Plenty happened in the chamber today but nothing much in the way of headline grabbers which gave the politicans the chance to stake their claims as the next Bernard Mannings (okay, I accept that they are more politically correct than the late rascist no matter how incorrect you may think their politics are) make that the next Phil Kay.

Amidst the raucous debates the Deputy Speaker John Dallat, when asking Sammy Wilson to summarise the Assembly debate on teachers' induction year, jibed, "I call on Sammy Wilson to wind up the debate - not wind up the House."

It seemed that Sammy wound himself up, as when Basil McCrea tried to intervene, by asking the East Belfast representative to give way, he snapped, "I will give way in a minute, will you just sit there and wait!?!"
When MLAs continued to gulder over Sammy Wilson, the Deputy Speaker had to remind the members that they were not a "debate in some ancient school."

As the dust settled, UUP MLA Danny Kennedy introduced the riveting issue of carparking in Newry's Daisyhill hospital, and noting the mass exodus of MLAs from the chamber, he quipped, "I have made many moving speeches, but I don't know how many people are going to move out with this one."