by his colleague Mark H. Durkan.

I trailed in 7th well behind Gareth Gordon and in the slip stream of the DUP's Mervyn Storey who took the prize for fastest competitor wearing a suit and ordinary shoes.

Congratulations to all involved and good luck to all of those intending to put their running shoes on this weekend.

It's true that nearly 14 years have passed since the Good Friday Agreement, and the subsequent changes made at St Andrews were never endorsed by a referendum.

But as this blog reported just last month, First Minister Peter Robinson argues that the voters got their chance to cast their verdict on those changes via successive elections.

The reason Mr Nesbitt's rival for the Ulster Unionist leadership, John McCallister, has argued for a unilateral move into opposition is the reluctance of the UK government to legislate for an official opposition.

The secretary of state has indicated his support in principle for a change to the Stormont system but won't pass a new law without a consensus on the need for reform at Stormont.

Does that cross-community consensus exist? No.

So would the secretary of state adopt a much lower threshold for calling a referendum on changing the system at Stormont to the one he has already enforced for new legislation? It's hard to imagine it.

Given that Gerry Adams has recently accused Owen Paterson of "arrogance" for not arranging a border poll, is the secretary of state likely any time soon to inform Sinn Fein that he has decided to push through a Stormont opposition referendum instead?

On Sunday's Inside Politics, the former Sinn Fein minister Conor Murphy said that if the Ulster Unionists wanted to decline to take a ministry that was a matter for them. But the fundamental entitlement to be in government contained in Stormont's "mandatory coalition", he added, was an important part of the Good Friday Agreement to which republicans will strongly adhere.

If Owen Paterson did press ahead against this backdrop, nationalists might further argue that the current Stormont system was created with the endorsement of joint referenda north and south of the border, so any fundamental change should be put to a similar exercise. That would involve getting the Irish government on side, something else which raises the bar on the likelihood of a such a referendum.

So the new Stormont referendum looks more like a distraction than a real game-changer. None of this alters the fundamental argument about whether the Ulster Unionists should choose opposition or stay in government. Both options can sensibly be argued for and against by party activists, weighing up the potential risks and rewards.

Mike Nesbitt himself says he doesn't want the leadership contest to "narrow itself into a single issue debate". His well-documented communication skills and widespread public recognition remain his strong suit, not policies like the proposed referendum.

It is quite a turn around from Monday when one of his aides briefed me that the minister was definitely in the running, and enjoyed the backing of the majority of his assembly party.

After that, however, Mr Kennedy's behaviour proved far from decisive - refusing to confirm his intentions on camera. He seems to have been spooked by Mike Nesbitt's energetic courting of support in Fermanagh and elsewhere.

Then there was the Strangford MLA's coup in securing the backing of Mr Kennedy's own Stormont ministerial secretary Danny Kinahan.

The Newry and Armagh MLA is an easy going character who does not relish confrontation.

That is one reason why relations between the UUP and the DUP have been so much more amicable inside the Stormont Executive than during the old days when Peter Robinson and Sammy Wilson fought running battles with the former Health Minister Michael McGimpsey.

Mr Kennedy also decided to remain in his own comfort zone when a move to Upper Bann might have held out the prospect of a much needed breakthrough for the Ulster Unionist Conservative New Force back in the Westminster elections in 2010. So maybe Friday's withdrawal should not come as a big surprise.

Mr Kennedy says no deal has been done with either of the remaining leadership candidates - so we shall have to wait and see how long he remains the party's only Stormont minister.

Barring some unforeseen development, the way now appears clear for a Mike Nesbitt victory.

The Strangford MLA is likely to mop up more of the support which went to Tom Elliott last time than John McCallister, who will do well to build on the vote garnered by his liberal ally Basil McCrea. The margin of victory in September 2010 was 643 votes to 294.

Pressure is likely to be placed on Mr McCallister to stand aside in order to enable a smooth transition of power to Mr Nesbitt. In his withdrawal statement, Mr Kennedy talked about the dangers of a "divisive leadership contest".

However my understanding is that Mr McCallister is not happy about Mr Nesbitt's characterisation of his preference for a rapid move into opposition as a "blind leap".

Even if Mr Nesbitt's eventual margin of victory is high, the McCallister camp believes it is better for the Ulster Unionists to debate the arguments for and against opposition than to hold no contest.

Mr McCallister's supporters point out that Gordon Brown became Labour leader unopposed in 2007, but holding such a "coronation" did not feel like such a smart idea when the party fought an election three years later.

