Brown snubs Hain by offering Ashdown Northern Ireland

So "Sky News sources" (i.e. they read it somewhere else) are reporting that Ashdown was offered the Northern Ireland Cabinet position of Northern Irleand. What an amusing move by Brown if true. Offering the Lib Dems the one Cabinet job that no sod wants, in an area of devolved power where there is sod all to do.

At the same time of course Gordon Brown sends a clear message to Peter Hain that his time is up. Presumably he thinks that Hain became to closely associated with the Orange Men. This whole Lib-Lab mischief that is playing out at the moment is rather amusing. As Steve Richards pointed out in this morning Indy it's a bit like a flashback to the 1990s.