Eighty years of Ian Paisley

If Old Man Brown does ever get to be Prime Minister, there's a figure he'll have to deal with who really will make him look like a fresh face. Today is Ian Paisley's 80th birthday. Paisley has been a permanent fixture in UK politics since the late 1960s, and may one day become Father of the House (something that a previous MP for North Antrim, Hugh O'Neill also achieved).

In all this time one would think Paisley has been consistent, always opposing any involvement by terrorist groups in politics (apart from those such as Ulster Resistance and the Loyalist groups who partook in the 1970s strikes that brought down the powersharing executive), opposing Unionists who advocate powersharing with constitutional nationalists like Willie Craig in the 1970s (except for later, when the DUP strategy is precisely what Craig advocated in the 1970s) and showing loyalty to the British state (apart from when he doesn't agree with it). Sadly for him he hasn't yet become Mr Baroness Paisley as his attempt to nominate his wife Eileen to the House of Lords has been put on hold due to the current cash for peerages scandal. (Although I seriously doubt Paisley's been asked to pay any fee - were there any requirement then the government would almost certainly have made it the restoration of devolution.)

Perhaps as part of the birthday celebrations Paisley could set out once and for all for the world who is really running the DUP - himself or Peter Robinson?