Candidates were confirmed ahead of Thursday 2 March’s Assembly election. The total number is 228; that’s 48 fewer than at last May’s vote. The DUP is standing 38 candidates; Sinn Féin, 34; UUP, 24; SDLP, 21; Alliance, 21. The Green Party is standing 18 candidates, the number of male and female candidates split 50/50. Outgoing MLA for Strangford Jonathan Bell, who was recently suspended by the DUP, has confirmed he is to stand for re-election as an Independent.

DUP leader Arlene Foster said her party would never agree to an Irish language act; if there was to be an Irish language act, she added, there should also be a Polish language act because more people here speak Polish than Irish. Sinn Féin has made no secret of its preference for having an Irish language act. Yet, launching the DUP’s election campaign Mrs Foster said “If you feed a crocodile, it will keep coming back for more.” Sinn Féin’s northern leader Michelle O’Neill declined to comment on this, saying “We are not interested in the negativity.”

A bill to authorise the Prime Minister to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to formally begin the Brexit process was passed by Westminster MPs by 494 votes to 122. The DUP and UUP voted in favour; the SDLP and Independent MP for North Down Sylvia Hermon voted against. An amendment proposed by the SDLP which sought to ensure the government took on board the Good Friday Agreement during Brexit negotiations was rejected by 327 votes to 288. The Brexit bill will go to the House of Lords.

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern accused UK Prime Minister Theresa May of putting Northern Ireland’s peace process in jeopardy. He told The Observer that the UK government appears to have resigned itself to the establishment of a post-Brexit border between the north and south. He said this will take away “the calming effects” [of an open border]. Any attempt to try to start putting down border posts, or to man [it] in a physical sense as used to be the case, would be very hard to maintain, and would create a lot of bad feeling.”

The UK government ended the “Dubs amendment” scheme, which had required the Home Office to take into the UK some of the most vulnerable unaccompanied children stranded in Europe. As reported, ministers argued the arrangement was “a pull” for children and traffickers. Responding to this, the Archbishop of Canterbury warned child refugees will be at risk of being exploited, trafficked and even killed as a result. He said “to leave the whole weight on Italy and Greece is deeply unjust”.