Political convulsions on the hill, resignation calls, threats of retaliatory action, politicians

sniping at each other from opposite corners of the ring, saturation coverage in the media.

We've been down this well-trodden path many, many times before. But here's the question.

What are the likely political consequences of Stormont's latest spat. Jane, if we can all agree politics

here is in a bit of a hole at the moment, how deep is that hole? We probably can't get into

exact metrics because I just don't think we know how deep this might still get. I mean,

what's between shallow and deep at the

moment? I don't know, but I think it is fair to say the timing of this isn't great. I think that

is actually the real problem because we know where we are in terms of fighting the virus at the

moment. And we've seen that whenever Stormint is divided, the public health message suffers. And I

think that behind the

scenes that is the big fear at the moment. Yeah. You said in your lunchtime piece today, where this lands,

nobody can be sure. That's really where we are at the moment, isn't it? Yeah, I think there's no other

way to sum it up. I think anybody who does know or thinks they know where this is going will probably

be proven wrong because Stormant time and again often goes in a

different direction than the one you think it's going to go in. Stephen, are you going to go out

on a limb for us? No, no, Mark. I mean, I think it clearly, it is a political crisis. We don't know

how critical it is. It does take the headlines away from the protocol and puts the DUP on the front foot in terms of calling for the chief constable to resign.

And then the criticism of Sinn Féin.

It draws this dividing line again between Sinn Féin and the DUP with arguments that obviously we first heard last June.

It opens up this big chasm between the DUP and the chief constable.

They also find themselves attacking Sinn Féin,

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