SIXTEEN years after the DUP generated the original `fuss at the bus', when it drove a mobile billboard to the Ulster Unionist Party headquarters, senior members took an SDLP re-enactment in good cheer.
The blue battle bus looked somewhat incongruous parked outside Crusaders FC's Seaview stadium on north Belfast's Shore Road, just a stone's throw from the constituency office of DUP Westminster leader Nigel Dodds.
Led by West Tyrone MLA Daniel McCrossan, SDLP canvassers trooped out to leaflet their rivals as they left the DUP EU manifesto launch for candidate Diane Dodds at the grounds.
However, unlike the ugly scenes which accompanied the 2003 confrontation in east Belfast when rival unionist leaders Ian Paisley and David Trimble traded barbed insults, the emerging DUP politicians stopped for a chat, with South Belfast MLA Christopher Stalford even taking proffered pamphlet.
Instead, it was left to a passing motorist to demand: Where is Fianna Fáil?" and "Is Claire Hanna on the bus" in reference to the split in the SDLP over its link up with the centre right party.
However, there were some hoots of support from other drivers.
Meanwhile, the €500 million figure emblazoned on the SDLP bus as the amount invested by the EU in the north has been declared less than complete by FactcheckNI.
The organisation said while the €500m figure "is substantiated by European Commission figures for EU regional funding of Northern Ireland... this is not a `net' figure and does not take into account Northern Ireland's proportion of the UK's contribution to the EU".
"A more complete statement would be to say that Northern Ireland receives €55/£45 million more than we pay to the EU," it stated.
