Seems it's not just the Stormont crew that like to get their snouts in the trough. Welsh Assembly Members are making good use of their £12.5k expenses allowances, with the Lib Dems leading the pack when it comes to spending public money (qu'elle surprise!) on kitting out their Cardiff pads.

1. Lib Dems AMs (6): Total claimed: £55,321. Average claim: £9,220
2. Plaid Cymru AMs (15): Total claim: £129,936. Average claim: £8,662
3. Conservative AMs (12): Total claimed: £93,730. Average claimed: £7,810
4. Labour AMs (26): Total claimed: £121,977. Average claim: £4,691

Having said that, the £12.5k looks paltry compared to the And that's only one of the expenses they're entitled to. They also have office expenses comparable to the £70,000 that Northern Ireland's MLAs can claim.

On a slight aside, our most expensive (d'ya see what I did there?!) MLA was Sean Farren with total allowances (for 2006-7) of £83,869.07.

Now about that devolution cost/benefit analysis...

This is a general plea for comments/tips/complaints on the layout of Everything Ulster and how you (yes, you!) use the site.

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Slugger O'Toole is running an award for political bloggers and the nominations (votes?) are flying in. Mick's done a brief recap of some of the early nominees (yes, I am there somehow ) which serves as a useful reminder of just what Northern Irish blogs are out there.

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A couple of posts at Slugger have witnessed criticism for going off topic in the comments zone. This in itself is not an altogether irregular occurrence, but something about it got me thinking.

Slugger is a great source of news and views on Northern Ireland (and a bit further afield) but I wonder if it's sheer volume of posts, something that no doubt keeps readers interested and gives them an incentive to regularly check the site, is partially to blame for the poor quality and/or off-topicness of many of the comments. Don't get me wrong, some of them are truly informative, but the majority are either rehashes of old arguments or petty tribal/party point-scoring.

Going Off-Topic

The two threads in question are by Mark McGregor and Pete Baker. Mark highlights upcoming protests from socialist, republican microgroup Eirigi while Pete warns that there are actually folk out there who seriously want creationism taught as a scientific "theory".

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Following a meeting of the Alliance assembly group, David Ford has acted to quash any speculation that the Alliance will help dig the Sinn Fein/DUP-dominated Executive out of a hole by nominating an MLA to take a devolved Policing and Justice ministry.

Since Sinn Fein and the DUP will refrain from nominating themselves, apparently as some sort of agreement of a safeguard/mutual veto, I wonder what would happen if neither the SDLP nor UUP were prepared to step up and/or carry the can. And is this "deal" the reason for the executive not meeting?

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(because Mondays are boring).

There's more to Ireland than the South

It's one of those rare happenings that makes you wonder if you might actually be asleep. Many unionist bloggers have said repeatedly that Ireland is greater than the Republic and that neither nationalists nor the Southern state should not enjoy a monopoly on the definition of Ireland or Irishness.

Chekov (who, as ever, puts his point across much more eloquently than myself) has spotted that Barry McElduff has, rather uncharacteristically, done something vaguely sensible in recent days. Apparently the West Tyrone MLA has written to all the Republic's TDs and Senators to challenge "this notion that the 26 counties constitutes Ireland".

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Celtic fans visiting Belfast Zoo have complained to councillors after they were the victims of vicious, provocative sectarian taunts. Everything Ulster contacted the fans who rubbished claims that it was in fact they who instigated the altercation with sectarian chants.

Anti-sectarianism charity Nil By Mouth have called on the zoo to take action following the incident. The Zoo's chief executive has said he will investigate.

Hun Ping has apologised for any offence caused after mimicking playing the flute.

Celtic fan and renowned academic Leaich Spiedal posted his views on an internet forum, claiming the action was "typical of the bigotry entrenched in NI zoology" before continuing "Anyway, i'd rather be a Paki than a Hun!!!"

Northern Irish bank notes may soon be given legal standing

I noticed an interesting sentence at the very bottom of a Telegraph article about a W.H. Smith store in London overturning a ban on Northern Irish bank notes.

A spokesman for HM Treasury said that moves are under way to ensure notes from Northern Ireland and Scotland have the same standing in England as Bank of England notes.

Of course the difference between theory and practice could still prove frustrating when you have to rely on shop assistants looking in cunfuddlement at the strange piece of paper you're handing to them, nevertheless I thought this was quite interesting given how complicated the issue of legal tender in the United Kingdom is.

Maybe the age of internet development ended with google. Google are great. Their products are great (mostly). Their search engine is great. You want information, it gets you information, quickly and efficiently.

Cuil doesn't. It throws a mash of stuff at you and says "there - you sort through it, I'm off for a smoke". I don't like that in a search engine.

I particularly dislike the photos the put next to results. They usually have no bearing on the page it's appended to. Look at the results for a search on the UUP. Ulster Unionist Party leadership election 2004 on Wikipedia has a picture of Leslie Cree. Whose involvement stretched to voting in that election. Next to United Ulster Unionist Party is the banner from the top of Leslie's website. BBC results from the 2005 Westminster election in North Down? A picture of council candidate Kenny Donaldson. He stood in Warrenpoint. Best of all UUP leadership election 2005 is illustrated with a picture of a girl holding up a necklace with a cross on it.

Cuil - just not worth the effort.