Insane or just plain stupid?

What a dipstick Ian Paisley can be. We know he likes running things right up to the wire - no surprises there - as I predicted last year when the March 26 deadline was set. But he's displaying little short of clinical madness today, saying he's prepared to share power with Sinn Féin in 6 weeks' time but not now because exra time is needed to "instil a positive attitude towards devolution and local control". Tripe. The citizens of Northern Ireland have just voted overwhelmingly in favour of devolution and local control!

This is brazen delay tactics without one shred of political justification. And the only reason for the delay is, I believe, to provide a six-week window for the DUP to find Sinn Féin lacking in some form of active support for policing and justice, thus giving them a good excuse for "told you so", running off into the wilderness with their electoral mandate and scuppering devolution for another five years. Which means five more years for direct rule, five more years of sponging and five more years of toffee-nosed English accents in Stormont.

I really hope all this is wrong. But I'm not a Unionist insider, and I'm guessing. Ulster has voted for devolution, we've voted for power-sharing, we've voted for a new future together, and it'll be a sad day tomorrow if Ian Paisley uses it to pervert the course of democracy here. Hasta mañana.