Watching the “stream” from Belfast Council last night……I could not quite put my finger on who those assorted unionist councillors reminded me of………surely it is that Town hall meeting in the movie Blazing Saddles. Gabby Johnson, Van Johnson, Howard Johnson et all.

Overall I was impressed by the “Lord” mayor who only made one  gaffe….joking with a DUP colleague that he had to be fair might be seen as lowering tension but it still wasnt’t appropriate.

The “stream” faltered every so often and I missed the first twenty minutes or so……but it seems that more unionists than Alliance/SDLP/Sinn Féin actually wanted to speak …lining up to share their angst and betrayal.

I caught Tim Attwood’s (SDLP) speech and it did the job. Nothing spectacular. Just going thru the motions. I missed Alliance contributions except when they were prevailed to make interventions. Sinn Féin….I think it was a case of bad (Deirdre Hargan) and not so pretty but needed to be said (Jim McVeigh). Alliance’s Laura McNamee was pretty good.

It has already been stated on another thread (by FC?……..sorry it is a long thread LOL) that John Kyle was impressive. Not so sure about that. He came across as a kindly Methodist minister and I had to remind myself that Billy Hutchinson was outside.

The UUP were simply awful. Jim Rodgers made a “me me me” speech. And went off on a tangent about how bad “this” council is……and rather like a maiden aunt at your Christmas dinner made an accidental faux pas about the absence of knobs on the unionist benches. Bobby Stoker was no better. He managed to get that old chestnut…..an updated version where the republicans dont like the “Queen” except when she was on Bank of England notes. He was prompted by DUP into the better joke about the Northern Bank. Davey Browne wasnt so bad…..presenting himself as just about the only unionist who was (in the bad old days) prepared to do deals with Sinn Féin…….and then rather foolishly announced there would be no more co-operation. I dont know how this is even meaningful…was it a suggestion that “mayoral” choices might be blocked……..but surely UUP need other parties more than other parties need UUP. And besides….by the time he made his speech, Twitter was already buzzing about a Plan B “deal” over the British Cenotaph.

DUP……well William Humphrey is their Leader and his speech reflected the fact that he is in a better forum (the Assembly). Obviously he knew the votes were against him but he went thru his speech with some applomb.

In contrast, the much-hyped Lee Reynolds made a decent enough speech without any real feeling and Brian Kingston just wanted to say something……anything. I was unimpressed by Ruth Patterson’s “when I was a wee girl some of my best friends were Catholics” and that was a retro moment straight from the 1960s. She just came across as the schoolteacher in “Blazing Saddles”.

Mairtín O’Muilleoir and Niall Ó Donnghaile on the Sinn Féin benches seemed to be designated to jump up and down a lot. This is actually an art form. A skilled jumper up and downer can prompt a colleague with “would my collleague agree with me that………” and ambush the Opposition with “may I remind the Member that his/her Party………….”. In this role the guys were decent enough.

Designated Jumper Up and Downer on the DUP benches was Christopher Stalford. And he rose (and sat!!!) with dedicated efficency. Party colleague Guy Spence seemed to embarrass himself as much as his colleagues in this role. But he is young.

Altogether it was better than the “Royal” Variety Performance.