Ask a member of the public if they back a pay rise for a politician, and 99 times out 100 the answer will be no.

When the Stormont parties label the £5,000 pay rise on basic MLA salaries as "unacceptable", it is worth pointing out that they approved the creation of the independent panel in the first place.

There is never a good time for politicians to vote themselves a wage rise. Although historically they tend to try to get away with it immediately after an election, when there is plenty of time before they have to start knocking on doors again.

So they appointed a three-strong team, who will never have to stand for re-election, to take the flak.

As a voter you can throw as many stones at that independent team as you want, but you should be aware that you are playing a part in a pre-choreographed exercise. It will be hard to find any MLA openly arguing for more pay, even though the panel say that 24 of the 31 politicians who responded to their confidential survey believed they should get a higher salary.

So far, MLAs declaring they will definitely use the panel's suggested voluntary salary sacrifice scheme are thin on the ground.

The panel has performed a skilful manoeuvre in approving a wage increase and yet devising a package which they calculate will save the taxpayer £3m over three years. They have achieved this by robbing the Stormont office costs 'Peter' to pay the MLA salary 'Paul'.

Many parties have made the apparently reasonable response that front-line constituency services should not be reduced to create an extra bulge in MLA wallets.

Some politicians are hinting that they will take the extra cash but then put it back into their office allowances. If this happens let's hope the use of that cash will show up clearly in each MLA's accounts.

Around 2007, when devolution was restored following the St Andrews deal, Stormont office allowances increased dramatically from £48,000 to nearly £70,000. One point the panel makes is that the audit trail in relation to Stormont expenses has been inadequate.

In some cases parties have billed MLAs for non-specific services - in others the MLA's office is owned by their party, leading to the suspicion that any rent paid is viewed as a subvention to the party rather than a fair market rate.

The panel calls for "utmost transparency so that it can be clearly seen that public money is not being channelled improperly to political parties or any other individual or organisation".

One panel stipulation concerning MLA office rent is that "the ultimate financial beneficiary of rent paid for premises must be visible and resident (or if a company, registered) within the European Union". This recommendation obviously raises a question about whether any Stormont landlords in the past have been offshore entities, and where and when they paid tax.

Some MLAs have complained that the headline rise on their basic salary does not tell the full story, as cuts to other extra payments (for example to assembly committee vice chairs, Stormont commission members or double-jobbing MLAs) mean that in fact they will take home less cash, not more. For this level of detail it is well worth looking at the full report.

In defence of the Stormont MLAs, the pay increase still does not close the gap between their salaries and that of their Scottish or Welsh counterparts. However, the panel did not conclude that their work was comparable, given the higher ratio of elected representatives to voters.

A table in the panel's report shows that, at current rates, MLAs cost £2.64 per constituent, whilst Scottish MSPs cost £1.44 and Welsh AMs £1.08. MPs are cheaper still, at just 65p per head.

Obviously this calculation would change if and when the number of Stormont politicians is reduced from 108 to either 96 or 80 - a change which is likely as part and parcel of the latest boundary review.

Such a reduction would inevitably cut overall salary costs, but the future size of the assembly was outside the Independent Financial Review Panel's remit.

Was it his falling out with David McNarry over newspaper revelations of talks with the DUP?

Or was it Danny Kennedy's support for the upgrading of the A5, a project which the Fermanagh-based party leader had consistently opposed?

Mr Elliott blames those who "have not given me a fair opportunity at developing and progressing many initiatives", adding that "some of this obstruction and hostility began immediately following my election as leader and has been relentless since then."

However, as the Fermanagh MLA acknowledges this is "part and parcel of politics", a game in which leaders make their own luck.

Anyone who has dealt with Tom Elliott knows that personally he is a courteous, mild-mannered country man.

But his leadership has been hampered from the start by a tendency to slide headlong on banana skins of his own making.

I have written an analysis piece elsewhere on the website which revisits those comments about Gaelic matches and Sinn Fein "scum" which got Tom Elliott into hot water.

The question now is whether his successor will have better fortune avoiding obvious potholes and charting a way forward.

A shift into opposition could change the political realities at Stormont, but is it a risk UUP supporters are prepared to take?

Alternatively carrying on as now could expose the Ulster Unionists to a slow death as they become an even more diminished force within a 96 or even 80-strong assembly.

Leadership contenders have only a week to make their minds up.

With Tom Elliott's Fermanagh based supporters still representing a large percentage of the internal UUP electorate, the outgoing leader could - if he wants - still play an important role in deciding who his successor should be.