A JUDGE has accused two Stormont departments of being “entirely unfair and unacceptable”, “unprincipled” and of “gaslighting” in their appeal to build the A5.

This indicates that the appeal, led by Sinn Féin minister Liz Kimmins, will fail and her party will go into next year’s assembly election with no progress on a key promise to its voters.

Unlike Casement Park, Sinn Féin cannot even pretend this is the DUP’s fault.

Although the Climate Change Act that has stalled the A5 is DUP legislation, that is due to a complex cross-party compromise – the DUP watered down the original proposals.

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Since the A5 was quashed last year, all three main unionist parties have offered to support changing the Act’s interim greenhouse gas emissions targets to allow work to commence, just as Scotland did two years ago to build a dual-carriageway from Perth to Inverness.

The Act’s 2030 target of a 48% reduction is in any case impossible and no major infrastructure project can proceed until it is changed.

When the DUP’s Phillip Brett asked Michelle O’Neill about this at a Stormont committee last month, the first minister’s only response was to call him a “climate denier”.

There is certainly denial at work here, but not by the DUP.

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THE top civil servant at the Department for the Economy has said the planned expansion of student numbers in Derry cannot be completed without raising tuition fees or cutting £40 million a year elsewhere.

Permanent secretary Ian Snowden made his remarks at a Stormont committee.

Caoimhe Archibald, the Sinn Féin economy minister, responded with a public statement that she is fully committed to the expansion and there will be no increase in fees, beyond the level of inflation.

Sinn Féin opposes raising Northern Ireland’s lower, subsidised fees because it says this would deter low-income applicants and burden graduates with debt.

Yet last week, Dr Archibald proudly announced she is raising the postgraduate loan limit by 54%, from £6,500 up to £10,000.

Postgraduate loans are intended for both tuition fees and living expenses, unlike undergraduate loans, where students borrow separately for each purpose.

The upper limit for tuition fees and tuition loans effectively rises as one.

To that extent, Dr Archibald conceded the principle of raising fees last week.

Lending postgraduates more to spend on their courses will facilitate higher fees, which in turn will fund expansion – exactly what needs to happen for the sector overall.

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DUP education minister Paul Givan has said he is “sympathetic” to calls to ban social media use by under-16s, but added that there are limits to what the Executive can achieve as regulation of telecommunications, including the internet, is not devolved.

The same question is being pondered in Scotland, where some believe they have identified a loophole: classifying social media use by teenagers as a matter of public health, which is devolved.

One of the experts recommending this approach to the Scottish government is Jillian van Turnhout, the former chair of Ireland’s Online Health Taskforce.

Set up in 2024, it made its final report in December, advising the Irish government to take a public health approach to social media regulation.

The Irish government has accepted this advice, partly because its own freedom to regulate the internet is constrained by EU membership and US politics.

If Stormont did attempt anything similar, leading it would fall to UUP health minister Mike Nesbitt.

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The assembly has passed a non-binding SDLP motion for the titles of the first ministers to be “equalised” before the next election.

Although Sinn Féin referred to “joint first ministers” until becoming Stormont’s largest party, it strongly opposed the motion and issued a statement afterwards accusing the SDLP of being “alongside some of the most extreme voices in loyalism and unionism, who want to ensure no nationalist holds the position [of first minister] again”.

Sinn Féin considered this message important enough to order all its representatives to repeat it on their social media accounts.

Yet the only party Sinn Féin was alongside in the division lobby was the DUP. Deputy First Minister Emma Little Pengelly was among those voting to keep her title. The DUP now needs the distinction more than ever to rally unionist voters behind it.

Of course, this cynical contest also benefits Sinn Féin.

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The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has begun an investigation into home heating oil prices, with a focus on Northern Ireland, where we are uniquely dependent on oil heating.

Competition regulation is not devolved. The CMA, previously known as the Office of Fair Trading, is a UK-wide institution.

However, it has offices in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff and more use could be made of its presence here – it will accept complaints from the public, businesses, whistleblowers and consumer groups.

One subject where it could have proved more useful is school uniforms.

The CMA has been cracking down on deals between schools and suppliers for two decades.

In 2015, it wrote to head teachers and school boards across the UK warning them such deals can be investigated and lead to suppliers being fined 10% of turnover.

This led directly to Westminster outlawing the practice in England in 2021.

Stormont only managed to pass similar legislation last month and it appears not to have noticed the CMA’s efforts.

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The government has published its definition of anti-Muslim hostility, alongside a new strategy for social cohesion.

Ministers have immediately had to deny this will re-introduce the common law crime of blasphemy, abolished in England and Wales in 2008 and in Scotland in 2024.

“There is absolutely no question of blasphemy laws by the back door,” Communities Secretary Steve Reed told the Commons.

Predictably, Stormont is one whole political cycle behind on this issue.

Blasphemy remains on the statute books here. Last month, Alliance MLA Connie Egan tabled an amendment to abolish it to the latest Justice Bill. This will have to be discussed at the cross-party justice committee, then possibly put to the assembly for a vote, so a debate is imminent.

All parties are in favour of abolition except the DUP, whose position is unclear, even to itself.

DUP MP Jim Shannon chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on International Freedom of Religion or Belief, which campaigns against blasphemy laws. However, its focus is firmly abroad.

In 2019, then DUP leader Arlene Foster wrote to a constituent saying Northern Ireland’s blasphemy law was already redundant due to the Human Rights Act and she was “sceptical” about arguments to abolish it.

Some in the DUP will be relishing the prospect of debating this in Stormont. Others will not.

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The British government has quietly announced that much of the sea border will be disappear next year. This is to be achieved through a new food, plant and animal deal with the EU.

Both sides committed last year to agreeing a deal and while negotiations have not concluded, London has already surrendered. It published a list on Monday of the EU laws it intends to follow, with a prediction everything will be in force by “mid-2027”.

Business groups are wary. Governments have over-promised before and the low-key nature of the announcement has raised further suspicions, although this is presumably due to contention in England over aligning with the EU.

Even if the deal delivers everything promised, it will not apply to manufactured goods or remove customs paperwork, so there will still be plenty for the TUV to complain about.

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